Category: Flying

So my new toy has arrived as much as I would like either a Garmin Virb Ultra 30 or a Gopro Hero 5 Black, I simply can’t afford one (if someone wants to send me one to review and keep… 😉 ) or justify it for my needs so what else is there that tracks your position and shoots good video?

Previously I have used a GoPro Hero Session 4, however I have not found it the most reliable device to get and keep running, I just wanted something simple that I can put in the cockpit access it via my phone to position it and start recording. Looking around the Tomtom Bandit  at £138.00 (from Amazon at the time of writing) seems like a good compromise, it has a good battery life of over 2 hours at 1080P 30 FPS including the GPS. So more on an impulse than anything else I ordered one!

It’s a nice camera and well designed, it feels well-made, it is a little heavier than a GoPro, bigger too! It comes with an adaptor to allow it to mount onto a GoPro mount. My first issue with it was setting up an account first before you can setup an account you need to have connected the camera, then it would not allow me to this via my iPhone, I eventually overcame it by downloading the Beta desktop Tomtom studio which allowed me to create an account, what a painful start!

Next issue was no one sells an ND8 Filter for it (I should have checked this before ordering it) I managed to make one out of a plastic ND8 filter I had purchased previously and held it in position with some large shrink wrap. ND8 filter is needed when shooting through the prop, well unless TomTom add as setting for this but no other manufacturer has, #MissedOpportunity!

No one makes a lens cap for it! A kind person on the Tomtom forum told me to buy a 34mm push cap and it will fit, one is now on order.

So on to videoing I recorded some footage at 2.7K 30FPS, 4K 14 FPS, 1080P 60 FPS and 1080P 30 FPS.

2.7K was great quality. (I didn’t like these gauges and switched to the strip ones in the next video.

4K was sunning detail while on the ground but struggled to keep up in flight (sorry I did not up load this one).

1080P 60FPS, surprisingly disappointing it showed up a lot of vibration and made the video unwatchable for me, I may try this again when/if I get a gimbal for it (sorry I did not up load this one).

1080P 30FPS, this seems to be the best compromise all round good quality video, good Battery life and did not eat up the Micro SD card.

Next how to get the data overlay on the video, TomTom’s gauges aren’t great and are not configurable to show height in feet distance in Km and speed in Knots, which is a real shame as it edits very quickly in TomTom’s app both on the phone and on my old Laptop.

So over to DashWare (now owned but GoPro), this allows for loads of different gauges and layout and works with the TomTom camera if you export the GPS data first (right click on the file in TomTom’s Windows app) but the problem with DashWare is the rendering time 1hr 4mins for a 6 min video ouch!

Overall if you are happy to make your own ND8 filter (it was not difficult) and prepared to wait while DashWare renders the video you end up with great videos from a very competitively priced camera. and over all a better experience than the one I have with my GoPro Hero 4 Session

 

Now if only TomTom were to add the strip gauges for aviation within their app they would be on to a winner for us pilots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Easter long weekend gave me an opportunity to go flying in a Cessna 150, my C42 and a glider.

So it all started when I book a lesson in the C150 at Rutland flying school, I booked a lesson as I have not flown a GA for some months, while booking the lesson I mentioned if it would be possible to do a single loop or Barrel roll, just to see what it was like, alas the instructor doesn’t like doing aerobatics.

On the morning of my lesson, Good Friday, I got a text saying he had managed to book me in with an aerobatics instructor! The look of terror on face would have saved be from writing this blog if I had thought to have taken a photo!

I drove over to Chatteris and got the Microlight out and flow over to Shacklewell for the lesson. On the way over there was a large rain cloud duly washing Peterborough, so I went north and over towards Rutland Water, turning at Woolfox Lodge (disused), I had tried calling RAF Wittering a few times but they seemed to have had the day off to eat their Easter eggs.

I arrived a few minutes late, but immediately before the C150 I was to have my lesson in.

I preflight checked the Cessna using the check list and we taxied out and took off from runway 24, climbing up to around 3,500ft the instructor demonstrated a loop, immediately followed by a roll and stall turn, Help! I was feeling very hot and a little dizzy, he talked me through what he had done and asked “ready to see it again?”, my mouth answered before the brain had chance to say not really, and yes came out of my mouth.  We did the same and I was not feeling good, I did like the moment of weightlessness at the top of the stall turn. So when it was my go I decided to just try the stall turn and I don’t remember to much about it, other than thinking, that’s it I’m done, get me down, which translated to me saying, “I’m not feeling great can we do a few circuits while I recover” and that is how we finished the lesson off.

I flew back to Chatteris still not feeling great which continued through the next day too.

Come Easter Monday I drove with some friends to Peterborough and Spalding Gliding club at Crowland Airfield ( www.psgc.co.uk ) and had a 38 min gliding experience. This was good fun and I can see why people enjoy it, although for me going around and round in tight circles riding the thermals ever higher, while watching out for other aircraft getting very close was a little less fun then flying from A to B and looking down at new places. If you want to try gliding this is a very friendly club and I would recommend them. As for the flying it was not that different, I just needed to use more rudder to coordinate the turns then I do in the C42.

All in all a good long weekend of flying was had and lessons learnt, keep the aircraft the right way up!

 

 

Saturday 28th Jan 2017 was another non flying day due to the British weather, however our plane was being serviced in the morning by Gary of Airmasters and Simon and I were fitting an uncertified GPS to our C42. The mod is quite cheap and easy to do, I have published a how to under the projects part of the Clearprop website here. We did run into one problem which was with the power supply we used gave out a lot of interference and this was changed for a different model which seems clean.

We have always been aware of the NATS trials, but the majority of the group didn’t want to take part in the trial, however now with the BMAA handling the certification under TIL 118 (which is free at the time of writing) and having spoken to NATS at the flying show in December we thought it’s time to do our bit and raise our visibility to other air traffic. NATS who were very keen to promote doing this told us that it would give US and UK military aircraft visibility of our position directly to the pilots, we have a lot of military airbases near to us so this is a big plus!

The advantages of adding ADS-B out is that it is visible to the many emerging traffic systems such as Pilotaware, TCAS & Flam,  it also gives ATC more information about your position even when not on primary radar.

A recent visit from a Tornado pilot confirmed that adding this enables our exact position to be seen by the RAF jets.

So at an all in cost of £45.00 and a weight penalty of just 92 grams the question really is why wouldn’t you do it!

The noise power supply was a CPT 12V to 5V

Without the supply being switched on the airband looked like the below picture

Airband with the supply switched on!

 

The clean Power supply is pictured below

A full write up will follow soon, but in the first 4 flights since fitting it is looking good with even the entire flight being recorded on FR24 from takeoff to landing!

The plan was to fly to Weybourne taking in a few sights on the way landing at Muckleburgh and to visit the museum there.

Shortly after arriving at the airfield I checked the coolant level with Katie as it has had a slight loss over the last few weeks and it once more needed topping up, but not by much.  On checking some of the pipes I found one pipe’s heat shielding was wet and following that back, the pipe leading to it was wet up to a T joint where it was dry above. On checking the Jubilee clip it was not as tight as it should be, so with that tightened and the aircraft back together and my passenger Tom on Board we warmed the aircraft up for much longer than normal just to make sure things were still looking good.

Then around one hour later than expected off we went, flying out towards Kings Lynn before turning to the North East, flying high and just south of Great Massingham airfield. The airfield was built as a satellite airfield of RAF West Raynham in 1940, the airfield closed in 1945 and these days is used as a private airfield and farm with the original runways still existing. Next, we flew past West Raynham itself. The airfield opened in May 1939 and was used by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World, it was eventually sold after being left derelict for many years and now there are plans to turn it into a solar farm!

Next on the list and a little far from our chosen route was Sculthorpe. RAF Sculthorpe was built as the second satellite airfield of RAF West Raynham a few miles to the south, the first being RAF Great Massingham. Work began to establish this airfield in the spring of 1942, today much of it has been sold off, however the army retains the runways and uses it for training.

We continued to Fakenham Racecourse where the Fakenham Archery club meets in the summer and to which I belong.

Turning northwards we made our way passed Little Snoring. The station opened in July 1943 and was built to be a satellite station for RAF Foulsham which is 6.0 miles south-east of Little Snoring. Little Snoring is currently used for GA and is the home of The Light Aircraft Company who make the Sherwood Ranger plane.

Next was our destination Weybourne, the approach today was over the sea and in over the three antiaircraft guns on the threshold.

We touched down (without being shot at) on runway 16 an uphill runway without issue, after landing we wandered over to chat with two guys getting ready to depart in their Escapade (Richard a Microlight instructor and his student Ian) we spent some time chatting when Ian asked if I run a blog, I do I replied, he then mentioned how he had found the blog and that it was interesting and useful. This is the first time other than students at Chatteris that I have been recognised and it took me by surprise, it is great to meet and hear feedback re the blog, especially when it is positive.

We tried to get a cup of tea, however due to our late arrival we did not have time to go around the collection and allegedly the council has imposed conditions of use on the café that you have to pay the £11 entry to use it, so that is for another day.

The way back took us out passed Blakeney Point and passed an Iron Age fort “Warham Camp” before we picked up our original route back to Chatteris.

All in all this has to be one of the best days flying to date.

This is why I fly, why do you?

So it’s been a while things are mad in my work and home life currently, but you are not here to read about that! As per my last blog I have been training for my SSEA (Simple Single Engine Aeroplane) rating at Rutland Sky Flying School and I’m pleased to say I passed both the NST and GST within the last 2 weeks. So my journey from Microlights to GA is complete, or is it?

I found landing the Cessna a bit easier than the C42, when it’s down it stays down whereas the C42 can bounce back up or a gust of wind can bring it back to flying speed! The control and differences are not difficult and it just takes a few hours of practice. One issue I had was underestimating just how far the C172 will float on a practice forced landing and not being able to sideslip it to ensure you are going to make it down meant a few overshoots while practising! Also having a big steering wheel in front of you took a few lessons to stop trying to steer it with it while on the ground.

Next, you have to take 2 written exams I used the AFE exam practice books which have a great concise reference of everything you need in them and I found the exams to be no issue whatsoever.  A lot of the questions are almost the same in wording too! the two exams needed are Principles of Flight and Aircraft General Knowledge (click the links to see the books on Amazon.

The NST (Navigational Skills Test) was not something I was looking forward to, as I like to fly with Skydemon however I planned the route set up the times and flew the route without issue asking for MATZ penetration changing transponder codes etc all without issue, part way on the second leg you are asked to plan and fly a diversion while flying and maintaining heading and height within tolerance.  I planned this and estimated the heading and time, turned on to the new hearing and about 5 mins from the new destination decided I hadn’t factored in the wind and made a correction for it and flew right past where I should have been! I spotted my mistake and re-planned and flew back to the destination.

We then flew back to the airfield where I was informed I had past the NST.

This is a good test on two levels one asking for MATZ penetration and two the dynamic planning of the route. It is only then that you appreciate Skydemon, still, it’s good to know I can do it if needed and I may practice this some more as it was a fun thing to do and a good skill to have.

Next up was the GST (General Skills Test) I did not have any issues with the stalls and recovery as they are all the same in principle as the GST for a 3 axis microlight.

So all that was left was the mound of paperwork which has been completed and is now “winging” its way to the CAA.

Last weekend I decided to have my first lesson in the club’s PA18-150 Super Cub, wow, this is fun to fly and puts a smile on your face, it’s also my first taildragger, steering it on the ground is “fun” but once in the air it is like flying the Microlight!

Today saw possible the start of the next chapter of my flying, a Journey from Microlights to GA, every journey starts with a single step, or in this case flight, begins with a first flight in Cessna 172.

I travelled from my home near King’s Lynn to Rutland Sky flying school www.rutlandsky.com which took about an hour and 15 minutes, there I met my new flying instructor Stephen Waddy and the Cessna 172 I was to fly on my Journey from Microlights to GA.

I had previously thought that Chatteris is a little short on amenities compared to say Fenland and other airfields, but Shacklewell is even sparser! Still, this was made up for by the warm welcome afforded by the owner of the flying school Stephen.

The idea of this is to take advantage of the current 18 month window in which you can add SSEA (Simple Single Engine Aircraft) and then convert it to EASA LAPL via a paperwork exercise which lets you fly GA up to 2000 kg and a maximum of 3 passengers (search CAA CAP 804), which is the goal for my Journey from Microlights to GA

I can sum the difference up between the C42 and the Cessna 172 by liken it to driving a recent sports car and then switching back to an old Routemaster bus. Everything happens slower in the 172, that said it has more instrumentation, full IFR.

It’s a very different beast to control, the pedals have toe brakes which allow differential braking, the seat is adjustable, the high dash restricts the forward view, and the throttle is in the dash with a carb heat to the left and a mixture control to the right of it.

Stephen started her up and she rumbled a much lower note than the Rotax 912, we did the normal mag, and power checks and I taxied her out to the runway and then using the toe brakes and power I spun her around and lined up on runway 06, Stephen took the controls and we trundled down the runway, at 55 knots we lifted off a climbed away at 65 kts, once we were up to around 7,000ft we requested a traffic service, not something we tend to do in the microlight, but I think I might start doing this now.    After flying and turning for a while, which presented little issue, Stephen flew us into a cloud and showed me how to fly on the artificial horizon and turn coordinator then another cloud presented itself and it was my turn, something I always wanted to do! Next we went on to do some stalls from straight and level flight, these were the same as they are for the Microlight, so no issue there, however the stall is a lot less violent than in the Microlight,

Next up simulating a stall on the turn onto final, so flaps at 20 degrees mixture rich carb heat on and turn and stall! Nose down, power to full, oh wait I forgot the mixture and carb heat! Positive rate of climb, retract flaps to 10 degrees, positive rate of climb for the second time, flaps fully up and climb away. This one I was not so slick at, but it was my first time!

The hour was up and we were nearly back, on the approach Stephen once again took the controls and landed.

He left me with parting words which boosted my confidence on my Journey from Microlights to GA, saying “I don’t think it will take you as many hours as you think!”

I’m looking forward to my next lesson and blogging some more.