I don't know how I missed the fact that Oral Roberts died last week.  I mostly know the televangelist from the controversy that occurred in 1987 when Roberts revealed that Jesus was holding him for ransom.  During a fundraising drive, he stated that if he didn't raise $8 million by March, God would "call him home."  People laughed, but Roberts raised the money and didn't die, thereby proving that he was right.

Oral Roberts

Made a spam comment on one of my posts, trying to sell Viagra.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26512112-5003402,00.html

Books prove prayer can cure cancer, says archbishop

TERMINAL illness such as cancer can be cured by prayer, the head of the Catholic Church in Australia said.

Folks,

In my little adventures up in the sky, there are a few accessories that I use a lot to make life just a bit more organised, comfortable and safe.

Most importantly, I need my pilot's headset. Mine are the standard David Clarks, which are used almost everywhere by pilots at any airfield you care to name on this planet. They are alright and do the job well enough. I get to hear the traffic controllers on Ground and Tower, and equally important they can hear me. In the not too distant past, general aviation pilots used to fly without these headsets and instead used a handheld radio like a CB unit found in trucks. That was alright, too, until research found that pilots suffered serious hearing loss due to the high levels of noise inside the cockpit of most general aviation aircraft. That's when headsets became de riguer.

My David Clarks have some passive noise reduction qualities through the tight ear cups and also volume control, but there have been times when  the radio chatter and interference have been bad enough to reduce my ability to hear who said what. That's when I have to make "Tower, Kilo Mike Bravo, say again last transmission." I will reward myself when I get my pilots licence with a flashier headset that has active noise reduction and also jacks for your mobile phone to plug into. I could be phoning a friend from 5000ft and saying stuff like: "Hey I'm flying over your house, do you want me to buzz you like a Spitfitre pilot?" No, I'm kidding ;-)

Another item that I will be using as soon as it gets to me, is a knee board. As the name indicates, this is a flat writing surface with clips and pockets for all those bits of paper where info is scribbled down and within easy reference... and there's a velcro strap to keep this kneeboard strapped securely to your thigh. Mine hasn't arrived yet as I've only ordered it a few days ago. What I've been doing so far with my checklists is tuck them under my right thigh so that it's within my reach when I need them. But this takes my attention away for a brief moment and more importantly, takes my right hand away from either the throttle or the yoke. In other words, it's a distraction I don't need. Also, when I'm pre-flighting, it is always useful to have weather/runway/altitude settings/fuel tank reserves/radio frequencies data all in the one place without having to go back-forth to check. And you may laugh, but it is really handy to have a place to clip your pen while you're flying. And later when I'm doing my navigation exercises, I'll have even more bits of stuff to lug around with me in the cockpit. When you're flying alone into usually uncharted airspace, you'd want to be organised and not be distracted by a stupid pen or torchlight or your flight calculator that fell on the floor.

So, there you have it. Just a quick round-up of some of my common tools of trade as a student pilot.

Ninja

David Clark pilot headset

Kneeboard

See you later people.

We leave soon to go to Sydney for the night then fly away in the morning.

Fun will be had, cocktails will be had, massages will also be had. And by the look of my glowing white legs I'd say a dose of sunburn may be had.

And I'm thinking by the look of my crazy hair I might come back with dreadlocks. Because I'm not taking a hair straightener and I'm not even going to dry it with the dryer. It can just go wild for the next week or so. Will pack plenty of hair elastics.

Me

So I wish all my friends and neighbours here on vox a very merry christmas. I'l think of you lot over there in the snow and sleet while I'm lying on my sun lounge soaking up some rays. And to all my aussie neighbours I hope the weather gods treat you well and you don't get a real scorcher for christmas day.

I think this is the first christmas, or even December, of my life that I haven't eaten ham. Can't say I'm missing it either.

Catch you on the flip side guys.

Folks,

I had an early morning session of circuits today. I thought I did 5 T&Gs but it was actually 6... time flies when you are having fun.

Did the right handers today from Runway 06R in Kilo Mike Bravo. I'm getting more comfortable with 06R but it's still my preference to takeoff from 24L for circuits. C'est la vie.

As the session was rather uneventful (just going round and round), today's summary is a short one.

My landings are not perfect (not greasers) but they aren't crap either. My altitude on final is still a bit higher than I'd like at around 700-800ft, which means my approach has to be steeper. Nevertheless, I'm still able to bring her down with a gentle thud. My visual perspective on flaring is better; I think I am seeing the horizon well enough now to positively affect my landings whereas before, my eyes just watched the ground rush up towards me and that's when the hard landings happened.

My ground roll-out on the "Go" is still slightly weavy. This one thing is really holding me back because it means I need a bit more time to centre the aircraft before re-setting all configs for the takeoff.

One more thing that's flustering me are the radio calls. Everyone makes them with the use of slightly different phraseologies. For instance:

1) The first radio contact I have is with ATIS before I do my pre-start checks. I tune into 120.9 to get details of my runway, QNH, weather summary and ATIS version (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc).
2) As soon as this data is scribbled down, I then tune into Jandakot Ground on 124.3 to request permission to start my circuits: Jandakot Ground, Kilo Mike Bravo request start for circuits. The text books have different phrases for this preliminary call but the simpler the better as far as I am concerned. There's enough workload up there as it is, without having to remember every single phrase down to the letter and verse.
3) After my pre-start and after-start checks are done, I taxi off to the run-up area to complete my power checks.
4) To get to Runway 06R, I have to cross Runway 06L. A radio call is needed here: Jandakot Ground, Kilo Mike Bravo request permission to cross Runway zero-six left. On clearance, I cross it and taxi towards the holding point for Runway zero-six right.
5) I now tune into Jandakot Tower for circuits on 119.4 to indicate I'm ready to line up: Jandakot Tower, Kilo Mike Bravo ready for circuits at Runway zero-six right, dual, received Bravo (version Bravo was the ATIS transmission this morning when I went up). On clearance, I line-up on the piano keys on Runway zero-six right and power up to takeoff.
6) After my full-stop landing and when I've taxii-ed off to the runway holding point, I do my after-landing checks then tune back to Jandakot Ground on 124.3: Jandakot Ground, request permission to cross Runway zero-six right.

Strangely, I've got no issues with all of my radio calls in-flight but for some stupid reason, I tend to get a little flustered on the ground with these calls. It is easy to write them down here and they seem simple enough. But at the time of making these calls, I have to pause and think about them.  The cock-ups can be funny to hear... when other people make them, but not so when it's you going: "Er..." and then go silent. The CFI thinks I'm over-complicating this issue. I'm just keen to nail this whole process down. We all learn differently; for me this means writing it all down and reading them over and over again. 

But something funny did happen today on the radio. I think it was on my third circuit when Jandakot Tower radio-ed someone (wasn't me) to get their hands off the PTT button as they were heavy breathing into it! Stuff you hear somedays.

OK, takeaways for the next session:

- Get my setups sorted as I turn base
- Try to aim for 400-500ft on final and feather power down to idle on descent, get lower on short final
- Feet, feet, feet on touchdown to stay on the centreline!!! 

After this morning's session, I've now chalked up 17.2 hours of training, 9.2 of those in circuits.

I've also been told to read-up the chapter on Emergency Procedures (Abnormal Operations) for my next lesson. Inter alia, this has reference specifically to EFATOs (engine failure after takeoff). Nice one.

Till the next instalment, clear prop!

Ninja

Those of you who used to be on Whitepage may be interested to know that cc is back on Vox. She used to live in Sydney  but is in the bush now. You can catch up on her here. http://cc1804.vox.com/