Luck

Well sometimes the lady rolls the dice in a particular way. I called the DGAC to get more info, apparently there will be an exam in January!!! Yeah I feel totally motivated now, went trough the Exam book and Ooff I still have to do some work, especially on Human Factors, Navigation and some things of the regulations: right now i score on average like 80 - 85% and that is not enough to go well prepared into the exam. Luckily enough I have 2 weeks of leave coming up at Christmas time, so I've plenty of time to prepare the exam.

Apparently my headset is on it's way too, looking forward to it. I found a little device online at Sporty's that changes your pilot headset via USB into a computer headset.

Maybe I can find a similar thing in Europe or heck I'll order it from the Sporty's site. I think it would come in handy with practising the RT work later.

This Sunday I was at the airfield again, nearly went up as well with one of the guys but I didn't have the appropriate clothing for winter flying... notice to self - get my bomberjacket cleaned and find flying overalls.

Well that's it for now, I'm making little progress but I'm enjoying it for every minute

TTFN

Frustration = Motivation?

Life can be a dog of the female persuasion… After ploughing trough my theory book I started investigating when I could take my theory exam, I was planning to do it in December so that if I wouldn’t make the exam the first go I would be able to do a retry and still be free in the early spring to start with the rest of the curriculum. However there is such thing as work, and with the holiday season coming up getting a day off proved pretty much impossible, unless I wanted to give up on my Christmas holidays. And since this will be the first Christmas not spent at work but spent at home since 11 years…

* Sticks two fingers up in the air and it doesn’t exactly look like Churchill doing the V- sign either *

So no biggy until I started further investigations on the site of the DGAC and I found out that the theory exams are now every 3 months! In other words, if I do not make the exam in March I’ll be, like my Irish friends describe it, fecked!

Well turn frust into motivation so I decided that the last thing I’m going to do is fail the bloody exam… (Well dying will probably the last thing I’ll do in my life but hey, you know what I mean) So last week I scored some extra reading material at my favourite pilot shop in Luxembourg to really make sure I will not fail my exam.

Editions Cépadués, the French publishing house where my initial learning book was also published, issued some more publications and some prove to be very useful, well at least that is what I think of it.

First of all I bought the book Aviation Ultra Légère, Comprendre pour mieux pratiquer l'ULM written by Didier Horn. The intended audience is actually more for theory instructors but can also be used by pilots and overinterested students like me to review stuff or get deeper into the background of the several subjects.

It is not a book for sissies though, on chapter one you get a short refresher on mathematics and science and than it digs head on into vectors, airfoil formulas and the application of Bernouilli's theorem. It is a lot more than just the simple example of putting your hand out of a driving car at different angles to notice that if you put it in a slight angle it will be pushed up. All and all a good book for really going deeper into the material in general.

The second book I bought provides a complete overview on the French laws and regulations and is simply called La reglementation du pilote ULM and is written by Daniel Casanova.

Although all rules and regulations can be found on the various governmental sites the writer clearly tried to create a logical overview of everything, you can use it to really study all rules and regulation, but also later as a quick reference book it will come in quite handy I think, and seen the size of the book I thing the editors thought exactly the same. :-)


And finally I bought the ultimate cram book - 400 Questions pour le pilote ULM by Thierry Gobert.

This is really nice, it prepares you completely for the exam, telling you what to expect and then there are the different chapters for each subject in the exam: General Knowledge, Regulations, Human factors, Communication, Mechanical knowlegde, Meteorology and Navigation. The book comes with a red transparent sheet, the purpose is that you put this sheet over the page, as the answers are printed in red they will fade out leaving you with just the questions, so you can do a "fake" exam, and check the answers later on.


And to keep me motivated I also ordered a new headset, a friend pointed it out to me, the specs were ok and the set was reasonably cheap so why not. Even if it only serves me for during my lessons next year it will have been worth its price. Big plus, it has an additional input for an MP3 player and such stuff... so this spring I probably will take a little time to record checklists on my PC and then put them on my iPod. It will be faster to recuperate and I can follow instructions while listening to it without having to loose attention to flying the plane...
I think that might be smart, we'll just see how it will work out in the future. 

Oh yeah, I made some small design changes, let me know what you think of it.
 Thats all, TTFN and happy landings...  

About European Microlights

I had some questions why choosing Ultralights over normal GA planes and decided to elaborate a bit on it. Basically where it comes down to is that there is not much of a difference between Ultralight flying and VFR flying with a heavier plane. The rules are the same, VFR remains VFR, the difference is in the planes flown and two possibilities you can do with a PPL-A which you cannot with an Ultra light permit.

First of all VFR-Night is not allowed with an ultra light plane, you can only fly it during the day. The second extra is already limited for JAR PPL-A holders, if you have a British or Irish PPL-A, you can obtain an additional certification called IMC, this permits you limited instrument flying in certain meteorical conditions. This was instated by the AAC to provide for the quickly changing Atlantic weather conditions prevailing on the British and Irish isles.

With a microlight the only IFR flying you do is I Follow Road or I Follow River even if there are some planes which have enough avionics on board to shame the average IFR capable plane.

The technical rules
The rules for Ultra Light planes in Europe are more or less standardised. The definition of a microlight according to the Joint Aviation Authorities document JAR-1 is an aeroplane having no more than two seats, maximum stall speed (VS0) of 35 knots (65 km/h) CAS, and a maximum take-off mass of no more than:

• 300 kg for a landplane, single seater; or


• 450 kg for a landplane, two-seater; or


• 330 kg for an amphibian or floatplane, single seater; or
  
• 495 kg for an amphibian or floatplane, two-seater, provided that a microlight capable of operating as both a floatplane and a landplane falls below both MTOM limits, as appropriate.

In France the ultralight aircrafts are specified 5 different classes:

The Powered paraglider (Class 1)
A powered paraglider, or paramoteur in French, is an aircraft equipped with a flexible aerofoil, (=legal speak for parachute type) they have to fulfil the following technical requirements:

• The maximum power is lower or equal to 45 Kw for the single-seater aircraft and 60 Kw for the two-seaters.


• The maximum mass (MTOW/MTOM) is lower or equal to 300 kg for the single-seater aircraft and 450 kg for the two-seaters.

The Weight shift (Class 2)
In French called pendulaire is an aircraft equipped with a rigid aerofoil under which a motorized carriage has been mounted. (the trike) The aircraft is steered by displacing the carriage vs the foil. These have the following limits:

• The maximum power is lower or equal to 45 kw for the single-seater aircraft and 60 kw for the two-seaters.
• The maximum mass is lower or equal to 300 kg for the single-seater aircraft and 450 kg for the two-seaters. These masses can be increased by 5% if the machine is equipped with an emergency parachute and with 10% in the case the U.L.M. is equipped with floats. These increases cannot be accumulated.
• The stalling speed is lower or equal to 65 km/h or the wing load to the maximum mass is lower than 30kg/m2.

Yep these are the famous flying bikes my girlfriend is always referring to.

The multi axis (class 3)
A multi axis U.L.M. is an aircraft equipped with a fixed aerofoil. This machine is steered using control surfaces (Rudder, Ailerons, Elevators) The aircraft should answer to the following technical requirements:

• The maximum power lower or equal to 45 kw for the single-seater aircraft and 60 kw for the two-seaters.
• The maximum mass is lower or equal to 300 kg for the single-seater aircraft and 450 kg for the two-seaters. These masses can be increased by 5% if the machine is equipped with an emergency parachute and with 10% in the case the machine is equipped with floats. These increases cannot be accumulated.
• The stalling speed is lower or equal to 65 km/h or the wing load to the maximum mass is lower than 30kg/m2.

These are the planes I’m going to learn to fly; my lessons will be in a RANS 6ES Coyote II

The autogyro (class 4)
An ultra light autogyro or gyrocopter answers to the following technical requirements:

• The maximum power continues is lower or equal to 60 kw for the single-seater aircraft and 80 kw for the two-seaters.
• The maximum mass is lower or equal to 300 kg for the single-seater aircraftand 450 kg for the two-seaters.
• The rotor load with the maximum mass lies between 4,5 and 12kg/m2.

The ultra light airship (class 5)
An extra-light airship answers to the following technical requirements:

• The maximum power continues is lower or equal to 60 kw for the single-seater aircraft tand 80 kw for the two-seaters.
• The volume of the helium balloon is lower or equal to 900 m3.
• The volume of the hot air balloon is lower or equal to 2000 m3.
  

Something special
In class 2 and 3 there are also subclasses called class 2a or class 3a, the requirements are the same and are comparable with the American FAR 103 and the BCAR Ultra Light rules. The regulations for building and flying these planes are less complicated, the major thing here is that as long as they are single seat and below 115 kg they do not need a Permit to Fly.

The search continues...

So here I was, I decided in favour of Microlight airplanes… so what were the possibilities there?

Luxembourg has only one aero club for ULM flying called Aeroplume, based near the lovely town of Larochette, on an old farm they have their own ULM field. I’ve showed my face there a couple of times and to be honest I didn’t like the atmosphere there, I would go too far if I used the term übermensch but they certainly thought very well of themselves… their website was also not updated for ages and apparently there were no theory lessons coming up. So, missed chance here for the fellows and the search continued.

Luckily Luxembourg is a small country and you only need to drive half an hour to be abroad. So I investigated into the possibilities abroad and the curriculum to be followed to obtain a license for Microlights. I checked Bitburg, very nice airfield; the possibilities were also plenty with two schools but no real aero clubs. Thought of Arlon, but didn’t like the Belgium structure of the curriculum. So I ended up on the site of the FFPLUM, which is the French National Microlight Association and learned a lot about their curriculum on line. I liked it a lot. So I got to their regional chapter and found out that just across the border in Zoufftgen there was an ULM field and club called “les 3 frontieres” (the three borders, as it is 3 border country there) and on a nice Saturday last summer I decided to drive up to it and make some enquiries.

I was instantly welcomed and it felt like meeting friends I hadn’t met yet. Well this is a different experience. I came back several times there and everybody was great, it is a small club and the members are very cooperative, and one day I met with the clubs’ trainer, Patrick, a Luxembourgish guy, he was very clear on things, no maybes or fuzzy talk, straight and direct talk, I like that. Bugger though was that he was in the middle of constructing a Zenair CH650 and could not take me on as a student right away, I will have to wait till next year to start my flying lessons. But no despair I have the whole winter now to learn my theory.

Patrick put me on the ”Manuel du Pilote ULM” for the standard theory curriculum and to be honest, it is quite well written, I thought that the French language would pose some problems but it is all understandable and if things are unclear there are people which I can ask. Furthermore my girlfriend surprised me with some PPL books which provide the same theory in English to back up things which I wouldn’t understand in French. Yep, I told you she is very supportive.

So here we are, I have arrived at my niche, and the big adventure has started. It is like Confucius said; a long journey starts with a small step. And I am on my way.

Who are you and what do you want?

Well I have been busy with a lot of things but flying but I'm slowly catching up on things and finally have some time to post part 2 as promised months ago.
So, where to start when you want to go flying? Well the internet is a nice place to find out things, checking forums, planes, flying schools and see what is in your neighbourhood. But first of all you have to search inside yourself. What do you want?

We all have dreams, one wants to soar the skies like an eagle; the other dreams of travelling around the world in his own plane; there are people who love to fly an old ancient barnstormer or like the thrills of aerobatics. Some want it all... I wanted to fly an airplane, not high above the clouds but enjoying the scenery, I wanted to go places but not at all costs, simply booking a fare at Ryanair is much cheaper after all. Having experienced some decent G-forces in my buddies' soaring plane was enough to find out that I'm not really a thrill seeker but prefer the smooth flying. So based on that I decided that single engine VFR was my way to go.

Nice start, but then again there is a multitude of possibilities ranging from flying a Cirrus SR22 Turbo to those microlight trikes my dear girlfriend likes to refer to as "Flying Bikes" and here is a fine example of another factor in the decision process, limitations. Not that my girlfriend is a big ball and chain, she is highly supportive about my aspirations to go flying but she made it very, very clear that she has limits too and if I would want to take her flying as my passenger, it better not be in a machine where she has to sit in the open.

Second limitation and probably the largest one is budget, unless you have unlimited funds you somewhere going to "hit the roof" of your financial possibilities, I have a nice job, great colleagues and a decent pay but that's it, don't expect me to finance a big fancy airplane, let alone bearing the operating costs of a gas guzzling, large, high powered, engine. So what were my possibilities?
I could become member of a flying club which owned planes and hire the plane at cost from the club when I wanted to fly. The biggest one in Luxembourg is AERO-SPORT, they have a nice collection of planes (Cessna, Piper, Cirrus) both VFR and IFR, you can do your training there and all is nice and fine. But I knew that one of these days I'd be deciding that it was a beautiful day to go flying and find out that all planes were booked. Knowing all to well that The Lady rarely deals you the aces in life and knowing my chances to end up with an odd hand I knew that I'd have to have my "own" airplane.

This limited things to a cheap budget plane or finding one or two others who felt the same and starting a small co-ownership. I invested some time in finding out what kind of planes I'd be able to fly within my budget and finding out about lessons for a PPL-A. I'll be honest, I wouldn't go far with it, a decent Cessna 152 or a small Piper 141/161 without too much frills would just be possible. Owning a plane is not the real problem, flying and maintaining it, on the other hand, could become one if not managed properly and strictly. I nearly gave up, so close and at the same time almost unreachable...

Until I started looking at another class of flying, the microlight, known here as the ULM (From the French Ultra Légère Motorisé) I didn't know much about it and still thought it to be in the "deltawing with revved-up lawnmower engine" stage, so imagine my surprise when I found out that there were microlight planes which were able to fly faster, cheaper and more ecological than the standard Cessna or Piper planes. So I started to widen my knowledge on this subject and the more I delved into it the more I liked it.

The First One

Well here goes, last night I discussed with my girlfriend about how things were going around my preparations for flying and that it would be nice to document it all. Mainly for myself, but also for others if they can make use of my experience. So here it is, and here is my first post.

Let’s start by introducing myself, my name is Steph, I’m Dutch, nearly 40 and working and living in Luxembourg as an IT consultant for the local branch of a well known American IT Service Provider. I am polyglot, trying to stop smoking and also trying to start flying, that what this blog is about.

I got infected by the flying virus when one of my former coworkers at IBM who was an avid sailplane flyer bought a superb Calif and took me for a spin, this was nothing for me but I had an other colleague who flew a little Piper and I liked that. I sort of shuffled it away as flying was much to expensive for me still being a junior with not much of a salary.

Last year I met again with my old friend and colleague Martin who is Flight Engineer at the DDA, The Dutch Dakota Association, at the Luxembourg Air Show at the Bitburg airfield and that rekindled the passion for flight with me and I started investigating the possibilities. And that search will be in my second post.