[ To Diary for GFPT: Saturday 2 December, 2006 -Friday 27 July, 2007 ]

Welcome to My Fourth Diary
THIS IS WHERE THE ADVENTURE STARTS!!!
Having passed my Commercial Pilots License on Thursday 12 March, 2008, I have started looking for my first Paid flying job. The entries appear on a "Most Recent" first basis. So if you would like to start at the beginning click on the link below. I've included a few photos with my entries but for lots more photos see my photo gallery. If you have only just started reading my adventures, check out my lesson diary from GFPT, my Lesson diary for PPL and my Lesson diary for CPL Enjoy!!!

[ To First Diary Entry for further Adventures: Thursday 12 March, 2009 ]

2nd Feburary 2010: Practice for my First Instrument Renewal
AND ENDORSED ON YET ANOTHER PLANE

WOW!!!! Has it been 12 months already since I first did my ME-CIR endorsement?!?!?!??! How time flies, HA so do I hee hee!!! Well unfortunately the Navajo I fly isn't IFR so I have the choice to go one of two waystoredo the rating, one, back to Redcliffe Aero Club in VH-IYC the Partenavia, OR, I could go with QAS (Queensland Aviation Services) in Caloundra in their Piper Seneca VH-EZZ (I'll post a photo soon). I decided to go with QAS for a couple of reasons this time, one, I work at Caloundra, two, it's the chance to fly another different plane, three, it will give me the chance to see how another school trains and what they expect of their students and lastIy I can have the same testing officer as on my initial rating! So here we go....

I studyed the POH for the Piper Pa-34 Seneca 1 the weeks leading up to the endorsement day, which, I am also doing some approaches at the same time to get back into the swing of IFR and Instrument approaches. I must say it is a nice plane to fly and QAS keep the plane up to a very nice standard! Greg (the CP) and I go over the flight planned route and what he hopes to achieve on the flight, roght off to Kilcoy to shoot an NDB approach (the one for Mudgee) and then off to Maroochy to shhot the Maroochy NBD-A approach with a 300 circling circuit, touch and go and back to Caloundra for a couple of circuits. OK OFF WE GO THEN! Alot of the speeds and settings are very similar to the Navajo, switched are in very different places though, and I learnt very quickly not to confuse the placement of the Fuel pump and the RH magneto switches D'OH!!!! Take off is no problem, we contact Centre and get our clearance to proceed to Kilcoy, en-route we run through the Auto pilot in flight operation and let EZZ fly on the auto-pilot most of the way there. Here we now for my fist NDB approach for some....OOOO maybe 8 months, this should be insteresting (although I have been practicing furiously on the Flight sim at home) WOW it's near perfect!! How cool!! Right single engined missed approach, climb back to our nominated height and get a clearance to Maroochy, Greg kindly gives me back the RH engine to fly to Maroochy HA HA!!!!! We get our clearance to fly to NDB-A aprocah and fly it, weeelllll, maybe not as good as the Kilcoy one but well within acceptable limits for the test, AND I made a couple of bodgey radio calls! Then on the inbound leg, Greg fails another engine on me and I have to fly a 300 ft circuit for runway 36, touch and go then back to Caloundra, WOO HOO 2 circuits there and back to the QAS office for get signed off on the Seneca. "Well we might as well book your test then hey?" Greg thought I flew it well enough to fly the renewal test, OK THEN!!! So now that's tomorrow!!!

June/July 2009: Parachute Ops Run down
Some of the Adventures I have had along the way!!!

This job has taught me HEAPS about flying for a living, so I'll write more as is get time...busy busy!!!!

June 14 2009:  My first flight in VH-TIB!!
AND my first parachute drop run!
 
Off to Caloundra again today for my first flight in TIB!!  First run Jiri and I go together and we go through all of the proceedures for the climb and I make all the radio calls as well.  On return Jiri is very happy with the way I ran the whole operation...COOL!!! The next run Jiri takes himself, while I wait on the ground.  On his return I meet him at the bowser and we refuel TIB.  I taxi her back to the GA parking aera and perpare for next next run with Jiri, this run is even smoother even with a few clouds around to make it a bit more interesting!!!  We land and refuel and i taxi back to the parking aera again, Jiri says he is happy and confident and the is it time FOR MY FIRST JUMP RUN SOLO!!!  GULP!!  So I get ready, and put on my safety chute, check the plane over again, check the oil, recheck the fuel, D'OH even though I have just refueled...hee hee. THEN, the tamdem masters walk over with the "Pax" ...this is it...I'm off for my frist ever paid flight as PIC!!!   Take off is all go, "Remember to turn off the Hi Boost Pump after you set the engine for climb" I tell my self!!!  MMMmmm a few more clouds around this time, so I pick myself a track around them, remembering to stay within 5 miles of the drop zone.  We track around the large back of cloud that is between us and the drop site, which is Moffat Beach on this run, then there is nothing but clear skies in forn tof us...YAY!!  climb up the FL140(14000ft) get clearance to drop and decsend, tel the guys "CLEAR TO DROP!!!" line up for the run (the tandem masters tell me what track they'd like on the way up after assessing the prevailing winds) and over the top of Moffat out they go!!  Now i have to get back down, all the time watching the temps and pressures so as not to Shock Cool the engine, while answering ATC and watching for traffic below...PHEW!   Back on the ground Jiri and Tibor are waiting for me at the fuel bowesr and Congratulate me on my first solo parachute run!!!!  WOO HOO!!!  LET'S DO IT AGAIN!!!!

Now I have to buy the guys a carton of beer to celebrate my Parachute jump run!

June 13 2009: I Start my firstaviation job....Sunshine Coast Skydive
Bombs away...well nearly!!!!!

Here we are, my first job in aviation!!  After my trip to Darwin and surrounds I learnt that hours hours hours is what it is all about.  MMM, OK, now, how to get these extra hours? As chance would have it only 2 days after getting home I received a phone call a mate of mine, who flies the parachute plane at Caboolture, telling me that Sunshine Coast Skydive in Caloundra needed a pilot for 7 weeks or so as their regular pilot is off on holidays.  RIGHT, I called up and spoke to Tibor, the owner, and he asked if I could come up on Saturday and fly with his pilot to see if I was suitable for the job.  So I drive up to Caloundra and meet with Tibor.  After speaking to Tibor on my arrival he introduced me to Jiri his regular pilot.  Now at Redcliffe we have head Jiri in the air, making radio calls etc, and we always thought he was Indian or Sri-Lankan now meeting him in person I find he is of Czech descent and a hell of a nice guy!!  Jiri ran me through the speeds, temps and procedure they use and showed me the documents from ATC/Airservices regarding the parachute ops for the area.  NOW, off to ‘meet’ the plane. Tango India Bravo, a 1975 Cessna 206F TURBO!!!! WOW!!! This is actually another ingredient that I found I was lacking from talking to the GA operators in Darwin, 200 series time AND a Turbo to boot! Pre-flight etc, fairly standard stuff, TIB is also fitted with a VG (Vortex Generator) kit which increases it’s useful load and lift capabilities, so all the little fences have to be checked for damage or missing etc.  Pre-fight done, we pull TIB for the hangar and taxi over to the GA parking, where Jiri shows me through the pre-ops procedures eg: how to put on the pilot parachute and what to pull if you need it!!! YIKES, A PARACHUTE!  I’m not jumping!! This is for emergencies only....PHEW!  

First flight of the day, is full so I cannot go as an observer oh well.  They can carry up to 3 tandem jumpers, that’s 6 pax + the pilot, and fly up to 14000ft!!! That’s WAY past my old height record of 8500!!! So back to the office and talk to Tibor and the Tandem Masters who didn’t go on that run, talk to them to try and get as much info as possible.  Right, second run only has 2 tandems on it so off I go for a ‘Fact-Finding’ flight in TIB with Jiri at the controls.  This plane, being a Turbo charged engine, has a few things to keep an eye on, T&P's, it is all about the temperatures and pressures on this plane.  WOW does this thing accelerate down the runway!!! WOO HOO!!!  After rotating and climbing to 200ft Jiri starts to run through the setup of the engine for the climb, Manifold pressure, RPM, and fuel flow, turn the Hi Boost fuel pump off!!! This one is very important!!!  We settle in for the climb at about 600-700ft/min allllll the way up to FL140!!!  New radio calls too, as we work in CTA class C airspace once we are above 4500ft, then we also have to monitor the CTAF for Caloundra, and make local calls at 5, 3 and 1 minute before the drop!!!  WOW SOOOOooo MUCH GOING ON!  THEN there is the run-in track, the Tandem masters decide on the in-bound track on the way up by keeping an eye on the GPS ground speed read out and determine where the wind is coming from, you have to drop them into the wind, OK on the track, 270 deg, and now over the top of Currimundi and the tandems go on their fast track to the beach, we start our descent back to YCDR, once again being Turbo charged we must ensure that we don’t cool the engine too quickly, “Shock Cool”, so it is a powered descent and keep an careful eye on the S.COOL read out on the EDM gauge, while flying, talking to ATC, monitoring the CTAF and watching that the airspeed doesn’t run away...SO MUCH TO KNOW AND DO!!  Back on the ground, we taxi over and refuel, then taxi TIB back to the parking area to wait for the next load.  WOW, what a work load!!  The next few loads are again full, amazing how many people they put through in a day!  I got 2 more Fact finding flights as the observer in before it was time to pack up and go home for the day...tomorrow Jiri says, is my turn to fly...YIKES!!!!

12th March 2009: CPL is finished now the Adventure begins as a Commercial Pilot.
Well I HAVE to FIND a job first!

Crikey, now that all my training is done it's now time to start thinking about getting a job in the aviation Industry!!!  WOW, so many choices, I have been told to try and find a job flying jump planes to get hours and experience, or, see if I can find some ferry work moving planes around for people, small GA operator Charter, will I do my instructors rating??  Well, the plan at them moment is to get some money back in the bank first!!!  So I'll work in IT for the next few months and also see what is around to try and get my hours up over the "basic Hours" that you finish with after CPL, although I do have a few more than that already with ME-CIR rating time too. 
SO, I have been checking out the AFAP site and others like it, mmm, it's all a bit daunting, "Minium hours 500" "Must have 200 series time", "200 PIC Multi" are the kinds of qualifications I'm seeing, HOW AM I TO GET THIS??? ARRGGGHH!!  Oh well, we'll see I guess!  DG's dad needs me to fly him to some remote places to do some survey work etc, so there are a few hours in the making there.  Redcliffe Aero Club need planes moved around sometimes...mmmm these hours seem to be hard work to get!  ANYWAY, the adventure begins......