It's CHRIIIISTMASSSS!

Hello there everybody and let me start with saying thank you. Thank you for following me through what has been the toughest, most rewarding and exciting year of my life so far. It means a lot to me that you are interested in what I am doing and keep the numbers of hits on my page increasing and increasing at an impressive rate. I hope that's because of the quality of blogging, however I am sure that isn't the case!

For all the people who are interested in OAA as an FTO and have fired questions to me throughout 2011, I hope you had all your queries answered and I wish you all the best with your future career. I love to help people who are interested in the same things I am and if anyone is reading this and has any questions regarding any of the well known FTOs contact me for an unbiased opinion on here or alternatively:
Facebook.com/sammoy
twitter.com/sammoy

To my family and friends, I can't wait to see you all in 2012 and I hope all of you have a safe and very happy Christmas!

As for my parents, I'll see you in Vegas on Friday! It's going to be a memorable one for sure!

Sam

Night Landing Video

So to give a complete different view of down wind, base and final to land on Rwy 21 at KGYR and in comparison to my sunrise and day light landings posted on here, this is the beautiful view of Phoenix at night!

I am sorry for the bad quality of the picture, however, when I take out the power to turn onto base leg the vibrations decrease and picture is restored to a decent quality!

Sam

Sunrise Circuit at KGYR

I said most things out loud for the purpose of the video, but I surprise myself when I watch my videos back at how much I do talk!

I have night flights tonight, so expect a video from that, later on in the week.

Enjoy watching :)

I PASSED 5000 views!

A few weeks ago I passed the landmark 5000 views, thanks to everyone who reads this on a regular basis and sorry for the delay in a blog update, I've been fairly busy, which I will describe in the following text.

I passed my PT1 with an excellent score of 2 (6 being the worst and 1 being the best, but it's very difficult to achieve a 1 even with a faultless flight). So understandably I was over the moon with that and it's something to live up to in my next PT which will be in a couple of weeks time, which will focus on emergency procedures, stalls, steep and gliding turns, flapless,performance and glide approaches and instrument flying.

I also spent Thanksgiving out here, which was darkened by the fact I had to write and submit a 3500 word mini-assignment for the Bucks New University aspect of the course and I also worked in a team to create two presentations which again were prepared and presented to BNU which contributed towards the overall score for my foundation degree. Thanksgiving was really nice though as everyone else vanished off on 'vacations' so there were literally 10 or so people left on campus, so it was nice and peaceful. One of my good friends Sari made the fatal error of leaving his dorm room open when he went off to San Francisco, this was what he got for his lapse in concentration when forgetting to lock his room...

...as the note we left him said "Your plan for an early night has been FOILED!

Desk and Walls

His sink, which was still fully functioning! 

Side shot of his desk

(click on all pictures for a better image!)

The weather here hasn't been great over the past few days so I have had to cancel a few flights, however, I have since been signed off for solo navigation flights. This involves planning a route, getting your times, winds, speeds, distances, logging in flight every detail or action you take and basically flying your proposed route as accurately as possible. Navigation is a big contributing area of PT3, so plenty of practice is available before then.

I have also had a few night flights, which have been my favourite part of flying out here so far! I did a night navigation back up from Ryan airfield (KRYN) and have also done dual and solo circuits here at Goodyear. My favourite part of the night nav back up from Ryan is that, we used other airfields as reference features to use to make sure we are on track. Some airfields have pilot controlled lighting, meaning that, if you tune up the CTAF frequency on your radios, then press the comms button which you use to talk over the frequency on 7 times, the runway lights magically come on. It is absolutely amazing to watch and also do. However, when I was focusing on getting this correct, forgetting that I was actually broadcasting over frequency on each click, I counted out loud, which was picked up on my mic, this causing an anonymous response from another aircraft on frequency to say "Nice counting man!", to which I replied having realised my error, in a very British accent "Thank you very much, have a safe flight'. I have found, any error you make, no matter what size, expect to get laughed at or  be the butt of a joke somewhere along the line, it's just how it goes in this game it seems.

Anyway, I am currently trying to upload a video to youtube of early morning circuits which I did a few weeks back, with a beautiful sunrise over GYR. It only lasts 5 minute or so so it should be done soon.

I have my final night circuits on Tuesday 6th December so expect a video from then too!

All the best!

Sam

P.S Well done to my good friends Tom Milsom, Adam Roberts and Jai Dillon on gaining their Commercial Pilot Licenses, see you back in Oxford in the new year guys! All the best to the rest of AP321 who have their CPLs in the near future too!

Thank you for my Sri Lankan blog follower  for getting in touch, it means a lot to hear that people are globally interested and are reading my blog as well as my family and friends back home. Look forward to seeing you when you start in Oxford in January.

PT1 Tomorrow!

I have had another hour of dual circuits today and then solo circuits which were cut short due to the ever descending cloud base and seeing as TPA (traffic pattern altitude) isn't variable, I came back in to land and taxiied back to parking.

I have my first progress test tomorrow, PT1. Basically just circuits and an Emergency drill, demonstrated as best as possible. Have to answer a few technical questions and the like however, nothing too much to handle!

I'll let you know how it goes

Sam


Happy 19th Birthday Mr Wallace

First Solo Video

Part One

Part Two

Enjoy!

Sam

So here we go....

Well, where do I begin? It has been a while and I am sorry for those who check this regularly to see what I have been up to for keeping you waiting. I'm just having so much fun out here it's hard to find the time to write, what can only be called an essay due to me letting events that need to be reported, back up.

Firstly, I went on a road trip with four of my friends, Jai, Sari, Ashley and Matt to the Grand Canyon, stopping overnight in Flagstaff, continuing up to Williams and then on up to the Canyon. We hired a car, which was basically a tank with armchairs, a great sound system and such a smooth ride. The time in the car flew by, putting on songs, watching the temperature continually fall due to a continual climb in altitude heading towards Flagstaff. One thing we really noticed was how clear the sky was, it was just incredible. It was clear enough to see the milky way, which I have never seen before and would never get tired of seeing again.

We checked into the the hotel hassle free and went out to get some food. We stopped to eat at a place called the lumberyard which was so cool. Good food, fire pits and six mile trains rumbling past the front. Just the job.

The next day we headed out to Williams and Grand Canyon. Williams is a typical old style, almost wild western town which is so small, everyone knows each other and is on the world renowned Route 66. Everyone we met there were really friendly and when taking photos across a road, people stopped their cars so they didn't spoil your shot, which just blew my mind, you really wouldn't get that back home. We stopped at a diner there and got milkshakes and met a few locals, filled ourselves up before moving on towards the Canyon.

Driving from Williams en-route to Grand Canyon National Park, we came across a museum of vintage aircraft which, when a car full of student pilots approaches, is a must see attraction. Despite it being cheap, there was a multitude of all sorts of aircraft which would even keep the non aviation lover interested and inquisitive.

 

Me With an Ex-Blue Angels Aircraft

Once we had secured our fix for not being involved in anything aviation related for at least one day, we continued towards the 'main event'. 

We arrived at the Canyon from the South and therefore parked up on the South Rim. We went to see the sunset, so we got to witness the breathtaking sights during day, dusk and night, which was definitely the best way to do it for sure! We were told that the best place to see the sunset was a point on the rim called Mohave. Sunset was at 17:43 and we reached it at approximately 17:30, taking pictures the whole way up and chatting with some Americans who had travelled to see the sights too. 

If you have never visited the Grand Canyon, despite my boldest effort to try and master the description of emotions and sights, I really just can't emphasise how vast and overwhelming it is. I'll just let some pictures do the talking...

We ended up being the last people at the Canyon and we headed back towards the bus stop. There was a stage where I thought we had missed the last bus and were therefore stranded at Mohave point needing to walk about 5 miles back to the car, but luckily the last bus passed and picked us up! Phew, the black bears that live in the wild around the canyon were on my mind, wandering down an open road in the moonlight....at the Grand Canyon. Sometimes I really do need to pinch myself.

Overall, the trip was well worth all the driving and expense and I will never ever forget it. 

The following day I flew in the morning, just performing emergency checks and practicing my circuits, which was just a normal flight. However, once I had finished my flying for the day, I headed to the Aeroplane Graveyard in Tucson. The museum there is unreal. It has all retired aircraft, including an SR-71 Blackbird, military, commercial, political and NASA aircraft. The phrase, kid in a candy store comes to mind. It's a really cool place to visit if you're ever out here!

Yesterday (1/11/11) I had my first solo flight. It was just one circuit out of Goodyear which only lasts five minutes or so, but it was the most awesome 5 minutes I have had out here so far. To finally get my first input in the 'Pilot in Command' column felt so good and all the hard work and revision all came together and was truly worthwhile. I have many more solo flights ahead however, I have put together a cool video of my very first solo and me having the traditional celebration at the end. I am having trouble uploading it to Youtube video site. I will upload it to here once I get it sussed and if it doesn't upload after trying as hard as I can to get it to work, I will burn it to a disc and send some home for Mum and Dad to show or distribute to anyone who would like a copy (e.g. Grandparents).

Pretty much all I have been up to, oh and I went to play trampoline dodgeball again tonight, which is basically what it says in the title... I told you life out here was tough.

Any comments are completely welcome. It will be nice to hear from anyone who reads this, I see I had a view in Saudi Arabia, which I can only put down to Google and Oxford Aviation popularity.

Stay safe everyone and I'll speak soon

Sam

P.S Happy Birthday Helen :)