MAYDAY USA

Changing of the plans

2009-01-04T15:18:00.004-07:00

...LFMT tour, le oskaaar foxtrot india est en final pour le trente et une droite...

Many things have changed since the last post:

new instructor, new plane, more engines..(2:p ) but above all, new country (or even new continent)

To make a long story short: our multi-engine training on the Diamond 42 didn't continue as planned in the US, but in Montpellier in France. The planes in the US were more in maintenance than flying, so the decision was made to fly the 2 planes stationed at at Antwerp. To have some better weather conditions, we would go to the South of France to do most of our multi engine missions. And so it went...

1 week after receiving this news, we were on the plane back to Belgium, and 3 days later, monday morning, we were in Antwerp to fly our 2 diamond 42's to Montpellier.It started well, my first landing with the DA42 was in Clermont Ferrand, where we were visual with the approach lights 100 ft above the minima. We (Dan, Hannes, Kevin and me with our 2 instructors: Paul Huyghe and Dany Creeten) were in France for only 9 days, but flew every day. It was an intens training with lots of preparations and a new environment to fly in. Quite a bit different. It's while flying in Europe you start to see what a paradise Arizona is for General Aviation. 100% of our flights in France was in controlled airspace. You don't just get into the plane as you do in Arizona. For local IFR approach training, you need to file a flight plan, for VFR manoeuvre training, you need to request an area somewhere over the sea between 3500 and 4500... You get used to it, but in a way you also miss the freedom you had in the states. We made some nice IFR flights to Perpignan, Carcassonne and Nimes. Most of the patterns and also some IFR training was done in Beziers, close to Montpellier. It was a nice experience, although the atmosphere was less relaxed as it is in the States. After 9 days, we flew the planes back home. From then on, we continue the rest of our multi training in Belgium. Up to now I have 3 flights in Belgium, to Ostend and to Chaleroi. Impressive how small our country is if you're used to flying in the States.

Pictures of Montpellier below

Last pictures of Arizona and of the trip back home will follow soon!

Grts Huts

Montpellier 15 - 23 december 2008

Start me up

2008-04-28T05:40:00.005-07:00

Hi there...

Some people just live their lifes from day to day, some others have a dream...
If you're lucky enough to fall under option 1: God bless you!
If not: you have 2 options:
*or you go for the straight-in approach, high speed and directly towards your goal,
*or you take your time, why not study first something else, but never forget what you'll be doing one day...

So after 4 long but fun years of Biotechnology, this guy finally set course towards the sky! Starting in september 2007, the theoretical part of my ATPL is just finished. Next will be final theoretical exams, and then a flight training in Mesa, Arizona for about 7 months! In the meanwhile we started some simsessions on the Diamond Da-42 (FNPT II), about half of which are done.

This blog is ment for all those who would like to follow the big adventure in the States, titled MAYDAY USA, and starting somewhere around the first week of july 2008! to be continued...

So next will be exams, and after

Only rock and roll (but I like it!)

Grts
Huts

Pictures observation flights

2008-04-30T05:28:00.004-07:00

Some pictures of observation flights I made can be found here!
Including pictures of the following flights:
13-10-2007: Jetairfly B737-500 OO-JAT: BRU-GIRONA-BRU
10-11-2007: Jetairfly Fokker100 OO-TUF: BRU-MALAGA-BRU
14-12-2007: Jetairfly B737-500 OO-JAT: OSTEND-LIEGE-ALICANTE-LIEGE-OSTEND
23-02-2008: Thomas Cook A320 OO-TCI: BRU-LA PALMA-FUNCHAL-BRU

Enjoy
Huts

Observation Flights Part 1

A dream comes true...

2008-05-03T08:37:00.003-07:00

Looks like Jetairfly did some new recruitment.
I know somebody who will be very happy!

Enjoy

Visual illusion

2008-05-30T02:20:00.003-07:00

Some people are really optimistic about the climb performance of the good old Avro!

One Week and counting...

2008-06-30T13:15:00.004-07:00

One week from now, we're having our stop at Washington, or just boarding the plane to phoenix... Time is running like hell!

So much things left to do, no way I don't forget to do half of them before leaving!

Though exams are finishing tomorrow, stress is building up.

Still, it should (will?) be (one of the) best parts of our lifes

Can't wait!

Operation MAYDAY USA - What happend before...

2008-07-12T23:06:00.007-07:00

July 7th 2008, around 12 pm, Brussels Airport, Runway 25R, 8 creatures wearing a uniform experience this strange feeling as the boeing 777 from United Airlines rotates smoothly... There is no way out nor back...

What happend to these guys? Why would they leave and get into a plane directing to the middle of nowhere (or kind off) and 'never' come back 'for the next 6 to 7 months'... Why do some of them behave very strange? Nobody knows... They are a bit of all kinds, but have the same intentions... Yet, they have no idea what the future bring be for the next months.

8 hours later and 6231 km further, the plane comes back to earth at Washington Dulles Airport. Next flight to phoenix should be within 4 hours, but is delayed by 2 more. That makes a long time to spend on the airport. Finally into the plane for another quite long flight of 4 hours. Nice thunderstorms over Denver, overwhelming lights over phoenix at night, nice landing, and here they were!

Arrival at the appartments around 11.30 pm local time, 8.30 pm Belgian time, it was exactly 24 hours after I left home that I found my new bed for the next months! Luckily I found one, as in both appartments ment for the 8 of us, there were only 6...

It was a long day, but we made it. First impressions were promising, passing the runway lights by night of Mesa Airport, our new home base, was for me the best part of the whole trip!

Still having the feeling: 'its getting late, I should go home now', I went into my new bed (without any sheets, as apparently they needed a wash), and was curious what the next day would give.

The Mission has begon!

Sorry for the late post, but it has been a busy week, internet connection was not always available, still had to settle a bit, but from now on, you can expect a weekly report, photos included! Report of week 1 to be posted soon!

Grts

Huts

Trip to Phoenix

WEEK 1: settling down

2008-07-16T18:38:00.004-07:00

Hi there

Its been just over a week we arrived here in Arizona . Everyone is getting used to it, jetlag is disappearing as well. We settled in our apartments, found our places to study and all those things, went to the supermarket, forgot some things the first time, went again… You learn fast how to do things and what you need. Still its not that easy to iron shirts, trousers and stuff when you’re not used to it :p I need some more lessons from mammy, perhaps some live lessons on skype might be useful! Still I’m proud of myself I managed to wash and dry (with machines) for the very first time and with great success (I still fit in all the clothes).

Cooking has been good this week as well. On the menu: spaghetti Bolo from Dan, Pancakes from Bertrand (Walloon style), BBQ without a BBQ from myself, chicken with salsa rice, again from Dan, and today it will be BBQ again but then a real one!

America is really different in all kinds: all is like double the size of in Belgium, the cars, roads, houses, people… When you go to the supermarket, the size of all the products are double or even triple as they are with us. You don’t find 1l Cola bottles, 50gr chips, or even 1kg sugar. The minimum is like 2.5 liter, 500gr or 5kg I guess. Even when you go to McDonnalds or some other fast food resto, and order a medium coke (what I did the first time and never again), you really get like a can of 1 liter. The small is like 0.6 liter I guess…

It takes some time to adapt to the kinds of food you find here… The first week, we mostly went eating out during noon, because we all had groundschool, and they had foreseen a van to drive us to a place, to go eat. All restaurants you find here (or really like 90%) are big chains: McDonnalds, KFC, Subway, steak resto’s, all kinds of burger places … If you drive for 10 minutes, you’ll probably pass 2 to 3 times the same restaurant. Also other restaurants like ‘Panda Express’, where you can eat Chinese, are made in the fast food style. You order like in McDonnalds, show what you want, order a drink (small medium or big), pay and sit and eat. (we went there 2 times last week, I prefer that above burgers, and it was really good actually) . I found 1 Italian restaurant that really looked like a restaurant, but it was closed, and apparently it was a chain as well.

In the supermarket you find the stuff you find with us, but just bigger, and its rather difficult to find fresh vegetables. We mostly ate salad and tomatoes by the plates we made ourselves. The thing I miss the most here, is a normal bakery. You don’t find any fresh bread here, you can only buy toast bread in the supermarket. It’s nice for a few days, but then you start missing the real thing.

During this first week, we had to go to school everyday for some briefings about safety, informatics, dispatch, and some brief repetitions of basic flying (climb, descent, straight and level flight, stall, spin, taxi, and how to perform them on the Archer we will fly.

On friday we had a test on the QRH and QRG of the Archer (Quick reference handbook and Guide). So last weekend was one at the desk. Everybody past!

As we are already into week 2, some of us already started flying. Kevin started on Monday, and Frederik a day later. My first flight was scheduled on Monday as well, but I and 4 other guys had some problems with the TSA (Transportation Security Administration). The first Tuesday, day after we arrived, they took our fingerprints at the school. 4 of them were refused and needed to be redone. This was done last Monday, and today I got my final approval to start flying. I looked to the schedule and indeed: my first flight is planned for tomorrow! Finally!

Next week, you here whether we made it :p

Enjoy the pics!

Grts

Huts

USA Week 1

WEEK 2: The sky is the limit

2008-07-24T21:41:00.002-07:00

Hello

It took a while for this next post, still busy times as we try to get all paperwork done, look for a car, …start to fly...!!

Last week, Monday 14th, my first flight was sceduled. As there were some problems with the fingerprints they took the week before, we had to take new ones, had no approval to start training, and had to cancel our very first flight L. The same day, we did the new fingerprints, and by Wednesday, we finally received a mail stating we were allowed to start flight training! Next day, Thursday 17th, we were again planned to fly, at 8 in the morning (first my flight mate Hannes, then me, each for 1 hour).

Arriving at dispatch, 7 in the morning, we heard on the radio the voice of our instructor Meghan McIrvin. Apparently the guys who flew before us had a problem with the oil temperature, which was very high, and they returned for maintenance. As we were sceduled on the same plane, it wasn’t looking good… When our instructor arrived, she said she had some bad news… The plane needed maintenance, the only option was looking for another one, but as all planes are mostly fully booked, chances were small.

Already looking for another cancellation form to fill in, Meghan came back with some keys, very nice, lucky day! Weather briefing prepared, mass and balance / performance sheet filled in, a short briefing about what to expect, and we were ready to go!

N4188E, piper Archer III (PA 28-181 if you want). As my flight mate would fly first, he did the walk around. We had a demo of it on Monday, when our first flight was cancelled. All strapped down, before start checks + checklist, ready to start the engine, clear left, right, PROP CLEAR, starter, little shake, and engine was running! Very nice, never did that in a glider! “Sabena dispatch, Archer 88E is leaving the ramp”, “Roger 88E, have a good one”! Taxi clearance from ground, cleared to run up area. Engine run up: we set high power (2000 RPM) and check proper operation of the engine, magnetos, alternator, carburator heat. Cleared to taxi to RWY 4 R. Some checklists later, we arrived at the holding point, Contact Tower, cleared for take off for South East departure! Me following from the back as Hannes was flying, it was quite a show! “Take off, I have controls” “you have controls”, Hannes hits the throttle, and off we go (full throttle flight training, remember). Being still early morning, it was quite calm weather, not yet turbulent.

Phoenix area from above, what a view! We turned south, to the south east practice area. There Hannes did some climbs, descents, turns. Meagan showed us some general reporting points, specific points in the area used to identify your position by radio calls. The hour ‘flew’ by, and we made our first landing at Coolidge airport, where we would do the ‘crew-change J ‘
15 minutes brake, 40 degrees already around 9.30 local time, we got in again, this time me in the front! Flows, checks, starting engine (first time, really cool!), taxi, run up, and ready for take off. As this was an uncontrolled airfield, no clearance required, just make sure you don’t disturb other traffic in the pattern or approaching the field.

And there we go again, 65, rotate, little (big) pull on the yoke, and we were off! After 30 hours in the sim in Belgium, you think to know in a way what to expect, but the real thing is really so much better than that! Also some manoeuvres for me: climbs, descents, turns and slow flight. Heading back to Falcon field, we received instructions for a left hand downwind entry for runway 22 L. Guided by Meagan, my first approach and landing looked a bit like a roller coaster ride, but we made it! More of that please!

The next day already, we had our second flight. We did some more manoeuvres like stalls, steep turns, and some touch and go’s. This time we went to Casa Grande for the change over. As from this flight, all missions take 1.5 hour each.

Weekend off, Monday off as well. As our instructor flies with 6 of us for the moment and she can only do 4 missions a day, we are in a rotation system to be sceduled (which changes every day apparently). Its nice to have some more days off, but it will also delay our training. Once we are solo, we can fly every day (except for weekends).

Tuesday, Wednesday and today, we did mission 3, 4 and 5. 3 and 4 were again focussed on the manoeuvres, and today with mission 5, we only flew patterns and touch and go’s. Normal patterns, flapless patterns, simulated engine failures, I did 12 in total today. It’s hard working when you’re not used to it yet, but so nice! Approaches are improving, landings as well. Tomorrow and the weekend off again! Monday, more patterns.

So far about the flying, we had some other things to think about this week as well. As we live in here for more than 6 months, and distances are quite large here, we decided to buy a car with the 4 of us living together. We looked for some cheap cars online, made some calls, went out to see some, and in the end we found a Toyota Corolla from 93 with a lot of miles, but which seemed to be OK, and the price was reasonable as well. As cars need to pass an emission test out here, we wanted to be sure this car would pass, before we would buy it. The owner said it would be no problem to pass, and he was even willing to do the test for us next morning. Then we only needed to get a new plate for the car (you need to have the emission test passed before getting the plate). So we would be back next day, the car should be checked and than we could buy it. Next day, we went back, and the guy said everything was fine, he even got us our new plate already, all papers looked fine, they were dated on that date. So we checked the car again, and decided to go for it. Paid the car, had a drink (non alcohol), and drove it to the vehicle division, to change owner of the car.

That’s were things started not to go as planned again. Apparently we needed to buy the plate for the car ourselves, as the plate the guy bought for us was still registered on his name, even though it was a new one. Ok, so a new plate, no big deal… we thought. Apparently, the car did not pass the emission test at all that morning… he did the test and he failed it. How did he get the new registration and plate for the car? Well, the guy apparently drove all the way to Yuma, like a 3 hour drive from Phoenix. There you don’t need the emission test to get the car plate. If only we knew all that… So big problem, as now we were not able to get all the needed papers for the car. More frustrating we bought a car which might need a lot of maintenance before even passing the emission test… This was hell!

Mail home, what to do now? Some options: call Police? Other options, fix the car? We talked to a police guy living here as well, and he gave us the impression calling the police for something like this won’t really work, not if you want things solved in a few days time at least. Next day we drove to the Toyota dealer in Mesa. They would check the car for free, and try to find what was wrong and needed maintenance. 3 hours! Later, we knew there were some wires broken which might cause the emission problem, if that wouldn’t help, they had to change the catalytic converter, which would cost a lot. So we decided to have the wires fixed. 100$ lighter and 4 hours after arriving, we left the dealer with a lot of expectations of this repair. If we would pass, all problems are solved, if not, who knows what to do…

With a lot of hope, and tired after a long day (wake up at 3, fly at 5, and 4 hours in a lounge of Toyota), we drove to the Emission test centre. They doing the test, we hoping and praying…
‘So guys, what do you think?’ YOU PASSED!
What a relief…..

So damage remained quite small, today we went for the new plate, and tomorrow we go for the insurance. And after, we can finally hit the road! Happy end, but never again please!

So now, looking forward to 3 days off, to have some rest and free time, but also some study time as Monday we have another exam (pre-solo test).

Grts and enjoy the new pics!

Huts

WEEK 2: The sky is the limit

Trip To Phoenix

2008-07-29T20:06:00.005-07:00

Today we did our first trip with our shiny 'new' car! Destination: Phoenix downtown...

We knew it was called the most boring city of the USA, but still we would give it a try. Lets keep it short: it IS the most boring city we ever saw...

Arriving there, looking for some place to park, it looked we were the only ones planning an afternoon in Phoenix. Almost no traffic on the road, no people outside (OK it was 40°), very empty feeling.

First thing to do: pay a visit to the Hard Rock cafe! It's located next to the US airways center (Basket stadium were the 'Phoenix SUNS' play ). Inside the Café, there were maybe 5 other people besides us. No guitar from Keith or Ronny , no drum stick from Charlie or a shirt from Mick... what a dissapointment :p

Back on the empty roads, looking for 'something to do', we asked a guy in orange outfit what the city could offer us (you find them in almost every street there, on there T-shirt it states: 'If you have a Question, ASK US', so we did). He talked about a museum, a shopping center and a church... very promising...

We started with the shopping center. Some small shops made for the real tourist like us with flags, t-shirts and those kind of stuff, and that was about it. Also some places to eat, a subway, a greek resto and the winner of the day: HOOTERS!

For those who don't know Hooters (like myself before today), its a place were you can drink something, and eat a burger or some chicken wings. Not that special in the USA, you'd say. Well, there is that little extra at Hooters: all these things are served by silicone treated ladies in mini-skirt! The pictures will give some more detail.

The church was closed, and even if it was open, i wonder if Hannes would be allowed to enter it, holding his calendar he just bought, at Hooters...

So that was it? We asked another orange guy for some info, but really nothing special more to do... He told us all students would be back in October, and that there are nice bars in Tempe (just outside Phoenix)

When driving home, we passed again the 'Chase Field', a huge baseball arena with a roof that can roll open or close. (check National Geographic Monster Constructions)

All in all, everybody was very happy to leave our appartments for the very first time! We have a new american flag in the room, Hannes and Dan a nice calendar, and our car is no longer from american origin!

Grts

Huts

Trip To Phoenix

Early morning flying

2008-07-31T17:36:00.001-07:00

Last weeks, we often flew very early. Wake up at 3 am, van to school at 4, take off at 5.20, as the sun rises. Its very early and a hell to get out of bed, but once in the aircraft you mostly get a very nice early morning scenery to start the day! The pictures speak for themselves.

Another advantage is that it’s very calm and stable to fly that early. Once the sun starts warming up the surface, huge bells of warm air start to rise and this gives a lot of turbulence (convection). Flying patterns and approaches in turbulent conditions is another job…

Enjoy the pics

Huts

Early morning flying

WEEK 3 & 4: Touch and Go's

2008-08-04T22:08:00.003-07:00

Hello!

Today was again Monday, which means we are already here for 4 weeks now. Time goes by quickly here. Have the feeling we’re here for a week…

WEEK 3: Touch and Go

Last two weeks, we continued flying and tried to do some other exciting stuff. First about the flying. The first week of flying (week 2), we mostly did some basic manoeuvres, like stalls, slow flight and steep turns. Last two weeks, the main goal was to do as much as possible take off’s and landings with ‘the machine’. So we mostly did touch and Go’s (take off, pattern around the runway, and landing. Once on the runway, again full power, and take off and so on…) In 90 minute flights, you can do as much as 13 take offs and landings in this way.

Week 4: Preparing first solo

Its very nice to do, as you are continuously flying the airplane, changing power, flaps, turning, looking outside,…real pilot work. Flying straight and level is nice as well, but if you have a trimmed aircraft, there’s not so much ‘to fly’ (ok, when we do the Brussels-Athens within some years, straight and level will be about 90% of the flight, but then there will be coffee!)
After 5 flights of nothing but take offs and landings, I was happy to fly again some manoeuvres yesterday. Tomorrow will be my last flight of patterns, and Wednesday I’ll have my pre-solo check and maybe the first solo as well.

Solo Kevin and Fred

4 of us: Kevin, Fred, Dan and Bertrand, did already their first solo. During the first half hour, you fly with your instructor, and then you taxi back to the ramp, instructor gets out, and you do some patterns around the airport all by yourself, being the only person in the plane! A very nice feeling of freedom, but if something goes wrong, it will be only you who can do something! All of them did very well. In the next few days, the other 4 of us will do their solos. Looking forward to do mine!

Solo Dan and Bertrand

Beside the flying, now we have a car, we try to fill the empty gaps with some trips . We stayed in the neighbourhood for the first ones, but within a few weeks we would like to make some road trips to the Canyon, Vegas, San Diago … Last week, we went to Phoenix (see blog). Last Sunday we wanted to have a cool dive in a big lake, nearby (30 min drive). But once we arrived there, we couldn’t do anything… Apparently we needed a ‘recreation pass’ to park our car at every location around the lake. Stupid thing was, we couldn’t buy a pass at the location, but the nearest place to buy them was mentioned to be 9 miles (15km) away… Very logic… So it was a dive in the pool at the apartments… less refreshing, but welcome anyway.

Next week, group 6 B arrives, and Prom 6 will be complete again. Looking forward to meet the others again!

Pictures are spread over different albums. Just look at my public albums at the picasa website to see the pictures of the solos, week 3 and week 4, or click all pictures on this post (4x)

Grts

Huts

Week 22 and counting...

2008-12-01T20:07:00.008-07:00

Hi all

Can't believe it myself we just started week 22 already, it goes so quickly...
Last week, we finally saw some rain, the first rain in 2 months.

We were on the scedule on wednesday for an IFR cross country to Yuma (near the Californian border). But just as we closed the doors of the van to drive to school, it started to rain like hell. You couldn't see 100 meters ahead. Really painful for the 2 guys who had to wait for the next van, as this one was full ;). We knew immediately we were going to school to fill out a nice cancellation form, and take the next van back home. Reason for cancellation: Belgian Weather (bad actual, bad forecast).

Next day, thursday, was Thanksgiving Day. School was closed, nobody was flying. Our instructor Curtis invited all his students to celebrate thanksgiving with his family. It was a very nice and first time thanksgiving experience. And of course there was Turkey, lots of turkey! Everybody was really nice, and very interested in what we are doing, where we come from, and if we had something like thanksgiving in Belgium. We were invited by our instructors' father in law, to fly once in his own aircraft. In the end, he 'pushed' curtis (our instructor) to fly with us even the same day. And so, on thanksgiving: me Alex and Kevin were the only SATC students to fly a plane at falcon Field, and not just a plane, but a shiny new Cessna 206 (300hp). Really nice machine, and lots of power if you're used to only 180hp. As the clouds base was quite low and decreasing rapidly we flew for only 20 min, but it was really nice upthere, with a lot of clouds, something you don't see here every month.

On Friday we were resceduled for our flight to Yuma. This was going to be our first IFR Cross Country. Basically, this is the kind of flights most of us will do everyday once we enter an airliner. The complete flight is controled by an air traffic controler, who separates you from other traffic, and guides you through your route. No more looking outside (at least, its not needed anymore), all the flight can be done on instruments and radios only. Only the final part just before landing, you should be visual with the runway in order to land. What made todays flight even more interesting, is that the weather was for part of our route IMC (Instruments meteorogical conditions), meaning that only IFR flights can fly, no Visual flights. Weather was looking really nice from up there, and the closer we came to our destination, the more interesting it was. Yuma was covered by a layer of brume, thick clouds just over the ground. The airport itself was clear of these clouds, but was only open for IFR traffic! We were put in the hold before we were cleared for the VOR approach runway 17. Great flight, short stop on the ground, and Kevin took off for the flight back to Falcon. Once in the Phoenix area, nice cumulus clouds were on our route, and we managed to fly trough some, just great!
enjoy the pics (click on pics below for the albums)

huts

Rain in Arizona

Thanksgiving flight Cessna 206

IFR Cross Country To Yuma

Halloween Party

2008-11-16T23:18:00.005-07:00

On Saturday, 1th of November, SATC (our flight school) organized a Halloween Party in one of the Hangars. Of course, suitable outfit was required. In the afternoon, we all went looking for something, we even got a discount as halloween was the day before :)!

As we understood there would be pizza as well, and last year, the pizza was finished after 30 minutes, we had to be on time! So meaning: doors 7pm, we arrive 7pm! at 6, the dressing began, of course pictures here and there (for the grandchildren), and at 7, we were in the van heading to school! Guess who were the first to arrive in an empty hangar... But there still was a LOT of pizza! First we had to pass by 2 cops, checking identity. Those being 21 or older got a nice paper-band, the key to the beer! And for the others, 100LL :p

It took some time for other people to arrive, but in the end the place was nearly full. First mostly hip hop, but all of a sudden, the DJ changed into mr Boedha himself, and all Indian students went crazy shaking on the Indian party Mix. Of course there was the revenge of the Dutch, luckily without Frans...

Nice suprise was meating Tim and Ruth again, 2 teachers at SFA, and both flying for Brussels Airlines. The were spending the last day of their holidays in the US. Quite difficult to recognize Tim though, until he started speaking (ghijnts).

Nice Party, great show!
Party pictures are copyrighted by Brent!

Halloween Party 1th November

Apache Trail (Nov 10th)

2008-11-16T23:49:00.002-07:00

Last Sunday, it was time for some action. So 2 brave men decided to go 'snake hunting' on the Apache Trail. Me and Orlando left around noon, the time the snakes come out to warm up in the sunlight (the are cold-blooded animals). Of course, there was Murphy, never seen so many clouds in the last 2 months. Anyway, nothing else to do, so it was a GO!

First stop was at Gold City (also called 'Ghost town'), a former Cowboy village, now mainly a tourist attraction, with cowboy shows, museums, bars and shops.

After passing another small village, the road became unpaved. From there on, we were right in the habitat of a lot of wild animals including: rattlesnakes, tarantulas, eagles... Realy promising! Aim of the game was of course spotting the snakes from inside the car (being more clear: we sitting inside, the snakes outside :p ), I find those animals very nice and fascinating, but behind glass! Orlando made the trip once before, with his family, and they spotted 6-7 snakes on the road. We made a first stop at a 'vista' point with a nice view on the canyons. Thats where we spotted the first Tarantula of the day. No snakes so far...

Continued driving, suddenly, small black snake, dead on the road, very sad but at least we saw our first one. It wasn't even a rattler... After about 10 miles unpaved road, we drove down to a lake, to have a burger at the local restaurant. There we spotted the masterpiece of the day. A snake, at least 10 meters long, green, and lying down waiting for food to pass by. Pictures below will releave you from your curiosity.

After dinner, we drove back to be home before dark. Clouds were becoming denser, no more sun coming through, no more snakes to spot. And of course, there was Murphy again. Just today, when we were driving our old Toyota (called Jimmy) on an unpaved road in the middle of the desert, it started to rain like hell (for a moment). First Cb I saw in 2 months! Why not, at least some adventure!

We survived without a snakebite, the car survived, great success!

Next time, some snakes would be nice!

grts
huts

Apache Trail (Nov 10th)

Instrument Flying (Oct 31th)

2008-11-16T23:39:00.002-07:00

Another day, another flight!
Took my camera along for some shots.
Enjoy

huts

31th October Flight

Spotting KPHX

2008-10-30T11:58:00.003-07:00

Some of us had the crazy idea to climb a mountain near Tempe downtown (located next to an american football-stage, where the stones used to play), with a great view on the final approach of the planes coming into Phoenix Sky Harbour. Westerly wind was all we need to get the planes coming from the good direction! Last saturday, TAF's (weather forecasts) were promising, so around 4 pm Bomans, Dan , Orlando, Kristof (last day in Arizona), and me headed for tempe! Though it was a very calm day (think we saw not more than 15 jets coming in in 2 hours), the views were great and it was worth the effort of climbing the mountain (read hill). No doubt about the wining team of the spottersday: the 747 of British Airways: 12 points!

cya
huts

Spotting KPHX

Week 15-16: Night Flying

2008-10-26T21:53:00.003-07:00

Last weeks, no need to wake up early. We only took off after sunset, meaning as from about 18:30 local time, for night flight training. The views at night are very impressive, but the flying becomes a little more chalanging. It took me some time to adapt to the night environment. In the beginning I was so impressed and looking outside constantly that I forgot half of the stuff I had to do, so step 1: keep focussed on flying! Next tricky point: landing! The runway looks different when you only see lights. In the beginning it's hard to estimate your true distance from the runway, and also your height above it. We had 4 flights with an instructor and 1 solo flight at night (only local patterns). One flight with my instructor was a flight over the mountains to Sedona, where we had dinner! And on my solo I was stuck on the runway because of a tire burst after my first landing... New tire, and I was off for 4 more :) Pretty stressful being stuck on a runway at night.

Next week: back to IFR flying, mostly during the day! It will be hard waking up at 5am again...

Grts Huts

Nightflying

San Diego

2008-10-19T15:02:00.002-07:00

Last week, me, Hannes, Dan and Kevin went for a long weekend to San Diego. We left friday afternoon. 6 hours drive passing Gila Bend, Yuma to the heart of San Diego.

First evening we drove through San Diego by night for a first glimp of the city, and ended at a Subway close to a beach for a sandwich as all other restos were closed.

On saturday morning we visited the US MIDWAY, an aircraft carrier ship at rest, which is now an impressive museum. In the afternoon we went to the Gaslamp quarter, the old center of San Diego.

On Sunday, we left for the beaches. First plan was to go and rent a surf board, but in the end we just had a swim in the sea and some time at the beach. In the afternoon we had a last visit to the city itself, and by 6 we went for a sunset at the Coronado beach. 6 hours later, home again and ready for a week of night flying!
Great trip, a little too short as always...

enjoy the pics (click on pic below)
grts
huts

San Diego

Area view

2008-10-08T10:41:00.003-07:00

I marked some stuff on this picture: my school, my appartment and some onther things.
Just click on it for a larger view!

Week 14: DA-40 IFR

2008-10-08T10:11:00.002-07:00

After the final VFR check last week, we started the IFR training. As from now, we learn to fly on instruments only, without looking outside. New training, new aircraft! As from this week, we fly the Diamond 40. Compaired to the Archer we flew until now, its a much more modern aircraft with glass cockpit instead of analogue instruments. The first flights were nice, I like the machine!

As from now, my flightmate is Kevin Raes, an old friend from the Air Cadets (although he's from the Weelde side). Also a new intructor: Curtis Hall.

Enjoy the pics

Huts

Start IFR DA-40

Trip Sedona Flagstaff

2008-10-07T23:10:00.004-07:00

Last sunday, Hannes, Pascal and me made a one-day trip to Sedona and Flagstaff. The area of Sedona is very known for its red rock formations. Very impressive views! The intention was to spend a full day in Sedona and to make a walk on one of Sedona's trails (into the nature... still a bit of bionerd inside me) , but after an hour of looking for a nice walk we gave up. Although they have a map at the tourist information office with over 20 mentionned trails, the organization was very pour. Indications on the road are missing, so first of all you need to find the starting point of a trail. Once we were on one, we were 'lost' after 10 minutes, as the trail itself was not very well marked. In the end, we decided not to go walking, but to continue the trip towards Flagstaff, and eat something overthere. After the meal and short visit in Flagstaff (we drove on the route 66!), we headed back home, again via Sedona, where we made another stop in the old part of the city. There its full of tourist shops, but the atmosphere is very nice. Nice day!

Pictures below.

grts
huts

Trip Sedona Flagstaff

Up to WEEK 12

2008-09-25T09:49:00.004-07:00

Me again!

Busy times, less busy times, last weeks were a mix of both. Main program was solo cross country flights, most of them were 3 hour flights or longer. If you fly 5 cross countries a week, you’re very busy flying them, planning the next, wake up early (last week, 4 times wake up at 3 am). This week is again less busy: up to now only 2 flights, maybe a 3th tomorrow?

Yesterday I had my last long (4h) navigation, and I went up North to Flagstaff and Winslow. It was the most beautiful flight until now: early morning, sunrise, fly over Sedona (known for its red rock formations, very impressive, also flew over a Meteor Crater, a very big hole!

The North of Arizona is so much different from the South. In the south, you only find some trees in urban areas, outside those its mostly desert with some small bushes. In the North, the elevation quickly rises (Flagstaff is located at 7000 feet above mean sea level!), so the temperatures quickly drop as well the more you go North. This has a huge impact on the vegetation: once passed Cottonwood, you mainly find forests of spruce (sparren), as if you were flying over the Ardennes.

The High elevation (7000 feet and more) means you have to fly very high to have enough seperation with the ground: flying at 10500 feet with an Archer is quite a non-standard practice. The performance of the Aircraft really starts to decrease at that altitude. And if you fly the N4149Y (the one with the less performance of all), you will know it!

More to the North East, the elevation goes down again, and there you find nothing but empty dry soils. Not one bush (or only very small ones) in an area as big as Flanders.

Next on the program is one small solo flight, one more flight with instructor to practice again the manoeuvres, and then the final VFR check! This is also the last flight on the Piper Archer, after the check we move to the Diamond 40 for IFR training (learning to fly on instruments only, without visual outside references).

During last weekends, not a lot happened. I had some flights on Saturday because I had to cancel during the week. About 3 weeks ago, we visited the Phoenix Zoo, as we wanted to see a snake! It was nice, and the visit to Tempe, including the local Hooters afterwards was even better. In the evening, we had a party in one of the apartments, but I don’t remember a lot of that evening to be honest :p

Pictures of the zoo and some random flying pictures to be found below!

ZOO Phoenix

Random Flying week 9-12

Enjoy

Grts
huts

Grand Canyon

2008-09-10T12:13:00.002-07:00

Our very first ‘big’ trip is a fact! And successful it was. On Saturday morning (30th aug), we left for a 3-day trip to the Grand Canyon. ‘We’ were: Fred, Orlando, Pierre, Guillaume, Bertrand, Pascal, Hannes and me.

First a quick stop at the Wal*Mart to buy some food, drinks and a tent. Next was a trip of about 4,5 hours, passing Flagstaff, to the Eastern side of the Canyon. We drove by 2 cars: The van of prom 5, and the Buick of Orlandoes place. Arriving at the Canyon: great views, pictures a volonté (for the sponsors at home), very nice. While some looked for a camping spot, we checked the information office for a hike into the canyon. The hikes looked very nice, only the weather forecast for the next day wasn’t really a big success: 80% chance of thunderstorms with heavy rain. As we were planning to hike into the Canyon on Sunday, it didn’t looked very promising. On the way to the camping, we passed some huge elks (a very big deer with large antlers). Tent ‘constructed’, it started to rain already. So what do you do? You go and eat a big pizza! Afterwards a beer at the Camp fire, and after a long day, I was glad to find my ‘bed’.

Waking up again, it looked very grey, as if it would start to rain any moment. Not the best day to plan a hike into the Canyon. We went back to the information office to check out our possibilities for the day (any alternates? :p)… The weather for the next day was not really good, but still it was better than this day. So we decided we would try to do the hike on Monday, and go up to the North, to Page and Lake Powell on Sunday. It would be again a drive of about 5 hours on and back. Page is a city very close to the border with Utah. Lake Powell is a lake in a Canyon, which was formed after the building of a big dam, to control the water flow of the Colorado river, which runs into the Grand Canyon. (Actually the Grand Canyon is formed by the Colorado river running and scraping out the soil, and further erosion by wind and rain). Downstream of the dam, where the Colorado river starts to flow, the Grand Canyon starts. Arriving at Page, the weather started to improve. We installed ourselves at a small beach near the lake, some of us swim, other made a trip by boat on the lake. While the others were still on the boat, 5 of us drove already back to the Canyon, to witness the sunset (and hoping the sun would already show up at the Canyon). We were lucky! Again amazing views and a lot of pictures. I even asked Hannes to marry me, but without success. In the evening we went to a steak house, where I drunk the ‘local beer’, rattlesnake beer! It was disgusting. Again a camp fire, with some beers and some knack wurst. After all a very nice day!

Monday morning, still grey outside ‘but less grey than the day before’. We decided to go and have a look to the Canyon, and check out if a hike was possible. Tent packed, we arrived at the Bright Angel Trail, where our hike would start. A lot of people were going down, and it didn’t seem it was going to rain soon. So we decided is was GO! The trip down went very well, saw some goats, and a lot of squirrels, one of which had a bite in Hannes finger. They told us, and we were very willing to believe, that you have to take the double amount of time for the trip back up, than for the one down. After 2 hours descending, Orlando and Fred decided to go back up again, as they had to prepare the flight for the next day. They drove
home, and we would follow later with the van. Our mission: reaching the ‘plateau point’, the end of the hike with a great view on the Colorado river. After another 2 hours (4 in total), mission was accomplished! We were in the middle of the Canyon, Colorado streaming just below our feet. It was definitely worth the long hike. But as it was already past noon, and it took us 4 hours to go down, it could take us up to 8 hours to go back up (It would be dark by then…). With this in mind, we went up again, trying to maintain a good tempo. In the end, it took us just over 3 hours to get back up! Miep miep, zjoeffff!

Drove back home without problems, we arrived at around 9 pm. Some of us had to fly at 6am the next day, others were more lucky (me at 12 pm :p).

The trip was just great, it was nice to exchange our apartments and the hot weather for a tent and some Belgian weather for 3 days. And the Canyon… a must see!

Do it again…

Grts
Huts

Van Grand Canyon 30 august - 1 september

WEEK 6 & 7: to fly or not to fly...

2008-08-24T20:29:00.004-07:00

Hello

Again long time since I added the last post, but a week goes by so quickly…

Last 2 weeks there have been some changes. It started not very well though. A new group of Germans arrived. Not that I don’t like those people, but the problem was all our instructors suddenly went to the German program and we were stuck without… So some of us did not fly for about a full week because of that, I could do some solo flights but then was stuck as well.

Last Monday, our new instructor arrived, and so we finally started to fly again. Brent is from Texas, and studied bio engineering before being a pilot, so we are a bit from the same kind…

After flying a few missions nothing but solo patterns at Falcon Field (Mesa), last week we could finally ‘leave the nest’ and fly ‘all the way’ to the practice area. Basically you just take off at Mesa, then fly North or Southbound for about 20 nm (35 km) to an area were you can do whatever you want (away from large cities and controlled airspaces) and do some manoeuvres like stalls, steep turns, slow flights. It’s very nice to do solo, as you decide what you want to do, where you want to go. You have to manage the flight yourself, make sure you’ll back on time, have enough fuel, make all the radio calls, but above all: you’re the only one inside that is looking outside. So you better make sure you see all the traffic in the area in time. My first solo flight in the South-east practice area, I wasn’t really relaxed… I made my first radio call above Apache Junction Landfill at 4500’, and almost immediately after that, another plane reported overhead the same place at the same altitude. As it was early morning and the sun was just rising above the horizon, it was quite difficult to spot other traffic in the direction of the sun. I never saw the other plane but kept on looking and looking. Going more southbound, other traffic made calls, and it appeared to me that the practice area was full with traffic. Together with the bad visibility due to the sun, I wasn’t really feeling like performing a lot of manoeuvres. So basically I just did a nice sight-seeing flight in the practice area, looking outside all the time for other traffic. The next 2 flights, I went up to the North-east practice area, which is more mountainous but there is much less traffic than in the south, so I could do all my manoeuvres! It was fun. I flew together with Danimal, (Dan Gilles the superhero, he was flying solo in another plane), and he was behind me so I couldn’t see where he was. But when I heard on the radio: ‘DUCKY, I HEAVY YOU IN SIGHT’, I was quite sure he was around…

Last Friday, we started the next part of our VFR training: cross country navigation. The purpose is to take a chart, draw some waypoints on it between the departure and destination airport, calculate all the distances, times and headings to fly (taking into account the present wind conditions), look for the good altitudes to fly, and calculate all the fuel needed for the flight. Once in the plane, you try to fly the route as good as possible, to come overhead every waypoint at the time you calculated, just by flying a certain heading for a certain. Its very nice to do: it takes a lot of time to prepare everything, but if you get into the plane, and fly all the stuff you calculated and in the end, you get into your destination as planned, you feel like having reached your goal, and it was worth all the work!

Lake Canyon 14th august 2008

Besides the flying, we had some nice days as well. Thursday 14th was my birthday (tnx for all nice mails!) and we went to the Canyon lake. It’s a very nice road to do by car: you feel like a cowboy in the far west, riding in the desert, really nice. The lake was nice as well, and a bigger success then the first lake we visited, because now we actually could swim in the lake without any problem! The temperature of the water was perfect, a bit cooler than the water in the pools at the apartments (which is I think about 35 degrees and not really refreshing). But quite unexpected and very quick, bad weather was coming up, and the wind started to increase rapidly. So we got into the cars as soon as possible to drive home before the storm. Lightning all around, but we made it home dry!

We also went tubing: floating on a river through the desert on a tube. Very nice to do, and refreshing as well. The views are really great: eagles soaring above, high rocks full of cactuses, it’s just that little more than a kayak on the Lesse…

Last week: the others of our prom arrived as well, so finally prom 6 is complete again! They had a week of delay due to the strike on Brussels airport but last Sunday they finally set foot on American territory. Now they have all briefings we had already 7 weeks ago, it reminded me how long we are here already… Next week they probably start flying, if they find an instructor…

That’s about all I have for now

More next time

Grts

huts