After about 2 month without flying I thought it was better to re-study some procedures before my first night flight. So I refreshed my memory about scan flows, airplane systems, VOR and ILS approaches, NDB tracking. I also studied a little about night flying (emergencies, illusions).
Waiting for the sunset :)
After departure from Vilar de Luz, Maia (LPVL)
Proceeding to Crestuma dam
Crestuma dam
Beautiful sunset
Looking for Vila Nova de Gaia and Porto cities
Looking for the Boavista Avenue, Porto (right side) on VOR approach for runway 35 of Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport
Final runway 35
It was a busy night with a lot of traffic. We were doing approaches between the comercial airplanes (TAP, Ryanair, Luftansa ...). The controller just asked if we could do an approach before the next traffic arrive in 6 or 7 min and we accepted every one we could doing shorter downwind legs. Other times we were vector to the sea and hold for the traffic to pass.
I haven't flown much in this months so I don´t had much to talk. I will soon start the night flying instruction, I'll try to post some pictures and videos.
Meanwhile, here is a video about airplanes but a little different from the others that I usually fly. This is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that I have been testing at work. It is a RC airplane that we bought and install some equipment (wifi communication, ArduPilot, video camera).
This video shows some of the test flights that we have done in a week at Sesimbra (near Lisbon). The take-offs and landings are manual but we are working to make them autonomous too.
This post is about one of my first ILS approaches that I have done on Porto airport. It was a great flight, passing through clouds and flying low along the shoreline.
Non-pilots may be asking what the heck is an ILS approach?
I'll try to explain the basics behind this system.
ILS stands for Instrument Landing System and helps the pilots bring the airplane to near the runway or in some cases to do an automatic landing in poor visibility.
This system is divided in 2 parts:
- Localizer: This gives horizontal guidance, telling the pilot if is left or right of the runway centerline.
Localizer antennas
- Glide slope: This gives vertical guidance, telling the pilot if he is below or above the glide path. This glide path normally has a slope of about 3 deg. The glide path antenna is located at the point of touchdown.
Glide path antenna
The instrument that I use in the airplane to guide me to the runway is like this one:
CDI - Course Deviation Indicator
The goal is to maintain the lines perpendicular (try to see this in the video). The easy way to fly this is "turn to the needle". Here are some examples:
Localizer guidance
Glideslope guidance
For practice, normally, I do this approaches under the hood (can not see the outside) and I can only look out when I'm at the "minimums" (point where I have to abort the landing if I can not see the runway). This point is about 200 feet/60m of height.
In this post I'll enumerate the things I have to do before I seat in the airplane. Some of the things can be done on the day before, to save some time on the flight day.
Here they are:
Airplane documentation
When I arrive the first thing to check is the airplane that I'll fly and respective folder that contains all the airplane documentation (Property register, Airworthiness License, Radio License, Weight&Balance) and are valid. Check any past problems unresolved and resolved. How many hours until next inspection.
Fuel
Then I'll check if the airplane has the fuel needed for the flight. Normally, we depart with the tanks full.
NOTAMs (NOtice To AirMen)
This is like the newspaper of the pilots :D (updated daily). We check it to see if any airspace reservation is active, if any airport is closed, if any navigational system is inoperative, if there are gliders or parachutes on our route, basically anything out of normal that can affect the flight.
Meteorology
Check the wind forecast (direction and speed) for the altitude that I plan to fly, any significant weather on the region (turbulence, ice, cumulonimbus). The altitude of 0ºC is important too because in case there is clouds at a temperature below 0ºC there is the likelihood of ice formation which our airplanes are not certificate to operate in this conditions.
FlightStar or manual planning
This can take some time to do, especially if done by hand (a flight of 1h30 can take about 1h to plan). We calculate the groundspeed, heading to the waypoint, estimated time to the waypoint and the fuel needed, using the wind forecast at that altitude. At this time I check also if the charts that I have of the airports are updated.
Submit the flight plan
If it's a local flight we have to submit the flight plan 30min before the departure, if it's a IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight we have to submit 1h before.
School flight process and Weight & Balance
Here I make the the school flight process (type of flight, time, instructor name, airplane,...) and check if the center of gravity is within the limits and not overweight.
360º Walkaround
This involves the airplane inspection (tires, control surfaces, oil quantity,...)
Flight Plan acknowledged
Confirmation that the flight plan was processed without problems.
Weather update
One last check on the weather. Typically, only done if the initial weather report is poor. We want to have the most recent weather before departure to make sure that not worsened.
Briefing
I brief the instructor with the information that I have about the flight (airplane airworthiness, route, weather forecast, NOTAMs,...) and discuss what we are going to do.
