First Flight Finally

YES!


I finally went up for my first flight ever in a small airplane. It was awesome. Believe me, I'm still kind of in shock up to now that I have been UP there. And to just sum up, it was a completely different experience. More bumpy than the sim, hahaha!

I handled the aircraft pretty much most of the time. From engine start, taxiing, take off, enroute to practice area. We then proceeded with straight and level flight, climbs, descents and turns. My flight instructor also demonstrated steep turns which made me feel really gooey inside, but it was all good. He also showed the visual landmarks going in and out and around buttonville which was good because you don't really see anything on the sim. Couldn't do the landing though because the crosswind was too much, but it was good.

Even though we were in the air for around an hour, it felt like it went by so quickly. And also, I wasn't as situationally aware, and often times getting behind the airplane maybe because it WAS my first flight and I was kinda still like "wow" inside my head.

But yes, I enjoyed it very much, can't wait to go up again.

I didn't get to take a picture of me with the airplane but i did manage to take a picture of the airplane I flew in right after.

C-GSEQ

Logged first flight 1.0 hrs.

Waiting...

So I finished the monotonous phase zero of cessna 172 simulator training. I have been validated and is ready to start flying. Unfortunately, some of the people in my group have had cancelled sim lessons and so are a lesson or two behind and according to my FI, I have to wait for at least half of the group to actually start flying.

I've been bumming around my house for the past 3 days with nothing to do, patiently (actually impatiently) waiting to get started on flying. I know someone in the same class but in Group A, is almost close to his Private Flight Test. He is ahead of everyone, and is moving pretty quickly too.

Hopefully, I'll move on the flight line pretty fast as well, probably be at the airport for extra hours try to get an extra flight in or something. But for now, I'm here sitting at home, watching videos and doing some extra reading, ready to go, and waiting.

I have written my PSTAR and radio exam. I got 13/15 on the radio exam on the first try so I had to rewrite it. Second time I got 15/15 so great.

Also got 49/50 on my PSTAR. I forget which one I got wrong I think it's the one with the taxi clearance to a runway and to get there you have to cross another runway. I put taxiing there but needs a clearance to cross the other runway (because that's what I saw in the study guides) but actually, you're allowed to taxi all the way without holding short of anything.

I guess it's the same thing as taxiing down Bravo, crossing RWY 21 to get to RWY 33. Sometimes they say "cross 21", sometimes they just say taxi "Bravo all the way down". Other than that I'm good. Got my Student Pilot Permit and Radio Operators certificate so see, I'm good to go!

In the meantime, I'm reading up on emergency procedures for C172. Trying to commit most of them to memory, because eventually we're gonna have to anyways. Hopefully I'll start flying by this weekend. As for now, here's a clip of a jet departing buttonville I captured a week ago.

C-GSCX

Here's the long awaited picture of Seneca's new Cessna 172s

C-GSCX



I love it most especially because it's XRAY! :D

It's flights are kept local for now since there's a few minor tweaks that must be done and stuff.

I've heard from people whom have flown her, saying that she has a starting problem lol, but is very light compare to the other ones. Now I don't know how you can really compare the weights just by the feel of it but yeah.



Here she is:

New stuff

Seneca have started a new dispatch system and scheduling system beginning May 5th.
The new dispatch system includes:

a Duty Instructor
a receptionist - junior student
ramp attendant - junior student
flight follower - senior student
and a dispatcher - senior student

Flight crewmembers are suppose to sign in with the dispatcher and be briefed by the dispatcher first with their flights to see if they are ready and prepared for it. Then they are briefed again by the duty instructor and authorized (signed their trip slip) for the flight. This is for solo and mutual flights. I'm not sure about dual flights since they have their own instructor there to brief them.

The receptionist - in charge of who's in and who's not in the hangar, and answering phone calls. Also they are in charge of calling people on the reserve, standby or volunteer list. More on that later.

The ramp attendant - in charge of ground duties such as cleaning the windshield after each flight, monitoring refuelling and listening to Buttonville ground to see if the aircraft has in fact landed or in the area. Verifying the actual times with the ETA.

The flight follower - in charge of monitoring Seneca ground frequency and recording off, up, down, and in times. In charge of calling for fuel 30 minutes before arrival of aircraft so they don't have to actually wait when they arrive.

The dispatcher - dispatches the flights and makes sure everyone does their duties and coordinates with the duty instructor so that they can maximize time management. When an aircraft is not in use, they can contact and arrange flights for people in the reserve, standby and volunteer list.

Reserve - people on reserves must report within 60 mins of being called in and must be prepared for their flight.

Standby - are people who arrive at the hangar at the same time as others and wait for available aircraft for their lesson. I'm not really sure on who gets called in first.

Volunteer - when worse comes to worst and they need those airplanes in the air, they can call people on the volunteer list and they must report within 90 mins of being called out.

So everyday there is a reserve and standby list but volunteer is obviously voluntary.

Crew resource management is definitely the biggest reasons for this, so that we don't get left behind on scheduled flights.
They have also extended operating hours from 0600 to 2300 on weekdays during the summer.

Another new things Seneca has deployed/used is a new scheduling system. Flight schedule Pro, they said it's much better than the old one. I guess it's true because instead of having 2 shifts, the shifts are really divided to when the airplanes come down.

Some people though are complaining because as much as it is better for flights, it's asking more of the students and instructors. Not everyone can make it there at 6am.

Fortunately I can, so hopefully when I get on the real flight line, I'll be able to have more flights than normal. Because right now I'm still on simulators. (Phase Zero we call it, and that is also new this year)

A few of my classmates who started Phase Zero during second semester have already gone solo, so it must have been a great choice to have phase zero! I just started this week so, it's going to be a while before I actually start flying.

Duty Student

So summer is finally here. During the briefing at Markham Campus, the tentative schedules for each groups have been set and my group is scheduled to start on May 5th!

Group A is already in Phase 1 which is flying already up to first solo. B group is in their Phase Zero. And some people in group C get stuck with having to be trained as a duty student.

Duty students, as they say, are very important in running the flight program as they are "in charge" of operations.
The main duties of a duty student (haha) are:

• Lead mass weather briefing at beginning of each shift (which is going to change soon)
• Answer phone calls!
• Maintain listening watch of current ATIS and Seneca Ground, for up and down times of Seneca airplanes. These are very important as they say because we always want to keep track of where our planes are. After 5 minutes of ETA/down time and if we still haven't heard from them, we have to try to call/radio em in, and if still no contact we inform the Duty Instructor and certain procedures are done.
• In charge of calling services like refuelling the airplanes when need be.
• And logging in trip slips and log numbers of each plane on the computer.

In other words, we are everyone's "secretaries" for that shift.

Right now there are two duty students for each of the two shifts of the day. But since we are going to extend operating hours from 6 to 23, that would mean splitting up the day into possibly 3 shifts.

Most of the students from my group that were duty "trained" is going to do it all by ourselves starting saturday because the senior students still have their exams on the following week. It should be a combination of scary and fun at the same time.
I guess I need to get on the good side of our scheduling flight instructor so that I would be scheduled for less duty shifts in the upcoming months or so.

Can't wait to actually fly! So much reading, starting ahead or getting familiar with the AOMs and SOPs is exciting!

2 weeks vacation

So it's finally the end of the year, next week is exam week and after that there's a bunch of things happening at the same time.

Since the class is so big and very limited equipment, we were split into 4 groups; A to D. A group had already started Phase Zero, which is simulators and lessons. Group B, C, and D have been chosen and each group will have to start at different times.
B, C, and D groups will have a group briefing on the 21st which is the monday after exams, while Group A starts flying. The next day, the 22nd that is, Group B will start Phase Zero. Group C and D are to take their vacations at hand, and group C to start Phase Zero mid-May and D group to start end of May.

Although every group have been chosen, the board still has to have a promotion meeting, which is where they decide who actually moves on to the flying program. If a student is borderline or is on probation still, they don't want them to continue to get left behind since it's only going to get harder from here on.

So currently, I am in group C that means I have around 2 weeks of vacation. The summer flying semester ends on Aug. 15th but 2nd year starts two weeks earlier than others, therefore 2nd year starts Aug. 18th. So the only vacation I'm gonna get is these two weeks after exams. If I get bumped up to group B then I would have to take 2 weeks vacation in parts.

The group briefing is going to be held at Markham Campus. I've only been there during orientation so it should be a good experience. This group briefing is supposed to last the whole day so that should be fun.

The flight program director also announced that we have recently bought a new Cessna 172s plane to add on to our fleet. Our fleet now then consists of 7 + 1 Cessna 172s, 5 Be-33 Bonanzas, and 2 Be-58 Barons (twin engine). What bothers me though is why we have so many planes, while only having one simulator for each type plus a CRJ simulator. I think Seneca should get more simulators so that the training would be done much faster.

As soon as I get to go to the airport or get any new info about the new plane I would post it up on here.

I also have a few questions that I can't get my mind to twist around.
How exactly does A VDF or DF Steer work?
And should I also get a headset already for the flying that is to come or just use the push to talk thing that's already installed.

First year

So 211 days have come and gone, 17 days left until this year is officially finished!
There have been many ups and downs especially a lot of last minute cramming, but most have been good knowing that it's all going to be worth it in the end.

So what exactly have I done this year?
Just a quick recap on everything.

Mechanics Statics & Dynamics
Calculus
Fluid Mechanics
Electricity & Electronics
Communication
Psychology (gen. ed)
Aeronautics

So there's really nothing to talk about in those courses except for Aeronautics.
For Aeronautics we basically covered most of all the chapters in the book From The Ground Up:

Theory of Flight
Aero Engines
Air Law & Airspace
Intro to Human Factors
Aviation Weather - lots of weather!
Navigation
Flight Planning
Radio Procedures
Airmanship
Brief Intro to Radio Navigation

Thinking about it now, I learned a lot over the past year or 211 days (to be technical) but as most pilots would say, you never stop learning; and I am still learning a lot.

In a few weeks, my future will be decided if I get into the flying program, which I have a pretty good feeling that I will since I did pretty good overall.

For some people they know that we wear pilot shirt uniforms and everything, so the year was also filled with people thinking we're nerds, or mormans, or jehovahs witnesses or the best of all SECURITY guards. At first wearing the uniform felt weird and ucky but now everybody's gotten used to it.

So if you ask me if I'm excited for the summer to come, you'll just see a big smile on my face. I have also been listening to liveatc for buttonville. And sometimes at 8am I would hear Seneca students already in the air, which would mean they were up very early, but who wouldn't want to be up early to be UP in the SKY!

This blog has been really random/boring or whatever but yeah.

Just to put it out there...

I've heard a few things about instructors and all. I know having a good smile-on-a-face and having that hard working attitude is good, but other than those things does anyone have any suggestion or tips for new student pilots like me?
Don't get too complicated that I won't understand though : )