Jimisola.com - keepin’ on

Wow, time fly by when have fun

Since, my last post I’ve finished my first week of flying. Our group managed to get four sessions (out of five) during that week. We practised straight and level flight, level turns etc. My flight instructor (FI), double-Johan, was very kind and actually let me (and his other student in my group; his name is also Johan) fly more than “planned” as we did take off and landings as well. Even though it was a bit overwhelming at first, I must say that it felt good to know that the FI trust me to that extent.

Last week I stayed on the ground for theory week! I have to say that theory is not as dull as one might think. Classes are very interesting and I was very suprised that meteorology was one of the more interesting classes. I wish, however, that they would not have us starting at 07:30 as I’m not an early bird - AT ALL! I’ve had a hard time actually getting started with the reading - I function best under slight pressure and time constraints. I did manage though to do some reading (Air Law, Operation Procedures and General Flight Safety) during the weekend and it is, once again, interesting and quite easy once I get started.

I did more than theory last week - it was a quite busy week as a matter of fact. I was in Stockholm the whole Wednesday for activities with Clean Sport / Ren Idrott during the World Cup Sprint Skiing in Stockholm. Managed to get some sushi at East before I attended a very good lecture (one of the best I’ve ever attended) about AAS (its personal and social effects) by Tommy Moberg.

The day trip to Stockholm had another perk to it as I managed to fly jumpseat (fly in the cockpit) both going out and coming home. Both flights (SK182 and SK187) was with B737 (the new ones with the Head Up Display). I realized that it’s only been three weeks, but I was already quite aware of what was going on weather reports (METAR), check lists, radio communication etc. The flight crew on both flights were very helpful. I did not ask as much to be honest as I was more interesting on how they work together and there were a few things that I definitely take with me to our MCC (multi crew-cooperation course) later on. Both captains very positive about the market for pilots and especially the trend

The weekend had a nice blend to it. Friday afternoon I visited my physio in Ängelholm to check on my groin. I’ve been feeling it quite a bit during the week and therefore rested fully on Wednesday and Thursday to be safe. It was not a set back according to the physio, we will have to find a level and speed where I can do my rehab from now on. Apparently, each exercise work individually but combined together it affected the groin a bit too much. There is no rush. I don’t expect to be running this summer, but if I can end the season with the Dual Meet Sweden-Finland (sv: Finnkampen) then I’ll be REALLY happy! I just want to be able to run again.

Today a new week start and just not any week - it’s Flying Week! I just got back from today’s session where I practised climb, descent and map reading (basic navigation) which, I feel, went quite ok. Especially, considering the fact that I haven’t flown in nine days(!) and that I had another FI in Filip Svensson. The weather forecast for this week looks very promising - sun all week long - so hopefully our group will be able to do all five sessions.

Realized that I haven’t taken any photos lately. I’ll try to take some during tomorrows flight if the weather permits.

Today, I had my first flight in the First flight in the left seat (yesterday’s flight was cancelled due to weather limitations).

It was a fun flight, initially very nervous though. I was surprised that my teacher let me do as much as I actually did. I handled most of the radio communication, did the taxiing, most of the flying including take off and almost one landing. My teacher helped out when necessary of course - not sure how much… I learned a lot and hopefully tomorrow I can be a bit more relaxed. Flying an airplane (Cirrus SR20) with a price tag of at least USD199 000 makes at least me think twice.

Anyway, today I got to “feel” the airplane. Doing maneuvers in all three axis: lateral (up and down), longitudinal (bank left and right) and vertical (yaw left and right). Tomorrow morning I have “straight and level flight” which has the purpose of teaching me “how to maintain a constant heading, at a constant altitude using a normal power-setting and and to hold the nose in the correct attitude with wings level”.

“To become a Jedi knight, you must master a single force. To become a private pilot you must strive to master four of them”
- Rod Machado

Today at 09:05UTC I finally did my first flight! When I was 16 or 17 years old my biology teacher, Erland Ahlberg, took me for a ride in a small airplane (Piper Cub I think) from Lund’s Hasslanda airfield (also known as Lund International :)), so I was not overwhelmed today but nonetheless it was a great feeling. The day was great all in all with first flight and stunning weather! Felt like the first day of Spring and school mates actually BBQ tonight.

Anyway, after the preflight expection (you check the exterior of the airplane; wings, rudders etc) I had to take a few pictures before our takeoff.

Getting ready for first flight

Me and classmate Karin getting ready for first flight

My instructor, Johan Johansson, then lined up at runway 29R and took off.

First take-off!

In the air we headed west, departed at Röstånga and continued towards Landskrona. There were still mist in the air, but still the best weather we’ve seen so far this year! The instructor then showed me a few of his moves and after that I got to try for myself… Up, down, left and right, full power, no power and so on. I was not too comfortable in the situation to be honest. I assume that feeling will be gone within the next few lessons. Tomorrow holds a lesson where we’ll go through the effects of the controls and I can’t wait!

I’ll end with a few more pictures from today…

First smile, sorry first flight

Me and flight instructor, Johan Johansson aka "Double Johan", during my first flight

The town of Ljungbyhed and more importantly Scania (sv: Skåne) from the air. The airport and its runways are visible as well

On base heading for runway 29R

On final ready for touch down on runway 29R

My first flight is in the Flight Program! The school have a web page which shows the flight program for the coming days and my first flight will be at between 0900-0950UTC (UTC is the standard time within aviation and as a computer programmer I’d love if it was the standard world-wide as time handling is one of the top things that cause headache for a programmer - encoding is another one.)

The actual flight line in the flight program consists of the following:

#: 4
UNY: U406
Ini: JLA
Instr: JJ
A/C: SE-LUF
I/V: V
S-time: 09:00
S-Base: ESTL
Exercise: 101 Introduction phase 1-2
Area: PROP
L-time: 09:50
L-base: ESTL
Remark: MOL

which reads out (qualified guesses in some cases):

UNY: no idea, but looks like some sort of identification
Ini: my “call sign” (Jimisola LAursen). I was dat97jla when I studied computer science and now, ten years later, I’m tfhs07jla.
Instr: instructor
A/C: aircraft
I/V: VFR (Visual Flight Rules)
S-time: start time
S-Base: start base (airport)
Exercise: self-explanatory (”101″ classes, or beginner’s classes, are usually quite fun - I have no doubt that this one will be as well)
Area: training area (I don’t know where they are yet though)
L-time: landing time
L-base: landing base (airport)
Remark: (no idea what the abbreviation “MOL” stands for)

I’ll be flying with Johan Johansson (or “double-J” which he is called here) for the first two weeks or so and then I’ll change instructor (a female actually!) that starts the week after next (i.e. week 12). I will then keep that instructor at least until I’ve done my first flight on my own (swe: EK = enkel kommando).

I, and the rest of my class, have been waiting for the school to divide us into the two groups that we’ll be studying in (one with six persons and one with eight) until at least the fall. I’m in the group of six and our group starts flying next week already! I’ve really been looking forward to it - to actually get started.

So, if weather permits, Monday March 12th 2007 will be the day I start to become an aviator. Feel like a kid three days before Christmas Eve - it’s going to be a long weekend…

I’ll start an UGL course tomorrow that will go on Monday through Friday, 08 to ~16. This type of course has been a mandatory leadership course with parts of the Swedish Forces since 1981. So far, about 60 000 military personel and 40 000 civilians completed it.

The goal with the UGL course is to make me more efficient as a leader, educator and group member.

The course will help me develop a better ability to:

• attain a higher self confidence and self insight
• get a better insight of my own personality
• communicate directly and clear
• to give and receive efficient feedback
• make me know my own values and also respect those of others
• discover and handle conflicts
• notice different stages/phases in a group’s development
• notice the need for different styles of leadership
• get experience from an experience based learning model