Learning To Fly – The Ultralight Way Part 1
Fledgling pilot, Dave Tonks, clocks up some heart-racing moments in his Drifter as he fulfils a lifetime dream to learn to fly.
Someone once told me I have “an unhealthy disrespect for altitude” and, considering my aviation background, I suppose the suggestion has some merit.
Over the years, my aviation interests have included constructing and flying radio control model aircraft, skydiving, paragliding, gliding and hot air ballooning – all at various degrees of proficiency and involvement, but each accompanied by a decent thirst for knowledge. I spent seven years in Australian Army Aviation (in the Corp’s formative years) and enjoyed immensely the flying opportunities that were available then, virtually on a daily basis. Some eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that a Dave Tonks writes the flight simulation articles for this esteemed publication – yep, that’s me, another of my aviation-related hobbies.
I have always wanted to fly, but never thought I would get the opportunity to actually be the owner/pilot of my very own aircraft. And then, God invented ultralights. Five years ago my wife and I moved to a property near Boonah (south-east Queensland), a quiet little country town surrounded by some quite magnificent scenery, including spectacular views to surrounding mountain ranges. Noticing some quaint little aircraft parked at the local airfield (outside a clubhouse with a sign reading “The Flying Tigers Squadron”, my curiosity kicked in and I soon found myself talking to local pilots about ultralight aircraft. It became clear that with some hard saving, the dream of owning and flying my own aircraft was indeed a possibility. This article (and the next) are the story of fulfilling that dream.
Which aircraft? Which school?
Fast forward to 2006, and my first TIF (trial instructional flight) in a Drifter. For those of you unfamiliar with the ubiquitous Drifter, it is what is known as a ‘rag and tube’ aircraft, for obvious reasons. Drifters are one of the aircraft that helped start and grow the ultralight revolution in Australia, and there are a lot of guys around (currently flying some pretty nice machinery) who cut their teeth on them, and recall memories of those early days with substantial fondness. For most people, a Drifter is probably the smallest aircraft they have ever seen, and may well regard them as way too ‘out there’ to consider climbing into one. As for me, particularly considering I stopped flying paragliders just a few years ago, the Drifter is just perfect, and actually a big step up from a paraglider!
The choice of where to learn to fly was not a difficult one, given the manner in which I wanted to train – all weekend, every weekend, until licenced. The establishment I chose to learn at was the Lone Eagle Flying School, an integral part of the DDSAA (Darling Downs Sport Aircraft Association) based at Clifton, about half way between Toowoomba and Warwick.
Clifton is a typical small country town on the Darling Downs, arguably one of the most fertile areas for crop agriculture in Australia. The school is actually a non-profit section of the DDSAA, and as such the instructors and other club members have a different perspective in relation to the day-to-day operations of the club and their personal involvement at Clifton (Bange’s Field).
My plan was to achieve the licence, buy a Drifter, then obtain my cross-country and passenger endorsements. At $126.5 per hour for training with an instructor and around 30 hours needed to achieve licencing standard, training costs were budgeted at $4,000. Budget for my Drifter is $25,000, and I fully expect to be able to buy a very nice example for that kind of money. Learning to fly an ultralight requires Recreational Aviation Australia (www.raa.asn.au) membership, and if you are over 15 and medically fit to hold a drivers licence, you simply apply for a Student Pilot Certificate.
Down to business
Lesson one, and I’m strapped into a Drifter and looking forward to getting started. I’m light on the controls during the takeoff and the first thing I notice is my instructor (Jim) doing an interesting little dance on the rudder pedals during the takeoff roll – hmm. It’s here I get my first taste of the unusual Drifter takeoff technique: full throttle on over five seconds, and correct swing with rudder as the aircraft accelerates. Using a little forward stick, the tailwheel is lifted and then held off the ground. As the aircraft gains speed, a little back stick is used to gently lift off into ground effect. The aircraft is then held there (with the wheels less than a metre off the ground) until 50 knots is reached, at which time the aircraft is gently rotated into the climbout attitude. Now that’s what I call an interesting takeoff technique.
We climb to 2,000ft AGL and I am introduced to my first ‘problem’ – adverse yaw from roll initiated by aileron. One of the methods used to introduce the student to adverse yaw (and how to counteract it) is ‘rolling around a point’. After selecting a point on the horizon, the student rolls the aircraft left and right with aileron, at the same time using rudder to counteract the yaw and keep the nose pointed at the pre-selected point on the horizon. The Drifter has full-length ailerons, and I soon discover the control inputs need to be carefully regulated. From my perspective, it’s a little like trying to stand on one foot after a few too many beers – not easy, and not a task I gain much skill at.
Further flights on my first weekend at Clifton included co-ordinated turns, anywhere from 90 to 360 degrees, at varying angles of bank. I’d like to think my flightsimming helped with being able to maintain height during turns, but who knows – turns out that’s one of the things I was good at straight away. Strangely enough, after exhibiting a distinct lack of skill in ‘rolling around a point’, I discover a natural ability in coordinating rudder/aileron in my turns. My first lesson also introduced me to the Clifton method of landing a Drifter, which is the glide approach. What this means is that power is reduced to idle on turning base, so from this point on speed and descent are managed purely by the nose-down attitude of the aircraft, maintaining a minimum of 50 knots at all times. This of course means your turn onto base is critical, and you must take into account the prevailing wind: turn too late and you’ll need to trickle on a little power to get there, too early and you’ll need to sideslip the aircraft to wash off altitude.
Getting her down
Landing technique for the Drifter is as much fun as the takeoff. Choose an aiming point and focus on that while monitoring the airspeed and the alignment of the aircraft on final approach. At about two metres AGL, your viewpoint is changed to look up towards the end of the strip (this automatically induces a gentle pull-back of the stick for the first section of the round-out). The idea is to gently keep pulling back on the stick until (a) the aircraft is about 200mm off the ground, in a three point attitude, and (b) the airspeed reduces to a point where the aircraft simply stops flying (not really a stall) and settles onto the ground.
Flying conditions at Clifton can be a little bumpy during the middle of the day due to thermals causing up/down drafts, which is why there is a strict rule that all aircraft be tied down when unattended. On day two of my training, at about 100 feet AGL after a touch and go, we were hit by something invisible and very unfriendly – a big dust devil (or willy willy). Those on the ground who saw what happened to us wondered what had gone wrong, but then they saw the ‘dusty’ materialise as it moved past us and over a ploughed paddock near us – at which point it started throwing dust and became visible. Jim was impressed at how I handled the aircraft and how I wasn’t fazed by the violent manoeuvres – but hey, I used to fly paragliders, so being whacked by a dusty was no big deal. Oh dear, there’s that unhealthy disrespect again! I’ve since been told my paragliding has given me a head start in Drifter training, with feeling comfortable in the air (in such an ‘exposed’ aircraft) being a big hurdle for some students to overcome.
There are many advantages to learning to fly at Clifton, not the least being the uncluttered skies. On one particularly busy afternoon I recall there were radio calls from four aircraft, two in the circuit and two nearby. And speaking of the sky, you should see the night sky at this little country airfield; with flat country all around and virtually no lights to be seen, the stars are a sight to behold. Want some magnificent entertainment? Forget about the TV, take a walk down the Clifton runway on a crisp clear night – it’s an event you won’t forget in a hurry. It’s a country airstrip, so an evening ‘runway inspection’ is totally safe.
The flat Darling Downs countryside is primarily crop-based agriculture, so the opportunities for engine failure drills are unlimited; and livestock is scarce so naturally, so are fences, making the entire area around the Clifton Airfield a student pilot’s dream. Combine that with the country hospitality and the amazingly welcoming response from club members, and the end result is a training scenario like no other.
Fly in the ointment
As my flying training progresses, a little (?) problem starts raising its ugly head, just about the time one would expect to be going solo. I’m doing everything right – my control of the aircraft (particularly in turbulent conditions) is excellent, my turns are all (mostly) well co-ordinated, my radio calls are good, I constantly look out for traffic and monitor emergency landing options, and overall I am a great deal more comfortable in the air than most students at this point in my training. The ‘problem’ is swing on takeoff, and I just can’t seem to get it right – just about every takeoff resembles a drunk trying to get off the ground, such are the movements of that poor little Drifter barrelling down the strip. After 12 hours training I have improved and seem to have it sorted, so am given the opportunity to go solo.
My first solo turns out to be nothing like I’d hoped for. It’s at the end of the day, when the conditions are at their best, but the sun is quite low on the horizon. With no wind I elect to take off from runway 24, simply because it happens to be right in front of me. Lining up, I think “ah shite, the sun’s bad, but I’m sure I’ll be fine”. Mistake number one. My nerves get the better of me, and I go to full throttle over about two seconds instead of five; one-up Drifters do not appreciate such rough handling. About two seconds into the takeoff roll she starts to swing to the right, and I do not respond quickly enough or with enough authority.
It all happened in a flash. As soon as I knew the Drifter was well off course I pulled the throttle off and braked hard, but by that time she was on one wheel and had turned through a full 90 degrees. How I managed to stop her in such a short distance after she went off the runway (into the half-metre high wheat crop) is beyond me. Later, when we walked down to look at the tyre tracks, we only found one – yes, I can understand why – she was leaning quite well when she did that right turn! The reaction from those gathered to witness the horrible event was, for this fledgling, just perfect – comments of “you aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last” helped immensely, and my new title of “Cropduster Dave” was born.
In hindsight, I’m happy that I recognised the situation early enough and, with quick reflexes, got off the throttle and onto the brakes in time to avert a more unpleasant outcome. But now, I realised, I’d reached the point where I was (sort of) good enough to go solo, whereas before I never knew when it was going to happen, so it wasn’t anything that would dwell on my mind. On top of that, the dreaded swing was still a problem, and until that was resolved, I knew I just wasn’t going anywhere!
Perseverance is the key, so that’s what I did – I just concentrated (too much sometimes) on getting that little devil to go straight on takeoff, and as a result, the rest of my flying took a back seat. And you can guess what the end result was – that’s right, folks, it all went pear-shaped. At 16.1 hours, my logbook entry read “totally frustrated now, real doubt as to capacity to succeed”.
Light dawns
Then there was a change of instructor. CFI Trevor Bange, who I had flown with on only a couple of occasions, decided he needed to see exactly what the problem was. And before we go one sentence further, let me say that my instruction from Jim was always of the very highest order, but for some reason the pair of us could not resolve the swing issue. After a few terrifying takeoff attempts (mainly for Trevor – I was quite used to the carnival ride by now) I was advised that I was reacting too slowly, and without enough authority. It took almost an hour of us flogging that poor little Drifter around the Clifton circuit, but after that, my takeoffs were written up as ‘OK’. Part of Trevor’s ‘rudder control’ training included a short flight to Warwick airfield, where I learned that control of swing with rudder is oh so easy on grass (compared to bitumen).
Having achieved the milestone of efficient takeoffs, and with the rest of my flying categorised as competent, the thought occurred to me that it was only a matter of time (and not much time) before I would again be offered the opportunity to go solo. This, as you can imagine, weighed on my mind, particularly considering the takeoff issue was resolved on a Saturday afternoon – and I was staying at the field overnight to continue my flying training the next day. The majority of students are always wondering, as they perform those countless circuits, is this the day? Will my instructor step out and leave me all alone in this aircraft, with no-one to fix any problem that may occur? I’ll be on my own, in this magnificent little flying machine, and it will be all up to me to concentrate, get it right, and achieve that magnificent milestone – First Solo.
For me, it was a sleepless night, with many a takeoff and landing performed in my head as I considered the events which were very likely to happen the very next day. For that, you need to tune in next issue for the continuing saga of ‘Dave the Drifter Driver’.
