Approaches & Holds

Over the last week I have done 3 more simulator flights, which has been teaching me the basics to fly holds and approaches. It means I now have 1 more sim flight which is a review of the last 5 flights, after which, I will then be able to go and do the holds and approaches I've been practising in a Cessna 172 for real!!!!

Holds are where an aircraft flies a racetrack style pattern around a navigational aid; the most common reason for these are to allow traffic separation, but they are also useful in an emergency as an aircraft can fly the repetitive pattern in a safe area, while the problem is being resolved. The biggest challenge is trying to maintain the pattern with wind, however once you've sorted out the effect of wind they are relatively simple to fly.

A Racetrack Style Hold

When we have finished in the holds, we are then able to make our final approach for landing. Most of the information that we require to fly the approaches are on an A5 plate which gives us all the distance and height information for the descent and turns.

Starting the IFR stage has been really exciting as we are now flying procedures that commercial airline pilots fly on a daily basis. The workload and study required is much greater than the previous 4 months of flying, but it is all worth it, especially when we now fully understand the techniques taught back in groundschool in the UK.

Away from flying, I travelled up to Auckland for a day this week. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and rainy, but we still got some pretty cool sights and pictures from the top of the Sky Tower. I have to say, standing on 38mm glass with a couple of hundred metres drop below was quite unnerving - the lift wasn't much better either !!!!!

Just a 186m drop

View from the sky deck

View from the bottom