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Welcome to Hawkhead.net

Sharing my journey as a student pilot becoming a Private Pilot and the struggles I’ve had since I started.

My name is Joshua and I have created this page to share my journey as a student pilot working on getting my private pilot’s license (PPL). I started back in 2017 however due to some issues I had stopped for a couple of years. However, due to some law changes I was able to start again.

To find out what happened during my early stages of flying find out in my next post.

Mobile App Development

I have also developed a few mobile apps on Google Play Store. You can find out more about apps that I have developed on my Apps page. These apps are language learning apps to assist in learning Filipino and German, they are currently in an early state but will be updated later. Currently there is another project which I’m working on that is aviation related.

1. Catching the Flying Bug

When I grew up I lived near a very active international airport with lots of jets flying overhead. I loved it when our family would eat takeaways and watch planes at the lookout overlooking the runway. At that time in my life I thought that becoming a pilot was unachievable or unaffordable, but I always loved planes.

Since I loved planes I would fly on Microsoft Flight Simulator a lot and it wasn’t until I was in my early 30’s that I had been told about trial flights or discovery flights at aero clubs. This had me interested and about a week or two later I walked into the nearest aero club and asked if I could do a trial flight. I was booked for the following week in a PA-28 Piper Archer (pictured below).

Piper Archer PA28

On my way to this trial flight I had a mild-migraine. This wasn’t a good sign for me as I hadn’t had a migraine for a least 12 years. I worked at a farm at this stage and was also doing some gardening the day before this flight so I’m thinking it was caused by some sort of chemical I was exposed to. Or the possibility of stress caused by uncertainty of being in a light aircraft. The drive from where I was to the aero club was roughly 18 minutes. My migraine lasted the entire time.

When we hopped in the plane and taxied to the runway the migraine was slowly getting better. However, when we started rolling down the runway and we became airborne the migraine went away. I was in awe of flying in a small aircraft. At this time I was living in Dunedin and we would fly over Dunedin then the instructor would let me have a little bit of control of the aircraft. It was thrilling and very enjoyable.

When we returned to the airfield I signed up for my first lesson and got my log book immediately. I had booked to learn in a Cessna 152 which was a lot cheaper than the Piper Archer.

I had done flights every few weeks, and had to stop over the Christmas period as my workplace was the busiest during the Christmas and New Years months, then returned to some more flying, and managed to get up to the circuit or traffic pattern.

It was great. However, the pilot medical was where I had becoming a little discouraged. Find out more about my pilot medical in the next post.

2. Losing the Flying Bug (Slightly)

It was June 2018 when I had gone to an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) to apply for my CAA Class 2 medical certificate.

However, due to my migraines which can sometimes have a visual aura that can reduce my visibility the decision by the CAA was that my migraines were an annual risk of aeromedical significance, since with the risk of having migraines once every five years could be a possible issue.

In a way I’m thankful that this happened, but I was very upset that I had received this result. Why was I thankful? I was excited about flying and thought about quitting my job and going to study full-time at an aviation academy somewhere which have possibly put me into $140,000 student loan debt. I wanted to become an airline pilot at the time.

I continued to fly for the remainder of 2018, however after a flight on Christmas day December 2018 I stopped flying for just over two years. I had been told by many people that I could try a DL9 medical from a GP, which would allow me to get a Recreational Pilot’s License. But due to my discouragement I wasn’t keen on trying it.

I had also heard of stories where people who were able to go without migraines for two years managed to get their CAA Class 2 medical. I had also been told by the CAA to keep track of any migraines. I’ve been keeping track of my migraines to work out what’s causing them.

What’s causing my migraines? Officially I have no idea, however, I believe it’s related to chemical exposure within my workplace (fruit orchard). When I first started flying I was working at an orchard and was a spray driver for crop sprays. I think being in a un-cabbed tractor with PPE on exposed me to a lot of different chemicals. Thankfully the company had upgraded my tractor in 2018 to a cabbed tractor which made me feel a lot less exposure to chemicals. The only time there would be possible exposure would be when I was refilling a tank while wearing PPE.

The frequency of my migraines became less and less as I moved away from being a spray operator, and started doing more office related work. I was still around chemicals as I was still working with irrigation where chemicals are used.

I’m still keen to go for my Class 2 medical. I have not re-applied for an AME test yet, I’m going to wait a bit longer before I try again. I’m not sure if it’ll be the last attempt I can make?

I do return to flight training though – find out in the next post how I returned to flight training.

3. Returning to the Sky

In late 2020 I believe I had heard about a change which involved removing the Recreational Pilot’s License (RPL) and allowing people with a DL9 to get their Private Pilot’s License (PPL). This gave me the push to go and apply for a DL9 because some of the restrictions that were part of the RPL were removed. Although there are certain differences in a CAA Class 2 medical PPL and a DL9 medical PPL it was still a lot more interesting for me.

I felt a bit dumb because the DL9 medical is designed for people who are applying for their truck drivers license, instead of getting the DL9 paper and showing that piece of paper I had gone thorough with getting my Class 2 driver’s license doing truck based exams. It was after I didn’t have the piece of paper that I was shown what the DL9 looked like. I’m thankful that I can at least drive a truck in the future if I want to start pursuing that.

After I got my DL9 I was in Christchurch for a few days and decided to ask an aero club in the area for a trial flight. It was again in a Piper Archer PA28, and it was over Rangiora. After being back in the sky again I was determined to return to my training at that point I had 10.1 hours of flight time.

Thankfully where I was staying they had a Cessna 152 however this one was an aerobat version. A different seat belt configuration with windows on the roof. This aircraft also had some glass cockpit panels for their instruments which took me a bit to get used to.

When I started flying again they took me out to a training area and we did a few medium turns, stalls, and returned and did some circuits. Thankfully while I was not flying I was using Flight Simulator X to maintain the knowledge of flying I had gained from the first lessons I received including practicing all the procedures, and running through checklists and checks such as the BUMFHR or UBMFHR checks on the downwind.

This was in 2021 when Covid was still lurking around with possible lockdowns, then a few months of training the country went into level 4 lockdown. I had done about 5.3 hours before the lockdown started. Doing normal circuits, EFATO, Glide Approaches, Flapless landings, and Flap failures.

During the lockdown I had already purchased Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and I had practiced every day in the 152. Since I didn’t have a trim wheel and I was struggling to use buttons to trim the aircraft I decided to create a trim wheel with an Arduino Leonardo and a 10-turn potentiometer. Which helped me improve my aircraft trimming in the simulator. I had struggled to maintain altitude in real life, and in the simulator. However, with the trim wheel input I was able to stabilize my aircraft during the downwind leg and focus on the checks.

I didn’t realize how much this helped until I had returned to training after the lockdown. My control of the aircraft was a lot smoother and a lot more stable. I was also able to trim the aircraft very well. Thankfully in the real thing you can feel the back pressure you’re trimming away which helps.

Find out what happens after this in the next post.

4. My First Solo

I mentioned in the last post that I was practicing to fly in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 during the lockdown and my flying skills improved. When the lockdown was over and I was able to book another lesson, I booked and when I started flying I noticed I had become a lot better at controlling the aircraft. At this point I had done 15 hours of training in total flying the Cessna 152.

Coming back after the lockdown and being able to fly again felt good. At this time there was also competition on the parallel grass runway. However, they didn’t seem to add to the nerves when I was doing my touch-and-go’s. When I had arrived at the aero club there were a lot of people in the foyer. One of them asked if I had soloed yet. I said, “I haven’t done a solo yet, but hope to do one eventually.”

My instructor comes in and I go and preflight the plane, then we head out to the runway and continue what I’ve been doing for many many lessons – circuits/traffic pattern practice. It was mainly working on my landings, which thankfully at that point I had mostly figured out.

After a few circuits my instructor asks me if I had my medical on me. Thankfully I tucked it in my logbook, and had the CFI at the time check to make sure it’s okay. After a few emergency failures simulations and a few more circuits he asked me to do a full-stop landing. I was assuming I was going to taxi back to the club and pack up for the day. When he said, “ok, stop here.” I started to get a little excited. He told me to taxi the plane to the hold point, do my before take off checks and then do one circuit. I was nervous and excited at the same time, but I am glad that I didn’t know I was going to do a solo that day, as I have heard of stories where people’s performance reduced significantly when they were aware of it.

So I taxied back to the hold point. Did my pre take of checks and rolled down the runway. Everyone on the radio had also been told that I was doing my first solo, it didn’t add to the nerves it actually made me feel better somehow.

As I was on final I think I was thinking a little to much about trying to make the landing look good. I stepped on the rudder a bit much just before touch down, but the landing was smooth thankfully. It was rewarding and relieving at the same time. When I had landed I was congratulated by a few people over the radio.

It was great to have the experience of a flying alone, although a bit terrifying at the beginning I enjoyed every moment of it.

The first solo is definitely a memorable moment. And getting the First Solo certificate in my log book was great.

What’s next after first solo? Usually solo consolidation – three hours of solo circuits before moving onto the next lesson. However, this didn’t happen for me. You can find out more in my next post.

5. Solo Consolidation Experience

Shortly after completing my first solo. I relocated back to the south island where I was also training in a Cessna 152. When I returned this time the Cessna 152 had been sold and the club had a Technam P2008. The P2008 was a lot faster than the Cessna 152 and I had three lessons in it. At that stage I sort of stopped flying as I didn’t want to spend more money on trying to get to solo in another aircraft.

But after about 8 months I relocated back to the location where I had soloed again. I didn’t return to flying for a while as I had other commitments at the time. However, around December 2023 I restarted my flight training.

Thankfully a few lessons and a few more circuits and I was able to get back in the air solo again. Now I had the task of completing my solo consolidation.

There were some times where the weather was a bit above my minimums, where I had strong crosswinds that I wasn’t comfortable with. These days I would go up with the instructor and see how I go with flying in crosswinds. Thankfully, after flying with them I became more confident in flying in the slightly stronger crosswinds, and could continue solo for a few more circuits.

During the crosswind circuits I could add 0.3 hrs solo on top of the 0.9 hrs solo I had done. The following fortnight I flew 1.3 hrs solo circuits in steady weather which was nice. I did notice that I started with good landings as I was doing touch and go’s, but as I continued to do more touch and go’s my landings would get a little worse. At some points rounding out a bit early and slamming into the ground a little hard. Thankfully I was told, “it happens to everyone.”

I eventually ended up flying up until I reached 2.7 hrs solo flight time. At this stage I’m flying once every two weeks and I decided to fly a week later to get that last 0.3 hrs. I made the decision on the day and called in to see if the aircraft was available that day. Then I flew in the afternoon.

I wasn’t expecting the winds to start picking up, but I decided to continue as I had flown a few crosswinds before and they were okay. This day was a bit different though. While I was doing my run up everything seemed okay, and about two circuits into the flight the wind started getting more choppy. I had probably done the 0.3 at this stage so I was keen to get back on the ground. However, due to the wind becoming more intense on final I was being thrown around a lot, and had to do two go arounds.

I was getting a little nervous with attempts. However on the third attempt I decided to commit to the landing, I ballooned a bit, and freaked out a little bit, but thankfully it was the smoothest landing I had done in a while. I was very relieved. When I had talked to my instructors about what happened, they said it helps you become a better pilot. This relieved me even more, and gave me more confidence in that kind of weather. My minimums for winds are still low for now as I don’t want to put myself in a position where I think I can fly in any crazy weather.

Thankfully after getting 3.2 hrs of solo out of the way, I could continue onto the next set of lessons.

Find out more about my next flights in the next post.