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Tony Wells’ Poems

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Just came across some poems written by my former microlight instructor Tony Wells. They’re so good, I felt I had to share in his honour. He died of cancer, aged 65, in 2004 :-(

A remarkable aviator, a remarkable man, and a remarkable poet too !!

My friends
There are two gentlemen of the sky
In any weather they will fly
One is grey and the other bald
Collectively they are quite old
They will fly and show no fear
This bothers me of friends so dear

The instructor
Oh-five thirty is the time
When out of bed I do climb
To look upon the morning sky
Is this the day that I will fly?

Oh it looks so good to me
As I drink my first cup of tea
It will be a glorious day
Not for in bed to stay

Boil the kettle, flask to fill
Egg three minutes just the thing
Ready to dip my soldiers in
Ring Airmet then the weather forecast I will get

Twenty five knots at a thousand feet!
Hail and thunder and possible sleet!
Off back upstairs I creep
To find her there still fast asleep

Now I think that I was wise
For it will give time for other things
Beside the wind to rise!

The Self Made Man
I am forty five years old and a self made man
I have a wife, two kids and a car as well
Now there is something I promised myself before I die
That is to be an aviator, you know, to fly

Now I am a self made man
And I am pretty smart
So an answered an ad in the Exchange and Mart

I went along and made my bid
Got this lovely thing for two hundred and fifty quid
Now I am a self made man and pretty bright
I am now the owner of a microlight

It’s got a wing and a trike as well
And the bloke I bought it off was loathe to sell (I’ll bet)

Lessons, not me, I am a self made man
I’m off to the beach you see I can
At beach waiting for the wind to drop
Photos first, then off I got

Now the wife said it flew
But not a lot
It ran on the ground and shot in the air
Oh it gave her a hell of a scare

Now I am a self made man
I know this is a bit of a hitch
I will be okay
But the plaster does itch.

Crystal Clear Day
Two thousand feet above the farm
The air is crystal clear and calm
Five thousand feet above the bay
Hills and Lakes not far away

Three six zero is what I steer
Upon the day that’s crystal clear
Over Cark and Barrow near
Ten more miles to Windermere

Lakes Coniston, Wastwater, Bassenthwaite
Hills and Valleys still bathed in morning dew
Oh give me the words that I may speak of
Speak of this fantastic view

And I think of pilots gone
Of Ian, Simon, Dick Clegg and John
And so I dedicate this to you
This crystal clear day that I flew.

A cog in time
If I could re-live this life of mine
In other words, nudge a cog in time
Would I be good at school
And use an education like an academic tool?

What opportunity I know I could have
If I had done more with what I had
Oh it’s so short, this life of mine
Can I but nudge a cog in time?

Oh the frustration, is life passing me by
Can I do more before I die?
Is there time for me to put the clock back
Re-deal the cards from a brand new pack?

Well I cannot nudge the cog in time
I cannot shed this old frame of mine
Oh death, Do you know what I mean?
But to face you at night I can beat you in my dreams

But in the broad light of day
That cog of time it ticks away
There is no second chance for this life of mine
For there is no one who can nudge the cog in time.

Lesson 27 – 24th August 2009 – 1450 – 60 minutes – Total so far – 28 hours 4 mins

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Well, my head was buzzing and in overload after this lesson.

It wasn’t so much a lesson, although I did learn stacks, rather a mini trial practical test with the senior instructor (soon to be examiner) Scott.

To say I wasn’t ready for the onslaught that is Scott is probably an understatement. A very different style to Steve, but not in a bad way. Steve had said that I’d benefit from some time with another instructor and as per usual, he was right.

Steve has a very easy going relaxed way. He never comes on the controls these days unless he’s demonstrating a maneuvre and is subtle when I cockup, staring at a button I’d forgot to click, or something along those lines. Scott, on the other hand, was very full on. But, it really challenged me and I liked that. It gave me a new perspective and I certainly learned a lot. There was one downside, I got flustered which translated into what I thought was a poor performance.

I’ll not remember everything that happened in the hour, but I’ll try……

Scott wanted to be there when I started her up. I’m glad about this, because I think I’ve been doing the startup procedures in a bit of a non-standard way. Note to self…..

Consult the Flight Manual to work out how much manifold pressure I can pull continuously and at max, given temperature and pressure altitude.
Before starting, turn the radio off.
After starting and checking starter motor has disengaged, flick all the switches on (incl clutch)
Scott gets the clearance when he’s ready to go, whereas I’d been doing it while waiting for the clutch to fully engage.

So, with the engine started, I lifted off. I don’t think he helped at this point, so that was a good sign. Post liftoff checks were done. All fine so far.

Taxi to Foxtrot ensued, and then I called that we’re ready for departure. Cleared to depart north, I headed off (as I normally do), but Scott later pointed out that I should have done some pre-departure checks. I was too flustered to remember what they were. I’ll have to ask next time.

Normally, I don’t forget trim and transponder at 500ft, but it was 800ft before I remembered. God help me for the real test !!

He suggested FREDATT checks (Fuel, Radio, Engine, Direction, Altitude, Trim and Transponder) at 500 feet, which normally I’ve only been doing approaching the airfield on return.

So, we did them. He asked me what altitude I was going to fly…2300 feet I told him.

Which I kept initially, but I think I lost it later on.

Once out of the zone, we did a set of maneuvres. REAL BASIC STUFF !!! STUFF I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO WITHOUT A PROBLEM. First off, was a turn. 15′ degree rate of turn in one direction through 360′. Well, I gained or lost (can’t remember) 200 feet during the turn. Come on David, get a grip !!!

Scott explained a few things and then I did the same turn but in the other direction. This time, it was much better, but there could have been less error.

Oh, before I forget !! I had been using the slip ball for seeing if we were in balance or not. Scott explained that it doesn’t work !!! And it’s not a problem with the helicopter, it’s because the heli is set to show balanced when on the ground, but an R22 flies left skid low, so it doesn’t read correctly in flight !! So, I need to get used to using the string on the bubble. Note to self…..

Pedal to the window with no string in !!!!

So, of course, that threw me completely, because all this time I’d been using the balance ball thing. In fact, in hindsight, that was the thing that probably made me flustered for the whole thing, because all my flying was requiring this new skill of “watching the string” ! ;-)

We then did some climbs and descents. For the climbs, I went over the manifold pressure I should have a few times, until I understood that I shouldn’t go over 23. For all the descents I remembered Carb Heat 50% of the time. 50% of the time would definitely be a fail !!! You need to rememeber it 100% of the time. The risk of icing today was particularly bad, because we went through rain a few times !!

Another interesting thing he said was if there is any rain, no questions, apply Full Carb Heat !!

We then did an autorotation to lose height ie a gradual lowering of the collective. I remembered Carb Heat this time !! :-) That went fine. But of course, I was watching the string which caused me to have to think too hard to worry about everything else (rotor rpm), but thankfully either Scott did rotor rpm, or I did it without thinking. Can’t remember, I was too flummoxed ! ;-)

Apparently, an auto is not complete until you look upwards (for the climb away) and cancel carb heat (NOTE TO SELF!)

We then did an autorotation for range as if the engine failed (75 knots). Faster lowering of the collective and maintaining 75knots went ok, but then I was thrown when he asked me to keep the throttle closed. I’ve never done any throttle work in the autorotation before, but pleased I got a chance to do it. It’s started me thinking on new trains of thought.

I think we then did another one. They felt ok.

By this stage, it was time to return and the rain was falling heavily over EGNT.

Scott made lots of R/T calls because I couldn’t understand things. I really must get my own headset. It was much worse today, and I’m normally comfortable with the Newcastle R/T so either the headset’s at fault (or more likely I was too flustered).

We were asked to hold at the northern airport boundary for 2 inbounds. And then we were asked to nip in before another big jet. Scott asked what would I do if asked to expedite when I was solo. I had previously expedited solo, so I suspected that that wasn’t the right answer and I was right. Don’t expedite solo !! Shame, ‘cos it’s lots of fun, but I knew where he was coming from !

Taxi next to the bowser and then I was gagging for another perfect landing like the other day, but it was messy. Not a 30-second messy dp special that I have previously done consistently, but it wasn’t like the beauties that I’d managed at Carlisle and Eshott.

I did a couple of attempts, but aborted them. Scott then demo’ed one and explained something which has now been lost in fluster land, but it stayed with me enough to do a half decent final landing based on whatever he’d said.

After we’d shut it down, he took me around the helicopter asking me what bits and bobs were. That was very interesting. I think I got 1 or 2 things right, but the other 6 were half-decent guesses that were wrong !! ;-) WHY DIDN’T HE ASK ME WHAT THE THING THAT GOES ROUND ON THE TOP IS ? OR THE FAN THING AT THE BACK END !? He probably didn’t know himself I expect ! :-)

So, all in all, a huge learning experience, but I left feeling a bit bamboozled. It’s that feeling where I know I’ve learned LOADS, but it’s not all sunk in yet. I’m pretty sure that, tomorrow, things will keep coming back to me, with a “oh yes” kind of moment as they sink in.

Thoroughly enjoyable and extremely valuable lesson in terms of things learned, but not showing my best skills ‘cos of being flummoxed. But, no pain, no gain. If I hadn’t learned the countless things I did, I may have flown better because I wasn’t flummoxed, but not have been a better pilot because of it (if that makes sense). I know what I mean ! :-)

But, to end on a positive, and to my big surprise, as the whole lesson felt like I was doing things wrong, Scott was very complementary. He asked me how many hours I’d done, and said I was “well ahead of the game and flying excellently” or something like that.

Video to follow when time permits