I am sorry

Well, I am sorry! For what? For my lack of ambition about this blog in the past two weeks. Well, you'd say, I had nothing to write about since the FTO I fly in had its flight operation seized due to the no-gear-landing that took place on 8th of may. This is partly true, but not entirely. Why? Well, the truth is that last Monday (a week ago) I was told that we are going to fly the next day. The same evening I was at the hotel in Gorna Oryahovica. This was my first opportunity to write in this blog! But I didn't!

Anyway. The next day was my first flying day. That same say I logged 2 hours and 20 minutes while making a closed visual route and (this is important for later) four NDB approaches. That evening back at the hotel was my second opportunity to write in the blog! But I didn't!

The next day my “shift” started at noon. Before that I planned my flights for the day – one visual route (again closed – from and to Gorna) and another 3 NDB approaches, which were this time a checkride for solo approaches (NDB). Unfortunately one of our airplanes had a control cables (horizontal trim) problem and was grounded for maintenance for the day. That meant that the four of us had to fly on one airplane. This was LZ-ASB (pictured). Because it is the only one we have with an ADF (believe or not), a decision was made that we should drop off any visual routes and fly only NDB-s. That meant that I logged only an hour and a half that day, but together with my checkride I flew 2 solo approaches. I like flying solo, because I feel much more concentrated and calm, compared to flying with an instructor. My landings were much better than the ones before and I surely had a lot to write about the same evening at the hotel! But I didn't!

The next morning everything was over! Luckily with no damage or casualties. The first flight for the day was executed by one of my colleagues, whose task was to make two solo NDBs. Once we saw he took off I and my roommate headed towards the AIS (Aeronautical Information Service) to plan our flights. Thirty minutes was the flight time for this task. About 31 minutes after my colleague took off we got called and were told that the airplane had fallen down.

Fortunately this was not the truth! What happened was that the engine (Lycoming O-540) had stopped just prior to landing at an altitude of about 500 feet MSL. My colleague did everything possible to glide to the runway, but was unable and landed on the grass just before it.

He was alive and unhurt, the airplane was absolutely undamaged, only we were all a little scared!

That was the end of our flying trip! The same evening I was back to Sofia, and was again able to write to this blog! But I didn't!

The waiting begins.... again...

P.S. I am now unwilling to comment in details what happened and how come our FTO had two accidents in just a little more than a month! Maybe while waiting I will try to explain at least some of the facts!