Craig’s Blog

Flying Instructions

(With regards to Lesson 7)

Well, after managing to do my first circuits, ProSky Caboolture (Shortened to ‘ProSky’ on this page) decided to terminate my lessons with them, because of the following reasons (Given by them):

• I write a blog, and they don’t feel comfortable about this, and this seems to make them a bit insecure.
• I ask questions on forums after lessons, to other students and pilots, and that seems to be a no-no and something that should not be done. (more…)

Final apprach into an airfield from the pilots point of view. Note: This is NOT our field.. or our plane... or us..

After a rather indifferent previous lesson, it was time for another bash at circuits again at Caboolture. I was pretty dissapointed in myself because of the last lesson. I felt I flew really badly, and too many things were happening that were detracting from the key lesson of that day – circuits. So, I had a new schedule to fly on Sunday – a 09h00 slot. The wind was pretty much still today, and the airfield was extremely quiet. So, in some ways – it was a good day to learn. Read more about this lesson

A standard left hand circuit.

This was the lesson I was extremely excited about. Circuits. Today, we were going to put everything I’d learnt into practise, and combine it all into a 6 minute period of flight, from take off, to landing. I’d even battled to get to sleep. This was going to rock! However, as the day panned out, it was a bit of a let down as you’ll see futher on.

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Wind, shown by the windsock just before my flight.

Todays lesson started off with the regular hours ground schooling. But I was really surprised that we were going to even fly! The wind was howling from the East, windsock looked like it has swallowed one too many Viagras! However, I watched a few aircraft depart and arrive and there was no major drama. I must emphisize ‘major’, because a few gliders seemed to battle, and I saw a few students doing circuits, and they were bumping about quite  bit. But, the lesson was on!

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Here’s a nice neat way to ensure some form of database integrity, using the ever so under estimated CHECK CONSTRAINT.

Here’s where I’d use it:

Say I have implimented a system that has two issues I am unsure about. Firstly, I have a ‘Diary Entry’ section that allows the users to enter a date and a diary entry on my application. Very simple.

Click here to check how this works…

I think this is the plane I fly, in a previous incarnation while registered as a GA Aircraft. It also has the wheel covers - since removed.

Todays schedule was knocked about a lot. I was going to fly in the morning, but had my daughters schools christmas party, so I moved it to Sunday, but then realised I play 5-a-side football, so managed to get a late afternoon slot on Satuday. How perfect that turned out to be! Still air, hardly any traffic – perfect! It was overcast, but very high cloud. A slight breeze, but nothing for me to be concerened about.

I arrived at the hanger, and my instructor was about to take another student for a refresher, so he told me to get the Tecnam P-92 Echo out of the hanger, and get her fueled up, checked and ready for today’s lesson. And off he went.

Read more – click Here

Data before a Pivot.

I came across this impressive bit of SQL, highly useful when creating stored procedures for Reports, and all that jazz.  (SQL Server 2005/2008). Basically, it takes some data, and pivots it, so that it comes out like a fancy report! Click here to see the code..

A LEFT Join

Lets say we have a Projects table, with ProjectID being the primary key.

My report lists all projects. Easy enough! So, select * from Projects. (I don’t usually use a *… this is for demonstration purposes)

However, I join to a ‘Legals’ table. Legals could have 0 to many rows per Project.

Click here to see how we do this.

SQL Server 2005 - the box!

This is a script I wrote, which generates GRANT scripts for all the tables, stored procedures and functions in a database. It’s a task I have done many times while on different projects, and after the 8th time of writing it, I decided that my blog would serve as a cut and paste source! Saves me times, and eliminates possible errors.

I wish the blog had kept the colour coding for easier reading, but.. it didn’t.

Read on to see the SQL Code

GWS Tiger Moth 400

I’ve gone and bought a GWS Tiger Moth 400 bi-plane! It’s a slow flying bi-plane, slightly smaller then the slow stick, but more scale looking. It was meant to be a cheap plane, but after the Australian Dollar has dived against the US Dollar, it’s turned into a rather expensive plane to put together!!

I bought it with the motor from a local hobby shop in Brisbane, but won’t be using the supplied brushed motor – but instead, using a 970kv Brushless motor I bought from an online retailer. I also got a brushless ESC, 4 (1 for backup) micro servos, better wheels, a scale pilot and some otehr goodies for the build. I was going to put a 3 cell 2000mah Lipo in her, but once I saw the fuselage, I think I might begin with a 2 cell 1600 mah pack, and see how I go. I want slow flight, so am going to go as light as possible. Read more about my GWS Tiger Moth