Lesson 25 - first xc nav

Lesson: 25

14/XII/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 1.1h


• Total time: 20.2h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David H

I only had 0.5 day left of annual leave and it was pretty obvious that I am going to use it to fly. Following lesson 23 and the advice from Gavin that I should get ready on Navs, I took it seriously. Bought myself a new chart, a kneepad, and any the other little gadgets you need for this part of training.

I read a lot about nav before I started my PPLs but it gets more obvious after you actually flew few times. Week and a bit ago DavidP went through all the details with me. Since than I started to read the nav book, not all of it. Just some chapters to fill out the blanks.  I also re-watched some of the King's videos I have on the subject.

I had 2 slots booked but it was pretty obvious the second one will not happen as it gets dark pretty early.

Arrived at the club, David was a bit busy (he's the CFI). I just told him that I want to get up for a nav, and I will start planning it. Asked about for the wind information (which DavidP provided) and also asked someone to spare me few p-log sheets. (have to remember to prepare some for the next one).

With all that in hand I started to get cracking. It was the very first time I would do it for real. I did some random calculations before using wiz-wheel but nothing I would have to follow and fly for real before. I think it must have take me a while (don't remember the actual time). After some time David came about with my student record in his hand and told me that they really don't do nav exercises until you have about 4h solo in the circuit. I just told him that I was pretty much flying the bloody circuit for sometime now. (my own fault that I didn't went up solo earlier) And that I wanted to break away from the 'pattern'. Fair enough, he said, and started to check how was I doing.

Of all calculations, I think I had one or two things wrong. Plus - he said, distances such as 2.5 Nm from the airport you usually don't calculate, just fly visually.

I got wind calculation wrong in one place, but all the others were okay. Pretty odd since I used same wind for the whole track.

Anyway, I got everything prepared and off I went to do the pre-flights. It all went fine except for the rudder. Somehow I couldn't move it to the right. Got a bit worried and went back to the club-house. David said that it is normal and it is due to the nose wheel not being straight. Made sense, the wheel was not straightened indeed. Good, because for a second I thought I am not going to fly Today - and that the aircraft is buggered.

We both got ourselves comfortable and here's the first 'ohoh'. I have my kneepad on and I can't really move the steering column. Bit of knee movement about and all is possible. Comment from David 'if you need to move it, it is really amazing how quickly that kneepad gets out of the way'.

Did all the preparations, stared the engine, etc. Taxying was uneventful. I was watching very hard not to exceed any comfortable speeds when taxying, as CFI is very particular about that.

Sun was pretty low and intensive and there was also a bit of condensation on the windscreen that was preventing us from seeing if anything was landing or not. But somehow we managed to check it out (that's what the side windows are for sometimes).

Lined-up. I always like to ask the passenger-instructor if they are ready. David just said 'wind up the rubber band' (what a nice expression btw). And off we went.

I tried to crab a bit on the climb away, because the wind was more from the left than straight in. Somehow I managed to crab the other direction  but quickly corrected my mistake.

We departed straight from the downwind towards Comber. Once above Comber David switched to Belfast Approach and dealt with all the RT.

I made a turn to the left onto my new heading and off I went. Noted down the time, etc. Started to read the chart. We were suppose to follow a road and my oh my there was a road to my left ( sometimes disappearing under the aircraft ).

Right on time, and I could see disused airfield far ahead (now made into a race-track) - that was our first turning point.

That was easy - I said very well knowing that it could only go worse from this point on :)

Did my FREDA check and again, turned to the left onto a new heading - this time towards Hillsborough. I forgot that I could do more than 15 deg of bank so it took a while initially before I got us into 30 deg of bank.

There was some guy trying to leave belfast freq but the belfast approach controller couldn't hear him. David relayed the message when asked about it by the controller. Pretty nice. Just thought to myself - what if it was me solo and he asked me that. I would probably have to exchange quite few sentences before I would give him same sort of information. Nothing beats the experience.

About half way through the track I took out the chart to make sure we are on the right track. And - here's a surprise, we weren't. I did a bit of dead reckoning, and turned to the left back towards the town that was suppose to be below us.It was time to do the next FREDA check and it all became clear. DI was 5-10 deg off. Note to self, check the DI after each turn even if 10 minutes didn't elapse since the previous one.

We started to enjoy the views. There was just a ton of lake, and some places were pretty gray-ish - not only covered in snow/frost, but the sun was going down. It was that time of the day.

David was showing me different landmarks which I would not be able to distinguish myself otherwise. Too much information, so to say. We could see the Stormount and couple of other places. Things were making sense on the chart too. Altho roads were not as clearly visible as I thought they would be.

We soon started to see Lisburn and the shopping centre between Lisburn and Belfast it was clear that we got close to the end of that leg. And the time was also on the spot. On that leg I would loose 200 ft tops and weir a bit of the heading couple times. But it wasn't so bad. I tried to remember all the advice I was given about not fixating on tasks for too long or letting the aircraft settle before trimming.

Pretty soon we crossed the A1 and could see the Hillsborough to our left, with all its features. It was time to do another turn - this time towards Comber.

David asked for the clearance (we had to penetrate the belfast city zone I think) and I started to turn to the left. Once on the course I re trimmed and checked the DI . Pretty soon afterwards I started to check for landmarks to make sure that we didn't end up somewhere else. And everything was in the right spot. Oddly enough :P . Here's also a note to self, don't pick landmarks that are under the track directly. Pick something 1-2 miles to either side (left is obviously the best choice). Otherwise you can't see them, and I didn't fancy burning holes in the sky just to see things.

After a bit, I did another FREDA check and it was time again to check the landmarks. By now I could see the Strangford lough and the Scrabo tower. So fixing the position was pretty easy. Once overhead Comber we switched back to EGAD freq. I made an ass of myself on the radio (again) when I tried to announce our intentions.

Here was another thing I never did before - overhead join. Pretty easy in theory and it wasn't so difficult in practice either. We descended on the dead side of 04 (right hand) and I turned right cross wind, downwind. I must have let wind blow me off on the downwind, because we ended up at the other end of the universe. But I managed to turn base and do all the usual checks. This time sun wasn't blinding me so it was all good. About 400 ft away from the threshold aircraft slowed down and I had to add a bit of power. And also point the nose down a bit. I was close enough to know that one action would need to follow the other anyone.

The landing was not too bad. Pretty smooth actually but I flared a bit high. So the undercarriage got a bit of beating as a result. I was pretty happy, but David wasn't as much. I think he didn't like the high flare. Also he didn't like the fact that I still had a bit of power over the threshold. Well, I wanted to pickup a bit of speed, so we don't end up doing 45 knots over the threshold.

Taxied back to the apron. And David had few comments (which I pretty much listed above) and also said that he thinks it was pretty good flying overall.

Altho I probably won't be doing anything like that until May - June time next year. I hope next there will be a succession of solo circuits. In order to get 4h solo I need to be doing them by myself from start to finish. So far I've been let loose only for a last one of 5-6 per lesson.

Overall, quite happy. Grinning more than after first or second solo actually. Obviously I learned a lot from it. It was much more relaxed than the circuit flying and the view was spectacular :D Reminds me why I started to get myself into that business.

Here's the GPS track of my flight:

• Route: T/O RWY04, Comber, Bishop's court, Hillsborough, Comber, EGAD joined overhead for RWY 04


• Milestones: First nav, and first time with my kneepad in C152


• Exercises covered: nav


• Weather: Clear day, bit cold.

Lesson 24 - Steep turns and general handling

Lesson: 24

11/XII/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 0.7h


• Total time: 19.1h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

I had lesson booked last Sunday, but due to ice on RWYs I didn't fly. Than after the ice have melted, the bonker was not available. David P was so great to take a bit of time and explain to me all basics of navigation. Bit disappointed that I didn't had a chance to fly, I asked nice ladies at the reception desk to call me if there was any available slots on weekends. At least 45 minutes in advance, so that I could get ready and arrive bit beforehand.

Well, needless to say I didn't expect anything like that this weekend. So I decided to just go for a bit of a bimble in my car Today. We went to Bangor. I love to watch the sea, just sit and listen to its sounds and smell it. Than I remembered that one of students at the club promised to leave a book for me so we went for a walk to the scrabo tower (which has a nice view of the area including the club runways) and the plan was to go down to the club afterwards to pickup the book.

Got to the club, opened the door and lady at the reception was very surprised to see me. As it turned out she was trying to call me about 10 minutes before to let me know that there's a free slot :D Well, iphone's ring volume is quite rubbish so I never heard it. Didn't had the gear with me (note to self, cary it around on weekends, just in case!) and had my gf with me as well. And she wasn't quite pleased but wasn't resisting it either. I finally had a chance to eat something at the local Sky Cafe. And than went off to catch up with my instructor. I flew with him last time so no bother (as they say here).
Did the preflight of the unusually parked Kilo-Romeo. It was hidden behind the last hangar in the line of hangars that are facing the apron area. And it looks like someone had actually washed it. It was white again :D
When asked what do I want to do Today, I said that I wouldn't mind to do something else than circuits. After all, it has been a while since I did anything else than flying the rectangle shapes in the sky - so to say :). There were two choices , either PFLs, or steep turns. I chose the latter. Its been a while, and its fun.
So I did all the usual stuff, pretty much uneventful. I was a bit rusty, so it wasn't perfect, but I wasn't dangerous either.

We departed from the cross-wind to the south-(south)-east for some turns. Gavin gave me a chance to man the radio, but I have never spoken to anyone on the radio outside of EGAD's ATZ. Just when I was ready to talk to the Belfast Approach the frequency got very busy. So I had to wait. And it took quite a while. Usually we request the basic service as soon as we pass abeam the Mount Steward but this time we did it few miles down. I don't know what's the standard procedure in this case, ie, should you burn holes in the sky or just proceed and wait for the controller to call you names on the radio ? In any case, he didn't mind. After all, we were below 2k ft which is suppose to be fine.
As soon as I got a chance to say anything, I had to get it wrong. 'Belfast Approach, Scrabo 66' 'Scrabo 66 Belfast Approach, pass your message'. 'Belfast Approach, Scrabo 66 is C152 overhead mount steward, two POB, requesting basic service'. I don't remember what the reply was, or what did I forget (I think 'not above 2k ft' and what are we going to do and where'), but that was a face-palm moment for me. First chance to talk to a real controller and I blew it. Oh well, there will be more chances to make a foul out of myself in the future, I'm sure.
I've been trying to maintain a general heading and height, but I never managed to do both at the same time. I blame the wind, but we all know it was my fault :D
Once we got to the location the haze started to build. Vis was still good, but not perfect. I had to do quite few turns to make sure that there was no one in the vicinity. Once that was done, I got a short briefing on what are we going to do, and off I went.
I had to blew the first chance obviously. I thought that 45 deg turn will be marked on the attitude indicator, but it isn't. 60 deg is, and I was aiming for it rather than for the 45 deg which is in between 30 and 60. Monkey. Only after my second attempt did Gavin told me what I was doing it wrong. Afterwards it wasn't so bad. I only lost about ~100ft. Still not good but it was suppose to be a refresher for me. I can honestly say that flying only circuits for a long time can be quite a skill degrading thing. Or, I am again seeing things in a new light. I don't know.

Apart from just burning holes in the sky, I had a chance to reposition the aircraft between each turn on the right height, etc. It wasn't so bad.

After couple of turns I was told to head back. My slot was suppose to be about an hour. It seemed short, but considering the fact that we went quite a distance from the airfield (bottom of the peninsula, near Portaferry). I managed this time to make the call to the Belfast Approach controller without incident. I also had a chance to do some heading/speed/height adjustments just to see how I get on, and it wasn't so bad. As soon as frequency change was approved tho, I managed to make an ass out of myself on the radio again. Saying basically that I am joining on base, whilst I was still about 5 miles away from the airfield. Gavin saved the day again.

Getting closer, I did a proper lookout, and was told to do the prelanding checks. I was tempted to take out the checklist, but what Gavin mean was to do the old good BUMPFICH checks. Lets just say, it wasn't as smooth as it should be.

As soon as I turned finals, sun was blinding me. Add a haze to the equation and you can imagine what I mean.

Needless to say, I managed to cock-up that landing too. Bit too high, not too fast but I balooned once. I was tempted to go around but speed was correct, there was plenty of runway in front of us and speed was quickly bleeding off.

All in all, I was rubbish. I'm a bit of perfectionist, and very hard on myself when something goes wrong and is clearly my fault. Quite few lessons learned, and I will hope to remember all that in the future.

I got two slots booked for this Tuesday (of course, weather permitting). I want to do a short nav, the route I have to prepare will be comber-bishopscourt-hillsborough. I surely will have to wait with all the wind calculations, etc, till the day. But will attempt to calculate it Tomorrow using some current weather report . Other thing is I'll need to request Belfast City zone transit which is going to be fun. I've heard that controllers are never happy to give it when they hear that your RT is rubbish. I will also fly with the CFI who has some specific qualities which I have too (like analysing everything in detail and being anal about details). It shall be fun.

• Route: T/O RWY22, South east for few turns, and back, re-joined on base, LND RWY22


• Milestones: got out of the aerodrome traffic zone for the first time in a while. Spoke to Belfast approach by myself for the first time.


• Exercises covered: ex 6-7, 12


• Weather: some clouds, bit hazy, QNH 1026, moderate winds