16/XII/2012
- Lessons time: dual - 2.2h, solo - none
- Total time: 36.2h (1.1h solo)
- Route: EGAD->EGPK->EGAD
- Aircraft: G-UFCM (Tecnam 2002JF)
My first fly out. The original plan was to fly to Aran Islands (of west south coast of Ireland, Father Ted was filmed there). But weather over Shannon was shite, so.. The backup plan, was to go to Edinburgh (Fife) to visit aviation museum over there.
I got to the club pretty early. Even the fella who takes airplanes out and prepares them for the day wasn't there yet (~7am). Guys started to arrive, once someone with the key to the club arrived - people started to pour in. The atmosphere was a bit chaotic, at least amongst students.
Fast forward, I finally got to the aircraft, quick check and start up.
Once up, we bid farewell to Newtownards radio and switched over to Belfast. This is where my poor RT started to 'shine'. Never mind that radio was very busy, with the whole initial rush I started to loose track of what was said, etc. All together there were 3 aircraft flying, with one or two of them ahead of us - we could pretty much listen and hear what they said, what they got back, and expect to get the same thing. That was very helpful.
I had a chance to VOR tracking in live situation, I think this was a first time I actually got a chance to see how its done.
I was very surprised how close Scotland really seems to be from up there. Once we were about half way between Ireland and Britain - we had to switch over to Scottish. I had to call them few times, I don't think they got me first time around.
Oh well, of course I managed to cock up simple instructions and read it back properly. Also, the fact that it was a new place, I wasn't quite familiar with names, instructor was holding the map, so I couldn't just dive in and read it off it. (Buts... I know). It was fairly easy to make out where we were, towns, etc. There are some distinctive features around Loch Ryan.
Oh well, of course I managed to cock up simple instructions and read it back properly. Also, the fact that it was a new place, I wasn't quite familiar with names, instructor was holding the map, so I couldn't just dive in and read it off it. (Buts... I know). It was fairly easy to make out where we were, towns, etc. There are some distinctive features around Loch Ryan.
Following the coast, we got the usual - asking us to report when over X. Etc. Not eventful. The instructor took that time to show me things on the map, and how I could pick the more distinctive features. Basic navigation stuff. Of course, last time I done navigation was about 2 years ago - so, every little helps :-)
Once over Heads of Ayr, we were asked to contact Prestwick approach. Which we dully did.
This is where my radio dance started again. I completely cocked up read back, so helpful instructor jumped in and handled the radio.
For some bizarre reason, I didn't register the fact that controller asked us to do a loop (orbit), to allow a separation between ourselves and C172 on finals in front of us. So again, instructor read that back, and said the ominous "I have control" and swung us to the left, gave it back to me, to continue the loop.
Then the base, and finals to runway 13 at Prestwick. I've heard all the stories about how large these things are, but seeing it with my own eyes is a different thing... My idea was to let it float and slowly descent. Unknown to me, I didn't pull the power all the way (oops). So now what happened is a classic landing fsck up. You 'almost' flare (trying to float over the runway). I'm too high, of course - since the runway is so wide - I misjudged it. Stall warner sounds, I grab the power to pull it all the way to idle, and we sink in. Since we were high, we bounce off... And then again.. And third time lucky we landed. That's my first land away at major airport. Now, we touched down about 100m down from the numbers. And controller tells me to taxi to exit Quebec, then through taxiway Sierra to apron Zulu (or something to that effect). Now (have a look at the plate) that's the very last turn on the right from RWY13. That's 2986m runway :-) So imagine taxing all the way (about 2km...). Takes a while. Of course I managed to cock up that read back too. But somehow controller was nice enough to say 'read back correct'. I should really really back everything, not just numbers and names. So not just 'Exit quebec, Taxi sierra to Zulu', but 'exit quebec, taxi way sierra to apron zulu', etc.
Anyway, we did shut down, etc. Went for quick tea, and I had to pack my arse into G-UFCI. Back of it to be precise. Now, it's no secret that I need to loose some weight. Back of C172 isn't exactly suitable for guys like me. Felt more like front of C152, or even worse. But I managed. I think this was thanks to the fact that the fella sitting next to me was much thiner then me :-)
This leg to Cumbernauld was rather uneventful. Apart from the fact that we didn't get answer from Microlight site we overflew. But then, we were well over their ATZ. Guys behind us, on the other hand, got told off by that station's operator for not calling in.. I think he wasn't just hearing the transmissions. Dunno, I didn't even see it from where I was. (I think it was Strathaven, not sure). I decided to concentrate on listening to RT, and enjoying the views. Landing at Cumbernauld was very good, quite busy little airport.
I unfolded myself, and packed out of the aircraft, and we went off to the main building.
Original plan to fly further east to Fife got binned, due to the weather forecast there - so we went off and ordered our lunch.
After lunch it was time to plan the return. Initially the plan was to flight direct to EGAD. That meant that this will be quite long leg. Original plan (that one that included flying to the south west of Ireland) and seating arrangement assumed that there will be 4 legs. I was suppose to be flying first and last one in Tecnam. Of course I wanted to fly as much as I could - I can't just sit there and wait for everyone else to allow me to fly :-) So with direct flight back, I would loose that chance. About 10 minutes later, with some people already planning their long navigation - someone mentioned fuel and head wind. So plan to fly direct was scrapped, and we decided to fly to Prestwick again, and then to EGAD. Good for me I thought :-) That meant more people got to fly bit more.
So off we went.
Some photos I took on our way back to aircraft:
So off we went to Prestwick. Again, very uneventful leg. The controller at Glasgow was very nice this time, she even asked us if we want to go through the zone. Despite the fact that we already had everything planned to go around! How cool is that. To be fair, they seemed to be very quiet at the time. She only had to ask one aircraft (Easyjet) to remain over 5k ft until such time she tells it otherwise. But that guy was miles away anyway. So we had a chance to fly over some nice wind farms. That also meant that we need to pick up height (in case donkey quits).
Landing at Prestwick was uneventful (unlike mine earlier on). This time the guy who flew C172 (Can't remember his name!, sorry!) - had similar idea to mine, but at least execution was better. He flew over the runway for a bit before flaring.
We taxied over to the same Apron again (apron Zulu), and idea was to just switch over and fly back.
But I noticed during the preflight that we had puncture and right hand side tyre was without air :/
Turned out - there was some very helpful mechanic at Prestwick who said he'll look into it, he had the tyre and the tube. Happy days.
Took him about an hour to change it in the mean time we went through map and went through the navigation planning. I got to say, I pretty much forgot everything since my last navex. One of the reasons I decided to go for the fly-out was ability to see others in action and perhaps learn something.
We got everything nicely planned, I even refreshed my knowledge about using 'flight computers' to calculate wind, etc. It was good that I remembered to take it with me. About the time
I was tasked with booking out procedure. Which was dead easy, turned out - not only everything is written down above phone but also helpful lady at the Tower said she has all the details from previous book out (before we lost the tyre) and she's just going to change times. Happy days.
So off I went to do a preflight, and pack all my stuff in. We also took with us the tyre and tube that was punctured, apparently these shouldn't burst so easily - so it can be sent back to manufacturer, etc. Not my business anyway, it's a club's aircraft.
Fired her up, and off I went to do the first call. Of course, I got so much information back, that I fscked up on read back. Basically I got everything including which taxi way to take and after departure, which way to turn and towards which point. With quite few 'ehm's and 'ah's I got the blessing ("G-CM read-back correct") . Taxied all the way to the point Mike (I think it was), did the power checks, and off we went. On climb out I managed to turn to the left instead of right after take off. Quickly corrected, oops.
This time there was far more cloud around and you could see that we had a bit of head wind. Certainly the ground speed felt like we were going slower (final time also confirmed that).
I never had to go around clouds before, so this was fun. Otherwise, it was pretty uneventful leg.
We switched over to Scottish FIR, guy there was happy enough to tell us what the weather is like in Belfast. Then few minutes later, to our surprise - he told us, he has info from Newtownards, including that RWY is 22, and lights are going to be on (we knew that by the time we get there, it is going to be night VFR, and 22 is the only runway with lights). Again few bimbles around clouds, then we started to see Donaghadee and light houses there. The one at Donaghadee is rubbish as a navigation way point - you simply cannot see it, it seems to be very faint (I'm sure it's fine when you're in a boat!) and blends in with city lights at night. There was another one to the left, much brighter. I was told about nice feature of charts, lighthouse information ! Each light house will have its own frequency of blips. Say 4 white blips every 30s. That way, just by looking at it - you can tell which one is which. Seems obvious, but I didn't know about it.
Once closer to Donaghadee I started to visibly sink in. It also was rather dark. I'm sure not as dark as it was on the ground, but still - we were in night vfr. One of the problems with night flying, I was told -is that you cannot judge height and speed as well as during day. The texture of the ground features isn't visible at all, etc. I could see that I lost a bit of height myself. Instructor's comment was "keep her lit" :-D So I did add a bit of power to get us back to 1000 ft. (at this stage, we had to fly lower, due to clouds, plus we were already close to the airport).
Once over Donaghadee, I started configuring aircraft for landing. Again, thinking that I'm further away then I really was. Instructor did the landing (night vfr).
Landing at night is really something new, so I'm looking forward to doing that later on. (you need to have 10 hours solo including nav solo done beforehand tho).
Taxi back, shutdown and back in the club.
Overall, I did enjoy it very much. Loads of new things, new experiences, etc.
Fact is, I learned a lot during that 2.2 hours. More then I would doing circuits, or even flying one of the regular nav-exs around NI. But it seems that fly-outs is something for someone with more experience and who is much closer to the skill test then myself.
So all in all, win :-)
The additional excitement of broken tyre, observing how to deal with strange situations (finding someone to change tyre), booking out (:P), all that was also great. Not to mention, first land away somewhere else - even if it wasn't the best landing ever.
Once over Heads of Ayr, we were asked to contact Prestwick approach. Which we dully did.
This is where my radio dance started again. I completely cocked up read back, so helpful instructor jumped in and handled the radio.
For some bizarre reason, I didn't register the fact that controller asked us to do a loop (orbit), to allow a separation between ourselves and C172 on finals in front of us. So again, instructor read that back, and said the ominous "I have control" and swung us to the left, gave it back to me, to continue the loop.
Then the base, and finals to runway 13 at Prestwick. I've heard all the stories about how large these things are, but seeing it with my own eyes is a different thing... My idea was to let it float and slowly descent. Unknown to me, I didn't pull the power all the way (oops). So now what happened is a classic landing fsck up. You 'almost' flare (trying to float over the runway). I'm too high, of course - since the runway is so wide - I misjudged it. Stall warner sounds, I grab the power to pull it all the way to idle, and we sink in. Since we were high, we bounce off... And then again.. And third time lucky we landed. That's my first land away at major airport. Now, we touched down about 100m down from the numbers. And controller tells me to taxi to exit Quebec, then through taxiway Sierra to apron Zulu (or something to that effect). Now (have a look at the plate) that's the very last turn on the right from RWY13. That's 2986m runway :-) So imagine taxing all the way (about 2km...). Takes a while. Of course I managed to cock up that read back too. But somehow controller was nice enough to say 'read back correct'. I should really really back everything, not just numbers and names. So not just 'Exit quebec, Taxi sierra to Zulu', but 'exit quebec, taxi way sierra to apron zulu', etc.
Anyway, we did shut down, etc. Went for quick tea, and I had to pack my arse into G-UFCI. Back of it to be precise. Now, it's no secret that I need to loose some weight. Back of C172 isn't exactly suitable for guys like me. Felt more like front of C152, or even worse. But I managed. I think this was thanks to the fact that the fella sitting next to me was much thiner then me :-)
 |
| In the back of CI, flying to Cumbernauld. Ryanair jet behind us waiting to enter the runway. |
I unfolded myself, and packed out of the aircraft, and we went off to the main building.
Original plan to fly further east to Fife got binned, due to the weather forecast there - so we went off and ordered our lunch.
After lunch it was time to plan the return. Initially the plan was to flight direct to EGAD. That meant that this will be quite long leg. Original plan (that one that included flying to the south west of Ireland) and seating arrangement assumed that there will be 4 legs. I was suppose to be flying first and last one in Tecnam. Of course I wanted to fly as much as I could - I can't just sit there and wait for everyone else to allow me to fly :-) So with direct flight back, I would loose that chance. About 10 minutes later, with some people already planning their long navigation - someone mentioned fuel and head wind. So plan to fly direct was scrapped, and we decided to fly to Prestwick again, and then to EGAD. Good for me I thought :-) That meant more people got to fly bit more.
So off we went.
Some photos I took on our way back to aircraft:
So off we went to Prestwick. Again, very uneventful leg. The controller at Glasgow was very nice this time, she even asked us if we want to go through the zone. Despite the fact that we already had everything planned to go around! How cool is that. To be fair, they seemed to be very quiet at the time. She only had to ask one aircraft (Easyjet) to remain over 5k ft until such time she tells it otherwise. But that guy was miles away anyway. So we had a chance to fly over some nice wind farms. That also meant that we need to pick up height (in case donkey quits).
Landing at Prestwick was uneventful (unlike mine earlier on). This time the guy who flew C172 (Can't remember his name!, sorry!) - had similar idea to mine, but at least execution was better. He flew over the runway for a bit before flaring.
We taxied over to the same Apron again (apron Zulu), and idea was to just switch over and fly back.
But I noticed during the preflight that we had puncture and right hand side tyre was without air :/
Turned out - there was some very helpful mechanic at Prestwick who said he'll look into it, he had the tyre and the tube. Happy days.
Took him about an hour to change it in the mean time we went through map and went through the navigation planning. I got to say, I pretty much forgot everything since my last navex. One of the reasons I decided to go for the fly-out was ability to see others in action and perhaps learn something.
We got everything nicely planned, I even refreshed my knowledge about using 'flight computers' to calculate wind, etc. It was good that I remembered to take it with me. About the time
I was tasked with booking out procedure. Which was dead easy, turned out - not only everything is written down above phone but also helpful lady at the Tower said she has all the details from previous book out (before we lost the tyre) and she's just going to change times. Happy days.
So off I went to do a preflight, and pack all my stuff in. We also took with us the tyre and tube that was punctured, apparently these shouldn't burst so easily - so it can be sent back to manufacturer, etc. Not my business anyway, it's a club's aircraft.
Fired her up, and off I went to do the first call. Of course, I got so much information back, that I fscked up on read back. Basically I got everything including which taxi way to take and after departure, which way to turn and towards which point. With quite few 'ehm's and 'ah's I got the blessing ("G-CM read-back correct") . Taxied all the way to the point Mike (I think it was), did the power checks, and off we went. On climb out I managed to turn to the left instead of right after take off. Quickly corrected, oops.
This time there was far more cloud around and you could see that we had a bit of head wind. Certainly the ground speed felt like we were going slower (final time also confirmed that).
I never had to go around clouds before, so this was fun. Otherwise, it was pretty uneventful leg.
We switched over to Scottish FIR, guy there was happy enough to tell us what the weather is like in Belfast. Then few minutes later, to our surprise - he told us, he has info from Newtownards, including that RWY is 22, and lights are going to be on (we knew that by the time we get there, it is going to be night VFR, and 22 is the only runway with lights). Again few bimbles around clouds, then we started to see Donaghadee and light houses there. The one at Donaghadee is rubbish as a navigation way point - you simply cannot see it, it seems to be very faint (I'm sure it's fine when you're in a boat!) and blends in with city lights at night. There was another one to the left, much brighter. I was told about nice feature of charts, lighthouse information ! Each light house will have its own frequency of blips. Say 4 white blips every 30s. That way, just by looking at it - you can tell which one is which. Seems obvious, but I didn't know about it.
Once closer to Donaghadee I started to visibly sink in. It also was rather dark. I'm sure not as dark as it was on the ground, but still - we were in night vfr. One of the problems with night flying, I was told -is that you cannot judge height and speed as well as during day. The texture of the ground features isn't visible at all, etc. I could see that I lost a bit of height myself. Instructor's comment was "keep her lit" :-D So I did add a bit of power to get us back to 1000 ft. (at this stage, we had to fly lower, due to clouds, plus we were already close to the airport).
Once over Donaghadee, I started configuring aircraft for landing. Again, thinking that I'm further away then I really was. Instructor did the landing (night vfr).
Landing at night is really something new, so I'm looking forward to doing that later on. (you need to have 10 hours solo including nav solo done beforehand tho).
Taxi back, shutdown and back in the club.
Overall, I did enjoy it very much. Loads of new things, new experiences, etc.
Fact is, I learned a lot during that 2.2 hours. More then I would doing circuits, or even flying one of the regular nav-exs around NI. But it seems that fly-outs is something for someone with more experience and who is much closer to the skill test then myself.
So all in all, win :-)
The additional excitement of broken tyre, observing how to deal with strange situations (finding someone to change tyre), booking out (:P), all that was also great. Not to mention, first land away somewhere else - even if it wasn't the best landing ever.
- Milestones: First land away at large airport, bit of night vfr, loads of RT that I never done before, flight over water and loads more that I simply forgot.
- Exercises covered: Nav
- Weather: Some clouds, Getting bit worse later on, partial night vfr on the last leg
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