Qualifying Cross Country

So QXC time. It’s a sort of vanishing point, during last few years it was a point that never seemed to be getting much closer to reality.

I did all the planning two weeks before, in preparation for the big day. Two weather cancellations later, I got a go ahead. Took a day off from work to do this. 

Wind was calm, 5kt. And up North VRB/05 - So wind and such calculations were rather simple. 

It was a strange feeling, setting off in the aircraft by myself on this rather long journey. I never had a chance to take long trip by myself with landings away in the mix - that was a very new territory. I anticipated high gliding traffic west of Biggin - luckily there wasn’t anyone around. Take off was uneventful. Weather was slightly hazy - but visibility (apparently) 10k more. I set OBS to 270, with BIG tuned in. That should keep me out of troubles on the North side of things (Heathrow zone). By the time I got abeam Kemble (wouldn’t want to overfly it) - it was time to switch over to Farnborough West. I asked them for Traffic Service, which was given to me - with the provision that it might be reduced due to controller workload. No worries. 

Ten or so miles west of Biggin it was obvious that wind wasn’t exactly 5 knots. I drifted a bit to the north, so it was time to look at the chart and adjust my headings. My work load is always slightly increased when the inversion is up. The forward visibility isn’t as great and it takes me bit longer to spot and identify features on the ground. But no worries, I got the VOR tuned in and set up, in contact with FIR. Most importantly - I am always told - to trust my calculations - fly the heading and time. Minute or so before Guilford should have appeared in front me of - I had a look around to spot it and also use the Woking as a sort of secondary point. Problem was, with the inversion in place and sun above - the white buildings in Woking weren’t clearly visible as before. But I could clearly see Heathrow and Epsom race track (before, now far behind) and used ndb to double check my distance from Biggin. And there you go, 30 or so seconds later it was obvious that the larger town on my left is Guildford. Farnborough controller also made it slightly easier by giving me traffic information ‘unknown height’ 1m ahead west of Guildford - he said :-D . “Traffic not in sight, looking - G-FC” I responded as I turned to the South.

Once established on the southerly heading - I tuned in Goodwood VOR - but couldn’t identify it. Few more traffic reports, some of them I could see some I couldn’t. But it is always nice to have this additional level of support on the radio. Few minutes into the leg Goodwood VOR was identified positively - which allowed me to pin point my position and also make sure that I’m flying actually, generally - in the correction direction. 

About 12 miles out, I started preparing for the join at Goodwood, got the airfield chart out and also used VOR to turn correct heading towards it. I wasn’t far of the right heading anyway, so it was obvious wind was generally northernly - and not 5 knots. My time wasn’t off that much either. Again, because of inversion the airfield wasn’t easy to spot from 5 or so miles, but once I descended to 2000ft and got closer it was obvious. They asked me to report overhead, which I did. This was my second time here, however different runway in use this time. Very long one, tho - 014. 

So during brief my instructor warned me that landings might be interesting and I do have limited grass experience (thanks to DP) but this was to be my first solo landing there and on grass - exciting. Overhead join went uneventfully - not much traffic in the circuit, I’ve done tons of overhead joins at Ards before. The circuit height at Goodwood is 1200ft for fixed wing which is slightly higher then usual. I’m saying that, because that does make a difference. There’s also bunch of noise abatement procedures - but the general idea is not to overfly anything that looks like housing estate or such. So turning base - I decided to keep it so that I didn’t. 

That did put me in a bad situation, with speed still bit high and altitude still close to 1200ft. I think I dropped down to about 800ft on finals - but that was still too high. Once it was obvious that I won’t make it - I decided to keep the height and go around. The idea when you go around is not to climb back to 1000ft over runway - as other traffic joining overhead or crossing it to the dead side might be in conflict. So best is to climb up to half the height and stay there, turn crosswind - and climb to circuit height. I turned around, flew the circuit once again - and ended up slightly lower on finals - but still a tad too high. 

So no wind, possible slight tail wind (since it was varying), but runway long enough (014). 

I’m still too high on final - so I decided to try slight side slipping - which saved the day, popped third stage of flaps, speed dropped to 55kt, rounded out over numbers nicely. My side slip - importantly - wasn’t full - I added just enough input to both rudder and ailerons to keep me on the right descent path. Besides, full sideslip is not recommended when close to the ground. 

The roll was interesting as I looked down the runway and decided not to brake too hard when I saw a bump or hole - as I kept on reminding myself that I don't want to end upside down.

It’s a nice place (I love guys in tower saying to me "welcome to Goodwood", very warm welcome).

After shutdown,I paid landing fee and visited Tower to get the paperwork and then settled down to eat a sandwich and watch airplanes doing their thing. As I sat there for good 30 minutes, I counted 5 other airplanes doing well pronounced side slip on finals - which made me realise that maybe my approach wasn't that horrible since others had to side slip in as well. Some without flaps to assist them in slowing down, some with big engines and tail leg ( :P ) - so visibility and/or drag is increased by side slipping. But I’m sure at least one of these was a tricycle high wing and another one was a Robin DR400. 

It was time to go to Lydd. I checked out the aircraft, jumped in - and went off. Taxying to the holding point and power checks were interesting. No taxyways as such on grass, so it is jus taxying in the general direction of holding point, trying not to bump into any buildings and stay far away from the runway itself. After power checks I forgot to release park brake and I thought I got stuck - but I fixed it quite quickly. Yet another of these things that you learn by flying solo. Off I went, the leg was to be quite scenic (shore on the right) and straight forward (go east…). Wind conspired against me again and like a dumb pillock, I forgot to take that fully into account. So no wonders, I drifted a bit too close to the shore for my liking. Farnborough controller started calling out an aircraft ‘Farnborough west , G-PC’ few times. I realised that he got my call-sign wrong - so I responded with the full one. He was letting me know that I’m flying in vicinity of Shoream and if I want to fly closer I should call them up - as they were busy apparently. I decided to just correct my heading to the north - which would keep me far away from Shoream. Actually I only heard one aircraft taking off few miles ahead - and crossing from right to left - and whenever I looked over, couldn’t see anything on the runway, taxying or in the circuit. “Oddly” enough - no gliders on this leg either. 

Approaching Lydd, I was making sure every few minutes that I’m not getting anywhere close to the danger or prohibited area. And also made sure that my join procedure will be up to scratch. Lydd’s ATIS is very very very slow - so I did remember to tune in 15 or so miles out - to make sure I’ll have time to write it down. It is seriously being read out that slow. Dunno how jets manage it…

The join is interesting, but I managed. Winds however were having a party. I got some fast tailwind on base, more so then I expected, so I had to correct for finals quite a bit. Massive runway, so no rush - but with my experience at Goodwood - I made sure I’m on the correct glide path. Altho, go around at Lydd would be a nice experience. Some other time maybe :-)

Landed at Lydd, shut down and as I was walking to the terminal - I passed a nice guy on the way, who apparently was on his QXC as well - from Southend. I asked him, where do I get the paperwork signed - in case I have to wonder to the tower again. He said, this time I can do it in the terminal building, and also that I should check the dates the guys at Goodwood put in - as apparently they made mistake on his. And sure enough, mine was off as well. One date was correct, another one was month before. Go figure, as it was signed by the same guy. Maybe he was testing us…

Paid my landing fee, got paperwork sorted, and had a chat with the lady - who - as it turned out, was from Northern Ireland - at least her parents were. So we exchanged few stories about life in Belfast and I was on my way. Every time I go to Lydd, the place is rather deserted. Maybe because I’m always there in the late afternoon. Dunno. 

I checked the weather, and phoned up instructor. The last leg of the day was to be fun - as I was flying into the sun.

On the start up - another cock up. I forgot to put the mixture to fully rich. Seriously.. So no wonders engine didn’t start. I had a discussion with instructor, before I left Biggin - he asked me “So what will you do, if you cannot start the engine at Goodwood or Lydd”. I told him “I’ll phone you up, of course”. He asked me to give it few retries, before I do that - but agreed that it would be a good action to take. So faced with perspective of staying in this rather quiet place (not that I mind such places), I decided to wait a bit, go through the check list and try again. And of course - it was obvious what the culprit was. Doh !

Taxied out, they want us to do power checks at the holding point Charlie - because there’s not enough space to pass bigger aircraft elsewhere. I called in ‘ready for departure’ and controller told me “taxy to holding point Alpha for runway 03”. Bit mixed up, I looked at the chart, holding point A was on the other side. I started doing 180 deg to get there - but decided to check again. And of course, she did correct herself. We passed few non-standard RT calls around, like “that’s alright” “no problem” - it was nice. 

Meanwhile, I’ve heard a guy coming onto frequency - C172 (I think) was routing from High Wycombe back to High Wycombe around London and of course - all the way to Lydd and he was asking for ATZ transit - or something like that. This far away from Farnborough they want you to talk to Lydd anyway.

As I reported myself at the holding point D1, I was given a clearance to take off, wind info, and ‘turn left after 1nm’ - or something like that. Meanwhile - the guy from EGTB was reporting very close to my path. After take-off, I turned onto my heading, adjusting it a bit for the wind I did encounter earlier. I didn’t climb all the way to 2400 ft this time - because of the inversion, and flying west - the visibility would be legal - but too low for my liking. So I stayed around 2000ft. As I was doing the weaving turns to clear the space under nose on climb out - I noticed that guy from Wycombe just overhead. I was glad I didn’t climb any further, as we would end up rather close to each other. He did say he saw me on the radio - so all was good. 

So correction for the wind turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as wind decided to blow from reciprocal direction this time. I was asked to report abeam Tenterden. Instead, I ended up very close to it - and it was obvious that my correction wasn’t working. So I adjusted my heading 25 deg to the left - and that worked - I ended up over Bewl Water. I really don’t like flying here on day like this (inversion), in the afternoon with sun making it hard to see horizon clearly. So this leg was rather horrible has to be said. However, I ended up doing it in rather record breaking speed - probably because of the wind that was pushing me north. I think it took me just above 40 minutes to get from Lydd to Biggin. Take off to landing. With all necessary joining procedures etc. And that’s in C152. Instructor asked me to call Lydd and verify my take off time - as he could not believe. I was wondering as well, but my own notes didn’t lie. 

All in all, nice experience. But - apparently normal - I felt slightly terrified afterwards. The sort of healthy dose of terrified. I didn’t feel proud or happy with an achievement, as I did after driving to my friends after I got the licence - but rather - I felt this sort of feeling of “well, this is a huge responsibility”. Maybe if it was uneventful and without small cockups - I would have felt differently. Nonetheless I’m happy to pass this milestone. And all that after so many years of flying on different aircraft, with variety of instructors and in few places. To this day, I don’t know if it is just because of lack of absolute focus, especially financially - or because I’m - like one of my instructor would call these sort of types - not the brightest cookie. I was ready to do QXC in NI in September, but I had to move - so I’d say the former. 

Great experience and if I had to do it over again - things would have been done differently, starting with solo land away much earlier in the training process.

I can’t wait to get to fly by to these and other places - on my own. 

Bread Crumb

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Dual to Goodwoods and back

So we've been to Lydd, now it's time to go to Goodwoods. Weather was good Today and with few cancellations - instructor let me know we can go.
I planned the whole route day before, in the anticipation. We were suppose to go there on Friday afternoon right after work. But that was stretching it and the weather wasn't great either.

I was late on Saturday morning, somehow after the week at work - I felt very knackered and needed some sleep. I got on with planning quickly, there was virtually no wind (VRB) - but I took the Biggin wind, 060/10 for planning.

With everything done and quick preflight we were airborne in 20 or so minutes. From the start I was slightly behind the aircraft and going west there's a lot going on. I have to keep very good lookout, because I know the attitude of the glider pilots - and that they don't care about ATZs, controller airspace and propelled traffic. On top of that , radio was very busy, unfamiliar territory. I don't know, but in general it wasn't the best day for me either. and it did show. Instructor didn't scream or took over, so I was still safe - but if I was on my own on that day, I would have turned back. It did get better later on tho. Somehow I feel double pressure when I know that there are gliders in the area.
With the proposed airspace changes in the area - I think it will make things even more frantic in the air and less safe.

I had 270 radial tuned in on the BIG VOR, so I don't bust LTMA, and was aware where I was - but somehow still I felt like I'm behind the aircraft. To add confusion, even tho the day was nice - it was very bumpy. Everything that did heat up - was creating thermals - and I had to make small adjustments from time to time and some bigger ones when the aircraft decided to turn 20 deg due to the wind. Later on (towards the end) it was actually a bit grotesque like this. There were two fires/smoke sources on the ground about 20 miles apart. Each one was showing wind blowing in opposite - pretty much - direction. Never seen anything like that before :-)

We ended up pointing more towards Woking - so I did call in all the features around and pointed us in the right direction. The first hint was us being slightly closer to the Epsom Track - but again, being tossed around and not in front of the aircraft meant that I didn't got that hint. Another lesson learned.

Once over Guildford we turned roughly South. Called some features, again - completely new area to me. Instructor started asking me about some features around me - but I couldn't point them clearly on the chart. This part of the world is littered with features on the chart - it takes me half a minute or a minute sometimes to locate clearly a mast, or such and confirm that it is the one. On top of that, I did feel a bit agitated knowing that I wasn't ahead as much as I would love to.
After identifying all the features, we tuned in Goodwoods VOR, I did nicely identify it, etc. It was obvious that we need to track slightly to the left to reach Goodwoods. I asked Farnborough for frequency change, which took a bit - the frequency was very busy. Next time I'll do it about 15 miles out - otherwise it might be hard.
Once in sight of Goodwoods we planned an overhead join at 2000ft, and then drop down to 1200ft circuit level (QFE). It has been a while since I talked to non-ATC - so it was bit odd. Things were very busy at Goodwoods as well.
On finals for 06 I ended up rather high, so I had to go around. Altho calling go-around is the last thing on the list, it helps people around to get the picture more clearly. The next circuit was extended slightly - due to other traffic - and we ended up just right on finals. We were to use short field take off and landing technique there, since it's grass. I did however let aircraft slow down on its own on the ground, didn't want to brake too much on grass. That was pointed out to me later, as something I should have done much earlier.

Once we landed, I got confused on the radio. For some reason I thought controller said 'stand 13 to the left of the tower'. But I couldn't spot anything saying stand 13. Turned out, he said 3rd stand to the left of the control tower. Oh dear.

Once we parked up nicely, we went to pay the landing fee and have something to drink. I've been to Goodwoods before, albeit drove in - so it was nice to see the other side of the airfield for change.
I did quick check on the chart, as to the way we need to take to the 06 and where to do the power checks.

The landing fee was reasonable, but price for a can of fanta - has to be said - wasn't. £1.20 - that's rather steep. Tap water is free tho!

We went back to the aircraft, started up. It took a bit power to start rolling - I think wheels got a bit buried in the soft soil, they looked alright from outside.

We took off 06, and turned east. I mocked up on the radio (again), and had to ask Goodwoods Information which frequency I should talk to next. They suggested Farnborough West. It was very busy again, so I got on with navigation. We used VOR and NDB few times to fix our position - I misallocated Brighton (doh!) - again - slightly behind the aircraft, curses. I was only able to get my call in, once we were abeam Shoream - so controller asked me to switch over to Farnborough East pretty much as soon as I finished passing my details.

About 2-3 minutes later as I was trying to identify my half way point - we spotted a glider ahead - doing turns - well into the Gatwick zone (we were at 2400ft, he was at least 400ft above). So I did a sharp turn to the right to avoid it - as it was pretty much going at us. The guy was well above me - so it took me a bit of effort to keep him in sight - due to the high wing configuration. But I think they spotted us at some stage too - and turned to their right. That was a bit of a blood pressure raiser. You'd think that if you're close enough to the edge of the zone - Longitudinally - there should not be anything trying to descent down on you. Well, gliders are apparently exempt from zone clearances.. (sarcasm implied).

So after that nice distraction - I had to come up with our whereabouts - knowing that instructor can pretty much identify the area no problems. Turned out that we weren't much off our course in the end. The town ahead - Uckfield - was pretty clearly identifiable with all the towns and roads, railways in the area. I then turned towards Tunbridge and Tonbridge. Confusing to me, two separate towns - with very similar name. We were suppose to do some PFLs and such around here, but since we were running slightly behind - all we did is just track towards seven oaks using Biggin VOR - this time - intercepting a radial 330 - which would let us over to Biggin pretty much. Again, I did fuck up few things here - that sort of a day... Instructor did however pull power on me, to see what I'll do in simulated engine failure scenarios.

Once about 5 miles south of Sevenoaks we requested frequency change, tuned in ATIS and I asked Biggin about the rejoin instructions. Did a bit of a mockery on radio there too - as I forgot to mention that we are coming from Goodwoods - but I don't know what significance would that have.

The airport was clearly visible, runway 03 this time in use. One thing I did wrong on base tho - apparently - was sudden nose drop to maintain airspeed. I pulled power, put the flaps on - in the mean time the speed decayed to about 50 kt - so I quickly pushed the yoke to recover. Too quickly it seems, instructor did mention that and said that I should make the gradual change in anticipation there - instead of reaction to speed drop. Dully noted.

We landed, filled er up - and that's it. I did notice that instructor wasn't as happy about the lesson as one would hope, but he said that I was safe at all times - and didn't do anything that would raise questions.  I was told that next thing on the list will be the solo QXC - so I'm looking forward to that. It probably won't happen this coming week tho - will see. I think the aim is to do it during week, when it isn't as busy around. So I'll need to take a day off for that.

I'm looking forward to that. And in the mean time - I have to speed up my theoretical exams. I have 4 that I have passed in NI, but I'm still waiting for instructor there to send those over.