Couple navs so far

Taking advantage of the brilliant weather we have for a week or so now in Northern Ireland, I started doing more navs (one route in particular).

It became obvious to me that there's a lot I need to learn. Or rather, it becomes more obvious that I know nothing (ask me how I know).

It seems I'll have to put in a lot of work to approach any acceptable levels there. Things that went well, I'll have to make sure I'm consistently good at, not just sometimes.

I never claimed that I'm brilliant at flying, I'm just a student. So I won't bore you for now with each and every lesson, no point in writing how s**t I am at everything - besides, some people seem to get the wrong idea that I'm good at things which is why I write about it. I'm not, I'm just a student trying to learn how to fly well, and share some joys of it on the way.

I'll write up an update if/when something exciting and worth noting comes up (like a next solo cross country nav).

Lesson: 44

02/06/2013

• Lessons time: dual - 0.0h, solo - 0.7h !


• Total time: 41.4h (3.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCM (Tecnam 2002JF)

I wasn't sure if he was joking yesterday or not - about the solo. But I did prepare everything best I could, even created my own plog table - that would fit my kneepad and give me all info where I needed it to be.

I arrived well ahead of time, impatiently awaiting the verdict. I wanted to go and fly this one solo, but on the other hand - I couldn't believe that anyone would let me. I'm guessing I was told that the weather isn't good for solo way too many times already.

But it turned out, it was solo time for me. Instructor went through all my planning meticulously - making sure I did everything correctly. I got few words of advice and caution (which I won't repeat here :P ). And off I went.

I took the time, making myself comfortable in the aircraft, doing all the preflights, etc.
My biggest fear was the radio. Everything else I knew I could handle (or so I thought...).

So off I went, once overhead comber - I switched over to Belfast, on the initial call you have to give them quite few pieces of information and whilst you recite all of it - it feels like a lot.

Then turned towards Bishops Court - and off I went. I was quite nervous a minute before the estimated time over Bishops court. But minute later there it was. Slight correction, but I could see it clearly.

Calculated my next leg's ETA, but I managed to cock up radio call there. Had to used the magic phrase 'correction'. 'Report Hillsborough', he responded - and off I went.

After the turn - this was the moment of truth. Heading, and time. During that leg, I noticed that my heading was drifting a bit from time to time. Had to align DI twice.

Once I was overhead - what I thought was - Ballynahinch - I asked for zone transit, which was granted to me nicely. 'Report Hillsborough' voice said on the radio again. 'Zone transit approved, wilco Student G-UFCM' - I replied.

Picture ahead didn't make much sense, but I was on the heading - and there was a quarry underneath.
It was time to check where I was - and it was obvious I was on the Northern side of Lisburn. Doh!. Quick call to Belfast City, where I managed to say I'm south of Lisburn, only to correct myself straight away, and I decided to turn back to Comber.

This time DI was way out (it always seems to be doing that on that turn !) - so after aligning it with compass - off I went. My estimated time was of course off - because I was closer to Comber then if I was to fly there from Hillsborough - but that's ok. At least I knew exactly where I was.

Time to join the circuit downwind - and land this thing.

Landing was pretty neat, bit high on approach - but I didn't wanted to fly too low over the town. This time I extended flaps in 3 stages.

I shut her down, and took out my phone - it was recording the gps track. I was interested to see how much off the track I was. Turned out, quite a fair bit :/

One thing for sure, I'll be much more precise at flying next time.

In the club, I was greeted by instructor - who to my story about being a bit off course replied "I've heard your RT was really good". That was a nice compliment.
Indeed, turned out that the Controller from Belfast City phoned in to inform them that my RT was 'Well above standard'. He made my day ! (and the fact that I did the solo nav was also uplifting on its own).

Here's a complimentary GPS track:

And the message from the Controller:

:-)

• Route: EGAD->Comber->Bishops court->Hillsborough->Comber->EGAD


• Milestones: Cross Country Nav in Tecnam SOLO!


• Exercises covered: Ex.18A (solo)

• Weather: Bit gusty, clouds at about 2500ft, lower in few places,  great visibility

Lesson: 43

01/06/2013

• Lessons time: dual - 0.9h, solo - none


• Total time: 41.4h (2.6h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCM (Tecnam 2002JF)

One of instructors suggested earlier that I shouldn't really worry about doing the solo circuits to get full 3h solo, but rather plough ahead and move on to cross country navs. The idea of 3h solo is to get students to learn how to land the thing properly. Suffice to say, I did it a lot already (at least in comparison to an average student :P). 

So I haven't planned any navs from start to finish by myself in ages (the fly out planning was done with help of other students and the instructor). Took few hours to read the chapters on planning again, and reminded myself how to use the 'flight computer'. Confident that I did it right this time - it was time to go to the club and face the music. 

That day was a bit gusty, with winds changing directions few time - as reported to me by a fellow student. Oddly enough, earlier that day - he was flying the opposite direction on the runway. That's how crazy winds were. 

Well, instructor came back from the previous flight - I have flown with this particular person before, but it was quite some time ago. I like this particular instructor - so it was good to be able to fly with him. 

He scanned quickly through my plan - saying, "Well, we'll see if it works". He also had an aviation GPS with him - to verify my route - in case I got lost. Although, I'm sure he did this particular nav many times.

We packed ourselves in, and away we went. Since I was bit overwhelmed with things - I asked instructor handle the radio. Especially since I usually feel bit more under pressure to do things quickly when there's instructor on board. 

Overhead Comber, instructor made call to the Belfast City approach, and I tried to decide which way to turn to the heading. I put my kneepad on the left leg - and that was a big mistake. Also, the plog I had was way too fiddly and complicated. But hey - that's the way you learn. 

But that’s enough of ranting; time to get on with flying. 

First leg made me nervous (what if this doesn't work, etc.). I wasn't sure on which side of the Strangford Lough I should expect my checkpoint to pop up. Instructor took away my chart - asking me to simply fly the heading for the expected time. 

From the memory, the coastline looked much smoother on the chart then in reality - but it was really nice to see different sort of views from the airport area. So we ploughed on, getting a bit lower due to the cloud overhead. And as expected after few minutes, there it was - Bishops Court Track. An old airfield turned into racing circuit. It is really astonishing how much of the old outlines of buildings and runways you can still pick up from the above. 

Previous instructor was asking me to fly through the checkpoint, and loop around and then turn again towards my new heading. This time I was asked to just turn on the heading without any extra complication. This next one is the longest of the legs and also one where we need to request zone transit. Hillsborough is in the approach zone of the Belfast City airport. Again, I set the heading, calculated the times - and off we went. 

Because that leg is long, and because there aren't' that many obvious features to check on (especially if your instructor took your chart :P) - I was trying to make sense of what I see. But again, idea is to fly the heading for the calculated time. Surprisingly - we actually ended up eventually overhead Hillsborough without any major corrections. 

Overhead Hillsborough we were asked to report Finnaghy (to let controller know, that we will be leaving the zone soon), so off we went. This leg was easy - as you can see the Scrabo Tower on the hill, and there are no similar hills in the area - can't mistake this one for something else. 

Once overhead Comber, we switched over to Ards frequency and I setup aircraft for landing.

Trying to do things in my own way and at my own pace, instructor just said 'this will be interesting'.

Apparently I did a pretty nice job and landing was probably best one ever. Smooth as a feather!

This particular instructor prefers to apply flaps in 3 stages. 'T/O', 'landing drag', 'Full'. I usually would set the 'T/O' stage first, let it slow down, and then apply full one on finals. 

So taking that into account, and the fact that we didn't loose speed when the instructor was expecting to - his reaction was 'this will be interesting'. I'm always happy when instructors are letting me to do things my own way anyway. I love that. Of course, I learned that there's better way - it is of course different when you fly a nav, to just circuit flying. In circuits you are doing it over and over again. But here you have to switch to the 'approach/landing' frame of mind, after a long nav. 

On the ground, I was told to plan it for tomorrow - I'm to fly it solo. I seriously thought the guy was kidding, but.. Well. That's another lesson ;)

• Route: EGAD->Comber->Bishops court->Hillsborough->Comber->EGAD


• Milestones: Cross Country Nav in Tecnam


• Exercises covered: Ex.18A

• Weather: Bit gusty, showers in vicinity, few storm clouds at about 2100 ft,  great visibility

Lesson: 42

05/05/2013

• Lessons time: dual - 0.7h, solo - none


• Total time: 40.5h (2.6h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCM (Tecnam 2002JF)

Had a bit of a break (again). This time, this was due to technical issues with aircraft, and weather. Very frustrating for me, and everyone else in the club - but safety's the priority. 

Because of the gap, the instructor decided that we should go for 'un-rusting' general handling exercises. 

Nothing fancy, we went straight out of the circuit (RWY 22 take off), and switched over to the Belfast City. I let instructor handle the radios, as I wasn't sure what we are be doing. 

Just the usual, turns, climb and descent, that sort of thing. Was useful to know that I still can remember most of that. 

I was disappointed that I couldn't just do my remaining 0.4h solo - but on the other hand, with the gap - I think I wasn't really expecting to do that. 

On the way back we did one or two circuits, and that was that. 

Nothing exciting really. 

• Route: Over peninsula


• Milestones: none


• Exercises covered: General handling

• Weather: Pretty good, bit of a gust. Cloud at about 2500ft.