Category: Flying

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Dual Cross country to Boston UK

I got up this Sunday morning and planned my route to Boston and back as I had done the week before. I sketched out the triangles of velocities for the wind at 2,000ft and filled out my Plog (Pilot Log) I then checked that the numbers are correct by recreating the route in Skydemon , I never seem to agree 100% with the numbers, but I assume that is due to errors in physically drawing and reading the numbers, however they are normally very close and that was the case today as well.

I arrived at Chatteris, went into the hanger and pre-flight checked our C42 and then pulled her out ready for the flight. The wind was yet again gusting to around 15 knots and this was forecast to get worse as the day went on. At Chatteris we a lucky to have  quite a few runways to choose from which allows us to keep the cross wind element down, as the C42 is only demonstrated to 15 knots crosswind.

Mike asked if I had the route planned and then gave my figures a quick sanity check, he then asked how I intended to leave to fly to Boston. Well as we were going to be on runway 19, I said I would fly the circuit climbing all the time and leave at the end of the downwind leg, flying towards a known point where my route intersects and then change onto my heading. This meet with Mike’s approval, so on to the next question, how would we join at Boston, well the great thing about writing this blog is it helps me commit things to memory and for last week’s blog I drew out the overhead join from the south for runway 27 at Boston, so I got this correct too! The only thing Mike added was as Boston’s runway 27 is a right circuit, we should fly a little wider over the runway so I can see the runway better from the pilot’s seat.

So off we went, runway 19 following Pat and before Katie and Julie landed. Around the circuit and out towards Wimblington levelling out at 2,300ft, at Wimblington we set course of 340°. At the halfway mark I should see Fenland Airfield to my left, however I was looking and looking and could not see it! Mike suggested I look out of the other side and sure enough there it was just to my right!

A little further on I checked my location again, I should have been between Whaplode and Holbeach, but I was to the left of Whaplode so I decided to correct my course and turn and once back over my track then turn again back on to my heading.

Just before the 5 miles remaining mark there is a bridge across the river Welland it is bang on my plotted course and I was directly over it. At this point I descended and switched the radio to Boston Traffic (135.47) and down to 2,000ft I made my 5 mile call. I could see where I thought the airfield was and we were heading directly to it.

We flew to the left of the runway and made the overhead join, turned and descended on the dead side and then turned again on to the downwind leg. Mike pointed out some visual markers. On Final things were fun as there was a cross wind at almost 90° and approaching the 15 knot limit. However apart from floating a little longer then I thought the landing was a good one and we parked up and had a cup of tea!

I lost Mike as he disappeared as I was booking in, I found him in the hanger chatting to Chris who was working on restoring a Morris Marina pickup

After some time we decided to leave, as we were walking to the Aeroplane I asked Mike if he had ever seen inside the Flight Sim building, needless to say he had and also knows the guy (Ian) who owns it, he took me in and introduced me, they were just about to run it up and invited me to take the controls, it was amazing, the graphics on the wrapper around screen, every control works in the 737-800 cockpit and there is even a link to the training ATC where you can speak to them and request all the normal services!  Check out their web site at http://flightdeck-reality.co.uk/

Back to reality and my flight back, the crosswind was getting even higher so we lined up diagonally to reduce the cross wing element probably by around 10°, Mike briefed me on what to do, hold the stick into wind power up and as we approach flying speed progressively bring the stick back to neutral. I did as mike said and we were very soon airborne, we flew the circuit and left to the south crossing the bridge, Mike suggest we add another 10° to keep on track and this worked out well, we hit all the marks correctly. Back at Chatteris the landing went well too. It was however too late and too windy for me to make a solo flight back to Boston, however Mike was pleased with my flying and said weather permitting I can fly solo to Boston next week.

As an aside I upgraded Mike’s Garmin Glo to 2.7 and he successfully tested it during the next lesson, so I would recommend anyone with the Bluetooth issue on iOS 8.3 to do the same!

 

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Short field Takeoff and Landings

Short field Takeoff and landings were the order of the day as it was a UK bank holiday weekend thus it was too wet, too windy and too low a cloud base for a cross country!

Mike decided to demonstrate short field approaches and take offs, but first we would take off and fly out to the south and check what the cloud base was and also I wanted to switch headsets and try Mike’s out to see if it was much better than mine or not.

We were using runway 19 so after take-off we just continued out in the same direction we got to 1,100ft  with the clouds just above us. Mike offered to swap headsets, he is a great David Clark fan and has a H10-13XL I have an HX20-10XL, but the ENC  never seems that great to me, there is a difference, but it’s not massive. My headset being second hand and old also has the older larger battery pack. Mike’s headset did seem a lot quieter than mine without the ENC switched on and the noise reduction was more dramatic when switched on; so I guess either I have a problem or the H10-13XL is a better headset, on the plus side for the H20-10XL it is more comfortable!

I then flew us back to the circuit and landed we turned down the peri-track to clear the runway for Tom and Katie who were inbound behind us and taxied to runway 21 as the wind had moved around a little. Here Mike demonstrated a short field take-off; with the normal single stage of flap he increased to full power while holding the aircraft on the brakes, with the stick full back he released the brakes and as soon as we were airborne he lowered the nose allowing the aeroplane to accelerate in ground effect until we reached 60 knots and then we climbed away as normal. I then flow the circuit and Mike took over for the short field landing; we were to come in lower and with power, the normal 2 stages of flaps deployed, as we take the power off the aircraft decelerates rapidly, as the main wheels touch we apply full braking, while keeping the nose wheel off the ground as long as possible.

The remainder of the lesson was me trying to emulate what Mike had shown with me having various levels of success. The take offs where mainly fine, putting the nose down early enough was an issue the first time! The my first landing was OK and we stopped nice and short my next two were go arounds, where the approaches were ok but the round outs were not great, my penultimate landing was good and final landing was fine too, however the right wheel locked up under the heavy braking, I instinctively released the break and corrected with the rudder, which I was told after was the correct thing to do, however I just allowed it to rollout as normal after, forgetting this was short field practice!

 

This was fun lesson that I really enjoyed, the take-off and landing performance of the C42 is quite remarkable I don’t know the exact distanced and I was helped by the head wind but I would guess we were up in less than 60m and landing in 50m!

During the week I have been playing with an SDR (Software Defined Radio) a cheap USB TV tuner with the RTL chipset from eBay (about £4.00 + P&P), with the right software you can receive ADS-B messages and I wanted to see if we could see the C42 with it and we could! The strange thing is that while on the ground the code (normally 7,000 for VFR) is not seen, but once airborne it is, after discussing this we think it’s due the difference between Squitter messages and Squawking, squitter being the unsolicited broadcast of information every second or so from a mode S transponder and Squawking being the reply transmitted by the transponder in response to an interrogation message, I will try to confirm this and update the blog.

Lastly I have Skydemon (which I think is great) loaded on my iPad mini WIFI model and it uses an external Bluetooth Garmin Glo GPS. Following the update by Apple to iOS 8.3 this and many other GPS units have stopped working. This is a major issue if you intend to navigate using and external GPS, however I found that upgrading the firmware in the Glo to 2.7 and then “forgetting” the connection on the iPad and reconnecting it (this is an important step) it was working once more!

To upgrade simply follow the instruction found on the Garmin site

cf-lg

A shameless plug as a closing thought!  with the looming domain and hosting cost upcoming, I would ask you to consider clicking on one or more of the ads on the site to help me offset the site costs!

 

 

 

 

 

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Too windy or not to windy that is the question!

It seems that every day that I’m not down to fly is perfect flying weather! Today the question was is it too windy for solo practice? Well luckily for me the front moved through taking with it the very light rain and much of the wind, so by 12:45 it was deemed ok for me to go solo and practice trimming and turning on to headings in preparation for a change in plan!

The change in plan for me is very exciting, in that as the better weather seems to be coming our way I will now try and fly 2 solo cross counties and if Mike is ok with my dual attempt scheduled for 2 weeks’ time (no flying for me next week). This will enable me to go directly for my full licence. I have not been flying on exact headings for a while as we go up and head in a general direction and then practice whatever the lesson is. I think my flying has improve a lot over the last few months so I hope I will find the upcoming challenge less of an issue than before.

Still back to today’s Solo practice, the wind was almost straight down runway 01 which made choosing the runway ease, so off I went and out over to the drains which are to the east of Chatteris. Flying at 70kts was fine and 80kts too, but at 60kts it fell like being on a funfare ride! I practiced working out the heading I was to turn on to and then turning on to it, I wasn’t far out on these and they got better as the hour went on. My height was proving a little to variable and I will need to watch and correct this more proactively on the cross county flights. The conditions seem to be improving from the point of view of the cloud base, it was around 1,200 went I went up and by time I came in it was nearer 2,000. I didn’t want to be late back in as I knew Alan had a cross country planned after my lesson. I turned back with plenty of time on my side and joined base leg for 01. My approach was ok, but I was aiming at the threshold like we had in my no flaps lesson the last time I flew and with the gusty wind and the fact I took the power off before I rounded out, it was all looking not so good, so full power and around I went, I struggled a little to keep it within the white arc trying to keep the nose on the horizon, I guess this was just down to me, although I would like to blame the wind!

So my first Solo go around, and in my mind I could hear Mike saying why did you take the power off at that point , closely followed by well no one has ever crashed into the sky!

On my next approach it all seemed a lot more controlled and apart from a slight balloon as the wind gusted, it was a gentle landing.

Back on the ground I quickly filled the tank to the 30ltr mark ready for Alan and then went back into the clubhouse. Mike asked how it went and I replied “ok apart from my first landing attempt!”, “So what went wrong?” He asked, “I’m not sure, a gust of wind!”, “No you took the power off to soon and were aiming at the threshold!” what can I say he was right as normal!

I asked Mike if he could re cap on the board overhead joins and radio calls so I can try to get them in my mind before my cross country attempt and he duly obliged. Being that Chatteris is a Parachute drop zone, we are not allowed to do overhead joins so don’t get to use/practice these before our out landings.

 

Below is my attempt to recreate what was on the board. For each of the radio calls you need to prefix them with who you are calling and your call sign, e.g. Boston Radio, Boston Radio, G-CEGL, 5 miles south inbound.  Mike always says to say the called station twice when it’s a Safetycom frequency.

27 OVERHEAD JOIN
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No Flaps!

The weather forecast for today all week had been low winds with broken cloud at 3,000ft with good visibility, so as I have had a few lessons cancelled I thought I would take advantage of the nice Easter bank holiday Sunday weather and book a lesson followed by an hour solo. On arriving at Chatteris it was a gloomy day, this has its benefits in that the parachutists would be grounded! But Mike was also concerned that the weather may not be suitable for a solo, however we would wait and see what it was like following my lesson.

My lesson today would be PFLs and Flapless landings; we took off on 01 and for the first time in this direction Mike closed the throttle and declared an engine failure! I put the nose down, but there was nowhere to go, well other than a young oilseed rape field, not ideal, but we would walk from it, if this was a real engine failure. We powered up and went around and flew a couple of normal circuits to start with, but we were to come in on the orange triangle (52 kt – Recommended Minimum Approach Speed) we normally come in at 60kt. Then on the third circuit we did a touch and go without flaps, I needed to sideslip to get down as I had left the power on far too long,  it is surprising how far you float and how slowly you come down on a still day without flaps!

G-NT Landing
Flex Wing Microlight
G-NT Landing

 

 

 

 

 

We then left the circuit as the sky had cleared enough for the parachutists to be up and to call “Clear-Drop”. We left to the south as we knew Katie and Julie were to the East; as it turned out they aborted the drop and returned to the airfield as the visibility was not great.
Out to the south we did a few PFLs and I was again not great, but a little better with each one.
Time was up and I flew us back to the airfield and did another flapless landing. Once we were parked up Mike debriefed me as normal, but his words hit home, “I must fly the PFLs as if my life depended on them, I need to do all that I can to get into a field and not simply say that “I didn’t make it and power up and go around!”, Chilling words of wisdom.

The weather had cleared up sufficiently for me to go solo which I did under Katie’s supervision as Mike was off flying with his son. I flew out to the East and practiced trimming and did 3 PFLs, all went well, even my PFLs, I need to sideslip, but at 600ft they were looking good, we don’t go any lower when solo to ensure we don’t fall foul of the 500ft rule and for safety.

I flew back to Chatteris and could see the parachute plane on the ground so I joined base leg and landed normally, it was a very soft landing, which I thought felt good. I taxied back and went in where Katie was waiting for me and asked how it had gone and also comment on my landing looking good!

I gave the aeroplane a quick wash and put it away with Katie’s help before heading home from an enjoyable days flying.

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A Busy Day At Chatteris!

Light Wind and a cloud base of over 3,000ft today so all looked good for another lesson on Practice Forced Landings, as I drive down the single track road and just before I turn on to the dirt track that leads down to Chatteris Airfield I see a guy with a parachute walking towards the track, well this is new, I thought to myself, I stopped and gave him a lift back to the club, he had been trying out or learning with a new winged suit and got a bit off target!

As I walked to the clubhouse I saw a new aeroplane parked up, it had a long wingspan and turned out to be a Chevvron 2-32C 3 axis Microlight in for a check flight with Mike.

Mike asked if I would mind him slotting in the check flight before my lesson, I had no problem with this as it gave me time for lunch and a cup of tea! As I stood drinking my tea Stuart came in and asked if I was flying in our C42, I explained I was waiting for Mike and he kindly offered to take me up while I waited.  While we were flying I had a go flying it from the other side, wow I could not believe how much more difficult it was flying left handed. Straight and level was not too bad but 30 degree turns, well that’s another story!

Just as Mike was about to turn onto final the Parachute plane called Clear Drop and we all left the circuit as is the agreement.


The time all canopies where down, the check flight paper work done and Stuart and I were on the ground my slot was over. However Simon was up next and didn’t mind waiting, so Mike and I went up for some PFLs, it was to be only 30mins, but again the time we got back it was nearer 45mins…

This time I was using constant aspect to fly down to a mark where I estimated I would need to be at 700ft to glide into the field. This combination seemed to be working well for me, let’s hope it continues!

Just before I left we had another visitor to the club in a recently recovered Skyranger, pictures below.

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Side Slipping on glide approaches

Today we had a low cloud base once again and an increasing wind! Mike had return from his holiday too so I was back flying with him.

Our C42 had been serviced during the week and had the ballistic chute reinstalled too, this in turn had restored the trim to its default setting and to me it seems to make the aeroplane fly better!

As the Cloud base was low we decided to fly a few circuits and power back doing only a glide approach touching down on 06 and then going around, this seemed to be going OK so we left the circuit to the east and did some side slipping practice and then returned.

Side slipping seems to go against what we have been told in that except for side slipping we are always trying to keep the slip indicator ball in the middle, but now we want it hard over! Mike pointed out that slipping to the left (stick to the left rudder to the right) gives the pilot a much better view, which it does, and thus recommended to slip this way on approach. The other thing I was doing wrong was trying to keep the nose straight, but this was my mistake as the nose has to move off to present the side of the aircraft to the airflow, recognising and accepting this fact makes it a lot easier to side slip.

C42 Cockpit – Slip indicator top middle

Back in the circuit the exercise now was to leave the power on so I was high, then power back and either side slip or S turns to drop height. I did both on the next approach S turning and then side slipping and we landed ok on the far half of the runway. We back tracked and repeated this again this time it worked better and we landed normally.

My hour was up; it seems to go very quickly when you are in the circuit!

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A Cold Front!

Today my flying lesson was moved forward by 1 hour as the British weather forecast showed a cold front moving through around the time my lesson would be ending; it was Katie that had spotted this and the foresight to move it.

When I arrived I duly burped the aeroplane and pre-flight checked our C42 over, I could not get it out of the hanger as the wing would not clear Mick’s C42 if I tried. Not wanting to take any chances I went into the club house and asked Mick for his assistance and he happily obliged taking his aeroplane out of the hanger as he would be flying a little latter. I don’t like moving any aeroplane even the one I have shares in on my own, I believe it to be safer to have two people to do it one watching each side. This way the risk of causing “Hanger Rash” is reduced! For those that have not heard the term before, hanger rash is when one aeroplane bumps another and causes damage however slight. We have recently been the victims of hanger rash and although it only caused light damage to the aileron covering, it could had caused damage to the rods inside; this is why whenever you witness or cause hanger rash it is very important to report it, so the owner of the other aeroplane can check it out before flight. However there is a tendency to cover it up or not report it probably due to the fear of the costs of fixing the damage; however the real cost could be so much higher if not reported! Maybe the BMMA or someone could do a piece on it!

Anyway Katie and I were off and decided to do a flapless take off due to the wind, it was a good job too as it would have been very easy to over speed the aeroplane’s VFE  in these conditions.

Once again as we cleared the runway Katie declared an engine failure and I selected a field and we would have been down OK, these I don’t seems to have too many issues with.

We flow west towards the approaching front thus ensuring we could get back if it moved in on us. We made a few PFLs and I got in to some and was sort on others and even too high on a couple. The gusting strong wind made it difficult to judge. My selections of field although fine from on high often had power cabled crossing them as we got closer, making me reselect an alternative field. A tip from Katie here is to check if they have straight plough lines or if they have a “bump” in them if they do it is probably where they have gone around an electricity pole!

As the wind was too high for the parachutists we overflew Chatteris airfield and tried a couple PFLs there, again I was too short and then to high on my last attempt I got it just about right, however I thought I was going short an got my self-transfixed on the runway threshold causing me to round out a bit high resulting in a bit of a bump as we landed!  another thing in today’s lesson I had not come across before, is lowering the nose slightly in a strong wind will help stretch the glide a little, here we are only talking 5 kts or so and only a marginal extension in ground coverage, but every few feet could count in a real engine failure!

At least today I remembered to clean the aeroplane up on the taxi back, strobe off, transponder off and flaps up.

Another good thing today, the aeroplane was not to muddy so it was quick to clean, which was good as just after putting her away in the hanger the rain started, good timing!

Parked at Fenland
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Practice Forced Landings (PFLs) with a different instructor

As there was no flying last week due to the weather so today was going to be my first lesson with Katie.

I arrived at the airfield at around 09:45 for my lesson at 10:00 this had been brought forward from 12:00 as the slot was free and the weather forecast showed it getting more un-flyable as the day goes on , it was Katie who kindly text me to suggest this and if she had not I would not have flown.

On arriving I noticed our aircraft was out and down near the clubhouse, which I thought was a bit odd as I was expecting to get it out of the hanger and burp the engine as this was the first flight of the day. It transpired that Katie had kindly got it out and warmed it up read to fly for me.

I preflight checked the aeroplane and we got straight off using the main runway 19; the plan was to climb up to 2,500ft and use the constant aspect approach for the PFL, however almost as soon as we were up Katie closed the throttle without warning, I was not expecting this, but I put the nose down and selected a field ahead and we would have made a safe landing. We then climbed up to 2,500ft and tried it from up there, throttle closed, trim for 60kts, selecting a field much closed then I normally do using an imaginary line running in a semi-circle from the jury strut of one wing to the other, a quick check on the compass confirmed we were into wind so effectively we were on base leg already, I made a few turns and we came down and would have made it in to the field. One problem I always seem to have is watching the airspeed when climbing out with 2 stages of flap. Katie suggested to put the air intake bulge on or just above the horizon and the speed should be fine, I tried this the next time and it worked well; we also put the full drill in place for the second PFL and again I would have made it in and we were on base leg as before. The next one I was too high and would not have made it, here Katie suggest that side slipping would have be perfect, I have not done much side slipping and thus am not confident doing it close to the ground. We climbed up and Iined up on a river and I practiced a few side slips which went ok, apart from I had to apply too much thinking time before each manoeuvre, which would not be good on a real emergency landing, practice is needed here!  We then practice flying on power and attitude and Katie covered the ASI so only she could see it and I had to maintain speed in various turns, this was a good exercise and one I had not done before, it does force you to remember the relative horizon position and fly to it. The next PFL I found the field had power lines in it as we got lower, so I selected what appeared to be the only viable alternative to it, we would have got down, but probably ended in the ditch at the end of the field!

Our last PFL was overhead Chatteris, we can’t normally do this due to parachute activity, but the parachute school was grounded due to a technical difficulty, this time I was way too high even to side slip! We would have got down using the end part of the runway, however that is not in a good state currently so we powered up and went around. I landed normally with power, but then had brain fade, I don’t why but as we taxied back I totally forgot to clean up the aeroplane, leaving the flaps set, and the strobe and transponder on too!

Back in the clubhouse I was being made fun of for taxing with flaps on, until the next student inadvertently starting check out the wrong aeroplane! It’s a lot easier to do then you may thing when you are learning as you have your head full to overflowing with everything you must remember.

Today we had a choice of two cakes back in the clubhouse one nice Ginger cake (I’m not sure who made that one) and a very decadent chocolate cake made by Simon’s wife take a look at the picture below, but be warned even looking at it you will add  calories!!!

 

I found the lesson very helpful, getting a different aspect on PFL helped me see things I was missing before, but I’m still not there consistently. I need to hone side slipping as it will be a good tool to have, I need to try selecting a field where I need to fly a circuit to get into it with this method! Overall a very enjoyable lesson and I’m looking forward to my next one with Katie where we plan to build upon today’s.

 

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Mock GST take 2!

I arrived at the fly club to find a new C42 in the hanger (I wonder which UK airfield has the most C42s!?) as it turned out, it was only visiting and they were doing so work on their propeller. The registration of this aeroplane was CFAX for any one old enough  (like me!) you instantly think of CeeFax the way some of us got up to date news before the internet!

Ceefax

 

Our C42 was still in the hanger which was not a good sign for two reasons; first Alan must have cancelled or there was an issue with our aeroplane! And second if it was due to Alan cancelling for some reason the cake selection would not be up to its normal high standard! On the subject of food we also seem to be getting a regular supply of nice custard doughnuts thanks to Julie. Julie is a fellow student at the club and recently passed her Air law exam, well done Julie, next stop Solo!!!

Today would be my last lesson with Mike for some weeks as he is off on holiday, if all went well there was a possibility of me booking up my GST! Alas it did not go as planned. Pre-flight checks, taxiing, take-off, climb out were all fine. Trimming was acceptable and a lot better than last time, Turns were ok both normal and steep, now that I use the horizon and a spot on the windscreen and not the classic mistake of using the nose!

Next was dangerous and unusual attitudes, for this I got a very good from Mike; however it turned out to be my pride before my fall. Next we had a PFL (Practice Forced Landing), I trimmed for 60kts made the Mayday call and selected a field, yes I did it in the wrong order, next I was too high for the field and reselect another which we would have just made. So we climbed back up to 2,500ft and we did another PFL. I trimmed, I selected the field I made the call and tried a re start (practice only we don’t cut the engine for real!), yes the restart should have come before the call! The field I would have made, but it involved a steep turn at a few hundred feet, which is less then ideal. We climbed back up to 2,500ft and what now seemed to be an unreliable engine failed again (ok it was only another PFL) this time there was a very large field almost below me, not even I could mess this up, I thought to myself. Well it wasn’t a total disaster this time I did it all in the right order; however I turned onto downwind a bit too tight which meant I needed a tight turn to get into the field, but we made it down, full power on and start the climb when Mike declared another engine failure, saying what are you going to do now! Nose immediately down to keep airspeed and I calmly I said “I’m staying in this field” and back down we went. The field was very long so no need to turn it was an easy decision to make.

We climbed back out and up to 2,500ft and repositioned to where Mike had declared the engine failure and Mike took me through how he would have done it. Mike’s way is to pick a 1,000ft mark which represents the point you turn on to base leg and fly a normal approach. In the past I could never make this work and had switched to the constant aspect approach, that had been working for me, but I had read somewhere that you should only use this once you are at the end of the downwind leg or at 1,000ft and as Mike said I was now mixing the 2 methods! Flying towards his 1,000ft mark Mike said you can flight tight if low or wide if high but hit the selected point at that altitude and the rest of the landing is just a normal glide approach. As normal Mike did it with precision hitting his 1,000ft mark bang on 1,000ft, we turned on to final and down came the flaps and we would have been safely in the field but about a 1/3 of the way in, Mike said if you are high don’t make all these turns just side slip to lose high and then demonstrated this. I had no done much side slipping and definitely not at low level, but it would seem to be a great tool to have in the bag and I will be practicing it.

Timing is everything and luckily for us students Katie has got her full instructors rating (congratulations Katie) now and is happy to take us (Mike’s students) while he is away, I’m looking forward to see how she teaches PFL as maybe Katie will be able to get it into my head!

As for the GST after today’s performance I have decided to put it back until after Mike returns.

Some visitors today at Chatteris:

Thruster
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Mock GST

I have never been great with exams or even mock exams come to that and today was to be a full mock GST (General Skills Test) so in the briefing Mike told me he wanted me to select a runway, takeoff and climb out to 3,000ft to the south west, he would then give me instruction on what he would like me to do and I would carry them out.

Today while I warmed up the aeroplane I asked a question which I have always had, but equally always forgot to ask, the question I asked Mike was how long would the engine run for if the fuel tap was off, would we get as far as taking off? Mike is very practical and so his answer was, let’s turn it off and see! I turned the tap off while the engine was running and we commenced the pre-flight checks. The engine stopped about 1min 30 seconds later just after the power check. To restart with empty carburettor chambers we switch the electric fuel pump on for about 20 seconds and then re commenced the start procedures and the Rotax engine started first time.

So back to the mock GST, I selected runway 24, made the radio calls and taxied out, Julie and Katie were in the circuit and had called downwind about the time we got to the runway, so I knew we had time to line up and take off.
Up we went climbing at 60kts, 300ft flaps up, 500ft fuel pump off, 2,000ft I lowered the nose to check for traffic, back into the climb and levelled out at 3,000ft. I was a little off heading, I must keep an eye on a reference point! Trim for 70kts straight and level, said Mike, OK that was not a problem, turn 90 degrees to the right and trim for 80kts straight and level, it took me a while, but I got there, for some reason it needed more revs than normal! Next trim for 60Kts, OK I faffed around, but got there, Mike said I need to be quicker and showed how I should have done it. Next Trim for 70kts and turn 180 degrees, now show me a steep turn to the left, I did so letting the nose drop a little, but within acceptable limits, now to the right, that went better. Next I want you to keep your hand on the stick and throttle and I will put the aeroplane into unusual attitudes and when I tell you to, recover, said Mike. First the nose dipped and then he pulled it up in to a very steep climb and said recover. I put on full power lower the nose and level out, good. Next one, this time Mike put it into a spiral dive, power off, level the wings and ease out ,  once the nose is above the horizon and speed is back in the normal range I added power and returned to a normal climb, good. Now turn 90 degrees to the left, next I want you to stall the aeroplane and execute a recovery with power. As I went to stall the aeroplane Mike called out “Failed“, you failed right there! Why I asked, no HASELL check (shit I thought)!
HASELL stands for :
• Height
• Airframe (are the flaps deployed)
• Security (Harness and hatches)
• Engine (T&Ps)
• Location
• Lookout
OK this time I carried out a HASELL, Height 3,000ft, check; Airframe, flaps up and all looks ok, check; Security, Harness and hatches secure, check; Engine T&Ps ok, check; Location, clear of any built up areas and airfields, check; lookout, here I did a clearing turn to the right (Mike said to ask the examiner to look too!) and another to the Left and then turned back on to heading, I stalled the aeroplane and recovered. OK, show me a stall and recovery in a turn; this time I did a HELL check (Height, Engine, location and lookout), no need for a clearing turn as we will be turning anyway, Mike informed me, this went OK too. Next show me an attitude only recovery from a stall in a glide descent,  another HELL check and into a glide descent and stall, and recover back into the descent.

Next up, climb back up to 3,000ft and trim for 70kts. Up we went straight and level and Mike closed the throttle saying “Engine failure”! I trimmed for 60kts and selected a field ahead of us, it seemed to be the only one running in the correct direction! I then made a dummy Mayday call, and tried a dummy restart (wrong order, should have been the other way around!) I was too high, and I was saying so out loud, I said, I’m too high I might not make it, maybe I should put flaps on, or make some turns, what should I do; I decided to make the turns to lose height then I straightened up, flaps first stage, now second stage, yes I would have been down in the field OK! Power on and go around, said Mike, full power on, Mike closes the throttle “Engine failure”! I didn’t like the fields ahead as they were newly ploughed, turning 70 degrees to the right I said, I know its crosswind but it’s a better option than the other fields, ok power on and go around. With 2 stages of flaps it’s hard to keep the nose down with full power, 300ft flaps up a stage at a time, 500ft fuel pump off. OK climbing turn to the right level out at 1,000ft.
Right take me back to the airfield, said Mike, luckily the drains were in sight so I knew where I was. I made my approach checks, called Chatteris and joined base leg runway 24; my landing was good and I taxied back.

Mike debriefed me saying well if we ignore you not doing the HASELL check I think you would have scraped through. I need to be sharper on my trimming, holding my course and altitude and more positive on my engine failures, even if I think I’m not going to make it don’t say it outloud and take the actions don’t just say it!
Next week we will do the whole thing again and if I’m better than the GST is getting close! Oh how I hate tests!

Another good point from today is that Simon was last to fly and thus had the responsibility of washing G-GL and putting her to bed. Looks like you did a good job Simon!