Category: Flying

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Local flying and few practice emergency landings

Today was solo to build my solo hours and practice some forced landings, but before I did them I was to fly out to Whittlesea, over to March and back to the drains where I would practice the forced landings.

Last week I did fly also, but due to working away I didn’t have a chance to write a blog about it; it consisted of a brief check flight with Mike and then Solo, it was quite gusty last week as it was this week too with the added complication of localised rain showers, which I was advised to fly around where possible. Luckily the only shower which made me alter what I was going to do was as I was flying back to the airfield. I had planned to fly down the drain and turn towards the airfield joining on the downwind leg, but downwind was where the rain was, so I turned early and joined on the base leg instead, I missed most of the rain and landed safely.

So back to today; I had my camera with me and wanted to try and shoot some video, I had tried this before, but it came out overexposed and out of focus. The overexposure was easy to fix, I use the camera in manual mode so as to “disk” the prop and last week had it set way too slow at 1/40th this week I upped the shutter to 1/160th and the prop was still disked, I also changed the focus to manual and set it to infinity, but I guess this is not going to work out to well as it was still blurred, I’m not sure if this is due to the mount vibrating, shooting through the propeller or the settings used, you can see what I mean on some of the video on this page, the parts shot from the cockpit.

Luckily the club has Alan, who knows more about these things and has the professional kit to go along with it and will be taking some high quality video which I hope to share with you.

I taxied out to runway 01 and took off, the crosswind was not too bad at that moment, I applied full power and off I went, it is quite amazing how much the climb rate increases with just one person in the plane. I remember feeling quite isolated the first time solo, when you look over at an empty seat where the instructor once sat; there is no one to reassure you or correct you! I turned on to crosswind and left the circuit to the east out to the drains, I followed these until south of Chatteris turned to cross the outskirts of the town and set my heading to Whittlesea. The day was a little hazy and I could not see Whittlesea, the doubt started to creep in, what if I was going in the wrong direction, would I ever find my way back! I got the map out to reassure myself and soon after spotted Whittlesea. Once there I checked the map, I saw that if I flew east I would see March and after some more doubt I recognised the prison and rail yard which confirmed it was indeed March, looking once again at the map I thought about following the railway line out of March and back to the drains, but shortly after I started following it some radio chatter from the parachute control referred to some traffic they were keeping an eye on, this traffic had to be me, so I decided to fly more east towards the drains. I was also aware that if I went too far north I could end up in RAF Marham’s air space which would not be a good thing.

Back at the drains I few up and down a few times and practised a few emergency landings ensuring I stayed above 600ft the first 2 I would not have made my selected field, I would have been short, the third one I would have made it down in the field, but the smoke in the distance confirmed I was not into wind, the next one seemed to go OK and on my last attempt I was too high, I guess if it was a real emergency landing at that point I could have side slipped, but I was not about to try that on my own and while practising, maybe I should have!

Time was getting on so flew back to the airfield and saw canopies in the air and the parachute plane landing, I held out to the east, I thought I heard the “all canopies down” call so I turned towards the airfield and called “3 miles out inbound, confirm all canopies down” and I got the confirmation I wanted. The landing was quite tricky as the crosswind had picked up, as I approached the landing I was still sidewards to hold off the crosswind, I flipped the plane around on the rudder to point down the runway, remembering the warnings that it was very important to be pointing in the correct direction, however with all this going on I failed to hold off as long as I would have liked. The landing didn’t seem to bad, I have made worse with Mike by my side while practising circuits, so given the conditions I was quite pleased! Back in the clubhouse, Katie asked how it had gone, I said it was OK, but the landing was tricky and she said yes it did sound as if it was a bit heavy. I have never noticed the sound of a landing so either my hearing is not great, Katie’s is very good or I’m the only one to make such a “noisy” landing, I will be listening to the others landing to see which it is!

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To windy to fly today or was it! lesson 16B

Today I went to the airfield fully expecting not to fly due to the wind; it was around 20Kt and gusting higher. Our aircraft was safely tucked up in the hanger, I remember thinking “I will not be flying today, not dual or solo”. In the club house all the normal suspects were sat drinking tea and eating some doughnuts, I offered to make tea, but they all had just had one, so it was tea for one and a nice custard doughnut which I think were provided by Julie (thanks Julie). I remarked that I doubt if I would be flying today and all agreed, far too windy. Shortly after Mike (our CFI and my instructor) came in and said “you ready to go flying, a bit too windy for solo, but how about we do Operations at minimum level 16B”, so with this Pat kindly moved his C42 and Colin moved the NT groups C42 so I could get our C42 out of the hanger.

Safety checks done, and all warmed up I taxied to runway 24, Mike asked some questions as we taxied, what is the minimum height we can fly and why would we want too? 500ft clear of people and structures and to keep out of cloud, was my reply. It was close, but the actual ANO (Air Navigation Order) states:

An Aircraft shall not fly closer than 500ft to any person, vehicle, vessel or structure – except for the purpose of saving life or taking off or landing in accordance with standard aviation practices.

We lined up and took off without flaps; we don’t use flaps when we are taking off in to a strong wind as they are not needed and the white arch (maximum speed with flaps deployed) is easily exceeded in these conditions. In no time we were at 500ft and had levelled out, 500ft would turn out to be today’s altitude of choice!

After leaving the circuit and flying for a short period of time we came upon some electricity pylons and Mike asked how and where I intended to cross them. My logic was to get over them in the shortest of time and at their lowest point e.g. midpoint between to pylons and cross them at 90 degrees, wrong! What we want to do, explained Mike, is cross over the pylons at a shallow angle say 20 – 30 degrees, the reason being we can’t see the wires between them and if we had an engine failure it would be easier to turn away from them. Next we saw some wind turbines, some close and some in the distance, Mike asked “those turbines they are below the horizon what does that tell us?”, this I got right, if they appear below the horizon they are below our altitude; and “those over there?” Mike asked, well the main part is below, but the blade tips are above so we would be too low to fly over them, “good” he said.

Next I was to hold a consistent amount of bank and turn around some haystacks which I did only to find predictably that I had been blow considerably down wind, Mike said if this does happen to you don’t be tempted to tighten the turn, just go around again allowing for the drift. Flying at this altitude gives you a real sense of speed and drift which you don’t get when higher-up, which I assume is the purpose of the lesson.

We flew around finding gaps to fly through to keep us clear of people’s houses and when it allowed we descended to 300ft where things seemed even faster than they did before. Back up to 500ft and I asked Mike where we were as by this time I did not have a clue! “Good question” replied Mike “I was just about to ask you that! so you tell me” I had no idea, “OK” said Mike “what can you see” a small village, some large green houses, a drain or river, “what else” in the distance and after some time I spotted Ely cathedral, so putting it altogether we are flying south broadly towards Ely there is a railway bridge beneath us which means the village on my right was Manea, which is close to the airfield. Recognising place is not my strong point, it’s not helped that I don’t know the area from the ground either. At the low altitude you cannot see as far so it is more difficult to pick out the reference points you know!

I flew us back to Chatteris and we joined on base leg for runway 24 and flew a low circuit, I came in to high and went around at 500ft this time we did a touch and go and the next time we did the same, the circuit was made more difficult by the gusting wind blowing across the runway from the right. Mike now took the controls for the last circuit and showed me how to fly low and tight to the airfield we were round in no time and as we lined up for the landing the cross wind dropped, it was as if it know Mike was flying so decided not to challenge him!

I taxied it back to the hanger and another lesson was over in what were probably the most challenging conditions yet!

While having another cup of tea Alan arrived with some homemade millionaire dark chocolate shortbreads that were very nice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Navigation not so lost

Well after last week I can say for the first time I was not really looking forward to this week’s lesson, in my previous post you may have picked up on my dejected feeling following my return flight from Fenland.

This week I decided to try and take control, first I followed the advice left by Katie on last week’s post (thanks Katie) and used Google maps to become more familiar with the landmarks surrounding Chatteris, paying particular attention to those that should be on my return. Next I emailed Mike to find out where we would be flying too and was given either Fenland or Boston via the previously used routes.

So I pre planned the routes and on the day I added the wind and drew out the triangles of velocities at home for both, which was good practice too.

I went to the airfield still feel a bit downbeat, this was picked up on by Mike who said I should be enjoying it! I explained that after last week I was concerned about my ability to navigate especially to find Chatteris and to know the status of the parachutists. One option that Mike put forward and I think I will pursue is to go for my restricted License first then as I have a share in a C42 I can fly around and get my confidence at a much lower cost before adding the Navigation to it.

Mike asked what I would like to do today and said with some trepidation cross country dual to Fenland. I said this mainly as I wanted to confront my demons and prove to myself I can do it, or not!

So we discussed the approach at Fenland and how we were going to leave Chatteris too and we then set off. We taxied out to runway 24 and held there as Katie and Pat were on the runway at the far end putting down so grass seed. After a short while they spotted us waiting and cleared the runway and we took off, we flew the circuit while climbing and left on the base leg setting course to Whittlesey Station which is only 8nm, after setting course and completing the plog with the times I could see the brickwork smokestacks in the distance and knew from my Google research this was whittlesey I could see.

Small red is the train station and the larger red where the smokestacks are in Whittlesey

As we got nearer I noticed the light coloured industrial units which again from Google I knew where just below and to the right of the station. I flew over the station and set course to Fenland, I was a little slow getting on course, but I knew from studying the map I needed to fly over the east side of Thorney and over the bypass and indeed I was which was both good and reassuring, just after going over Thorney bypass it would be time to make the call to request an overhead join at Fenland which I did and they gave me the runway in use, the circuit direction and the Altimeter setting. A few minutes before the estimated arrival time I spotted Fenland and I changed course to fly over the numbers on Runway 26 at 2,000ft and called to say so. We were overhead and descended dead side.  We joined down wind, on final I came in a little low so I added a bit more power so as to touchdown beyond the displaced threshold and I made a good landing.

This had all gone much better than last week! Time for a cup of tea and then the return and to see if I would spot Chatteris or not!

Again we took off and followed the circuit leaving on cross wind and setting course to Whittlesey, with the smoke stacks clearly visible and the heading set we few towards it again I could see the industrial units so knew where the station would be, this was also helped by an approaching train!

When overhead Mike took the controls and we talked about London Centre and he made a “Practice Fix” call to which they responded that we had a 2 line fix putting us overhead of Whittlesey! A very useful service and they have a leaflet which explains more here.

I had the controls again and we were flying towards the Airfield I soon spotted Chatteris town and the Forty foot Drain above it which was our guide to the 16 foot drain where we joined the circuit for 24. However at this point Mike said fly the circuit for 24 but we are going to land on 23! This had me a little worried as I have never landed on 23 and it seems a lot narrower, the reason for landing on 23 was to ensure I didn’t go over the new grass seed! For the second time today I made a good landing and I was happy with my performance and so was Mike! The only things of note picked up were to correct things sooner, both in setting headings and when I realise I’m a little low on the approach.

So a good day flying which I enjoyed, however I think I will still go for my restricted license first.

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One step forward two steps back!

Well if the weather had been better the plan was for me to do a solo navigation to Boston, however it wasn’t and I didn’t. Instead we did a dual navigation to Fenland Airfield via Whittlesey Train station thus creating a dog leg.

It had been 2 weeks since my last flight and it would seem my mind has been erased to the point that even though I blogged about how to draw the triangle of velocity I was stood staring at the  white board clueless! Still with some help from Mike on the first leg it slowly came back and I completed the flight sheet (here is a blank flight sheet (PLOG) I put to together based on the one we use in the club, feel free to modify/use it), I called Fenland as its PPR (prior permission required) and they told me the runway and conditions at the airfield. Mike asked how I would make a standard overhead join from the south direction and I drew this on the white board ok. Next Mike asked how I intend to leave Chatteris and the runway I would use again this was ok.

So into the C42 and let it warm up while we waited for the parachutists to descend. We departed on runway 01 and flew the circuit but kept climbing to our cruise altitude of 1,500ft and set course to Whittlesey, we arrived overhead bang on time, but a little to the right of track. I had some trouble spotting the train station as it’s only a small single platform one. After spotting it with the help of an approaching train we set course to Fenland. About 5 miles out from Fenland I made a call and requested an overhead join, this was the first time I have been to airfield with a control tower and getting the flow of messages in the correct format was all new to me but Mike guided me through what to say and when. We joined overhead descending on the dead side and landed on runway 36  the landing was not my best and Mike then informed me that when I do my solo cross country flights I have to hand in a form and have it signed, on this form one of the things they do is rate your landing!

At Fenland we had no time to stop for fear the weather was closing in, so I paid the landing fee and we set off back to Chatteris. It was the return navigation that fell apart! I took too long to set my course so we were away from where we should be and then I miss read the heading and somehow set the course of 350 and not 315, when asked where we were I struggled to correctly identify the position on the map, but after a while I found our location and corrected it buy flying over where we should be and resetting the course. At Whittlesey Mike ask if I was over the station and my reply was that “I thought we were“ thought was not good enough so we did an orbit and I was correct so we set course for Chatteris. I seem to keep drifting off course especially when reading the map and by the time we had got to Chatteris we were not approaching it from where we had planned. To make matters much worse I could not see the airfield Mike told me to turn to the left which I did and if he had not I would have over flown it, which as it’s a parachute club it is not allowed or safe to do. So we flow around the airfield in a wide circle and Mike enquired how I was now going to join and land. I was now disorientated and concerned over not having seen the airfield and was explaining how I would join 01, but talking about 19, eventually it click and we joined on the base leg and I landed. Mike commented that I would have got a 10 for that landing and it was one of my best. But during the debrief it was clear that I not ready for solo cross county with the lack of location awareness and the ability to fly a consistent heading in doubt too.

The day left me thinking on the way home, have got what it takes or if I should cut my losses and pack it in.

I love flying, but learning to fly, for me at least, is a rollercoaster of ability and emotions of which I’m current at a low point again!

I need to learn to read the map more frequently and relate it to where we are while keeping us on the correct heading and at the correct altitude; I hope over the next few weeks this will become easier and I become safer as the thought that I could have over flown the airfield while there was parachutists in the air concerns me greatly.

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Navigation to Boston Airfield and Triangle of velocities

I arrived at Chatteris on what seemed a damp and grey day around an hour before my lesson to plan my flight to Boston as I was nearing the airfield I saw a C42 flying in the circuit and I was thinking to myself that the parachutists would not be jumping with such cloud cover, however as I turned into the track leading to the airfield I saw the twin Otter taking off closely followed by the main training C42. It often seems to have its own micro climate which allows for the microlight and the parachutists to go up while all-around the weather would not permit! When I left home it was layer cloud and raining but here it was scattered cloud and improving all the time.

In the clubhouse I made myself a cup of tea and set about planning out my route to Boston, possibly my last dual navigation to Boston, all was going well and I drew out the triangles of velocities on the whiteboard and then checked my results on Skydemon light http://www.skydemonlight.com/ which is a great piece of software and I hope to buy and evaluate it on either on an Android or iPad once I have my license (so Lookout for a future review of flying with this!) most of my calculation worked out ok and with little head or tail wind I didn’t notice my fundamental error! In fairness to me it has been a while since I did the Navigation exam!

Triangle of velocities

So how do you draw the triangle of velocities?

First Draw a vertical line to represent North with a diamond on the top to show it as a true north.

Next plot the course you want to fly, for this draw a straight line from A to B on a map and read off the heading using a protractor. For Chatteris to Boston we want a heading or Trk(T) of 349° so next we draw this line on.

Next go to the Met Office and get the spot wind for your altitude, Sunday this was 260/15 so we now need to draw this on.

 

The wind is drawn across the north line e.g. above I marked off 260° on the left of the north and drew through N and out far enough to be able to mark off the wind speed on the wind line. Add 3 arrows to show it’s the wind line. Take a ruler and mark the wind speed on the line from the north line, it doesn’t matter what scale you use mm, cm, your map ruler, whatever so long as all  the measurement use the same scale. I used mm on this drawing for the blog.

Next draw a line from 15mm along the wind line the length of the speed you will be flying and make the line intersect the Trk(T) line at that point . So below I have drawn from the 15mm mark a line that is 70mm (we fly at 70knts) where it joins the Trk(T) B – C below.

 So above we have:

A – B 260° line with point B marked at 15mm (from the Met office 260/15)

A – C our Track True from the map

B – C 15mm along the wind line (wind speed) 70mm long (our speed in knots) drawn to intersect our Track true at the 70mm point

If we now measure in mm A – C we get 67mm and this is by the magic of pythagoras theorem our Ground speed allowing for the wind 67 knots.

If we measure the angle of the line B – C   from north we get 336° our heading true.

And if we measure the angle D we get our drift angle 13°

Thank you Pythagoras!

So back to my flight planning well the fundamental error I made was I measured B – C as the ground speed even though I had drawn it 70 long for my airspeed!!!

The flight to Boston went ok, I got a bit off course, but spotting Fenland airfield I re aligned and was ok from there. I soon spotted Boston and just to the left was the airfield.

We landed OK (in fact for me it was quite a good landing!) and I got the teas in, while we were drinking our tea Mike was asked to do a check Flight which he agreed to do as no one was booked in after me. I stayed drinking tea and chatting to people. Sometime later we all watch Mike land and needless to say it was a perfect landing in every way.

Once Mike was done we set off back to Chatteris and the navigation all went to plan we joined on a long final for runway 24 and again the landing was not bad. I refuelled the plane and cleaned the prop and some of the birds muck off the wings, as while we were out Stuart had booked the aeroplane and it was not good to hand it over in the state it was in.

My next lesson in a couple of weeks’ time and weather allowing is going to be a solo to Boston and back!!!

 

 

 

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Rain stops play and I’m not at Wimbledon!

Not a lot to write about today sadly, I arrived early at the flying club in case we were to do another cross country flight, however the weather was closing in to the extent that we first considered me going solo on a navigation exercise, next we considered solo to practice emergency landings and we ended up with a dual lesson flying circuits! This was good as this still remains in my opinion my weakest area and it is probably the most important one!

We set off on runway 01 and left the circuit to south east to see what the options were, the cloud base was a little over 1,500ft, but we could see heavy rain coming in from that direction so we returned to the circuit and managed to get 4 circuits in before the rain reached us. The first was not too bad, the second I left the power on too long and found myself high, I had made my mind up that I should just over fly and go around, but I was not as high as I had thought and could have made a normal land just a little further down the runway, however with my mind thinking no I made a bit of a hash of it! I was more composed on the next two which were both ok and by this time the rain was here so we taxied back and parked up just 30 mins after breaks off.

The rain coming our way looked bad, so I put the aeroplane in the hanger and gave it a quick wipe down before leaving.

And so ended the day with very heavy rain and not a lot to write about!

My next lesson, weather permitting, should be a dual to Boston and then a solo to Boston, hope I can find my way back!

 

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Navigation and what does the map say!

Today was looking good for my first proper navigation lesson; Mike had asked that I get to the club an hour beforehand to give him time to go over planning the route, allowing for wind etc. I dutifully arrived at the airfield an hour and 10 mins early. The weather was hot with a layer of broken could at around 8,000ft and no wind, the met office’s Low Spot Wind chart (214) showed variable at 5 knots.
On arrival things were not going quite as well at the club, the previous student (who will remain nameless) was late which had a knock on effect, his return was further delayed by the parachutist. I sat with Mike and we went through the planning of the route which was going to be Chatteris to Boston in a straight line, with no wind to allow for there was not much panning needed! I studied the map to establish the MSA (Minimum Safe Altitude) allowing for obstacles within 5 miles of the track and the highest I could find was 470ft, to establish the MSA we round this up to the nearest 500 and add 500, thus our MSA for this flight was 1,000ft. Our chosen altitude of 3,300ft saw us passing over Fenland airfield whose airspace extends up to 2,006ft so we were well clear of this, thus it was a direct route. On the flight log I noted down the radio frequencies for any station I might need on route Boston, Fenland, London Information, London Centre, Chatteris and Coningsby. Next I found the heading from the line on the map and added the magnetic variation to give the heading magnetic,  I measured the distance and worked out the time it would take us to fly it once we set course.
The previous student was now back and it was time to fly the route (well actually it was around 1 hour 45 minutes later then we had planned to set off!) we took off on runway 01 and set course to 350 degrees, we passed Fendland bang on the time estimate and all was going well. As we approached Boston Mike talked me through the radio calls need for “SAFETYCOM” which is how Boston operate, but also pointed out as it’s a shared frequency we should not make these calls until we were at 2,000ft or below. We descended down and made our first call to say we were 5 miles to the south and inbound, the next call was to say we were overhead. We turned once we were over Boston airfield and came back over the other end of the runway and called we were descending on the dead side, from there on the calls were as normal.

We landed OK and parked up, Mike introduced me to many people whose name I forget (if you are reading this, sorry!) We had a quick cup of tea and it was time to set off back to Chatteris.

Going back proved a little more difficult for me! I think this was due to having the map in the opposite direction to travel, I tried turning the map around, but Mike said this was not good practice, also you can’t read the place names as easily upside down!
Flying back we should have been at Chatteris 26 mins after setting course, but I could not see it and it transpired while playing with the map I had been going off course and was to the east of March, I still could not see Chatteris, but by now I could see the drains and I turned and followed these back, a route I knew well!

My next issue was the landing; I powered back where I normally did and found myself very high over the airfield so we went around, thinking the issue was that I was too tight in I went a little wider on the next go and we did get down near to the runway, but still too high and much too far down the runway, on the next go I took the power off earlier (not really early enough) and we made it down, but the touch down was a lot longer down the runway then I would have liked. This was all due to there being no wind to slow us down, this is not a situation I’m accustomed to and had not allowed for it, I hope it’s a lesson learnt for the future!
Another issue I had, and would love you feedback on, is the choice of glasses, I have a good pair of varifocal glasses which are fine for normal reading. they are set-up more for computer work, however reading the small print on the map in flight and on the ground is very much a challenge. Having Googled it, it would seem bifocal are generally better for pilots, what do you think?

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Parachutes everywhere!

I was first to fly in G-CEGL on Saturday so I needed to “burp” the aeroplane! Burping the aeroplane is required as the Rotax engine has a dry sump, so to get oil into the engine and to be able to get a reading of the amount of oil you need to turn the propeller by hand in the correct direction until the engine makes a burping or gurgling sound twice. You can then check the oil level before starting the engine, with our engine and I assume its the same for all Rotax engines of this type, the oil level when cold reads low normally at the bottom of the stick, but once up to temperature  it will read about halfway up.

Mike ask if I wanted to do another hours solo today and I said yes, this time I was to practice flying at different speeds as before, but also steep turns and Mike gave me a briefing on this together with testing me on what to do if I got into a spiral dive. Which was to take the power off and roll the wings level, as the aeroplane levels out the nose will come up and at this point we apply full power and climb away.

I was now ready for my flight, but for the first time Mike was happy for me to go straight off on my own. I sat warming up the aeroplane and was ready to go about the same time as Mick, we had all been using runway 19, but Mick went straight up on the nearest runway 29 and I taxied out to 19, as I was back tracking on 19 I heard the parachute plane call “clear drop” which gives you a few mins and had previously been cited by the parachute plane’s pilot that there is sufficient time for you to line up and take off, which is what I did. How on returning I was advised that in future I should taxi off of the runway and hold clear.

My flight was uneventful but on my return to the airfield I call asking if all canopies where down and it was confirmed, so I called and joined base leg, immediately after my call I hear “Clear Drop” as I was unsure if there was enough time I decided to leave the circuit and hold to the east.

 

Later that day two fellow students achieved their first solo flights, so just a quick shout out to Alan H and Alan B congratulations and well done guys! How was it?

Chatteris Air field

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Two weeks for the price of one!

While I would love the title of this week’s blog to be the reflection of a special offer at the flying club, it’s not. The title refers to the fact that I missed a week of the blog as a few people pointed out to me, so this week’s entry covers two weeks!

If however you are looking for a special offer AviationLogic are giving away some free, yes free, copies of its new app ApproBase to readers of my blog, to find out how to claim yours visit the review post here and read the comments they have posted, an offer not to be missed!

Two weeks ago we had our open weekend at Chatteris, I attended on the Sunday only, I could tell it was busy as I could not get parked down by the flying club, instead I cheekily parked in the parachute club’s car park! There were many new faces at the club and a few old ones too! A nearby gliding club, Peterborough and Spalding Gliding Club (P & SGC) attended with one of their gliders and all the Microlights were lined up outside and to top it all the sun was shining down. My wife and some friends had come over too, to watch the aeroplanes and parachutists. I also had a lesson booked which was a continuation of the previous weeks forced landings with a few circuits thrown in for good measure.

It was a most enjoyable day apart from one incident where on opening my Jerry can and petrol sprayed out all over me, luckily  and in accordance with safety procedures there was no naked lights around else I would have looked like the guy on the Pink Floyd album cover “Wish you were here” check out Google  if you are too young to know what I mean!

 This weeks was an hour solo after a brief check flight.

The check flight was a circuit flown from the active runway 19, easily my favourite runway as it’s the widest and longest. I taxied out and flew the circuit which I know well and made what I thought was a good landing, certainly a very soft landing, then Mike congratulated me on flying a good circuit and an “Excellent” landing. I was very pleased by this and taxied back to the clubhouse to drop Mike off. I thought it would just be a case of going out and getting more experience of flying around the local area on my own, but no, today I was to fly three or four circuits on my own and then climb out to the east, level out at 2,300ft and trim for 70kts and ensure I maintain the exact height, then to do the same for 80Kts and 60Kts.

My first circuit we good, not as good as the one before, but I was happy, my second one not so great and I decided to power on and go around while I had two stages of flap on. It’s hard to keep the nose down with full power and two stages of flap and keep the speed in the white arc, but I did and around I went. This time I was determent to make it a good one else I was going to stay in the circuit until I did a good one. As I turned on to final I was little low, but no too low so I put some power on early and took it off as I rounded out and I touched down softly, flaps up, full power, off to the east I went feeling happy with my last circuit.

Next was to keep height while flying at different speeds, this not hard to do when Mike is sat next to you, but on your own you think you have it and then glance at the altimeter to find you have lost 200ft or gained it! Finally I was all trimmed for 70kts and holding 2,300ft so power on a bit keeping the nose down and watching for 80kts, this was harder to trim for but I got it after a few tries, right down to 60kts and trim, this I liked the most and stayed in that configuration as I flew into wind and towards Chatteris. I descended down to circuit height and called my base leg join, I really wanted this to be as good as my earlier circuit and all seemed to be going well, then I was low so power on a little and I continued to my touch down point,  all was going well. I rounded out and took the power off but it bounced not too badly, but still a bounce and then a second slight bounce possibly due to my speed and the uneven nature of the runway, but I was down. I’m not sure why I bounced the first time I think I may have rounded out to late or more likely  stopped bring the stick back. But all in all it was a good days flying which I really enjoyed.

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Forced landings from high altitudes EX16A

Simon and I set of for our lessons together today, after leaving my house in the pouring rain we thought it wise to call ahead to check if the lesson was still going ahead, there had also been a problem with the aeroplane and we wanted to  check that this was not going to impact our lessons also.

We were quite surprised to hear the weather was so different at Chatteris, which is only around 38 miles away by road, apparently it was a nice day to go flying apart from the gusty wind, but this seems to be the normal at the moment!

When we arrived the aeroplane was ok to fly, but was awaiting the cowlings to be refitted, which delayed the lesson by a while.

In the clubhouse Mike covered the theory of the lesson I was about to embark upon, Exercise 16A which is to carry out a safe descent, approach and landing in the event of a power failure during flight or to carry out a safe unplanned precautionary landing in an unfamiliar field.

This is what I took away from the lesson, on forced landings, WARNING it may not be complete or in the correct sequence, I hope it is, but just in case you have been warned, these are my notes from memory!

  1. Adopt glide attitude and min sink airspeed.
    The first thing to do is to fly the aeroplane (this is a reoccurring theme which Mike rightly stresses) by adopting a gliding attitude with minimum sink airspeed and trim it for this. For our C42 this is 58 knots, but in practice we aim for 60 Knots and trim for this speed which gives us our glide angle, which I believe was stated as 10 degrees.
  2. While maintaining attitude and airspeed, check wind direction and strength by observing smoke, wind turbines, or any other means you can, if you cannot determine it and you are near where you departed use the direction it was when you took off.
  3. Select a field ideally on your left and below you, you can always lose height, but can’t gain it! Always keep the selected field insight and on your left. The field must be big enough to land in and have a suitable surface, ideally not a recently ploughed field or a field with a high crop in it.
  4. Plan your approach picking out a circuit height point on the base leg from which you can make a glide approach to the field. We use 700ft for this.
  5. Make Mayday Call,
    MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, Name of station addressed, Aircraft call sign, Aircraft type, Nature of emergency, Intentions of pilot, Position (or last known position) Altitude and heading, Pilot Qualifications, any other useful information e.g. Persons on board etc.
  6. Try to restart the engine check or change the following. Master on, mags on, fuel tap on, fuel Pump on, start engine
  7. If the engine does not start, Throttle Closed, Mags Off, Fuel Off, Master remains ON
  8. If you make the 700ft point as planned fly the glide approach, if too high extend the base leg and turn back on to final, if to low short cut the base leg on to final.
  9. Establish a normal approach, proceed with the landing aiming for the middle of the field once you are 100% sure you will make it deploy flaps and bring the landing point back to 1/3 of the way in.

 

Putting all of the above in to practice sounds simple, but it’s not, so today we simplified it by missing out the mayday call. The first time we stayed with power and Mike asked where I would land, it seemed to take me forever to select somewhere and it was too far away! The next time Mike closed the throttle and I had to find a location, identify the base and final legs as well as pick out the 700ft point on the base leg, things went ok and we made the approached and would have landed in the field selected. The next one was no so good, I select a field to far away, miss read the altimeter thinking I was at 1,500ft when Mike and my eyes were telling me I was at 500ft! we powered on and climbed to 700ft and flew to the 700ft mark and then continued the exercise. My last two were ok although one of them required me short cutting the base leg to make it, but make it we did. As we were flying back to Chatteris Mike closed the throttle (we don’t kill the engine for safety reasons) and said ok put us down on runway 19 from here, so I selected my 700ft point and flew to it, I was a little high so I extended the base leg and then turned on final aiming for the middle of 19, as we were nearly over and high I deployed two stages of flaps and was holding off drift too, all was going well, too well, and then just above the runway I put in the wrong rudder direction which Mike and I both instantly realised and I corrected before touch down.

This lesson left me almost as exhausted as my first solo, it takes so much out of you, one day I hope it will all be second nature as it is to Mike, Katie and the others! Until now I had not realised how exhausting learning to fly could be, but it’s still good fun too!