C42 Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Get Your Wings

28th April 201416th August 2017

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!

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Try to restart the engine check or change the following. Master on, mags on, fuel tap on, fuel Pump on, start engine
If the engine does not start, Throttle Closed, Mags Off, Fuel Off, Master remains ON
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.
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!

13th April 201416th August 2017

Solo outside the circuit. Today the flying conditions were good!

Today the flying conditions were good and this was confirmed by the fact that the numbers of available car parking spaces at the club were limited! As I parked up I saw a couple of aeroplanes I did not recognised taxiing up towards the clubhouse and I saw Simon busy refuelling after his lesson.

A number of people where stood in the hangar looking at a steam engine Pat had built, it is indeed a fine piece of engineering.

As I went around to the club house Mike was in deep conversation with someone I had not seen before, so I went into the clubhouse and it was just as busy inside. As I walked in I was offered a cup of tea, which I gratefully accepted. I stood talking with one of the people who had just arrived in a Zenair CH70 Microlight, the other aeroplane was a Skyranger Swift also a Microlight.

It was soon time for me to check out the aeroplane before my lesson, all was ok with it and Simon had kindly filled passed the 30ltr mark by 3 or 4 litres. It is something Simon and I need to get better at as I did the same after my lesson by only by around 2 ltrs.

Back in the clubhouse Mike outlined today’s lesson which was a quick circuit or 2 and then I was to fly out to the drains and practice flying on my own, keeping the aeroplane on a chosen heading and height to be decided in advance by myself, the reason it was to be chosen in advance was to ensure I practiced accurate turns and controlling the height.

We flew the circuit without Mike telling me the turning points and I landed ok unsure if I was to do a second circuit or not I asked Mike just after touchdown and thought he had said yes, so I put the power on, but he soon corrected me and I throttled back and taxied back to the club house.

It was now time for me to do my first full solo including leaving the circuit fly around and finding my own way back to the airfield. One thing that always plays on my mind, is how I can be sure if all the parachutists are down before landing as I often don’t hear the “all canopies down” call, Mike gave me some pointers i.e. if the parachute plane is sat in the middle of the runway they are not down however if its parked then they most likely are, but added if I was unsure then radio and ask.

So I was now in the aeroplane alone and was waiting for the parachutes to descend before myself and 3 other aeroplanes could taxi out and take off. The first two went and I was next as the 4th had only just started up, I taxied out to runway 24 and took off, I climbed up to 2,000ft and turned to the east and flew out to the drains. Far beneath me at circuit height and to my left were Mick and Thomas who were flying along the drains also. I flew up towards where the drains narrow at Downham Market and turned around and flew back down the other side, then as I got nearer I looked out to try and find Chatteris airfield, having spotted where it was I turned and flew the route again, but this time at 3,000ft and then a descending turn and continued descent back down to 2,000ft, I did this a few times and was tempted to take a few pictures, but thought better of this on my first solo outside of the circuit!

Time was soon up and I flew back down the drains, turned towards Chatteris and descended to 700ft, circuit height, were the parachutists up or down!? As luck would have it I saw their aeroplane climbing out so I knew it was safe, I carried out my normal checks and saw another Microlight on the taxiway. I made my joining call and Mick in the other Microlight call that he was lining up for immediate departure and was gone long before I turned on to final. I made my final call and lined up with the runway, which I then needed to correct. As I came into land I held the aeroplane above the runway trying to keep it flying as we are taught and it seemed to hang or rise slightly for a split second before a very gentle touch down, probably the second most gentle I have done, and I felt very pleased with the landing. As I continued down the runway the nose came off the ground a couple of time which I had not experienced before and I meant to ask Mike about, I assumed it was a combination of the lighter weight, full flaps being on and the wind. However on my return to the clubhouse I was asked “how was it?” and I said it was good “and the Landing?” I said it was good too, the approach could have been better lined up, but the landing I was pleased with, I asked why and Katie said it look as if I had bounced, which I hadn’t, maybe the wind caused it to balloon slightly, but if so from in the cockpit it did not seem so. I wanted to discuss this with Mike, however he was in deep conversation, we did discuss it briefly after and he said if it balloons I should go around.

I have relived the landing a number of times and to me I can still not explain what they saw from the clubhouse as for me in the cockpit it seemed a good landing! Thus I left feeling puzzled and confused.

On another and lighter note a friend who reads this blog sent me some stuff and it was taped to the card pictured below which summarises my learning to fly through his eyes!

Plane goes here, relating to not getting it in the middle of the runway; Compass with the wrong points, to me having miss read it; windsock to all the gusty wind; the parachutist, my concern over knowing where they are; Left and right the wrong way around, I haven’t worked out, maybe he is confused! and lastly tea and cake he believes is the real reason I go flying!

I think it’s a fair summary of all the issues i have faced!

I try to give the real feeling I have and not the “haven’t I done well” approach some blogs take.

31st March 201416th August 2017

Finding my way in navigation!

Not a good start to the day as far as flying goes; I normally book my lessons for 14:00 and was about to leave home at around 12:50 when I got a call from Mike. I assumed he must need to move my lesson for some reason, however on answering the call Mike ask if everything was OK, to which I replied “yes everything is fine, I’m just leaving now, I will be with you before 14:00”, the reply was, “I have you booked in for 12:00”. Sh*t, I thought and quickly checked my calendar, no I have it written down as 14:00, then I checked the on-line system and as normal Mike is right and I’m wrong. Luckily for me Mike and AAA Microlights are very accommodating and by moving a few people around a little he found time to squeeze me in. Thanks Mike and apologies to all impacted.

Today’s lesson the first following my solo was navigation, I pulled out my map which had a route plotted on it from some time ago and Mike thought it was a good route to fly, but we were going to fly it in the opposite direction. Mike had me add the headings and 5nm lines on each leg counting back from each waypoint. I then added a wind arrow to the map and for this flight as the wind was light we made an approximation for the headings and time to fly each leg.

I had checked the aeroplane beforehand so we were ready to go, after starting up the parachute aeroplane called “Clear Drop” with gives around 5 mins before the first parachutists will be on the ground. Our engine was not even up to temperature for the power check, so we taxied away from the club house and waited for the engine to warm up and the parachutists to all come down. A while later we got the radio call “All Canopies Down” so we made our way over to Runway 06, not one I have used much, in fact I think this was only the second time. Up we went and made a climbing turn to the right on to crosswind leg and then another on to downwind, just as if we were going to do a circuit, but we continued to climb until we reached a chosen height of 3,000ft. I spotted our first point on the map, a roundabout not far from the airfield so from here we changed direction to a heading of 230° towards our waypoint of Kimbolton and noted the time. At around the halfway point Mike asked what could I see and I saw an airport to my left which was Wyton and, after a little prompting, another airport to my right which was Peterborough, ahead was a third airport Alconbury which we flew over; this was re assuring as it meant I was on track. Next was the A1M, A14, A1 junction to my right and in the distance was Grafham Water, about 2nm to the right would be our turning point, Kimbolton Airfield. It appears that spotting little airfields from 3,000ft needs a little practice! I finally spotted it and we turned on to the next leg with a heading of 120° and a new waypoint of Main Hall. As we flew this short leg I called out the things I could see and tried to relate them to the map. As we approached Main Hall, going by the time flown, Mike asked if I could see it and I could not, we must have been over it and Mike suggested we orbit while I look for it, but even with Mike telling me where it was I could not see it! A needle in a haystack comes to mind. Then all of a sudden I can make out the grass strip from the surrounding grass fields! Note to self; on any solo navigations pick something easier to see and check it out on Google earth first!

Form here we turned on to 030° to get back to Chatteris. All the time on each leg I had to make corrections to both height and direction and every time I looked for a land mark I changed one or the other!

My first big error would have been, if Mike was not next to me, a simple one of misreading the compass, I was little disorientated from orbiting, else it would have been a simple turn to the left (it’s the only excuse I have!), but I knew I needed to set a heading of 030° so as the compass clearly has 30 marked on it, no problem, Mike asks do I really want 30? I look at the map and saw it said 25 so I said, no 25, then Mike pointed out my school boy error 30 and 25 on the compass are 300° and 250° I wanted 3 on the compass 30°.

Now with the correct heading we flew back to Chatteris and on the way we done some more landmark spotting and again it took me a long time to find one, Sutton Meadows airfield, which Mike pointed out so easily. I guess or at least I hope the more you fly the easier it gets to spot these things, as I did spot Chatteris airfield OK. Here stated yet more issues for me and I guess one of the main points of the lesson which was correctly joining the circuit.

So we were now flying at 3,000ft on a heading of 060° and needed to descend and turn to join the circuit on Base leg which we did, however before this I got confused and found myself thinking if we took off on 06 we need to land in the opposite direction i.e. 24! I know this is wrong, but in my confused state it made sense to me! Mike needless to say corrected me and we joined left base for 06. With little or no wind the approach was faster and I rounded out and then stopped the round out and bounced, I put power on and went around the next time I was more composed and made an OK landing and taxied back to the club house for a much needed cup of tea.

As I was last to use the aeroplane and now have a share in it I needed to wash it before putting it away.

Just before washing it Frank was coming back in his Flexwing which provided me with something to take pictures of for this post!

I really enjoy my first navigation exercise, but it has also served to remind me just how much more I need to learn and how much more practice is needed before it becomes second nature.

24th March 201416th August 2017

First Solo after more circuits and practice engine failures

I took a day off work today to have a double lesson of circuits, I took the day off as the parachute club doesn’t normally operate on a Monday, thus allowing me to get more circuits in, so making best use of my time and money. The first hour went OK, some good landings, some not so good, but I was gradually improving over the duration of the lesson. The hour was soon up and we returned to the clubhouse for lunch; Katie took a new guy up for a trail lesson and I took some pictures of Hazel doing circuits in her Thruster.

Lunch was soon over and Katie was back from giving the trial lesson and it was time for Mike and I to continue my lesson. After a couple of circuits on the climb out Mike shut the throttle and I immediately got the nose down and selected a nice black field to land in. I was pleased I reacted to the simulated engine failure, but Mike did point out my selection of landing site was not the best and to always aim for a field with a crop in where possible as a newly ploughed fields will stop the aeroplane quick and possible flip it over. Full power on and turning climb back up to circuit height. The landing was quite good for me, especially as it was yet another windy day! On the next circuit we had another simulated engine failure just as I turned on to downwind leg. Again I got the noes down and turned into wind and this time selected a green field! We climbed back up to circuit height and again my landing was not bad for me! On the next circuit Mike had another test for me, this time just before we turned on to base leg Mike said “right there’s an aeroplane on the runway about to take off, what should we do?” I said and apparently it was correct that we should extent the downwind leg to give them time to take off and that’s what we did. On turning on to final I kept the power on until we were nearer the runway and flew yet another OK approach and landing, apparently Mike wanted to check I would keep the power on as needed and I had passed this test too.

We taxied back to the club house and I felt quite pleased with my efforts, but the day was not over! Once back Mike asked if I wanted to do my maiden solo flight and I nervously agreed, well I think it was nerves, in hindsight I think it was a mix of many emotions ranging from excitement to trepidation as I filled with both self-confidence and self-doubt. Mike gave me a chat to re assure me and reminded me to go around if needed. Mike left the aeroplane and I commenced the start-up checks, I radioed my intent to taxi to runway 19 and commenced taxiing, I back tracked 19 and lined up for take-off and it somehow felt normal and all my nerves had gone. Another radio call stating taking off on 19 and away I went. 500ft fuel pump off (no flaps were needed for the take-off), the climb out was a lot quicker, as Mike said it would be and I found myself going straight through the 700ft circuit height, so I reduced the power and descended back to circuit height and turned onto crosswind, all seemed to be going to plan now. I saw my turning point and turned onto downwind, I carried out my checks, switched the fuel pump on and made my downwind call. I turned onto base leg at circuit height and checked the runway and approach were both clear, as I came up to my turning point onto final I took the power off and put a stage of flap on and turned on to final, I then added a second stage of flap and saw I was going to be short, so I put some power on and continued. I won’t lie my landing was not the best of the day, but it was OK and I was down without breaking the aeroplane or killing myself! Like a mad man I had been talking to myself all the way around just as I do when Mike is actually sitting beside me, I guess its force of habit!

Back in the clubhouse I was surprised that it had taken 15 minutes, it seemed no longer then 2 or 3 to me. Everyone congratulated me and Pete added that I had done well especially given the wind conditions. I felt totally shattered and immensely satisfied of my achievement and indebted to Mike for his tuition and support from Katie and the other club members.

So a major milestone achieved, but I still have a long way to go.