Forced Landings Archives - Get Your Wings

20th April 202520th April 2025

Taking Flight: A Journey Through the GST with Ady Fletcher

Flying isn’t just about mastering the controls—it’s about perseverance, patience, and the exhilarating moment when everything clicks. Every pilot has a story, but some journeys stand out for their dedication and grit. In this guest post, we hear from Ady Fletcher, who navigated the highs and challenges of preparing for his General Skills Test (GST).

As Ady’s instructor, I had the privilege of watching his progression. His reflections capture the essence of learning to fly: the lessons, the mental preparation, and the thrill of conquering each new challenge. From decoding complex weather forecasts to rehearsing emergency manoeuvres, Ady’s experience highlights what it takes to pass a test and what it means to become a pilot.

So, buckle in and enjoy Ady’s recounting of his journey to earning his wings
Adi (CFI Get Your Wings)

There’s nothing like passing a test you’ve studied hard for many months!

My journey started with giving my Son a flying lesson as a well-done present for passing his exams; the next thing I knew, I was booking my own lessons and climbing into the cockpit of the modern, fast, yet forgiving C42C microlight.

Flying the C42C
Flying the C42C was inspiring; it’s very forgiving and given half a chance can almost recover from stalls automatically, certainly with minimal input. My favourite flying exercises were the ‘Unusual Attitudes’ where Adi of ‘Get Your Wings’, would take control for a few seconds, put the aircraft into a challenging orientation, and then I would recover to straight-and-level flight. There were several variations, so you never knew exactly what was coming next – it kept me on my toes and was great fun!

FRTOL
Flight Radiotelephony Operator’s Licence. While taking lessons in the microlight, I was also attending one-to-one radio telephony lessons with Ian, a very experienced Air Traffic Controller at Norwich Airport. Completing the FRTOL was a significant step for me, clearing the way for me to concentrate fully on the practical flying skills needed for the General Skills Test (GST) and flying in and out of Felthorpe, which is under Norwich Airport’s controlled airspace.

Weather
The weather is a big part of flying, so learning to read and understand forecasts is important. The Met Office is the primary source, providing forecasts that use a suite of aviation acronyms. Learning the multitude of acronyms (like those used for METARs and TAFs weather reports) can seem daunting. My approach was to regularly download forecasts, spend some time decoding them, and looking outside at the weather in question. After a few weeks of doing this, spending a few minutes per day, I soon started to find interpretation relatively straightforward.

Armchair Flying
After a reasonable number of hours flying, much studying at home, and a few classroom sessions, I reached a point where I felt as prepared as I could be, and we set the date for my General Skills Test (GST). Preparation leading up to the exam, other than GST revision in flight with Adi, involved armchair flying! This practice is a mental exercise (albeit often with books and my pilot’s kneeboard at the ready!) involving rehearsing the flight: carrying out the various checks, drills, manoeuvres, and radio calls involved in routine flight, as well as the various exercises usually reserved for performing with a flight instructor, such as those exciting unusual attitudes.

The Big Day

The preparation routine for the GST mirrored that of a normal flying day, though clearly with a heightened focus. I ensured I got a good night’s sleep beforehand and avoided drinking alcohol for 24 hours prior. This included checking the map was up to date and ensuring I was practiced in getting those crucial weather reports, METARs, and NOTAMs. I made sure I knew what fuel level to expect so that I prepared the weight and balance checks, and got my kneeboard set up as I wanted it with any plates, checklists, and helpful notes.

On the morning of the test, the first job of the day was getting a cuppa while checking the weather and NOTAMs, printing those out along with the weight and balance calculations and performance checks. Then it was a good breakfast and trying to relax!

Throughout the test, I was ‘Pilot in Command (under supervision)’ and therefore was responsible for performing all tasks, including the preparation of the aircraft for the flight. So, it was off to get the C42C out from the hangar and into position for the preflight checks.

The Test

To help reduce my stress levels on the day, I made sure I arrived in good time at the airfield. Once settled in, I then checked the windsock, the METAR, TAF, and mAdi sure all paperwork was ready for inspection, not forgetting my passport.

All too soon the examiner, Howard, arrived at the airfield. After some calming words from him, we got down to business, reviewing the paperwork for the plane and myself. We then reviewed my flight preparation, talking him through my analysis of the weather reports and NOTAMs.

The pre-flight inspection, a well-practised and vital task, was next. I was accompanied by Howard, who asked various technical questions as I worked my way methodically around the plane. All these questions I was fully prepared for, thanks to the ‘Get Your Wings’ book and C42C technical sheets.

The passenger briefing can be easy to overlook but is a legal requirement and just good practice. I worked through my pre-prepared spiel, treating the examiner as a novice passenger.

The Flight If there’s one thing to be aware of, it’s that the mistakes were mine to make. By this I mean, as long as I wasn’t doing anything immediately dangerous, the examiner would let me make the mistake and would not do anything to correct, comment, or critique during the exam itself. All aspects of the exam, good and not so good, were noted by the examiner and discussed afterwards over a well-earned cuppa.

The take-off roll was textbook. I checked the compass aligned with the runway (RW 05 for a crosswind take-off). Once full power was applied, I checked the RPM was greater than 5000 and the airspeed was rising on the indicator, climbing at 60 knots until above 300ft before raising flaps and then built speed up to 70 knots. Then into a climbing right-hand turn to come back around over the airfield while making the ‘airborne’ contact with Norwich Tower, and levelling out at 1000ft (as per the Felthorpe departure procedure) heading for the Swannington VRP.

While the weather was perfectly flyable in the robust C42C, it was also somewhat challenging with a stern breeze, changeable direction, and widespread moderate turbulence (as per the forecast, which I had highlighted with asterisks in my pre-flight briefing).

Once at the VRP, my first challenge came via the radio, Norwich Radar asked that we continue at 1000ft as they were vectoring in a commercial airliner. Normally, this would have been fine, but today with the turbulence, it was starting to become wearing. Howard suggested we seek to change heading, which would allow us to increase altitude, and thankfully, the air traffic controllers took mercy on us and approved the change.

Now flying in a northerly direction, we climbed to 3000ft and started to work through the list of exercises, a 270-degree turn with a bank angle of more than 45 degrees but less than 60 degrees. The horizon is used as a visual reference for these, and while the visibility wasn’t great, it was good enough, so these went very smoothly and stayed well inside +/-100ft.

Then it was straight on to stalls, a simple one at first. I wasn’t quite used to the way Howard worked and wasn’t sure when to recover (this was my fault, not the examiner’s!), but once I understood, the C42C was so easy to recover, it was the simplest of the exercises.

But then fear struck as I realised I had made a crucial mistake. I had gone from high bank turns (which I had practised as being part of the lookout checks) straight into the stalls without performing the essential HASELL checks (Height, Airframe, Security, Engine, Location, Lookout). I immediately put a hold on the exercise and admitted my omission!

HASELL checks complete, it was back to ‘stalls in the turn’, i.e. simulating a stall while turning base leg, and a stall in the approach configuration, followed by stalls at the incipient stage.

Then came the once-feared, now-enjoyed(!) ‘Unusual Attitudes’, where the examiner takes control and puts the aircraft into a situation with high speed, high attitude, or high bank and then says, “Recover,” followed by perhaps a dive with a high bank angle, and again, hands control over to me to recover. These can be intimidating at first, but once well-practised, I started to enjoy them! These all went as well as I could have hoped.

It should be noted that while I haven’t mentioned them explicitly so far, throughout the flight, the usual lookout scans and good airmanship checks were constantly being performed.

At times whilst we were flying straight and level, we talked through a few emergency drills, and the next thing I knew, Howard said, “Okay, so you’ve lost your engine,” and it was on to the well-practised forced landing (PFL). Fortunately, there was a huge field within gliding distance and into wind too, so I headed for that. Despite some wires at the end of the very long field, we both agreed it would likely have been a successful landing. I did make one mistake on this exercise, which I would only learn about during the post-exam wash-up, I forgot to brief the passenger on what was happening!.

So, we climbed away, and lo and behold, we had another engine failure – a simulated failure on take-off. I picked a field, adjusted my speed to best glide, performed my checks, sent a ‘Mayday’ call, and then Howard asked which field I was aiming for. Because there were at least ten within range I was struggling for a better description, I pointed at my chosen field and said, “That one!” The examiner responded, “Which one?” Rather aghast, I said, “Erm, the dark green one!”

Climbing back up, we talked through more potential problems, and again, surprise surprise, we now had an engine problem – low oil pressure – which led to another discussion and a decision to perform a precautionary landing. We flew at 800ft, seeking a suitable site to land, and headed for Gunton Park, which was close by. I performed a routine of flypasts and circuits to assess the site (there’s actually an airstrip there!). For exam purposes, I was talking through my thoughts, what I was seeing, and my reasoning for either selecting or rejecting the landing site. There was a large herd of deer nearby, telegraph poles, and trees, but none of which were a cause for concern, and of course, I selected it. I then performed a glide approach and aborted the landing before getting too low, climbing back to 1000ft.

You may be thinking that this all sounds very daunting, but because of the way Howard conducted the exam, I was completely at ease and Adi makes sure all these manoeuvres are well practised. I did, however, during a routine scan, I found the carb-heat had somehow been switched on (it is not normally used in the C42C, except in the case of actual carb icing), and I can only imagine its unusual position was a test of my routine checks.

I was then instructed to find my way back to Felthorpe. From training, this was a well-practised routine, and while use of Sky Demon made it easier to find the edge of controlled airspace, the plane almost knew its own way home. So, with the direction set, I set off to head for the prescribed Felthorpe re-entry altitude of 1200ft. Howard asked more questions, one being what I would do if the tablet, on which SkyDemon runs, stopped working. At this point, I realised I had made a mistake back on the ground: the laminated paper map I had got out was still sitting uselessly on the desk. I responded, “I would use my phone” but this was not the answer he was looking for…

With ATC clearance granted, it was back over to LenwAdi Lakes, switched to Norwich Tower, and joined overhead at Felthorpe. You will recall the weather that day was somewhat breezy, with moderate turbulence. As time went on, conditions were deteriorating, and as we descended to circuit height, it was clear things would become ‘interesting’.

Next on the menu was a ‘touch and go’. I commenced my downwind run, making the downwind call to Norwich Tower: “G-PE, downwind Felthorpe 16 touch and go.” It was at this point I should tell you, runway 16 at Felthorpe was not often used; it was an unusual wind direction, and until the previous day, I had neither taken off nor landed on the 436m strip.

The day before the GST, I was at work but kept a close eye on the forecast. Seeing the predicted wind speed and direction, where its strength would preclude a crosswind landing on a longer, better-practised runway, I was concerned. So concerned that I messaged Adi and asked if he had any free slots that afternoon for some extra pre-exam flying time. Thankfully he did; the wind was in a favourable direction for using runway 16, and I took an impromptu half-day’s holiday from work. We spent an hour ‘beasting’ the runway 16 circuit, followed by another hour of GST revision.

As it turned out, the previous day’s ‘cramming’ was a worthwhile investment. The wind on the day of the GST was more or less straight down runway 16, but conditions were challenging for me with a lot of turbulence at low-level.

Turning final was as planned, albeit a little late, and the call “G-PE, final Felthorpe 16 touch and go” was made to Norwich Tower. As we came over the wooded area and descended through the trees, we were being thrown around more than I’d previously experienced. As I started to flare the plane in ground effect, a gust of wind picked up the plane, and suddenly we were back up three metres above the ground. At that point, with the 436m runway quickly disappearing underneath, I knew this was not a landing that could be salvaged and chose to go around. It was at this point that Howard broke his rule and provided me some instantaneous feedback: “Good call!”

So, we were back in the 800ft circuit (which is actually just 680ft above ground level), being tossed around like a green salad. This time, my downwind leg went long, too long. I turned base not being able to see the runway, which was hidden behind the trees, and I was left guessing where to turn final. So it was no surprise when I did turn; it was too soon. The runway was nowhere to be seen, and I had to perform a lazy drift across until I found the runway’s centre line as it came into sight. Certainly not the best circuit I’ve ever flown.

In the last stages of the final leg, I held my breath as again, descending between the gap in the trees, the airspeed varied with the gusts, and I decided to add power and increase airspeed to help push through the turbulence. Carefully, I judged our height as we passed over the horse paddocks, aiming as tightly as I could at the nearest part of the runway. Now clear of the fence, engine to idle, I flared and continued to flare – going well, going well – the rear wheels smoothly touched down. I kept the nose high, pulling back, let the speed bleed off, pulled back, and eventually, the nose settled gently to the ground… phew! That was certainly the most challenging landing I’d had to perform.

Again, feedback from my examiner was surprisingly positive: “Well done, very well done!” …but the GST was not complete yet.

Flaps up, I pulled back on the stick to keep the weight off the nose wheel and taxied back to the hangar, where I performed the shutdown checks: radios and electrics off, and finally engine off, taking a note of the Hobbs time and the clock. Turning the master switch off, I was presented with Howard’s hand to shake. “Congratulations!”

I didn’t stop grinning for the rest of the day.

22nd June 201511th August 2017

GST day so possibly my last blog as a student pilot!

Sunday the 21^st June saw me turn up at the airfield for another double lesson, well it would have been if it were not for the weather. Mike and I set off for the first hour and with a strong wind from the West the runway choice was the seldom used 29. With the possibility of my GST the next day we flew a few circuits on Runway 29. We don’t often use this runway as it is shorter than the others and not as wide (well on paper it is as wide!) as there are cables and trees a little bit before the threshold and some bushes at the other end!

After my first take off we left the circuit and went to look at the stall speed VS0 and VS1 the book for our aircraft says VS1 (flaps up at full weight) is 41kts I stalled the C42 a few times and we noted the speed, which was a lot lower then what the book said, it was actually stalling at around 34kts so next we tried it at VS0 (full flaps) here the book has the stall speed at 32kts and the actual stall speed was around 28kts, it may be due to the aeroplane not being at full weight, but it’s nice to know we have a little extra wiggle room if needed in our aeroplane (it may not be the same in yours!).

I was then asked to fly us back to the airfield and to join the circuit for 29.

My landings weren’t great but were getting progressively better on each circuit. I was landing too far to the left on the runway, as Mike pointed out. On 29 the circuit is climb out and turn just before the road (A141), turn onto downwind at the second field before the drain, turn on to Base leg after you clear the 16 foot drain and turn on to final at the kink in the drain and just before the farm house.

I still don’t like 29 by at least I now feel I can use it when needed.

Back on the ground and in the clubhouse I was watching the wind speed increase, it started gusting to 24kts which is outside of limits and Mike confirmed it was now to windy for solo.

Monday and its GST Day

There are four mile stones in learning to fly a microlight

First solo
First solo navigation
Completing all the exams
Passing your GST (General Skills Test) and Aircraft technical part 2 the oral exam

I had completed the first 3 so only had number 4 to go. On Friday my GST for Monday had been cancelled due to the weather forecast, however come Sunday it was back on again and Sunday evening and night my nerves were getting to me, I did not sleep much, which is not good as I wanted to be alert! I got to the airfield in what I thought was good time, arriving at 08:30 my GST was due for 09:30. I unlocked the hanger and got the Keys for the club house that Katie had kindly left for me, I unlocked the clubhouse turned on the PC and radio, I went to walk back to the hanger to check out the aeroplane and noticed a C42 had just landed on runway 24. It was not one of ours as they were all in the hanger, it was the examiner Chris, I waited for him to taxi over and shunt down. While he was doing so I made him a cup of tea (well it couldn’t hurt!), I said I will just get our C42 out and do the walk around so it was ready for the test, but her said to wait as he will watch me do the check out, I was not expecting this but at the same time it was not a problem.

We finished our tea and went to the hanger, I burped the aeroplane and checked the oil, it was a little low so I put 100ml in, I checked all the cowling housing screws as it had been of the night before to allow us to fix an issue with a drip tray! I was around half way round when Mike my instructor arrived and he started to chat to Chris while I carried on. I pull the aeroplane out of the hanger and clear of runway 29. Next Chris briefed me on what to expect and checked we were using the same terminology e.g. if he asked for a standard stall recovery what would I do…

He said not to worry and treat it like I was flying with Mike, easily said not so easily done! It was time to take my test.

I started the aircraft up and checked the oil pressure, all was good, I ran through the remaining checks and I forgot to check the flaps while checking the controls (damn nerves), I realised my mistake and checked them a little late in the sequence, I pointed this out to Chris, no point in hiding it! He said you realised your mistake and put it right thus it’s not a problem! during the check list T is for trim and this “somehow” had been put up to the top, so I corrected it. Chris asked where I wanted to fly to take my test, over the drains was my reply, ok he said take-off and fly me out to the drains and we will do some flying at different speeds on the way.

Off we went with no issue, 200ft flaps up, 500ft fuel pump off, I turned to the left before the A141 and continued to climb, I turned onto downwind talking him through what I was doing all the time as he had asked in the briefing, I’m performing a lookout before executing a climbing turn to the left and will continue to climb and I asked him to look also. I levelled out at 2,000ft and called to say I was leaving the circuit, all good so far commented Chris, who could tell I was nervous! Now show me flying at 60 straight and level, I got us to 60 and he commented we appear to descending I powered on and climbed back up to 2,000ft and ask if it was ok to try again, it was, this time all was good, ok show me flying at 80kts, again all was ok and he said to return to our normal cruise speed, I took it back to 70kts and continued out to the drains. We were heading towards Ely and the start of RAF Lakenheath’s MATZ, so I said this to Chris and that I would like to turn 90° to my left and follow the drain, he said good, it’s your responsibility to keep us clear of airspace, was this part of the test too, I guess so! I remembered what Mike had said and made a point of checking the gauges and make sure he knew I had checked them I did this during the climb out also and every 5-10 mins during the test too. Ok show me a steep turn in either direction up to you, I made a small turn to the right and asked him to check for traffic, all was clear so I turned to the left adding power glancing at the VSI and ASI but mainly watching the horizon, I rolled the wings level and took the power back down, a quick check on the altimeter showed I was at almost the exact same height, good I’m happy with that said Chris. We were coming up on the start of RAF Marham’s MATZ so I said to Chris I’m going to do a descending turn to left as we are approaching a MATZ and there is cloud as well, he seemed pleased with this so a quick lookout and I commenced the turn. Ok he said show me a normal stall and recovery, OK before I do I will just perform a HASELL check, Height 1,500ft, I’m going to climbing back to 2,000ft now we are clear of cloud before I stall and without waiting for confirmation I climbed back to 2,000ft, Airframe I checked the flaps were up and all looked OK, Safety Hatch was still locked on both sides, harnesses both done up, I asked him to check his, all good he said, engine gauges all read ok, Location ABC (clear of Active Airfields, Built up areas, Clouds, crowds and Controlled airspace), Lookout, again I asked for him to look too as I performed a clearing turn both to the right and left, ok into the stall and power on nose down and recover to a climb, good, ok now show me a stall in a turn. A quick HELL check and I stalled it in the turn and recovered and then levelled the wings, good, ok now stall it in a glide descent with pitch only recovery. Another HELL check and into a glide descent we went, I pulled the nose up and stalled, nose down and back into the descent. OK climb back up and we will look at some dangerous and unusual attitudes! First he put it nose high and said recover power on and nose down, ok next was a spiral dive, stop the spin with the rudder ease the nose up and on with the power as the nose comes to the horizon. OK how did that go, he asked, I thought it had gone well, but from his tone I could tell it hadn’t. I was not sure, I said I was a little late on with the power, in fact he was referring to the nose high recovery and apparently I didn’t put any power on!!! (Shit, I have failed I thought, oh well) let’s try that again said Chris and this time he said very good. OK you have an engine failure and he closed the throttle, trim for 60kts, selecting a field, I have chosen that one it has some crop, but we will walk away ok I said, fuel pump on, check fuel tap is open, check mags are on, try restart, it has failed. Check we are still on track for the field, change radio to London Centre make a mayday call, turn on to final, leaving flaps off for now due to strong headwind, Ok I’m going to make the field first stage of flaps, all looking good and Chris says good go around. At around 1,700ft the engine failed again as before I went through the same procedure this time I was little higher so I had second stage of flap on, I was about to say committal checks when he said good go around, we were at about 200ft with a farm house coming up in front So I said I making a climbing turn so as to not over fly the farm house, good said Chris and at 2,000ft he says we only have fuel for 15mins! make a precautionary landing, oh shit what do I do, I can’t remember, then he said use that field over there, OK I said, I’m descending to 1,000ft to over fly it and check the terrain and for wires etc, I’m going to follow a circuit as if it was a normal runway, but will overfly it again at 200ft, good said Chris take me back to the airfield and land. OK I’m climbing back to 1,000ft and will fly us passed the drain so I can turn on to base leg and join, I could have joined on long final, but Mike teaches us a downwind or base leg join is safer and Chris agreed. I heard a radio call from another Microlight taking off on 29 and said although we won’t rely on it, it’s a good indication that the wind is still favouring 29, another good from Chris, I called 2 miles out. A little later and at circuit height I called joining base 29 and I asked him to confirm his harness was done up and his hatch was secured, fuel pump on, I turned on to final and landed on 29, again over to the left, I commented that I was to the left and corrected it. I back tracked 29 and cleaned up the aeroplane, strobe, fuel pump & transponder off, flaps up… I made a call that we were back tracking 29 and asked him to keep a joint look out for any inbound aircraft.

I parked up and he Chris said I had flown well, at this point I’m thinking as he didn’t say I had passed it was going to be a partial pass. Back in the clubhouse Mike said cup of tea here for you both, adding is a celebratory cup and Chris said it was and then started to ask me question about the aircraft. Explain the fuel system, its elements and the order they come in, I did so after nearly missing out the fuel tap! What would do if you had flames coming out of the engine, was another and what would I do if you smelt an electrical burning type of smell another, I answered these correctly. What is the service interval? That had me, 100hrs, I said, what would be check / changed, oil and filter I guessed adding, luckily for us Katie takes care of that, but I know the details are in the manual. He suggested I read up on the servicing. What could I have done to make my pre flight check safer? I thought about this, but could not come up with anything! after some prompting it transpired I burped the airplane without applying the handbrake. Chris then congratulated me on passing my GST, I had done it! I was totally shattered from the lack of sleep, nervous energy and metal energy, I stayed for a few cups of tea while Mike completed the paper work and to give my self-time to recover.

While Mike was doing the paperwork Alan arrived for his GST and I’m very pleased to say he passed too, it would have been awful if only one of us had passed.

I cannot fly other than under instruction until I have my license back and it’s all signed, the part I find odd is you can’t even fly under supervised solo until it comes back it’s instructed or nothing!

I guess I will need to change the blog title now too!

I will continue to blog about my continued learning and flying experiences and keep my journey to become a pilot on the internet in case it helps anyone else.

I would just like to say a public thank you to Mike & Katie of AAA Microlights for the help and support on the journey and to Chris the examiner for putting me at my ease and passing me!

5th April 201515th August 2017

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!

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.

22nd March 201515th August 2017

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.

15th March 201515th August 2017

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.

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!

9th March 201515th August 2017

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!

22nd February 201515th August 2017

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.

8th February 201515th August 2017

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!

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:

9th November 201416th August 2017

Solo Practice

The sun was shining and the overnight rain had stopped, the ground was soft and by the time I arrived at the flying club the car which I had cleaned less than 24 hours before was now covered in mud!

I arrived a few minutes late today, mainly due to a large number of caravans on the road. In the clubhouse Mike had made us all a cup of tea and there was some cake of a new variety left over from Saturday, I’m not sure what it was called, I think Katie said it was a Lumberjack cake, it was good whatever it was, but my favourite cake at the club remains the upside down cake that Alan’s wife makes.

In the hanger Dave was fitting a brand new landing light a 15W (3x5W) LED light to his C42, although I did not see him coming in to land those who did said they could see his light a long way out, long before they saw the C42!

As I dunk my tea Mike and I discussed today’s lesson which was to flight out solo over to the drains and practice steep turns, stalls, and engine failures.

Checks complete, I taxied out to runway 24 and took off turned to the east and climbing to 2,500ft once over the drains I started with the stalls and found following the refresher a couple of weeks or so earlier I was able to make the aeroplane stall each and every time; my recoveries seemed a little aggressive, in that I tent to put the stick forward to quickly and too far, but on each attempt my height loss was less than 100ft with my best attempt being around 70ft. Next I tried steep turns and these seemed ok, I even hit my own wake turbulence a couple of times! So on to the practice engine failures, I pre-selected a field each time to ensure I was away from houses etc and using the constant aspect ratio method I would have made it into each and every field, which is a great improvement, the only issue I have with this method is I find it gives me a very short final approach and I’m too low to convert to a normal final.

Time goes to fast while I’m flying and it was time to return to the airfield, I joined on downwind 24 and making the call, I also asked for confirmation that all canopies were down and got the reply that they were. By now I could also see the parachute plane backtracking runway 19. He lined up ready for take-off as I turned onto base leg and duly took-off. For some reason I flew straight passed the centreline for 24 and was heading for 19, I guess subconsciously my mind was following the parachute plane, I made a couple of turns and quickly got back on track for 24, the landing was light, but the plane seemed to float a long way down the runway before touching down due to the lack of a headwind. When I was having problems with circuits I think this was a worry for me and maybe why I failed to keep it flying and made it touch down! This time as I floated along I recalled one of Mike’s maxims and I paraphrase “If you have not touched down then you are still flying, so simply put the power on and go around if you run out of runway” this was nearly always followed up with “no one has ever crashed into the sky!”.

Our C42 is out of action now for the next 3 weeks as every 5 years the ballistic parachute has to be removed and sent a way to have a new rocket motor and the parachute repacked.

Next Saturday most if not all of the syndicate are planning to get together and clean her as well as doing any little jobs that are needed, I’m looking forward to us all meeting up for the first time!

2nd November 201416th August 2017

Lesson 16A – Forced landings, constant aspect method

As I set off for the airfield today there was no way I would be flying it was windy, low cloud and rainy, unlike the day before when my friend Simon had posted on Facebook a picture from our C42 of clear blue skies with a comment of “a beautiful day for flying…” what a difference 24 hours make!

A beautiful day for flying… by Simon Read

My lesson was scheduled to start at 12:00 and I walked through the clubhouse door just before, all the aeroplanes where in the hanger and the ground was wet with the path flooded in places, it had stopped raining and the cloud base had lifted probably to around 1,000ft. I sat in the club house with a cup of tea and Mike asked “what should we do today”, “drink tea” I replied adding “it’s too wet and windy and the cloud base is too low to fly” Mike agreed but added “as soon as the weather has moved through it should be ok!”.

I raised a point that Katie, Pat and I had discussed the previous week about the damage you can do by rotating a Rotax engine backwards by hand and showed a Rotax bulletin which related to it (I will write a separate blog about this) the conversation moved on to forced landings and the various methods of approaching the fields. Mike teaches to plan the approach hitting certain heights at certain places; this has the advantage of making it feel almost like a normal landing. Then in the microlight book there is the beat and turn and constant aspect approaches to forced landings also. I had re read the book and wanted to know more about the constant aspect method, Mike obliged and drew out the principle on the white board. He added it is difficult to use this method in an unfamiliar aeroplane hence why he teaches the planned method. Mike is always happy to accommodate his students and as the weather had improved Mike suggested we go and try it and see how it works for me! As we sat warming the C42 up it started to rain again but this soon passed and we managed to get up to 2,500ft and still be clear of clouds, Mike demonstrated the constant Aspect approach with his normal precision, then it was my turn and I got it down too! The cloud base was dropping so we flew to a brighter area and I had another two goes each time reaching the intended field on my next attempt I was a little short, but not by much. Finding another area where we could reach 2,500ft I had another two goes including all the drills and reached the fields each time. As we returned to the airfield a shower was overhead and we flow through this and attempted another forced landing back on runway 19, but this time I would have overshot the field and we went around, I did find it distracting flying in rain previously I have only flown in very light showers! I flew a normal circuit in the rain which was lacking precision and height in places on final, but still managed to land nicely.

We had been pre selecting fields before setting the engine to idle, but the method seemed to work for me and next time we are going to try it with Mike randomly calling engine failure! I think Katie’s tip in the comments on my last blog will help with the selection of a field also, so I’m looking forward to putting it all together.

The constant aspect approach is described in the Microlight exercise book and by many websites, one such website which I found helpful is http://www.gremline.com/index_files/page0035.htm however in its essence it is vary simply described:

Select your Initial aiming point (IAP) while gliding along side your chosen field, or sooner if possible, and mentally note or picture the angle down to it with reference to the horizon, this is known as the Sight Line Angle (SLA). If this SLA begins to steepen then you are OVERSHOOTING your IAP. If the SLA begins to lessen then you are UNDERSHOOTING your IAP. you correct the IPA by moving closer or further away by making tighter or wider turns as needed.

Back on the ground the weather had suddenly changed again and it was now a beautiful day, typical!