time flown today: 1.3
need 0.9h solo to make 10 for skills test.
circuits:
normal - landing a bit rough
flapless - forgot to call final
normal - high, full-flap
glide (added engine) - forgot to call final
glide (go-around) - too much headwind
normal (go-around due traffic) - flew downwind at 70 kts, extended base, still went around
normal to land
flown today: 1.3
thorough PFL briefing: dead-side parallel to landing strip at 3000ft. Establish 75kt descent and turn crosswind to pass some way upwind of aiming point. Aiming point should be half-way up field if long enough. restart checks, 2500ft passing over landing strip (”high key”), mayday, 2000ft turning downwind. Watch out for wind drift. Warm engine late downwind - carb heat off and full throttle, let nose rise to maintain 75kts, then drop again. 1000ft at base turn (low key) with runway 45 degrees behind, as usual. Look for final turn point, if obviously too high add flaps. decision point at final turn, go/no-go. Once certain it’s doable, fuel/mags/electrics off, flaps as required to steepen descent, and land.
10kt crosswind, into-wind aileron and weathercocked on lift-off, but stable and correct. dodging clouds at 3000ft.
power-off stall: only 1/4″ control yoke movement when releasing back-pressure. fine line between dropping the nose too much and re-stalling. nose attitude should not go much lower than normal high-speed cruise attitude (cowling few degrees below horizon). full throttle immediately on releasing back pressure, maintain as much back pressure as possible without re-stalling. also, steer with rudder, decent right-rudder on applying power. once speed back to 60kts, pull back further into climb.
approach config stall: 1400rpm, second stage flaps. recover when stall warner triggers. much easier.
remember to add carb heat when throttling back, remove carb heat when speed decays below 70kts.
PFL: watch for wind drift. was a bit too high but otherwise well-positioned. nonetheless, little or no flap needed for approach due to headwind. getting the judgement of glide range back.
If less than 3000ft: 2500ft, crosswind or long downwind. 2000ft, then join downwind with decent-sized circuit. 1500ft, long base or short downwind.
go-around at 500ft: full power, nose to horizon, carb heat away, wait for positive rate of climb, then progressively put flap away maintaining nose on horizon.
back to base, was downwind to save time but aircraft was about to depart so had to change to SOHJ. Should have called field in sight earlier for handover to Tower. Otherwise uneventful approach despite hefty crosswind. Aim slightly upwind of centreline. slightly tardy kicking it straight, but flared beautifully for perfect gentle touchdown. more luck than judgement?
Time flown today:
learning points:
stiff headwind, airspeed built surprisingly fast, but really hard to heave off the ground and stall warner flashing away.
slightly bumpy air. slow flight - stall warner flashed at higher speed than expected, aircraft lurched downwards at around 50kts indicated.
stalls - was getting it consistently wrong. dropping nose too much, sometimes not getting properly into the stall. relax back pressure slightly at same time as swiftly applying full throttle, hold attitude (don’t let the nose drop too much), climb when speed is up. maintain direction/bank with rudder only, needs more and more input as speed falls.
incipient stall in landing configuration - same deal but recover earlier, as soon as stall warner triggers, but don’t stay too focussed on the stall warner light. Banked stall - release back-pressure, throttle, wings level and recover.
spiral dive: throttle off, wings level, recover attitude - wait for asi to get to sensible level (e.g. 80kts) before applying full power.
pfl - take account of wind. confused by high key/low key, not familiar with the description or the expected pattern. high key is crosswind over the touchdown spot at 2500ft. low key is… base turn? 1500ft? need a proper briefing next time. attempts over Barford St John foiled by a TMG that was circling there, tried into a field but cocked up the alignment for entering the circuit, which I didn’t properly understand, and worried about the TMG in the area, and we ran out of time. So no PFL attempted.
flapless approach. approach was OK until suddenly dropped at 200ft just short of the threshold. didn’t recover properly, should have given it full power as that happened. came in too low and flat, flared too high, thumped it down.
Time flown today: 1h 05m
Total time flown: 49h 40m
learning points:
check brakes on start of taxy
spatial disorientation illusion
set power correctly
scan for straight and level, or full-panel turn: AI, alt, AI, DI.
scan for climb/descend: AI, ASI, AI, DI
scan for partial panel: ASI, TI, alt
big lag on VSI makes it unreliable
lesser but significant lag on TI
cruise checks: combine with scan
PFL: turned too tight, was too high, flaps too late. Should have anticipated it and taken the initiative.
SOJ: tight on live side to keep clear of other traffic
turning fuel pump off - check switch and position before moving
landing: flared too late, not pulled back enough. just don’t have the knack back yet.
Time flown today: 3h 20m (2h 55m solo)
Total time to date: 48h 35m
After six weeks (and around 15-16 consecutive cancelled bookings due weather), I finally made it back into the sky today for my Qualifying Cross-Country. It’s reputed to be as important and satisfying an event as first solo: it’s confirmation that you really can do this proper, long-distance piloting thing. It’s defined as a route of more than 150nm, landing at two other airfields, and my route took me to Peterborough Conington, Gloucester, and back to Oxford.
The day started with a quick circuit with an instructor, to make sure I hadn’t forgotten how to fly - very useful, since I’ve flown so little this summer, and I was particularly concerned about my landing ability, specifically my height judgement and technique in the flare and hold-off. It turned out I was right to be concerned: although the circuit and approach was well-flown, the landing was pretty crude and a touch rough. Having only made about five landings in the last six months, it’s not surprising my skills are rusty. The instructor suggested I should have slightly slackened the back-pressure in the hold-off, when it became apparent I was too high. But I hadn’t realised I was too high until it was too late. He also suggested that I should look further down the runway when rounding out, to judge it - he was right, I’d forgotten to do that. But the real problem was that I’d forgotten how to do it properly, full-stop.
Still, he reckoned I was good enough to go solo, so following a quick trip to the pumps, it was time to go! Dare I confess - there was a hint of Top Gun in my stride as I walked back to the plane by myself to embark. Carefully through the checks, taxy out, power checks, get takeoff clearance - and I was away! As I climbed out, I kept a careful eye out for the location of the Otmoor mast, my remote departure point, to ensure I didn’t lose sight of it as it dropped below the horizon. Tall objects that are prominent from the ground may not be so from the air. Climbed out to the south-east, keeping to the left of the mast to keep it in sight down the side of the nose, levelled out at 2600ft, and switched to approach for a flight information service. Turned over the mast onto the first heading, started the stopwatch - it really is much easier than just using the current time - and settled into the leg.
The first problem was that having climbed to 2600ft, I now had a fluffy bank of cumulus a couple of miles in front of me. The base was several hundred feet lower - so I decided to fly underneath, and chopped the power to descend. I had to drop to 1800ft to clear it, but I quickly passed underneath and the way ahead looked clear, so I climbed back up. There seemed to be more similar cloud further ahead on my route, so I elected to stay a little lower at 2200ft to keep clear, since the minimum safe altitude for this leg was 2000ft.
The navigation proceeded in an entirely straightforward way, as I headed out towards Milton Keynes.
As I passed a couple of miles south of Buckingham, I switched to Cranfield for flight information, and carried on pretty much as before. Milton Keynes came and went…
and I started looking out for further landmarks, such as Olney, a VRP for Cranfield:
It was a beautiful day now, with quite spectacular visibility. Visibility looked slightly murkier to the east, with a little cumulus bubbling up, but nothing serious. My next landmark was Podington, a.k.a. Santa Pod, a dragstrip, which came up about a minute early. I was travelling slightly faster than planned.
I was approaching the 10 mile point to Conington, so I left Cranfield Approach and switched to Conington Radio. The regional QNH from Cranfield had been 1018, so on requesting joining information from Conington, I was slightly surprised to hear them say that QFE was 1018. But I thought that QFE was generally several millibars different from QNH? I queried whether the setting passed was QFE or QNH, and the slightly puzzled A/G radio operator said very slowly… “Q… N… H… is 1018″. Hmm… doh! Conington is practically at sea level, so of course there’s no difference between altimeter settings relative to the airfield and relative to sea level!
With that cleared up, I started looking for the airfield… there was Wyton, off to the left… just one past the heli site at Molesworth, so it can’t be far now… there’s the A1 stretching right to left, and in front of me is a large village butted up against the A1, so Conington should be directly behind it… aha! A long, thin field shape with a cluster of buildings at the north-east corner, that’s it. Dropped down to circuit height, reported joining downwind, and joined the circuit for an unremarkable and accurate circuit and approach, remembering to keep enough space behind the aircraft ahead for it to backtrack and clear the runway before I landed. That was all fine, but I found myself approaching short final realising I hadn’t announced final on the radio! Of course, just as I went for the PTT, a plane on the apron requested airfield information, and the blathering started… 400ft… blah blah blah… 300ft… blah blah (waits for response) - and I leaped into the middle of their conversation to call final, shortly before crossing the threshold. Not great - but at least I could see that there was no other traffic on or near the runway.
I find that obstacles on final approach tend to un-nerve me: at Conington, it’s the East Coast main railway with its power cables about 100 yards from the threshold! As it happened, I was fine: I added a touch more power to make sure I wasn’t too low on short final, and made another crude but successful landing. Hearing that there had been another aircraft behind me, I stopped and backtracked as quickly as I could, and managed to vacate the runway in time. Excellent. Parked up, and time for a sandwich!
Having booked in by phone to Gloucester, and done a quick transit check, time to go. As I did the power checks, an aircraft called base leg, and thinking it could be 30 seconds from landing I figured I wouldn’t have time to take-off before it arrived. So I announced that I was holding short of the runway, and I waited. And waited. Must have been there for over two minutes - it was a long and distant base leg! As it went past about to touch down, I pulled out, backtracked to the start of the runway, and waited for the runway to be clear… and at last. Full power, and it’s time to go west.
Climbing out, Oundle soon appeared on the nose. Levelled out, left Conington Radio for Sywell Radio to start listening out, turned over Oundle, started the stopwatch, quick cruise check, and settled into the leg. At the risk of setting myself up for a nasty fall, this visual navigation business really seems very easy, provided one is dilligent with cross-checks. Particularly on such a clear day, when towns are visible from 20 miles away or more.
I made a bit of a mess of my comms with Sywell: I should have stuck to the “pass your message” format, even though they’re just an A/G radio service. I passed a couple of miles north of the airfield, over Pitsford Water. I was two minutes ahead of time at Pitsford, so I was going significantly faster than planned. Since the wind was a cross-wind, maybe there was an error in my maths, or the airspeed indicator. I kept drifting slightly right of track, but there were so many visual references that correction was intuitive and easy. The air started to become a bit thermal and bumpy as I headed further west, and the plane was needing more inputs to maintain constant altitude. The M1 soon approached, and as I crossed it just south of Daventry, I left Sywell and requested flight information from Brize Radar, who obliged despite being obviously busy, and gave me a squawk code.
The leg continued uneventfully, the ground rising into the familiar landmarks of the Cotswolds, and I climbed to maintain safe altitude over the rising ground ahead since I’d been ducking beneath the cumulus at around 2400ft. Shipston-on-Stour, Chipping Campden, Broadway Hill and Winchcombe all came and went.
I changed to Gloucester Approach, and in the radio pandemonium eventually managed to extract confirmation that I should do an overhead join to a right-hand circuit for runway 27, and started contemplating the geometry of my approach. Once clear of Cleeve Hill, I ducked down to the joining altitude of 2000ft, and keeping well out from the airfield to ensure I kept the runway in sight, I commenced the dead-side descent. Tower seemed to be talking to about eight aircraft at once, who kept transmitting over each other’s transmissions - getting calls in was a challenge. The circuit was straightforward, although I noted a Cessna 152 taking-off and climbing just as I flew across the upwind end of the runway - would have been most alarming if it had been a plane with a stronger rate of climb. I approached the end of downwind, and was confronted with the giant silver donut of GCHQ right where base leg should be. Figuring that the government’s top secret squirrels possibly don’t like being overflown at low altitude, I elected to turn before the silver donut, resulting in a short-ish final approach. The approach was good, but just as I was about to call final, an Islander was cleared for take-off, and pulled out onto the runway. I called final, and was instructed to continue approach… get out of the way! I got lower, and lower, nearer the runway… the Islander started moving… down to 300ft, there’s still a plane on the runway… stuff this - full throttle, level off, call going around - and the Islander finally left the ground. ATC seemed surprised and said I could now land - maybe it looked OK from the ground, but I don’t like committing to a landing when there’s still another plane on the runway. If the Islander had aborted takeoff, it would have been messy. Overflying dead-side at 300ft, I kept a hawk-like watch on the Islander as it climbed out across my path, a short distance ahead. Finally, it was safe to turn crosswind, and go again. This time, I elected for a longer final, flying base leg around the far side of the GCHQ building, and was set up with a very stable approach for another passable but unpolished landing. I failed to stop in time for the runway intersection, so ended up at the far side of the airport, and was told to taxy along the perimeter taxyway and hold at runway 04. I eventually got there, called holding and received no acknowledgement amongst the general chaos of Tower frequency as several aircraft and helicopters variously landed, took off, taxyed, manouvered and flew in the circuit. Called holding a minute later, still nothing… then some mumbled comment about “aircraft holding at C2, standby, on VHF”… and eventually, I was cleared to cross 04 despite there having been nothing on it for the whole of the preceding five minutes while I waited. Oh well, there goes another tenner. Finally made it to the apron, parked up, and went inside to pay the fee and get my form stamped.
I was feeling pretty tired after that leg: I’d been in the cockpit for quite a long time. But soon got going again, and prepared to burn another £20-30 waiting on the ground for ATC. The apron is directly situated on the start of runway 27, so you’d think taxying would be quick… but another plane got to the hold seconds before me, and proceeded to spend a very, very long time doing power checks. I called “ready for departure” as soon as I was, but Tower decided I had to wait for the other plane (although there was ample room to get past it). Once that had eventually gone, I had to wait for a landing plane… and finally, my turn. Took off, turning slightly right for the noise abatement procedure, past my parents’ old house and Dad’s office at RAF Innsworth, and climbed out north. I was concerned to see that I’d done to an aircraft joining crosswind, exactly what I’d been worried the C152 earlier had done to me, as I climbed up into it’s crosswind path - but I maintained visual contact and kept clear until I was well away from the circuit, established on a course for Bishop’s Cleeve nestling beneath the big hill.
There was some other traffic inbound over Cheltenham, which I heard Gloucester Approach talking to as I approached Bishop’s Cleeve. I realised that on the booking-in form, I’d put my route as direct Oxford, and in the absence of radar identification, they probably thought I was further south, over Cheltenham. I heard them tell the other aircraft that they thought I was “abeam the racecourse” - well, I kinda was, but also three miles north of it! Should have been more specific about my departure route. Over Bishop’s Cleeve, I set course, started the stopwatch, did a quick cruise check, and settled into the last leg.
Stow-on-the-Wold soon appeared ahead and slightly to the left, distinctively perched atop its wooded hill, and I decided to pass closer to the town, tracking north of the planned route to keep well clear of Little Rissington. I’d planned to speak to Brize for the last leg, so I bade farewell to Gloucester and asked for a change to Brize… but I was about to dial Brize when I realised I was barely fifteen miles from Oxford, so I changed to Oxford instead. In retrospect, not a good idea, since if I’d gone missing, Brize might have been worried that I hadn’t contacted them. Though it was a freecall, rather than a “contact” - Gloucester hadn’t passed my information to Brize. Hmm.
Passing Stow, the area is so familiar, and the visibility so good, that navigation was scarcely necessary. Such a beautiful day to be aloft. Had a quick look at the chart for the relation between my planned track, and the arc of the Cotswold railway south of Charlbury; took a rough course that kept the railway in the right place; did a cruise check now and then; kept a decent lookout; and enjoyed it.
Just past Charlbury, I called for joining information. Runway 01 was in use, and I decided to pass to the north of Blenheim for a crosswind join.
Dropped to circuit height, dog-legged north around Blenheim Palace to avoid causing trouble, scanned the runway dilligently for departing jets that might soar into me as I crossed the upwind end of the runway, and settled into the familiar circuit. The circuit and approach was unremarkable, with a touch of crosswind from the left as I stabilised on final. But as I flared, I properly cocked it up: I think I screwed the flare up, and I certainly put too much rudder in to straighten it as I dumped the plane onto the runway with a hefty sideways component, first skidding to the right and then to the left, trying desperately to moderate my rudder inputs whilst correcting adequately, desperately trying avoid a yawing oscillation. It was a truly rubbish landing. I dunno, maybe I was tired. Maybe I just haven’t done enough landings. It was a slightly disappointing end to an otherwise fabulous day.
