Lesson 23, Navigation

I arrived a little early for todays lesson, so just hung around for awhile as Antonio was out with another student, I took the chance to learn how to read the NOTAMS on the club computer. Whilst hanging around I was listening to other people waiting for their flights, for most of them it was a first introduction flight and it reminded me it wasn't that long ago that I was in their place.

The weather today was good, light winds and scattered puffy cloud at 4000AMSL with 9999 visibility, it promised to be a nice flight.

I learnt that the schedule was running behind a little but was fine just relaxing and drinking coffee while I continued waiting, Antonio returned and we went into the briefing room to talk navigation. Navigation is something I have been looking forward to learning more about so I enjoyed the long briefing. It was necessary to spend quite a bit of time talking about nav and also explaining how all the various equipment a pilot has to use, such as the flight computer and the 1.500.000 chart. We planned out a single leg about 30NM away and made the calculations on wind, magnetic adjustment and ground speed and marked these onto a VFR flightplan. On the map we marked various points where railways or towns were nearby and marked the times we should be at these points. A new checklist was introduced today, the 6T's:

T - Turn (are we on heading?)
T - Time (has the time been set/marked?)
T - Twist (DI agrees with compass?)
T - Throttle (cruising at 90 knts?)
T - Talk (any radio calls or frequency changes needed?)
T - Track (are we tracking along our marked line on the map?)

Using this checklist frequently during the flight should be simplicity itself to get where we want to go... the problem is remembering it! Like most checklists I have learnt to date it always takes me time to get into the swing of it.

With route planned we set off, unfortunately due to the long briefing and the later than expected schedule we have very little time today but we decide to fly as far as we can and if necessary turn back early. We both shared the transit checks on Lima Sierra for speed and was soon taxing for take-off. We climbed in the circuit and at one point hit a nice thermal which gave us a huge boost in feet per minute. I continued around the circuit and was at the desired 3000 feet on the 'final' leg, I faked a call 'GOLF LIMA SIERRA on finals' and then exclamed we were too high, Antonio laughed and said 'FULL FLAPS'. Looking around was pretty amazing, the visibility today was just awesome and all the green fields, woodland and city areas were basking in the late-day sun.

Overhead the runway I started the 6t's with some prompting from Antonio, well the 6t's soon turned into the 3s's; started, stuttered and stopped. Damn I need to memorize things better! Anyway I set the right heading and maintained 3000AMSL but then realized our airspeed was around 110knts.. hmm reduce power some, it took me awhile getting the right airspeed of 90knts and then I noticed our heading was off and altitude had dropped to 2500AMSL. This happened because I trimmed early on at 110 knts for 3000AMSL and then didn't trim for 90knts, yes I am a dork. Ok not a good start, Antonio directed me to the map and I worked out we were further along then planned for (the first mark on the map was for 6 minutes and we had already past that point at 5 minutes) and also we were to the right. I compensated by returning to the planned heading.. second mistake and a fairly obvious one to all but super dorks. The principal of compensation means that I needed to turn to a heading less than the planned heading for a approximately the same time that I was heading more than the planned heading.

On the more successful side, I was at least able to pick out landmarks shown on the map and establish our position even if it was screwy.

We got about a third of the way along before the time was up and we had to return, flying back gave me time to ponder my errors and alot of them happened because I wasn't mentally ahead of the aircraft. My brain was working hard concentrating on the navigation part and I just forgot how to control the airplane! Usually I can maintain altitude and heading without any problems but I allowed myself to get distracted and therefore wasted time correcting mistakes, all the while the navigation is getting ignored. It reminded me of the first circuit I flew, it was much the same, I got behind the aircraft mentally and afterwards it sucked as a result.

We rejoined the circuit with an overhead join and fell in behind another airplane on downwind, he was flying slow and low (I assume he was doing a glide) so I set up for slow flight and extended the downwind leg a bit to allow him to turn final as I turned base. The approach and landing today was good despite the 8knt crosswind, in fact barely felt it kiss the runway. Having a good landing was a nice feeling as my landings recently have gone downhill.

The time was now late and everyone had pretty much gone home so I hung around with Antonio chatting outside for an hour, I am sincerely glad I have a very able instructor who is on my wavelength.

When I got home I decided to bring out the chart and plan a few more legs to exotic far-away places like Southampton and Windsor (about 30 minutes flight time both) just for practice and to reinforce the ground lesson. I doubt I will get to fly during this week as the lesson I had booked I regrettably had to cancel due to work commitments. Next likely lesson will be next weekend where we will continue with the navigation.