Lesson 24, More Nav
I havn't flown all week so have been looking forward to todays lesson.. the only problem was I managed to forget the time of the lesson, for some reason I had it in my head that it was this afternoon. I call the training school to check the time of the lesson and it turned out to be at 9:30am .. hmm thats like now! damn. I get myself sorted out and head down there as quickly as I can, arriving 30 minutes late.
Because of my lateness this morning we have to rush the planning part of the navigation lesson, this isn't good and I don't feel 'with it' mentally this morning, my brain just hasn't awoke. We plan a heading according to the wind given on the met form and mark points on the map to check navigation along with the times we should reach those points. This is a single leg so should not be to difficult.
Antonio does the checks this time to save time (I take longer) and I decide to do a short field take-off which is easy. I climb in the circuit and proceed with the navigation once we are at 3000AMSL and over the centre of the runway. Heading is good, altitude is good and airspeed is good.. not a bad start. I make the radio calls and request change to Farnborough Radar and then request Flight Information Service from Farnborough. My radio calls were improved today, partly because I didn't put any pressure on myself.
Before long we arrive at the first 'checkpoint' marked on the map, we are maintaining the correct track and pass the point at the expected time, almost dead-on. So far so good...
Before I go, I should mention the weather, to the East a large occluded weather front is rapidly moving towards us and although our current position is in sunshine with scattered CU cloud the air starts to get very turbulent.
The next checkpoint is less easy to see from the air, it's a railway track crossing our track. I spot the railway track ok but I don't take notice of other references which should have told me we had drifted off course. Before long, I am not seeing what I expect to see, at this point I realise we have drifted. I check the heading and it is correct, damn the wind has changed significantly. We change heading by around 15 degrees to bring us back to our intended track.
The next check point arrives and we are now back on track although running 2 minutes behind, the air now is very choppy and it is increasingly hard to hold altitude, airspeed and heading. None-the-less we arrive overhead an old disused airfield, our destination. Antonio pulls the power to simulate an engine failure. I decide to land on the old runway so set the aircraft up for a downwind. I then make a mess of the procedure.. damn.. I know this stuff but for some reason I can't seem to concentrate. I try and make a turn onto base leg but at 45degrees of bank.. she doesn't turn! the choppyness and strong wind just won't allow me to turn at this low airspeed and altitude is now falling away rapidly. We recover the situation. In those circumstances it would have been foolish to continue to rescue the maneover as this was a practice, I would have had to increased bank angle to around 60 degrees to force a turn at a low airspeed. That would be asking for trouble. If this was a real situation I would have selected another landing area to the other side and close by.
I set course for blackbushe, following pretty much the same path we took on our way out. We do a couple more engine failures which again I mess up. The whole time I am trying to maintain our course and know our position in relation to the map, I keep getting asked questions about our present position and what landmarks are. I am feeling stressed now and can't seem to focus my mind. Soon it becomes obvious we are not on course as I can't see the railway track I was expecting. We are heading to far to the South. I correct and we do another engine failure.. by this time my brain has gone into meltdown and I barely know my own name let alone be able to follow a procedure.
Heading in towards Blackbushe I make the required calls after first having to circle outside in a holding pattern while waiting for radio clearance from Farnborough Radar to switch frequency. I enter normal circuit and fight the turbulence all the way to landing. The landing was smooth but not on the centre line.
All in all, I left blackbushe feeling annoyed with myself. After a bit of reflection I actually shouldn't be to hard on myself, the conditions were not good today with strong turbulence and a significant wind direction change rendering our calculated heading totally incorrect once in the air and one hell of a lot to think about all the time. Being late this morning kind of didn't allow me time to settle into the task.
More flying tomorrow where I hope it will be much improved!
Because of my lateness this morning we have to rush the planning part of the navigation lesson, this isn't good and I don't feel 'with it' mentally this morning, my brain just hasn't awoke. We plan a heading according to the wind given on the met form and mark points on the map to check navigation along with the times we should reach those points. This is a single leg so should not be to difficult.
Antonio does the checks this time to save time (I take longer) and I decide to do a short field take-off which is easy. I climb in the circuit and proceed with the navigation once we are at 3000AMSL and over the centre of the runway. Heading is good, altitude is good and airspeed is good.. not a bad start. I make the radio calls and request change to Farnborough Radar and then request Flight Information Service from Farnborough. My radio calls were improved today, partly because I didn't put any pressure on myself.
Before long we arrive at the first 'checkpoint' marked on the map, we are maintaining the correct track and pass the point at the expected time, almost dead-on. So far so good...
Before I go, I should mention the weather, to the East a large occluded weather front is rapidly moving towards us and although our current position is in sunshine with scattered CU cloud the air starts to get very turbulent.
The next checkpoint is less easy to see from the air, it's a railway track crossing our track. I spot the railway track ok but I don't take notice of other references which should have told me we had drifted off course. Before long, I am not seeing what I expect to see, at this point I realise we have drifted. I check the heading and it is correct, damn the wind has changed significantly. We change heading by around 15 degrees to bring us back to our intended track.
The next check point arrives and we are now back on track although running 2 minutes behind, the air now is very choppy and it is increasingly hard to hold altitude, airspeed and heading. None-the-less we arrive overhead an old disused airfield, our destination. Antonio pulls the power to simulate an engine failure. I decide to land on the old runway so set the aircraft up for a downwind. I then make a mess of the procedure.. damn.. I know this stuff but for some reason I can't seem to concentrate. I try and make a turn onto base leg but at 45degrees of bank.. she doesn't turn! the choppyness and strong wind just won't allow me to turn at this low airspeed and altitude is now falling away rapidly. We recover the situation. In those circumstances it would have been foolish to continue to rescue the maneover as this was a practice, I would have had to increased bank angle to around 60 degrees to force a turn at a low airspeed. That would be asking for trouble. If this was a real situation I would have selected another landing area to the other side and close by.
I set course for blackbushe, following pretty much the same path we took on our way out. We do a couple more engine failures which again I mess up. The whole time I am trying to maintain our course and know our position in relation to the map, I keep getting asked questions about our present position and what landmarks are. I am feeling stressed now and can't seem to focus my mind. Soon it becomes obvious we are not on course as I can't see the railway track I was expecting. We are heading to far to the South. I correct and we do another engine failure.. by this time my brain has gone into meltdown and I barely know my own name let alone be able to follow a procedure.
Heading in towards Blackbushe I make the required calls after first having to circle outside in a holding pattern while waiting for radio clearance from Farnborough Radar to switch frequency. I enter normal circuit and fight the turbulence all the way to landing. The landing was smooth but not on the centre line.
All in all, I left blackbushe feeling annoyed with myself. After a bit of reflection I actually shouldn't be to hard on myself, the conditions were not good today with strong turbulence and a significant wind direction change rendering our calculated heading totally incorrect once in the air and one hell of a lot to think about all the time. Being late this morning kind of didn't allow me time to settle into the task.
More flying tomorrow where I hope it will be much improved!
posted by Chris @ Saturday, August 13, 2005
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