Lesson 30, New Airport

Today's lesson was a nav flight to a fairly local airport called Thruxton, Thruxton is also a well known racetrack and the racetrack orbits around the runways. This required a bit of research and planning as it will be the first time I have landed anywhere other than Blackbushe. I obtained the airfield information from AIS and carefully plotted the route and times, noting all the radio frequencies I will need, Thruxton has no tower and just operates a Radio service.

Having completed my plan etc I hung around waiting for Antonio to get back, once he returned he briefed me on what I will need to do for this trip including joining the circuit and the frequencies. Thruxton is PPR which means Prior Permission Required, this involved a telephone call however no-one answered and checking the race diary it was discovered that a race was on today and therefore the airfield is closed. Damn.

Ok well rather than do Thruxton it was decided to change plans and fly instead to Bournemouth, this trip is normally done after the Thruxton trip and the solo Thruxton trip. Bournemouth is a world of difference from Thruxton; it is an international airport with Approach, Tower and Ground services and therefore involves clearances and careful flying.

I have to re-plan for Bournemouth as quickly as possible so I complete the new navigation involving three legs there and three legs back. Lots of frequencies to record however Antonio helpfully hands me a laminated Bournemouth plate listing all the details and showing a map of the runway and taxiways. This should be interesting.

Another pilot based at Blackbushe was there today, a good guy who is willing to talk with a lowly student pilot such as myself, he was taking his Sister for a pleasure flight and decided to also go to Bournemouth. We agreed to meet at Bournemouth for a coffee.

Due to the delay in leaving we carried out a quick start-up and taxied out in no time. Soon we were airborne and climbing in the circuit, the weather today was fantastic.. blue skies with only scattered fair weather cumulus and the visibility was amazing. From 2500AMSL above Blackbushe we could see Heathrow in the distance. The first leg of the navigation was uneventful I stayed on track although was slightly behind on the expected time and also obtained Flight Information Service from Farnborough. I reached our destination for the first leg and began circling while I sorted out the radio stuff in my head before proceeding; next I tuned to Bournemouth Approach and made a hesitant call for clearance into their controlled airspace. I read-back ok but to tell the truth I was feeling under pressure and didn't do this confidently, following that step I tuned the ATIS and struggled to hear and record a crackling voice giving information, meanwhile my navigation was going remarkably ok at least till the next waypoint. I found the waypoint, time was good and then placed the call requesting clearance through to the CTA, my read-back was again hesitant and poor although they understood. Around this time I kind of stopped navigating, which is not a good thing.

Continuing into the CTA Antonio pointed out that we were off-track and at one point had climbed above 2000AMSL, something we were explicitly instructed not to do. I turned onto the correct heading and had Bournemouth in sight we were cleared to enter right base for runway 26 following another aircraft. Base leg was flown much further away than I am used to and when turning final we were a little too high, fortunately the final was huge. We got clearance to land and I proceeded to carry out an ok landing, at this point my brain was still trying to catch up to the whole process.

The runway at Bournemouth is simply huge with the centreline appearing to be as wide as the entire cockpit area of the Katana. We are asked to leave the runway at the second exit and then given clearance to taxi to the apron for small aircraft. It is a long taxi and we arrive seeing Brendan's Grumman AA5 parked on the apron, a guy guides us into a parking space with hand gestures.

Phew, that was really hard work.. the final leg of this flight I found my workload was very high and I found it overwhelming. I know this comes with practice but I felt a little out of my depth. Had Antonio not been there instructing me what to say and pointing out my navigation error I could easily have screwed this up badly. The next time I visit Bournemouth I will be solo so I NEED to learn from this experience and take note of everything.

After shutting down we meet with Brendan and his sister and have a drink and smoke, this gives time for a little more reflection. My general navigation I am happy I understand what I need to do and how to accomplish a successful route, however when I throw radio procedures into that it I consistently fall behind the aircraft and the subsequent chain of events seem mind blowing. One lesson to come out of this, prepare ahead of time the next frequency I will need, this means enter it on the radio well ahead of time. Antonio tells me that apparently everyone struggles on their first flight into Bournemouth and therefore I shouldn't be too annoyed about my performance.

Bournemouth airport is pretty cool, we watched a 737 come in to land on runway 26, I am looking forward to coming back here when I have more time.

Sadly due to time constraints we soon have to head back before Blackbushe tower closes for instruction purposes. There is an insurance restriction on Blackbushe that all training flights must end at or before 6pm, kind of a shame really as the summer evenings would be a great time to fly. We set off again and are soon cleared to take-off. The route back is going to have to change if we are going to have any chance of making it back before 6pm so we decide to cut across an area of the route to make it as direct as possible and also to fly at an increased cruise speed of around 110knts. We clear the CTR and change to Farnborough Radar for FIS, and head towards Basingstoke which is visible from a long distance away.

The flight back is much easier as fewer clearances to worry about and my radio calls are better.

We make excellent time and join downwind for Blackbushe at just before 6pm; we are on the ground when 6pm arrives.

Was an interesting lesson and I think I can learn a lot from this experience, Antonio agrees and suggests we do another duel flight around this area just to get additional practice with clearances and read-backs.

On a side note, Peter Wilms who I forgot to mention in an earlier post berated me for not mentioning his name on this blog, so therefore I am mentioning him now. Peter is the chief flying instructor at Cabair and a decent guy held in high esteem by his colleagues and the community at large, he is an inspiration to firstly myself and I am sure many other people. Peter also saved me £60.00 by way of correcting the flight time figures, hence this glowing appraisal ;-).

My next flight is likely to be to Thruxton or perhaps over Southampton in some more restricted airspace, I am hoping to fly once this coming week and after that concentrate on my exams.