First passenger flight
I had a two hour slot reserved yesterday morning intending to be my first passenger flight, my dad having agreed to come along for a ride. My intention was to take a scenic route and fly down to the coast and the Isle of Wight. The problems began the night before, weather reports were showing broad weather fronts moving accross the UK from the South West with CB's and thunder storms, and a reported wind of 240/20G40. I therefore ruled out flight in my mind and phoned my dad to let him know it wasn't possible.
Come the morning I called Blackbushe to cancel the booking and to my surprise learnt that flying was going on and the weather was not as bad as reported, the wind whilst strong was pretty much straight down the runway. Therefore late change of plan. I called my dad and he was game, I warned him the conditions will be a bit rough but nothing to be concerned about. I checked the METARS and TAFS along with the NOTAMS and all in all although the weather looked generally poor VFR flight was definately possible, I would just have to avoid clouds. Due to my lack of preperation first thing (in mistakenly ruling out flying) we arrived late.. almost an hour late. That gave us just 1 hour to have a fly around, therefore I decided to go to familiar territory where I did the majority of my training.
The preflight proved annoying, the fuel was almost empty requiring further delay to fill up, secondly the borrowed club headset was broken requiring a trip back to the office to pick up another one, more delay. After briefing my dad on what we were going to be doing we departed. My take off was reasonably good, although once in the air I experienced alot of turbulence and wind shear passing over the trees at the end of runway 25, this whilst not alarming made me make a mental note that returning later was likely to be the same so to be prepared.
Visibility was fairly good, although not as good as I hoped and certainly not over to the West where I had intended to head, I obtained flight information service from Farnborough Radar and went North towards what looked like a large break in the front. The journey out was at around 2500-3000AMSL variable due to avoiding the odd cloud and proved to be a bumpy ride. This did not worry my dad either as he is an experienced flyer (although not a pilot). We headed over to Reading area to take a few pictures of a sailing club where he owns a boat, a clear patch of blue sky showed through a large hole in the clouds and I decided to head through the front keeping the option of turning back should this start getting worrying. We passed by a large black CB pouring rain which was basically from ground level till at least 10000ft.
We broke free of the line of the weather front and entered into beautiful blue skies with the sun shining down, the air become smooth and I was able to climb to 4000ft. Another weather front was approaching from the West but was still at least 40nm away giving us time to safely stay in this area. At this point I received a relayed call from Farnborough Radar, requesting that I return back to Blackbushe because the weather had deteroriated significantly, I acknowledged the call and paused for thought. The weather front we had just passed through was now overhead Blackbushe and therefore on the ground I suspect they imagined I was out flying in the grasps of the large nimbus clouds or would be unable to come back in to land. From the air to me the situation was more straight forward, at no time did we enter IMC or risk entry into IMC conditions, we were flying in excellent conditions between the two fronts, I had a full tank of avgas and several divertion options in my immediate locality. I was however mindfull that their request could not be ignored so I reported that I was returning to Blackbushe. Intrestingly I heard other Blackbushe based aircraft then report they were also returning. The direct route back would place me into the heart of the CB, therefore I decided to fly to the South a distance in order to stay VMC and give the weather front time to push further to the east and away from Blackbushe.
After flying some distance towards Basingstoke, I received another call from ATC asking me to confirm I was heading back to Blackbushe. I replied that I was but taking an indirect route via Basingstoke in order to avoid the nasty cloud. Perhaps I should have made my intentions clear on my first radio call, point noted.
Overhead Basingstoke I had to descend as we were now entering the back of the weather front at 2000AMSL the air was once again choppy and forward visibility at best 8nm. I made another decision, I would continue but only a short distance and would divert if I didn't feel comfortable with this situation. After five minutes of this I was down to 1200AMSL with the clouds just over the canopy.. this is text book 'bad situation' with a lowering cloudbase and worsening visibility however the runway lights at Blackbushe appeared ahead. I reported I had Blackbushe in sight and requested frequency change. The Blackbushe frequency was alive with the sounds of a fairly shaken pilot in a PA28, he was saying that the circuit was extremely turbulent and he needed all the runway to get down. This worried me slightly I have to admit, the PA28 is a considerably heavier and more stable aircraft than the Katana we were flying and by the sound of this pilots voice he was more than a little shaken. Next decision of the day... I took the decision once again to depart if this was beyond my comfort level. After-all I knew better weather was now to the West and I had plenty of options to land elsewhere if needed.
As I entered the deadside I was already down to circuit height of 800QFE with the canopy just below the clouds, I crossed the runway and joined downwind which whilst bumpy was not alarming. In actual fact the weather would not have allowed us to continue any further North or East, glancing to the West I could already see the clear blue sky we were flying in earlier moving in towards the airfield. Turning final I anticipated alot of turbulence and wind shear, therefore decided to use only one stage of flap and keep the speed high. Sure enough bit of a crazy approach but the wind was straight down the runway and I have certainly experienced far worse with 25knt crosswinds flying with Antonio. (Picture taken on downwind).
The landing was a good one much to my satisfaction, I had half expected to embarass myself in front of my first passenger. We parked up and shut down, only for a guy to appear at my left window. He explained he couldn't speak English but indicated that he was there to wash aircraft and gestured towards the gates. I understood so started up and requested to taxi to the gates, which I was granted, on the way I was advised to look out for the citation jet which was starting up at Gate 1 and that I should hold. I turned onto the taxiway and saw the aforementioned jet so stopped thinking that the jet would take another taxiway (the usual route) to runway 25. After a minute or so he began turning towards us and it was then clear he was going to squeeze past us on the left.. sigh.. I should have given him more room. I suspect a few comments by the Captain and FO would have been directed my way from their cockpit as we all strained to watch our wingtips as he passed. Once he was clear I taxied over to the gate to further gestures from the foreign guy.
All in all a short flight, just 45 minutes airborne but was strangely fun. My dad mentioned he enjoyed the flight very much despite the short time and the adverse conditions we both then went and grabbed some lunch in the airfield bistro. He is looking forward to the next flight and hopefully we will get the chance to do it again soon and for a longer period.
This flight was also a good test of my decision making, it also makes me appreciate the amount of flying during training where conditions were poor. I think without having experience of strong crosswinds and marginal conditions today would have been well beyond my comfort level, as it was I tried to make early decisions and was always mentally ahead of the conditions.
I have a 4 hour slot booked in for early next week with Mathew, another instructor, in order to get checked out for the club Grumman AA5's. This process may take more than 4 hours to cover everything but at least it will get me most of the way there.
Come the morning I called Blackbushe to cancel the booking and to my surprise learnt that flying was going on and the weather was not as bad as reported, the wind whilst strong was pretty much straight down the runway. Therefore late change of plan. I called my dad and he was game, I warned him the conditions will be a bit rough but nothing to be concerned about. I checked the METARS and TAFS along with the NOTAMS and all in all although the weather looked generally poor VFR flight was definately possible, I would just have to avoid clouds. Due to my lack of preperation first thing (in mistakenly ruling out flying) we arrived late.. almost an hour late. That gave us just 1 hour to have a fly around, therefore I decided to go to familiar territory where I did the majority of my training.
The preflight proved annoying, the fuel was almost empty requiring further delay to fill up, secondly the borrowed club headset was broken requiring a trip back to the office to pick up another one, more delay. After briefing my dad on what we were going to be doing we departed. My take off was reasonably good, although once in the air I experienced alot of turbulence and wind shear passing over the trees at the end of runway 25, this whilst not alarming made me make a mental note that returning later was likely to be the same so to be prepared.
Visibility was fairly good, although not as good as I hoped and certainly not over to the West where I had intended to head, I obtained flight information service from Farnborough Radar and went North towards what looked like a large break in the front. The journey out was at around 2500-3000AMSL variable due to avoiding the odd cloud and proved to be a bumpy ride. This did not worry my dad either as he is an experienced flyer (although not a pilot). We headed over to Reading area to take a few pictures of a sailing club where he owns a boat, a clear patch of blue sky showed through a large hole in the clouds and I decided to head through the front keeping the option of turning back should this start getting worrying. We passed by a large black CB pouring rain which was basically from ground level till at least 10000ft.
We broke free of the line of the weather front and entered into beautiful blue skies with the sun shining down, the air become smooth and I was able to climb to 4000ft. Another weather front was approaching from the West but was still at least 40nm away giving us time to safely stay in this area. At this point I received a relayed call from Farnborough Radar, requesting that I return back to Blackbushe because the weather had deteroriated significantly, I acknowledged the call and paused for thought. The weather front we had just passed through was now overhead Blackbushe and therefore on the ground I suspect they imagined I was out flying in the grasps of the large nimbus clouds or would be unable to come back in to land. From the air to me the situation was more straight forward, at no time did we enter IMC or risk entry into IMC conditions, we were flying in excellent conditions between the two fronts, I had a full tank of avgas and several divertion options in my immediate locality. I was however mindfull that their request could not be ignored so I reported that I was returning to Blackbushe. Intrestingly I heard other Blackbushe based aircraft then report they were also returning. The direct route back would place me into the heart of the CB, therefore I decided to fly to the South a distance in order to stay VMC and give the weather front time to push further to the east and away from Blackbushe.
After flying some distance towards Basingstoke, I received another call from ATC asking me to confirm I was heading back to Blackbushe. I replied that I was but taking an indirect route via Basingstoke in order to avoid the nasty cloud. Perhaps I should have made my intentions clear on my first radio call, point noted.
Overhead Basingstoke I had to descend as we were now entering the back of the weather front at 2000AMSL the air was once again choppy and forward visibility at best 8nm. I made another decision, I would continue but only a short distance and would divert if I didn't feel comfortable with this situation. After five minutes of this I was down to 1200AMSL with the clouds just over the canopy.. this is text book 'bad situation' with a lowering cloudbase and worsening visibility however the runway lights at Blackbushe appeared ahead. I reported I had Blackbushe in sight and requested frequency change. The Blackbushe frequency was alive with the sounds of a fairly shaken pilot in a PA28, he was saying that the circuit was extremely turbulent and he needed all the runway to get down. This worried me slightly I have to admit, the PA28 is a considerably heavier and more stable aircraft than the Katana we were flying and by the sound of this pilots voice he was more than a little shaken. Next decision of the day... I took the decision once again to depart if this was beyond my comfort level. After-all I knew better weather was now to the West and I had plenty of options to land elsewhere if needed.
As I entered the deadside I was already down to circuit height of 800QFE with the canopy just below the clouds, I crossed the runway and joined downwind which whilst bumpy was not alarming. In actual fact the weather would not have allowed us to continue any further North or East, glancing to the West I could already see the clear blue sky we were flying in earlier moving in towards the airfield. Turning final I anticipated alot of turbulence and wind shear, therefore decided to use only one stage of flap and keep the speed high. Sure enough bit of a crazy approach but the wind was straight down the runway and I have certainly experienced far worse with 25knt crosswinds flying with Antonio. (Picture taken on downwind).
The landing was a good one much to my satisfaction, I had half expected to embarass myself in front of my first passenger. We parked up and shut down, only for a guy to appear at my left window. He explained he couldn't speak English but indicated that he was there to wash aircraft and gestured towards the gates. I understood so started up and requested to taxi to the gates, which I was granted, on the way I was advised to look out for the citation jet which was starting up at Gate 1 and that I should hold. I turned onto the taxiway and saw the aforementioned jet so stopped thinking that the jet would take another taxiway (the usual route) to runway 25. After a minute or so he began turning towards us and it was then clear he was going to squeeze past us on the left.. sigh.. I should have given him more room. I suspect a few comments by the Captain and FO would have been directed my way from their cockpit as we all strained to watch our wingtips as he passed. Once he was clear I taxied over to the gate to further gestures from the foreign guy.
All in all a short flight, just 45 minutes airborne but was strangely fun. My dad mentioned he enjoyed the flight very much despite the short time and the adverse conditions we both then went and grabbed some lunch in the airfield bistro. He is looking forward to the next flight and hopefully we will get the chance to do it again soon and for a longer period.
This flight was also a good test of my decision making, it also makes me appreciate the amount of flying during training where conditions were poor. I think without having experience of strong crosswinds and marginal conditions today would have been well beyond my comfort level, as it was I tried to make early decisions and was always mentally ahead of the conditions.
I have a 4 hour slot booked in for early next week with Mathew, another instructor, in order to get checked out for the club Grumman AA5's. This process may take more than 4 hours to cover everything but at least it will get me most of the way there.
posted by Chris @ Friday, February 17, 2006
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