Isle of Wight again
See previous entry for this mornings flight.
This afternoon I took Lima Sierra for a sight seeing flight around the Isle of Wight, the weather remained good although convective activity as the sun warmed the earth made flying a little bumpy. Mike brought his video camera along and was able to capture some excellent footage.
The flight down to Isle of Wight was amazing for the fact that there was very little radio activity from Farnborough radar, I expected due to the weather that every man and his dog would be flying but it was eerily quiet. This caused me once to ask for a radio check from Farnborough just to make sure that I hadn't suffered a radio failure.
I followed the coastline round the island, descending fairly low over the water to give a good view of the white cliffs and the 'Needles', Mike was smiling and was amazed by the experience. Mentioning that it almost seemed surreal. The waters of the English channel below looked almost tropical and the trees inland are starting to turn from winter brown to the greens of summer. Once again over the water the air was smooth and therefore flying was easy with a couple of fingers on the control column to steer us round the contours of the island.
Circuiting the island takes a good amount of time, therefore after one trip round I headed back to Blackbushe. The route back was totally different with many aircraft on the frequency including several French pilots who had flown from Le Touquet, for the most part they struggled with our very quick and busy airwaves. They also spoke with heavy accents which the controller tried to understand but often had to ask them to repeat.
Approaching Farnborough was interesting, I requested clearance to transit their zone, however the controller was on two frequencies and was clearly running at max load. He had several aircraft under his control (IFR commercial jets), to which he passed heading and altitude changes. The controller asked me to route to the North West of the airfield and maintain my present altitude of 2500ft, to which I accepted and complied. The controller continues to pass directions to his departing aircraft. Shortly Mike points out that the aircraft is too our right, I look and he appears to be climbing and passing behind, he then whilst I am watching turns in an intercept course conflicting with us and is nose down. He is less than a mile away and now heading directly towards us! I carry out an emergency descent which leaves Mike's stomach floating about a 1000ft overhead. All this happens pretty quickly and it is only by taking this action that the risk was avoided. The controller had descended the aircraft onto our altitude explicitly and I wonder if their TCAS had warned them that we were in conflict. Anyway no harm done.
I was still outside Farnborough's ATZ and so orbitted while I gained clearance through their zone, I was told to observe and follow the helicopter on the left hand side which was passing through en-route to Odiham. I turned and slotted in behind him, keeping him in our 10 o'clock position and a good distance away, although I had to 'S' turn a bit to avoid overtaking him. I soon left him to join the adjacent Blackbushe ATZ.
On final I did a terrible unforgivable landing! I bounced on the front wheel... duh! I have actually never done this before.. and although it was a very soft bounce it reminded me of my capability of screwing up basic things. I recovered it after a short hop and the final touch-down was good.
Anyway aside from these events had a really good flight and Mike loved it also, we spent the next hour or so discussing flight training.
As a side issue, Lima Sierra has recently developed a problem with leaking oil which appears to be worsening. I checked the oil and topped up to around 7/10ths full before we set off after landing and flying two hours she had lost 1.5l so was reading just under 5/10ths. I calculated that she was losing about 0.7-0.8L of oil per hour and the evidence was dripping onto the front wheel pant. This sadly means she will now need to be grounded until the problem can be rectified, also there are suspicions she is not producing full power. Our engineer is coming to take a look at her on Friday and I have volenteered to take him for a test flight and to be on hand to assist the inspection. I am hoping rather optimistically that a flight I had planned to Cornwall again on 1st May is able to go ahead and the problem can be solved before then.
This afternoon I took Lima Sierra for a sight seeing flight around the Isle of Wight, the weather remained good although convective activity as the sun warmed the earth made flying a little bumpy. Mike brought his video camera along and was able to capture some excellent footage.
The flight down to Isle of Wight was amazing for the fact that there was very little radio activity from Farnborough radar, I expected due to the weather that every man and his dog would be flying but it was eerily quiet. This caused me once to ask for a radio check from Farnborough just to make sure that I hadn't suffered a radio failure.
I followed the coastline round the island, descending fairly low over the water to give a good view of the white cliffs and the 'Needles', Mike was smiling and was amazed by the experience. Mentioning that it almost seemed surreal. The waters of the English channel below looked almost tropical and the trees inland are starting to turn from winter brown to the greens of summer. Once again over the water the air was smooth and therefore flying was easy with a couple of fingers on the control column to steer us round the contours of the island.
Circuiting the island takes a good amount of time, therefore after one trip round I headed back to Blackbushe. The route back was totally different with many aircraft on the frequency including several French pilots who had flown from Le Touquet, for the most part they struggled with our very quick and busy airwaves. They also spoke with heavy accents which the controller tried to understand but often had to ask them to repeat.
Approaching Farnborough was interesting, I requested clearance to transit their zone, however the controller was on two frequencies and was clearly running at max load. He had several aircraft under his control (IFR commercial jets), to which he passed heading and altitude changes. The controller asked me to route to the North West of the airfield and maintain my present altitude of 2500ft, to which I accepted and complied. The controller continues to pass directions to his departing aircraft. Shortly Mike points out that the aircraft is too our right, I look and he appears to be climbing and passing behind, he then whilst I am watching turns in an intercept course conflicting with us and is nose down. He is less than a mile away and now heading directly towards us! I carry out an emergency descent which leaves Mike's stomach floating about a 1000ft overhead. All this happens pretty quickly and it is only by taking this action that the risk was avoided. The controller had descended the aircraft onto our altitude explicitly and I wonder if their TCAS had warned them that we were in conflict. Anyway no harm done.
I was still outside Farnborough's ATZ and so orbitted while I gained clearance through their zone, I was told to observe and follow the helicopter on the left hand side which was passing through en-route to Odiham. I turned and slotted in behind him, keeping him in our 10 o'clock position and a good distance away, although I had to 'S' turn a bit to avoid overtaking him. I soon left him to join the adjacent Blackbushe ATZ.
On final I did a terrible unforgivable landing! I bounced on the front wheel... duh! I have actually never done this before.. and although it was a very soft bounce it reminded me of my capability of screwing up basic things. I recovered it after a short hop and the final touch-down was good.
Anyway aside from these events had a really good flight and Mike loved it also, we spent the next hour or so discussing flight training.
As a side issue, Lima Sierra has recently developed a problem with leaking oil which appears to be worsening. I checked the oil and topped up to around 7/10ths full before we set off after landing and flying two hours she had lost 1.5l so was reading just under 5/10ths. I calculated that she was losing about 0.7-0.8L of oil per hour and the evidence was dripping onto the front wheel pant. This sadly means she will now need to be grounded until the problem can be rectified, also there are suspicions she is not producing full power. Our engineer is coming to take a look at her on Friday and I have volenteered to take him for a test flight and to be on hand to assist the inspection. I am hoping rather optimistically that a flight I had planned to Cornwall again on 1st May is able to go ahead and the problem can be solved before then.
posted by Chris @ Wednesday, April 26, 2006
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