The Weather

Despite a fine looking late summer day I arrived at Blackbushe to be greeted by Tony telling me we weren't flying. There was a lot of turbulence, wind was very gusty and veering all over the place. Tony thought it was a good time to do a lesson on weather, specifically METAR, TAF and what Tony calls Wind Checks.

I'd been looking at forecasts for a while via AeroWeather and was familiar with the kind of information passed in TAFs and METARS but it was very useful to go though what I should actually get from them. I'm going to include a write up of what Tony said here for my own learning purposes.

METAR - Met Actual Report

Weather report from the Met office reporting current conditions.

The current report for Farnborough (the local service for Blackbushe) is as follows:-

EGLF 111250Z 21016KT 180V250 9999 SCT025 19/13 Q1005

EGLF - The ICAO airport code for the station.

111250Z - Date and Time. 11th, 12:50, ZULU time (GMT)

21016KT - Wind and direction. Bearing 210 16 knots. May include G for gusts and a speed.

180V250 - Wind direction variable between 180 and 250.

9999 - Visibility. 9999m or 10km. This is as good as they measure.

SCT025 - Scattered cloud at 2500ft. Just add two zeros as Tony said to Nicholas Lyndhurst. Sometimes two cloud entries when there are layers.

19/13 - Temperature and Dew Point. Tony's tip: difference x400 for visible moisture. Today 2400ft. 

Q1005 - Qnh is 1005.

Other weather types that appear:-

VCXX - Vicinity XX

RA - Rain

SH - Showers

SHRA - Showers and rain, can include be + or -

DZ - Drizzle

RADZ - Rain and drizzle

MI - Mist

BR - Fog (Brume)

SN - Snow

GR - Hail (Tony says they say Granite Rain in the US - Grêle)

RERA - Recent rain

FU - Smoke (Fumée)

CB - Cumulo Nimbus

CU - Cumulus

TCU - Towering Cumulus

NSW - No significant weather

This guy has a nice article on the subject.

Cloud types are measured in 1/8ths of the sky so:-

FEW - Few clouds 1/8 to 2/8

SCT - Scattered clouds 3/8 to 4/8

BKN - Broken clouds 5/8 to 7/8

OVC - Overcast 8/8

TAF - Terminal Aerodrome Forecast

This is a weather forecast and has a stated valid time.

EGLF 111101Z 1112/1120 21016KT 9999 SCT020 TEMPO 1112/1120 20018G28KT

Station, date & time, wind, visibility, cloud are the same at the METAR

1112/1120 - valid time. In this case 11th 12:00 to 20:00.

TEMPO - Temporary condition which is no more than half of the forecast time

BECMG - Becoming, condition will change to.

PROB30 - Might happen

PROB40 - Probably happen. 

Wind Check

How we calculate the cross wind component. 

This is very important and based on the aircraft type we're flying. The ratings for familiar aircraft are:-

PA28 17-20 kts

C152 12 kts

We use the Clock Code to get the cross wind amount. Using runway 25 i.e. bearing of 250±10°

Wind 220 @ 40 kts. 30° difference. 30 is half clock face, so cross wind is half ∴ 20 kts.

Wind 210 @ 30 kts. 40° difference. 40 is 2/3 clock face, so 2/3 cross wind ∴ 20 kts.

Approach speed

If the wind is gusting we add 1/2 the difference in wind to the approach speed.

Thus 220 20 G30. Difference 10 means our approach speed needs 5 extra knots.

This is important on shorter runways. A PA28 has Vapp  of 70kts and Vatt 65kts. 1 knot difference is about 100ft stopping space on the runway.

Sunday Revision

Once again I've been staring at the skies, watching the planes going by. It was time for another lesson so I booked a double at the weekend. The weather was very mixed - sunny with heavy rain showers which made for a very interesting flight.

In G-BPTE we took off on runway 25 as usual, but this time with two stages of flaps so we positively leapt into the sky at 55 kts and headed west. Once in the air the scale of the weather was pretty evident. Ahead of us was a black cloud pouring grey shadowy rain onto the landscape below. Tony said to aim towards it's left hand side. I really wish I'd taken a few photos, it was stunning.

We flew around it's left hand side revealing it was a line of rain clouds snaking off in an arc to the south. There was a thin section ahead to our right and Tony pointed me through it. A brief splash of rain on the windscreen and we burst out the other side and into the sun. Awesome!

We ran through some revision of various lessons - stalls, slow flight, medium and steep turns. I think my favourite feeling is when I'm in a turn, looking out of the cabin window at the ground. Even so my steep turns just weren't steep enough as I kept slipping away from the required 60° turns. Slow flight went very well over sunny Berkshire and stalls were pretty smooth. Tony also use some blanking devices over the instruments to force me to maintain altitude or heading based on stuff outside the cockpit rather than instruments. That went surprisingly well proving I stare at the dials far too much. My difficulty came returning to Blackbushe. Joining on the dead side and trying to hit the circuit height and speed just seemed beyond me. In our debrief Tony and I decided it was sheer burn out - concentrating hard for an hour and then trying the difficulty of joining and landing. One thought is that I should have a quick snack before flying or rest in the middle of a lesson to keep my concentration levels up.

Big Ol' Flight Sim

I had half a day off work yesterday to take up a birthday present from my lovely wife - a 30 minute session in an airliner flight simulator at iPilot at the Westfield Shopping Centre.


The simulator was for a Boeing 737-800 with electronic instruments. I did one take-off from Heathrow, a landing at Heathrow 27-R and a landing at Gatwick 26-L.The experience was quite a good reminder of my flying weaknesses - heavy handed and not leaving enough time for the aircraft to react. This was much more obvious when flying a big plane. I'd love to go again, but it's almost as expensive as a light aircraft lesson!

Slow Flight Revision

Another Friday morning off work and off for a flying lesson. I'd been practicing my circuit walk though quite a lot, however since the weather finally favoured it Tony suggested a revision in slow flight at 2-3000ft. He did a longish brief running though the theory and exercises, I was left to alpha check G-JJAN, we hopped aboard and we were off, heading north west towards Newbury.


He gave me a go at calling Farnborough radar which I messed up entirely. Still that matched the very poor captain's take-off brief.

He ran through changing altitude, heading and speed several times which was confusion to my poor brain. I seem to cope with things in a very serial fashion - height or speed or heading!

Anyway the basic theory he was trying to drum into me is:

• If we're too slow, put the nose down.
• If we're too fast, raise the nose.
• If we need to gain height add power.
• If we need to descend reduce power.
• Don't forget we lose height when turning.

The work cycle is height, heading, speed.

Regular FREDA checks - Fuel, Radio, Engines, Direction, Altitude.

And of course we haven't learned our pre-landing checks either:

• Brakes
• Undercarriage
• Mixture
• Fuel - check there's enough to perform a go around if necessary, fuel pump ON
• Flaps - select landing or descending flap
• Carb heat - apply and check for icing
• Hatches and Harness

Sunday Shabbiness

Another lesson on Sunday - it's nice to be getting down to it. Weather was fine for circuits, quite hazy but not too bumby for a change. Not such a succesful flight though. Terrible approaches and way behind the aircraft. Tony says I need to practice the walk though in the garden more or on the flight sim. So to cheer myself up I've bough a Saitek yoke and throttle quadrant controls on e-Bay.

I've found somewhere quiet near work to practice the circuit walk though on a lunch time. So while it's sunny you'll find me there, walking in squares and talking to myself.

I've also joined AOPA - free for student pilots, so that's nice. Very efficient sign up too - I filled out the form on the web and my membership stuff was with me in a couple of days.

RT Lesson

Tony's basic rules are WHO, WHO and WHAT.

WHO are you speaking to (Blackbushe Information)

WHO you are and where (G-BPTE, downwind)

WHAT you want (Request radio check, airfield information and taxi)

In reply 'repeat like a parrot'.

So the initial conversation at Blackbushe would go:

Blackbushe information, Golf-Juliet-Juliet-Alpha-November, request radio check, airfield information and taxi.
Golf-Alpha-November, taxi to holding point Alpha, runway 2-5 in use, Qfe 1005, (wind?)


There are three airfield comms standards:-

Radio: Advise of ground movement and air information. They have no control and are simply a central point for information.

Info: Control ground movement only, up to the runway. Provide air information.

ATC: Control ground, runway, circuit and approach. May have different frequencies for different services - ground, approach, tower and ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service).

Further Friday Flying

I had half a day off work on Friday and managed to squeeze in another couple of lessons. Once again the weather was pretty clear but very bumpy which made the finals approach pretty interesting. Tony thinks I'm getting better at the first three quarters of the circuit, but neither of us are happy with approach and landing. Tony had a go at videoing the sessions - it will be interesting to see those!

So I need to work on getting ahead of the aircraft while turning from downwind to base and turning from base to final. 

We also had a long briefing about RT, classifications of airfield radio and responsibilty.

Blue Sky Circuits

Another lesson on Sunday in what seemed to be absolutely perfect weather after the 'orrible stuff we've had recently. Tony did mention it was a bit bumpy - he really wasn't kidding.

Today we're flying G-BPTE. I enjoy flying Tango Echo more than Alpha November for some reason - better pedals perhaps. Tango Echo has one down side though, the airspeed indicator is in mph most prominently which means we're remembering 80 mph rather than 70 kts. That and the left tank fuel gauge doesn't work.

So a few more circuits cut somewhat short because of the gusty conditions. Several times we were all nicely lined up on finals and a gust throws everything around. We were using runway 07 today. It seems Blackbushe only uses the M3 side of the airfield for circuits, so today was all right hand turns.

I seem to be picking up the beginning of the circuit, the initial climb, turn crosswind, level at 800ft and then turn downwind. It's the base and final legs that I was struggling with.

• From downwind, initiate turn, turn on carb heat.
• As soon as the turn is complete immediately reduce power to [1600 rpm] and maintain 800ft.
• Once we're within Vfe lower two stages of flap - maintain altitude and slow to 70 kts (or 80 mph if you insist).
• Trim for 70 kts. I'll say it again because I keep forgetting. Trim the aircraft for 70 kts.
• Initiate descent and use a 15° turn onto final.
• Choose the aiming point on the runway.
• At 300 ft add the third stage of flap and turn off carb heat.
• Are we high, are we low, are we fast, are we slow.
• Maintain 70 kts, keeping the runway picture.
• If we're too high reduce power, too low increase power. Don't use the control column to adjust that. Adjustments of 100 RPM or so.
• If we're too fast or slow adjust attitude.
• Once we're over the runway reduce power.
• and then flare.

Which of course the real trick.

Add caption

PA-28 Pre-Landing Checklist

On the grounds that I need to learn this, here is the list from the Piper checklist.

1. Mixture – Rich
2. Carb Heat – Check for ice
3. Fuel – sufficient
4. Flaps – up
5. Engine instrument – within limits
6. Seat backs / Seat belts – erect / secure
7. Altimeter – Set / Cross Check
    o Airport QFE No 1
    o Airport QNH No 2
8. Brakes – Off
9. Recognition / Landing Lights – on
10. Air conditioner – off

And finally here's Tony's version

Brakes
Undercarriage
Mixture (rich) (carb heat on)
T's & P's
Fuel (sufficient) (perhaps swap tanks)
Fuel Pump on
Landing lights on
Carb Heat off
Hatches and harnesses

I prefer Tony's because he includes a round the cockpit check - brakes to mixture in the middle, jump left to engine instruments, work right to fuel, switches, carb heat and finally hatches and harnesses.

Into the Circuit

With a determined rush our hero leapt back into the cockpit. This time he was serious.

I'm having a determined effort to get flying. It's a new year and I have a new will to fly and a new instructor - hi Tony!

I had one lesson last weekend with barely flyable conditions. The cloud was between 1400 and 1800 feet which meant some practice of circuit technique around a disused airfield. Things felt really good and Tony had me flying almost all of the time. Very little in the way of horizon and failing visibility had us navigating back to Blackbushe landmark by landmark.

Following on from this I took a day off work on Thursday and took two lessons in a row. The weather was clear if somewhat breezy and we went through circuits at Blackbushe. I found this exercise very taxing and was all but shaking after the first lesson. We were using runway 25 and all turns were to the left.

• Take off - full power, wait for 60-65 knots and rotate.
• Climb (with one hand on the throttle) to 500ft maintaining a speed to 80 knots on full power.
• Turn left onto the Base leg, (15°) climbing to 800ft and leveling off. Adjust attitude, power (2100) and trim for straight and level.
• Turn left onto downwind leg, (full 30°) before M3 otherwise we're in Farnborough's airspace.
• Ensure 800ft, straight and level and perform pre-landing checks.
• Turn onto the crosswind leg (full 30°) at Hawley Lake, turn on carb heat. Choose stables aiming point.
• Reduce power, wait for the aircraft to slow (to Vfe) and lower two stages of flap, maintain 800ft.
• Continue slowing to 70kts and begin descent.
• At stables, turn left onto final approach. 15° turn. Allow plenty of time to turn.
• Choose the runway aiming point (25). Descend maintaining 70kts.
• At 300ft add third stage of flap, turn off carb heat.
• Check "Are we fast, are we slow, are we high, are we low"
• If we're too low add power, too high, reduce power.
• If we're too fast or slow adjust the attitude of the aircraft.
• Never go below 70kts or take your hand off the throttle, Ian.

Things to do when landing next, this is a novel in itself.