I'd has some frustration with the flight computer - so many terrible instructions and bad videos trying to "help". Before my lesson I checked the winds aloft via form 214 and the weather with METAR and TAF on the Met Office web site (rather than relying on Apps!). I filled out my PLOG with info I was a bit uncertain about - both which F214 area to use and dodgy calculations. I didn't think there would be many problems since the wind was a very light 5kts at 2000ft. I did the common sense checks with wind direction and that seemed reasonable, though speeds seemed odd. I cross checked with Flight Demon but they had different answers. So I headed off to the airfield for real advice.
Once again we were in Tango-Echo, the runway was 25 and for a change the surface winds were calm.
Another solid briefing session glossed over the flight computer stuff, pointed me to the correct area of the F214 wind chart (between Heathrow and Bristol - which we are, rather than Jersey...). The winds for this region were much stronger, 20kts, so a swift re-calculation with dodgy flight computer technique and we were off.
As planned we departed overhead and again I wobbled around the airspace. We were running today via heading, speed and timings. As you can see from the map segment above we should have been north of R101, sadly no, we were too far south! Already very wrong, though Barrie did point out that the wind wasn't as strong as advertised so we adjusted the correction (halved our calculated amount (was 10º adjusted to 5º). We got back on the new heading and pressed on, checking out waypoints based on time as we went. I'd divided the legs into quarters before we started and calculated times. So now it was in action - so many minutes into the leg - what can we see here? What should we see? We pressed on to Membury. Today Barrie made sure I did my radio and FREDA checks as we went along. Again a bit of random turning when all of that happened.
I wasn't very positive in my corrections and I could see the motorway way to the north when in fact we should have crossed it. Eventually I spotted the tall aerial at Membury again way north of our position. I turned the plane that way and after a bit of circling above the services and airfield we set off on the second leg.
This leg I made more adjustments based on the ground below. The Kingsclere masts were very useful again and we arrived at Overton on time and as planned. The only problem was it was right under the nose and had to have it pointed out to me!
We circled Overton familiarising with features - using a country road isn't much use because they're difficult to spot from the air.
Finally we headed back again using timings and features until we once again had to head north for the appropriate Blackbushe join.
Barrie said we'd practice a variation via Reading next time and if he thought I was up to the radio, FREDA and flying I'd be off for my first solo cross country!
