Bit of Flying and the 1 in 60 Rule

Last week while we waited for the rain to clear Barrie did a briefing on the 1 in 60 Rule. This states that if a pilot has traveled sixty miles then an error in track of one mile is approximately a 1° error. These are calculations done on the ground based on a reference point or two chosen for the flight.

For example the reference point is 20 miles into a 50 mile flight. The first part of the calculation is the nautical miles gone and the second part is nautical miles to go, thus in my example:-

(1/20 * 60)  + (1/30 * 60)

60/20 + 60/30

3 + 2

5°

So we construct a table showing how far we need to correct given how far we are from course

• 1nm =  5°
• 2nm = 10°
• 3nm = 15°
• 4nm = 20°

Any further out would be poor flying! We subtract these numbers if we're on the right or add if we're on the left.

It was then on with a few circuits to keep my hand in. Since the change of hands the club now only keeps Alpha-November so that's now a given. Blustery conditions made for some interesting circuits with lots of active use of the controls. The circuits were cut short after four touch and goes by a wall of rain and low cloud moving in.

Nav-Extranaganza

Between the storms

So I ended 2013 with a couple of different navigation exercises with varying levels of success. Firstly my regular Friday slot with a four leg flight via Tilehurst, Lambourn and Overton. There was a 40 knot wind at 2000ft which on paper made for some big corrections. I was late starting the first leg which was only corrected because I could see the water tower in Tilehurst. The leg to Lambourn was better. I underestimated timing and thought I was late at the half-way point, but thing weren't all that bad in fact. I correctly arrived at Lambourn but Barrie wasn't particularly happy with my identification. We turned for Overton and that's when things started to go awry. We climbed and descended, went off course and corrected poorly and arrived at what I assumed was Overton. In fact it was too close to Basingstoke, too big and had a major railway line fork - Oakley in fact. Barrie corrected me and pointed out the identifying points. We then flew back to Blackbushe and quite flustered I messed up the approach and circuit though the landing was quite sweet - turns out there was no wind at all!

Lesson from that one? I really have to remember Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.


The last flight was moved forward to a Sunday. Barrie spotted that there was another storm coming in and would stop the booked flight on the Monday. He gave me a call and worked specially on the Sunday. This flight was via Grove and Overton (much error correction needed!)


The first leg went very smoothly with only a little prompt from Barrie to start navigating. (Follow the the mantra Aviate, Navigate, Communicate!). We flew at 2600ft to go over the restricted airspace at Burghfield and also the prohibited airspace at RAL. My flying was straight, level and on-course. I even managed a FREDA check.

Barrie de-icing Alpha-November

I flew a few laps around Wantage and identified Grove airfield, the railway line an a couple of roads. Barrie thought I lacked confidence in pronouncing it was Grove, I think I was just trying to demonstrate that I was looking at features. Still it proves one thing - I need to study the map before I take off.

The second leg to Overton was less disastrous than last time, though my inclination to descend and then have to climb to re-gain altitude was still there. Again a course correction really screwed with everything, though we did arrive further west than last time and I knew Overton and Oakley by sight.

Route plotting with leg identifiers

Again the final leg was all over with the approach being too high and the descent being too swift. We again plunged through the 800ft circuit height, again approached at a terrible angle. This time I made an awful bounced landing which as Barrie later pointed out started with my terrible descent.

And so into 2014 with nothing on my account, a new flying school owner and everything to play for. I really want to do this, not sure where it goes after that, but I'm looking forward to it!