Around Gatwick and RT Overload

Biggin Hill - Centre top left.

I've had an interesting week as far as flying and radio work go. Firstly in the absence of three slots to do a land away at Lydd I flew a dual with Barrie round the Gatwick zone. Then I had a renewal of my medical with Don Cook (all good!). Finally I did my RT Practical - something I hadn't even realised was still on the syllabus.

The south east England flight was a combination of lots of radio and navigation with some sight-seeing familiarisation. Taking in the narrow airspace between Gatwick and Heathrow out through Biggin Hill ATZ as far as Brands Hatch. From there south via Laddingford and Hailsham. We diverted from my plan at that point and flew along the south coast taking in Eastbourne, Brighton, Shoreham ATZ, turning at Chichester to come north avoiding the Goodwood ATZ and finally to Petworth and back overhead Farnborough to rejoining at Blackbushe.

Brighton and the South Coast

There were lots of frequency changes and different airspace types - I've never fiddled with the radio so much. Brands proved to be quite difficult to spot from the air since I'd imagined seeing lots of race track. In fact the circuit is hidden among the trees and the only thing really giving it away was the helipad. Similarly Laddingford was a grass strip we never saw. However Bewl Water and Hailsham were excellent visual references.  The south coast was beautiful from 2300 feet - I'm looking forward to flying that way again.

My radio work was really nervous - I'm sure Biggin thought I was a fool. Barrie leapt in a lot to keep us sounding sensible. Something else I need to improve. We used Blackbushe AFIS, Farnborough LARS West with a Farnborough ATZ overhead transit, Biggin Hill Approach, Farnborough LARS East, Shoreham Approach then went back to Farnborough LARS West and again transitted their ATZ and rejoined at Blackbushe overhead at 2000ft and descending deadside for a standard Northerly join.

The club had also asked me if I wanted to do my RT Practical with Jill since they were booking another. I'd said yes - not knowing what it involved. They'd scheduled it on the Sunday at lunch time warning me to allow two hours. More like 3.5 all in. This involved a pre-plotted route, calculating timings and then making all of the radio calls on a simulator with Jill in the next room playing the part of all of the controllers. It included a PAN and Mayday, changing frequencies, a VDF (!), MATZ penetration and class A airspace. Again I was strangely nervous. I managed to get through it but Jill had lots of advice for me. I think this would be a great exercise to do before flights like this weeks. At Blackbushe so far I've done a very limited amount of radio work - Blackbushe AFIS and Farnborough LARS West.

Solo Navigation Exercise

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Fluffy cloud day

Again I've let a couple of lessons get past without updating my blog. The first was a PFL (Practice Forced Landing) exercise and a session of circuits originally scheduled as the solo navex but the cloud cover was a bit too low out to the west. I'm not sure I entirely had my flying head on so things weren't very good. Firstly we were using runway 07 which I haven't used it for ages and it was never a favourite as previously discussed. Secondly there was a light cross-wind which I never managed to master. The PFL involved looking for an appropriate field and flying a partial circuit around it to land as much into the wind as possible. Watching out for things like pylons and making decisions based on what was around us. I know I did this in Texas, but that was at the airfield so there was only one choice to make, although we did actually land without power there. It was then back to Blackbushe for some circuits. After a few circuits Barrie sent me solo largely to encourage me to think for myself. Two go arounds and one landing later I was still not paying attention to speed and letting the cross-wind get the better of me.

Thatcham ahead

The week after was quite different. The winds were very light and variable - notably no wind down the runway. This time we were on 25. A couple of okay landings with a bit of floating and Barrie finally was able to send me off on my navex. This was amazing! I fluffed the initial radio call to Farnborough - I got quite distracted by including the work Student in my call sign and forgot aircraft type, POB and destination airfield!

After that I settled down and things got much better.I was a tiny bit late starting the initial leg and so ended up a little south of Welford - not too bad though.

Turning around Welford

 As I flew the first leg there was a general warning from Farnborough about congestion over Highclere which was a bit unusual and mildly worrying since I was heading that way to Overton. Unphased I reported my position and ETA to Overton and carried on. This leg was pretty spot on with very little correction of height or heading required. Over Highclere I did get a good view of a Chinook on my left wing coming towards me on my level. I guess part of that congestion!

Overton

Captain Smith

I circled Overton a few times thinking I had a problem with the heading indicator. I think I just wasn't letting it settle down after turns. Again I reported my position and requested a MATZ penetration for Odiham. All nice and smooth.

No gliders today around Odiham thank goodness. As soon as I reached Basingstoke I could see Blackbushe on the nose in the distance. Well before I approached Hook I turned North avoiding Blackbushe ATZ and doing the standard arrival. This was a great flight, a beautiful day and my longest solo flight to date!