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.