Learning Experience

Shoreham shenanigans, crossing at 2000ft, descending deadside and then round and round...

On Monday I flew my second solo land away, once again visiting Shoreham. It was an interesting flight to say the least. The forecast on the face of it was excellent - CAVOK and less that 10kts wind in line with the runway, but things weren't so straightforward. Visibility was actually pretty poor and navigation was trickier than normal but I thought manageable. Looking at the track I wasn't very accurate. It worked well enough getting to Littlehampton. I called into Shoreham and they had changed the runway from 02 to 20 - quite a change. It turned out to be extremely variable. My approach was very poor and I made the circuit far too small, with the result that I was far, far too high on final. Last time I'd been here we'd joined on the base leg and had missed the circuit entirely - a mistake really. Time to go around. The second and third attempts weren't much better - each with a bigger circuit. I was convinced I'd seen the circuit pattern roughly around a large road junction, that was one mistake. It was actually much bigger. Several others in the circuit were having trouble and I heard several go-arounds. It turns out there was a tail wind for part of the approach which was making landing extremely difficult. I finally made a big enough circuit, descended enough and was in a good position albeit at 80kts - a bit fast. I could see another aircraft on the runway and was jus about to announce a go-around when the tower instructed my to do so. It seems someone had positioned to take off in the opposite direction and the Cessna on the runway had aborted it's take-off.  Round I went. Finally everything lined up and I landed - again fast and used a lot of the runway but at least I was down safely. The controller even came down for quick chat after I landed saying I handled the situation well and hoped I never had a landing as difficult again! The first few go-arounds were still my fault though!

Look I'm on the arrivals board!

Alpha November and the blue Miles Messenger

 The return journey went pretty well - take off from Runway 02 just to show how much the wind was moving around. I really need to learn to keep a heading and fly straight and level though. Back at Blackbushe was another low and slow landing. Barrie would be very scathing.