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By maxflying
#1522692
tl;dr: QXC done, bit of a diversion at the end for weather but no major drama.
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Well that was a hectic afternoon! I completed my last solo nav exercise earlier this week so was due to get my QXC done next, but didn't have a lesson booked until next week and was expecting a few cancellations before I got lucky with the weather, but... my (non flying) plans for today were cancelled yesterday evening leaving me with a free day, and I'd seen on the aero club Facebook page that they had some last minute availability so I called up this morning just on the off chance. 3 hours later and I'm at the airport putting on the hi-viz!!

Route was Cambridge - Sywell - Conington - Cambridge, with the nav back from Conington going first north to overhead Fenland, then west to overhead Leicester before heading south-east back to Cambridge, to make up the mileage.

First leg to Sywell went well, I was happy with my overhead join, but the subsequent circuit was a bit messy, and I'd mistimed my join so that I ended up too close to a microlight ahead of me. I tried to fly a slow downwind leg to get enough spacing, but ended up on final with him still on the runway so decided to go-around. Second circuit was much neater and I was pretty happy with the landing.

Sywell to Conington was pretty straightforward, although I messed up the join. I had the Pooleys plate on the yoke and had review it before hand, and flew the join exactly as I intended. The problem was that I had misunderstood the diagram! I'd flown there once with my instructor a few weeks ago, but it was a different runway in use. Everything was fine though, but I did end up a bit close behind a plane which had joined in front of me (who did it right!). I called that I was going to orbit at the end of downwind though, and that gave me plenty of spacing.

The last leg is where things started to get interesting... The first bit went fine, I called up Fenland to tell them I was going to be routing overhead, and they said they had no traffic to affect me. Didn't spot them until the last minute, but got overhead then turned to Leicester and once clear of Fenland changed to frequency to Wittering. I'd deliberately planned the route to go around Wittering so that (a) I could pick up a basic service from them and (b) I'd have their METAR and TAF to have a good picture of the weather.

I usually fly during the week so haven't encountered a MATZ closed for the weekend before. My first call went unanswered so I left it 5 minutes and called again. Someone else on the same frequency then answered and said they appeared to be closed. We told each other our respective positions and I continued on my way, no problem. I'd expected there was a chance they would be closed so I wasn't surprised and it didn't cause any problem.

Overhead Rutland water I identified Oakham, switched frequency to Leicester and told them of my intentions. I could see it looked a bit murky in the distance but they didn't report any problems with the weather there. As I made it to the far side of Rutland water I'd pretty much decided it looked like solid rain about 10 miles ahead, between me and Leicester and was thinking about what to do when it started raining on me! That made it an easy decision to divert and I was fortunate in that I was over a very big and easy landmark (Rutland water). I did a 180 and set off on a lap back around it while I planned a diversion (the first time I've had to do that in anger). My first plan was to head south to Market Harborough, which I planned out. But when I rolled out on that heading it looked just as murky, so I turned back and made another lap around Rutland water! The weather still looked OK back where I'd come, so I decided to head direct back to Conington, figuring I could land there if the weather closed in and I couldn't make it back to Cambridge. Half way to Conington, about abeam Wittering, I could see Grafham water in the distance and things looked clear off in that direction. I've flown the route from Grafham water to Cambridge a dozen times on various exercises so I was confident I'd make it back home and updated my diversion to point back to Cambridge. I called Conington en route but there was no answer so I figured they'd gone home for the day (it was after 5pm at that point).

Heading for Cambridge I identified Huntingdon and realised I was close to the final checkpoint on my originally planned route from Leicester back to Cambridge, so flew over that then flew the last bit home as originally planned.

Overall I was pretty pleased with how I handled the situation, although my flying around Rutland while planning the diversion was a bit sloppy. I was fortunate that the cloud base meant I was able to fly at 3000ft and there was good visibility so I could see a lot of distinctive landmarks which gave me a lot of options. Rejoin at Cambridge was straightforward enough and I was pleased with my crosswind join and subsequent circuit.

So, I'm really pleased to get the box ticked and despite the bit of drama at the end I really enjoyed the flight. In hindsight it would have been ideal to have started the whole day about an hour earlier, as I was a bit rushed to get back into the air after both landaways and wouldn't have wanted to be any later back because of the light. But, given the option of getting things done today or potentially waiting for weeks to get lucky with the weather and availability I'm pleased I did it today.
karlbown, Rob P, OptiGone and 2 others liked this
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By Nick T
#1522738
Now, if you were flying G-HERC and made your first call to Sywell at around 14:15 then I heard you just as I was departing from my first visit there back up to Nottingham. :)

Wind was a bit blowy at Sywell yesterday! Around 15-25kts but fortunately straight down the runway.

It did start to look a little bit grim around 16:00 around the Leicester area while I was driving back home after the flight... was thinking I'd timed that quite well to be back on the ground by that point :lol:

Good work on the QXC!
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By Nick T
#1522776
Don't think so... the only holding I did yesterday was at Sywell to come back... chose the wrong time to leave because there was a sudden influx and ended up holding for around 10 minutes :)

I'm in the N65JF group though at Notts, green & white Archer if you know it?
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By maxflying
#1522786
Nick T wrote:Now, if you were flying G-HERC and made your first call to Sywell at around 14:15 then I heard you just as I was departing from my first visit there back up to Nottingham. :)


Yes, that was me! There was a real buzz about the place at Sywell with lots coming and going and plenty of people on the ground. I'm looking forward to going back when I've got my license and have more time to enjoy the place.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1522865
I was at Conington yesterday, though probably a bit earlier. I then headed towards Turweston. The east of the country was nice, the west not quite so nice, and there were various showers and murk around. I managed to miss most of it though the aeroplane did get wet at one point (in the air - it also got wet on the ground at Turweston while I was in having cake and coffee!). it was funny looking south from Turweston (the way I was heading) and seeing murk, but looking back towards Conington and seeing bright sunshine. Argh! :D It was interesting though, there were a load of big clouds and showers, but behind that there was the start of the front with low cloud - luckily a few miles to my right all the way home!
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By kingbing
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1548319
Interesting point about the wind above. I had my chance to do my QXC last week, but with 17kts wind it seemed a bit stiff, so i bottled it.. At point during the day, it as down the necessary runways, but up to 60 degrees off at other points. I reckoned there was about an hour in the day when it would have been doable. My instructor seemed either way abut me doing it.

Does anyone else have personal wind maxima, even when it's down the runway?
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By Nick T
#1548706
I'm around 20 hours since qualifying (around 75 hours total). I'd be binning things off if wind were 20kts or more straight down the runway tbh.

While I was training the rule was you never went solo if the crosswind was > 10kts. I still don't fly solo if that's the case. I'm probably being conservative, but hey!

That being said, the other week I went over to Caernarfon. Got there to a 17kt crosswind with windshear reported on final... was a bit hairy on final but got it down safely enough. Gives me a bit more confidence.

Oh, and I tend not to go cross country if the cloudbase is < 2000ft too. That's another one from training where we didn't go on Navs unless we had 2500ft. And there were no circuits if we didn't have 1500ft.

Going to start the IR(R) shortly - banish those cloud demons! :)
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By kingbing
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1548970
Thanks Nick. I think I am not too far from you in my attitude - which I find reassuring. A squally 12kts crosswind at Lydd was handled recently, but not terribly well. Slightly dented confidence.
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By townleyc
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1549931
Nick T wrote:Oh, and I tend not to go cross country if the cloudbase is < 2000ft too. That's another one from training where we didn't go on Navs unless we had 2500ft. And there were no circuits if we didn't have 1500ft.

Why do you need 1500 for circuits?

What is your local circuit height? What about bad weather circuits?

KE