Fri Dec 10, 2021 2:58 pm
#1887392
No solo consolidation today as it was a bit breezy so I had my first (semi) proper introduction to Nav.
Gloucester to Wantage through Brize MATZ, Wantage to Chippenham then back to Gloucester.
Instructor was getting planes out when I got there so was told to draw the lines and fill in the PLOG. Only ever drawn a line and not filled in a PLOG before as just done very simple, very local flights so had no real idea what to do with the PLOG. I managed to get the tracks and distances on the sheet and looked up the wind but then was stumped.
He came back and thrust a whizz wheel in my hand. My face must have told him that he might as well have given me a brick. A very rushed instruction session later, and I've got the gist of what to do. I think I need to get hold of one and sit in a dark room with it for a while but it all seemed to make sense. By the way, has anyone recently qualified and selling a whizz wheel? Any tips on which one to get CRP1, 1W, 4 or ??? I'm guessing CRP1W as that was what I borrowed this morning and it seemed to do all I needed it to.
So, off we went. Wind fairly light on the ground but that changed at about 400 and we picked up a decent tailwind unfortunately on the first leg to Brize. This meant that all of the radio calls to request clearance was all quite rushed but I got it all right, changed squawk for the first time ever, and ticked another box of flying in controlled airspace. The first leg really was quite quick (32nm in 15mins) and the wind was almost directly behind so apart from picking up the correct heading after takeoff, directionally, all fairly easy. Leg 2 on the other hand was a great demonstration of heading vs track. Looked straight down at one point and we were moving very sideways. It seems like I have a habit of turning left every time I look at the map.
Overhead Chippenham, we turned back towards Gloucester and overflew bonny Prince Charlies pile before the last stint to Gloucester. Did all the calls for the SOHJ from the dead side with minimal instructor prompting which was good and getting to grips with being passed from approach to tower now. The turns to get set up for the join and in the circuit were quite challenging as blown all over the shop but we got in and the landing was OK - it had settled down a bit a ground level.
Reflecting on the flight, I think I did OK. Without the instructor, I'd have been clueless (fairly obviously I suppose) but all of the things he said made sense and picked up plenty of nav related tips to try out in the future. I thought I might be quite good at nav having done a chunk of orienteering in my yoof, but I hadn't accounted for how different it looks from 2500ft.
The route also took me over/past a number of airfields that I had visited or had summer camp at as an air cadet - Brize (great air to air refuelling flight in a VC10 iirc), Lyneham (Herc circuits and bumps + para drops), Hullavington (my first camp with Chipmunk flights). Sad to see 2/3's of them closed but brought back good memories all the same.
Back on the ground, and it was the inaugural sitting of Air Law and Ops Proc. Air Law passed with 87%. Ops Proc failed with 66%. Pleased with the first, bit annoyed with the last but in fairness, I probably should have studied for that one a lot more. The questions were not too friendly but hey, it's all learning and I wasn't that far away.
Lesson 15, 16h35m. Air Law passed. Still grinning
PPL(A) gained 30/8/22, started Aug 21, C-152, EGBJ