Thu May 26, 2022 6:46 pm
#1912719
...and here it is.
I re-planned the nav route (Cambridge - Wisbech - Oakham) with the day's wind, which was forecast as a rather impressive 26kt at altitude, and to get extra brownie points, modified the nav legs to have two intermediate waypoints each, as was suggested by the CFI. Radio plan was passed as OK, although it was recommended to make things even simpler and not bother talking to Marham LARS, just stick with Cambridge until Wisbech and then switch to Wittering. Fine by me! The Jubilee flypast rehearsals, which were NOTAM'd up to the edge of Wisbech, were already done for the day so there wasn't too much extra activity going on in the local area to worry about. However, the strong wind was certainly worth noting - over 20kt at ground level according to the weather station, although mostly down the runway.
The other weather worth noting was the fairly low 2400' cloudbase, with the odd bit of scattered lower cloud, and the occasional shower in the area, which were visible from the aeroplane as I got in and prepared to start up. The usual checks and ATC clearance all went fine, and we set off for a normal takeoff, with a climb in the circuit and overhead departure planned to start the nav. Sure enough, we were already doing 20kt airspeed while parked on the runway, and it was changing direction a bit too. Takeoff was one of the most messy / eventful ones I have ever done - not a great start! As soon as I rotated just after 55 kt, the wind gusts changed to start pushing us right, and also we pitched up more than was ideal, to the extent that I was asked to push the nose down and gain a bit more airspeed! Indeed this was good advice, more airspeed was needed to ensure gusts wouldn't bring us close to the stall, and we eventually made it to 70kt and climbing in roughly the right direction but there was a lot going on just after takeoff. As we cleared the end of the runway we were asked to switch from Tower to Approach, but I was still busy trying to make sure the airspeed and direction were all good, and entering the bumpy turn to crosswind, while keeping an eye on the showers just out to the right, so the CFI handled the response to this - in the debriefing later on, it was correctly noted as a "missed radio call", the second thing that I hadn't got quite right already - and we were still in the ATZ!
I continued climbing crosswind and downwind, then as I turned back to the airport for the overhead departure, it was clear that there was a long line of showers just beyond the airfield boundary across Cambridge, in the direction we wanted to go! CFI asked me what my plan was, and I said we could try going around to the west (where it was clear, but potentially with more showers behind) or alternatively go through a small gap with lighter rain but clear weather visible beyond - but I would like to know his opinion of what was best. He said that he was thinking it might be time to give up and land, but then the gap in the showers seemed to get a bit bigger (still with rain in the gap but clear good weather visible beyond) and then agreed we could go through and see what it was like on the other side. Once we'd got through the rain, flying a couple of hundred feet below the cloudbase, it was indeed much better beyond - so I turned onto the appropriate track, noted down ETAs for the next waypoints, based on our time overhead Cambridge, and settled into the nav stage. Waterbeach showed up straight away exactly where I was expecting it, and the plus point of the showers was that they had cleared up any dust and haze so visibility was excellent. The nav went uneventfully, with radio calls, FREDA checks, and waypoints all going exactly according to plan, and I was pleased that something was finally going right. We turned at Wisbech, bang on time, and I requested a change to Wittering. Made the call "Wittering Zone, G-CLNC, request MATZ penetration" a couple of times, with no reply - they had already gone home. In the debriefing later, this turned out to be the third thing that could have been better - I should also have asked for a basic service with my request call, although I didn't have any indication that anything was wrong at the time other than spotting some notes being made next to me out of the corner of my eye!
As we approached Crowland (first waypoint on this leg) I was asked to divert to Warboys. CFI was kind enough to circle it on my map so I didn't have to look for it (although he managed to drop my marker pen lid somewhere irretrievable under the seat at the same time), and I had the trusty diversion plotter to hand. The wind was trying to blow us into a steep turn constantly, but I had plenty of time to draw the line, measure the track and distance, adjust for wind and compute the flying time, and write it all on the map. I mentioned our current safety altitude was also fine for the diversion, and CFI also suggested that it would be good to state explicitly that fuel was sufficient for the diversion too (in this case we were headed back towards Cambridge so not an issue). When we arrived at Crowland a minute later, I turned onto the new track, and spotted some obvious ground features which told me we were heading in the right direction, and sure enough after 10 minutes or so we had arrived overhead the village of Warboys.
Nav section complete, it was time for some of the handling skills. We were headed towards a big dark cumulus cloud, so the first test was a 180 degree rate 1 turn on instruments. We didn't have the actual foggles with us, so I just looked down at the instruments and made sure I couldn't see out of the windows. In my earlier instrument flying lesson I found it wasn't too hard to keep the altitude, airspeed, heading, roll etc within appropriate margins, and indeed this turn went smoothly with no problems. I was then asked to climb to 2400' (just below the clouds) and do some stalls - clean, descending turn with 2 stages flap, and landing configuration. These all went fine, remembered HASELL checks etc, although I was told I could have been a bit more positive with the clean stall forward control input - fair enough. We then did some steep turns - I went straight for 60 degrees of bank because I quite like these, CFI told me that "45 degrees is quite enough!" - maybe he wasn't quite as enamoured with the fairground ride. In any case, a turn left, then right, then descending (which I was told to turn into a spiral dive and then recover from) were all totally fine, and this section was complete. Finally I was asked to intercept the 360 radial towards BKY VOR, and again this was easy enough (having the Morse code cheat-sheet on the kneeboard always helps). Sticking with the VOR, I was asked to do a position fix, which was a bit awkward given the windy conditions bouncing us around as soon as I let go of the yoke, but after finally drawing a straight line it was easy to identify our position on the map which was confirmed by looking out the window.
We returned to rejoin the Cambridge circuit, but were asked to hold outside for a while as they had some large aircraft on 12 mile final - I think it might have been a Hercules or something like that based on the view we got from 2000' and a few miles away. After 3 or 4 orbits we could head back - you will note that no PFL had been given yet, and the CFI had decided that it would be good to do it as a full landing at Cambridge from the overhead. As we got overhead the runway at 2500' he pulled the power and I went through the usual process - pitch for 65kt, "plan" was easy (land on runway 23 after a circuit) and then the engine restart checks, Mayday call, shutdown drill and passenger briefing all went fine as I tried to adapt the circuit based on the very strong wind and our height. As I turned base, CFI noted that I might want to give myself more room - my reply was that I was deliberately flying quite a tight circuit as I wasn't sure just how strong the wind was, and I wanted to make sure I would make the runway! Of course, his experience was correct, and we were still about 200' above the threshold even though I had selected full flaps by now. But the runway at Cambridge is very long and due to the 20kt headwind I would still be able to land in the first third, so I was happy to continue.
The final flare and approach was not great - CFI mentioned "watch airspeed" as the gusts did similar things to what they did on takeoff (except more, with full flaps, and the wind now being a bit across the runway too) - we were blown a huge way right to left as I tried to line up with rudder, and got a bit of stall warner but ultimately got a very nice gentle touchdown on the centreline somehow!
We didn't do EFATO or circuits, as CFI decided the wind was too strong for them to be meaningful, so I'll revise those in a week or two - however the overall feedback was that it was a good practise skills test and I should be ready for the real thing!