Mon May 02, 2022 9:47 pm
#1909946
Indeed - as mentioned above, it's good to have another viewpoint from someone with more experience [usermention=862]@TopCat[/usermention] (and to hear the other students' experiences, as [usermention=25385]@Milty[/usermention] said elsewhere it's interesting to see the variations in how we're taught, and to understand why).
So now to summarise what has been another excellent (long) weekend of flying for me...
Starting on Saturday morning - I was booked in for my Solo Nav 2, and the weather was happy to play ball! This one seems like a very long time ago now, so I've probably forgotten some of the details, but the route was Cambridge - Framlingham (near the Suffolk coast) - Snetterton and back to Cambridge.
I did the usual planning beforehand, again using the "traditional" method, although I have also been doing them on Skydemon on the school computer before the flight to make Notam checking easier! (Skydemon takes about 30 seconds compared to more like 30 minutes for the map-and-plog-and-whizz-wheel-and-checking-everything-from-official-sources-carefully). Upon arrival at the school, we went out to do the standard dual 3 takeoffs and landings as the "check-out" prior to any solo flying. This is becoming quite familiar now, and it all went beautifully apart from my usual forgetting to put the carb heat on before starting to turn base, on the first circuit. As I started turning I heard some growling noises from my instructor and mimed hand-beating movements, which reminded me that I had forgotten something! (I typically notice myself after finishing the turn and throttling back, but good to get into the habit of doing it early!). The landings and remaining circuits were all totally fine though, there wasn't much wind and I am very used to landing at Cambridge by now! So, after the third landing, we refuelled the aeroplane and I was straight back out for my nav trip.
Saturday means no ATC, so calls to Cambridge Traffic and an easy departure to the east on Runway 05, which was the right general direction for my nav anyway. Up to 2300' and did the usual checks, got the plog ETAs started, and headed off in the right direction. It was pretty clear despite the high pressure system so was easy to see where I was going. The radio calls were all incredibly easy as nobody was at home - so the Wattisham MATZ penetration got no response, and I just had another aeroplane making traffic calls on the frequency but they were a long way away. Framlingham popped up right on time, so I made a cheeky steep turn on to the next heading (always good to get the handling practise in where possible!) and trundled off to Snetterton, switching to Old Buckenham to listen for any nearby traffic. There was a bit of activity around their ATZ but nobody near me. However just as I was arriving at Snetterton, I spotted a paramotor at the same altitude almost straight ahead, a bit off to the left. They're easy to see (big colourful parachute) and I think they had spotted me as well anyway, so we passed at a very safe distance. A good reminder that not all of the traffic has a radio though!
Another turn at Snetterton back towards Cambridge, and the navigation here is super easy as I've done it several times before and you basically follow the A11 keeping left of the Mildenhall ATZ. Switched to Lakenheath and requested a MATZ penetration but again it seemed nobody was home. However there was a glider which told me it was over the Mildenhall ATZ around 3000' and thermalling, I soon spotted it so mentioned I was visual. A few minutes later, another glider came on frequency further to the west - all fine, again a fair distance away from me. And a few minutes later, Lakenheath Approach showed up on the frequency to ask the gliders where they were going, as they had a "heavy" departing (KC-135) and wanted the gliders out of the way. They clearly weren't bothered about me since I was doing the obvious "Cambridge run" and steering clear of the ATZ, but a 10 minute discussion with the gliders followed over the radio - one glider couldn't hear very well so kept getting the wrong end of the stick with lots of "say again", and both seemed keen to stay in their thermals and couldn't guarantee that they could comply with a "not below 3000'" request. Eventually I think they might have sorted it out, but I switched back to Cambridge before the show was over!
Cambridge traffic seemed quiet so I announced my plan to join downwind and started a cruise descent, but then a minute or two later some other traffic showed up from the north doing overhead joins, so I revised my plan to also do an overhead join so as to not cut in front of the traffic (which I could see by this point). Another aircraft also announced they were departing for circuits. Climbed back to 2000' height and then commenced the OHJ, joining crosswind third in the circuit behind a couple of PA-28s. At this point I saw the one ahead downwind, but then realised they were doing a much much wider circuit than I was used to, so I was in danger of cutting in front of them if I'd flown my normal downwind circuit! Extended crosswind and got a decent distance behind them - they then seemed to also extend downwind (maybe to add extra separation to the one in front) and finally turned base. I followed their circuit as best as I could, trying to fly as slowly as reasonably possible (since there was nobody behind me), but they seemed to be going even more slowly! They were on the runway as I turned final, but then had a long taxi down the runway to vacate at the exit nearer the far end, so as I approached it became clear that it would be tight for them to have vacated before I was over the numbers. I decided to go around, and it looked like the right decision since I was about 1/3 down the runway in the go-around when they had fully crossed the holding point and vacated. Landed on the next circuit - a mostly uneventful flight until the last 15 minutes!
I was then given the instructions for my next session, which was this afternoon. And the instructions were: "Plan your QXC"....
So now to summarise what has been another excellent (long) weekend of flying for me...
Starting on Saturday morning - I was booked in for my Solo Nav 2, and the weather was happy to play ball! This one seems like a very long time ago now, so I've probably forgotten some of the details, but the route was Cambridge - Framlingham (near the Suffolk coast) - Snetterton and back to Cambridge.
I did the usual planning beforehand, again using the "traditional" method, although I have also been doing them on Skydemon on the school computer before the flight to make Notam checking easier! (Skydemon takes about 30 seconds compared to more like 30 minutes for the map-and-plog-and-whizz-wheel-and-checking-everything-from-official-sources-carefully). Upon arrival at the school, we went out to do the standard dual 3 takeoffs and landings as the "check-out" prior to any solo flying. This is becoming quite familiar now, and it all went beautifully apart from my usual forgetting to put the carb heat on before starting to turn base, on the first circuit. As I started turning I heard some growling noises from my instructor and mimed hand-beating movements, which reminded me that I had forgotten something! (I typically notice myself after finishing the turn and throttling back, but good to get into the habit of doing it early!). The landings and remaining circuits were all totally fine though, there wasn't much wind and I am very used to landing at Cambridge by now! So, after the third landing, we refuelled the aeroplane and I was straight back out for my nav trip.
Saturday means no ATC, so calls to Cambridge Traffic and an easy departure to the east on Runway 05, which was the right general direction for my nav anyway. Up to 2300' and did the usual checks, got the plog ETAs started, and headed off in the right direction. It was pretty clear despite the high pressure system so was easy to see where I was going. The radio calls were all incredibly easy as nobody was at home - so the Wattisham MATZ penetration got no response, and I just had another aeroplane making traffic calls on the frequency but they were a long way away. Framlingham popped up right on time, so I made a cheeky steep turn on to the next heading (always good to get the handling practise in where possible!) and trundled off to Snetterton, switching to Old Buckenham to listen for any nearby traffic. There was a bit of activity around their ATZ but nobody near me. However just as I was arriving at Snetterton, I spotted a paramotor at the same altitude almost straight ahead, a bit off to the left. They're easy to see (big colourful parachute) and I think they had spotted me as well anyway, so we passed at a very safe distance. A good reminder that not all of the traffic has a radio though!
Another turn at Snetterton back towards Cambridge, and the navigation here is super easy as I've done it several times before and you basically follow the A11 keeping left of the Mildenhall ATZ. Switched to Lakenheath and requested a MATZ penetration but again it seemed nobody was home. However there was a glider which told me it was over the Mildenhall ATZ around 3000' and thermalling, I soon spotted it so mentioned I was visual. A few minutes later, another glider came on frequency further to the west - all fine, again a fair distance away from me. And a few minutes later, Lakenheath Approach showed up on the frequency to ask the gliders where they were going, as they had a "heavy" departing (KC-135) and wanted the gliders out of the way. They clearly weren't bothered about me since I was doing the obvious "Cambridge run" and steering clear of the ATZ, but a 10 minute discussion with the gliders followed over the radio - one glider couldn't hear very well so kept getting the wrong end of the stick with lots of "say again", and both seemed keen to stay in their thermals and couldn't guarantee that they could comply with a "not below 3000'" request. Eventually I think they might have sorted it out, but I switched back to Cambridge before the show was over!
Cambridge traffic seemed quiet so I announced my plan to join downwind and started a cruise descent, but then a minute or two later some other traffic showed up from the north doing overhead joins, so I revised my plan to also do an overhead join so as to not cut in front of the traffic (which I could see by this point). Another aircraft also announced they were departing for circuits. Climbed back to 2000' height and then commenced the OHJ, joining crosswind third in the circuit behind a couple of PA-28s. At this point I saw the one ahead downwind, but then realised they were doing a much much wider circuit than I was used to, so I was in danger of cutting in front of them if I'd flown my normal downwind circuit! Extended crosswind and got a decent distance behind them - they then seemed to also extend downwind (maybe to add extra separation to the one in front) and finally turned base. I followed their circuit as best as I could, trying to fly as slowly as reasonably possible (since there was nobody behind me), but they seemed to be going even more slowly! They were on the runway as I turned final, but then had a long taxi down the runway to vacate at the exit nearer the far end, so as I approached it became clear that it would be tight for them to have vacated before I was over the numbers. I decided to go around, and it looked like the right decision since I was about 1/3 down the runway in the go-around when they had fully crossed the holding point and vacated. Landed on the next circuit - a mostly uneventful flight until the last 15 minutes!
I was then given the instructions for my next session, which was this afternoon. And the instructions were: "Plan your QXC"....