Night Training - 1

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="045085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Golf Mike Bravo going around...</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Mike Bravo going around..."><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Mike Bravo going around..."><U><B><IMG SRC="03b0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>     </B><A HREF="id155.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shotteswell and Goodwood"><U><B><IMG SRC="02f0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><A HREF="id157.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Night Training 2"><U><B><IMG SRC="0300e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="046d2e83.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="75da0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id116.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bembridge"><U>Bembridge</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Isle of Man"><U>Isle of Man</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id139.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Check outs and Bimbles"><U>Check outs and Bimbles</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id150.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shobdon"><U>Shobdon</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id151.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="First Passenger"><U>First Passenger</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id154.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Back in the 40"><U>Back in the '40</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id152.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Flyer Magazine Bash"><U>Flyer Magazine Bash</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id153.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kemble"><U>Kemble</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id155.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shotteswell and Goodwood"><U>Shotteswell and Goodwood</U></A></div> <div> <B>Night Training - 1</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id157.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Night Training 2"><U>Night Training - 2</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id158.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Touch of HEVN"><U>A Touch of HEVN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id159.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Night Training 3"><U>Night Training - 3</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id160.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="On to the 10"><U>On to the '10'</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id161.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Getting used to the 10"><U>Getting used to the '10'</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id162.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Abbeville"><U>Abbeville</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id163.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Duxford"><U>Duxford</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id164.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hazy Sunday Afternoon"><U>Hazy Sunday Afternoon</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id165.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Avranches"><U>Avranches</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id166.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A little Jodeling"><U>A little Jodel-ing</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id203.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sywell"><U>Sywell</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id204.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Compton Abbas"><U>Compton Abbas</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id205.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Back to Bembridge"><U>Back to Bembridge</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id206.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rochester"><U>Rochester</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id207.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sleap"><U>Sleap</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id208.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A look at Leicester, more Jodelling and "><U>A look at Leicester, more Jodelling and back to Sleap!</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id210.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Bonus Bimble"><U>A Bonus Bimble</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCCCE4" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Night Training - 1</I></div> <bR> <div> Saturday 26th November, 2005</div> <div> Enstone doesn't have any night lighting, so at first glance a night qualification might be of limited value. However a number of nearby airfields -- notably Oxford Kidlington and Wellesbourne -- are lit, and so it would be possible in theory to arrive back after dark, land at (say) Oxford, park overnight and reposition nto Enstone the next day. Seems like an awful lot of hassle though. That said, all training is good, and the night qualification doesn't expire, so even if it doesn't get used now, it might still be useful in the future.</div> <bR> <div> I said above that Enstone doesn't have any lighting. This poses a bit of a problem as far as night training goes, and what happens is that the plane gets positioned to either Wellesbourne or Kidlington before sunset, we do the training from there, leave the plane overnight and it's repositioned back to Enstone the following day. That does add the cost of two positioning flights to the training. Oxford is closer (and hence cheaper), but they shut at 5pm on Saturday, whereas Wellesbourne is open until 7pm, and so is the only real option. Actually, I think that also puts a bit of a spanner in my argument in the first paragraph of arriving back late and parking at Oxford, but let's not let real practicalities get in the way of a good argument.</div> <bR> <div> So, this particular day, I met up with Alistair and Delta Mike at Wellesbourne, just after 4pm as the sun was going down. We briefed outside by the plane, since although it was cold (3 degrees), it was getting dark and going indoors would destroy any night vision we'd built up (it takes about 30 minutes for the eyes to adjust fully to the darkness, so it's a good idea to avoid bright lights.</div> <bR> <div> In the plane we kicked off with a bit of messing around with the instruments and the lighting systems on the ground, just to get the hang of things. The DA40 has two panel lighting systems. One is the regular backlight behind each dial, the other is a blue luminous 'floodlight' located under the glare shield. Both can be adjusted via knobs on the panel. The art is to have them turned down as low as possible, and as the flight progresses and night vision improves, it's likely that they could be turned down even further.</div> <bR> <div> The next trick was taxying round to the hold. There are no taxiway lights at Wellesbourne (EGBW) and so it was very dark once away from the immediate glow of the tower. It is doubly important not to deviate from the yellow centre line! The glow of the taxi light is clearly focussed so that the beam illuminates the path in front of the nose. When going through the preflight check lists, it is essential to have a torch. Two are preferred, in case one fails!</div> <bR> <div> Alistair handled the first take off (from 36, wind 350/14), with me following through on the controls. It wasn't so much different to normal (other than being pitch black with no frame of reference beyond a string of lights either side!). The first 500 feet or so are flown with sole reference to instruments, until a viable horizon becomes visible. Runway 36 has an immediate right turn onto 030 for noise abatement.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="75bc2990.jpg" border=0 width="450" height="409" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0">The trip started off with a navex. Heading West from Wellsesbourne, we crossed Stratford and headed towards the lights of Worcester. At one point we diverted South by a couple of miles to avoid a rain shower (at 3000ft the temperature was only 1 degree C, we didn't want to tempt any icing!). The rain was only made visible by a blurring of the city lights! At Worcester we estimated an impromptu course towards Bristol, and headed into the darkness beyond Great Malvern at FL40. The view was spectacular - Hereford off in the distance to the right, the great snaking line of the M5 to the left, and Cheltenham and Gloucester beyond. </div> <bR> <div> Time for a FREDA check. All the normal stuff - check fuel and change tanks if necessary, radios, engine Ts & Ps, direction and altitude. Delta Mike's DI is slaved to the compass, so that's one less thing to worry about (the compass is unlit!), and we're above the the transition altitude so the main altimiter is set to 1013. One new check: shine the torch up and down the wings, just to check that there's no ice forming! </div> <bR> <div> Away in the distance, we can see the lights of what must be Bristol. We dialled in their NDB, but it was useless at this range, the needle just hunting around seemingly aimlessly. Eventually we saw two red-lit towers in the distance - the Severn Bridge. We were now in range of Bristol LARS and so called them up for a RIS. We followed the course of the river, over the two bridges towards Newport, where we turned inland to retrace our steps. Bristol asked our intentions vis-a-vis altitude, as they had an inbound on radar letdown to the ILS. We requested a climb to FL50 for the trip back. It was interesting overhearing the other aircraft getting vectors. Time for some RNAV. We tuned in Gloucester's NDB. Too far away of course, but we estimated a course towards it (aided in no small way by the city lights!). Once we had the signal we homed in on it, and before long were overhead. They weren't actually open, and a completely unlit airfield at night is as pitch black as any other unlit field! </div> <bR> <div> By now we were reaching the  edge of Bristol's Radar coverage, so we said goodbye, reset the squawk to 7000, and made a freecall to Brize Radar. They gave us a new squawk code, and we requested a descent to 3000ft on the regional QNH. </div> <bR> <div> From Gloucester we tracked the HON VOR until 20DME, when we headed back towards Wellesbourne. We called up the tower and requested an overhead join. They gave us their QFE and we descended to 2000 ft on that setting. By now I'm used to the procedure - turn the lights up enough to read the altimeter subscale, adjust and dim the lights again. Leaving the lights turned up spoils your night vision. I do also still seem to have a bad habit of subconciously applying some pressure to the stick while making the adjustments, which means that by the time my attention gets back to the flying I've gained 100ft or backed 30 degrees, or both. The stick pressure always seems to be back and left, and I really do need to concentrate on not doing it! Now an interesting new task: Spot the airfield. By deduction, it's on the Western edge of Wellesbourne town, which is 5m east of Stratford. Go from big to small: There's Stratford... there's Wellesbourne, so the airfield must be in that black patch. Oh...kay... A red light catches my eye, and I point it out, thinking maybe it's one of the runway lights. "Watch it" says Alistair, and momentarily it changes, yellow... green... Oops! Traffic lights! We're almost in the overhead by the time a left to right linear feature of lights becomes obvious: The runway (not even the green flashing beacon on top of the tower stands out from the other distractions)!</div> <bR> <div> Once overhead, Alistair takes control again, and demonstrates the first circuit and landing. Runway 36 left-land is still active. The circuit itself is surprisingly easy to fly, since rather than looking for tenuous landmarks to define it - 'interesting' corners to fields etc, the pattern of lights on the ground makes it more or less obvious (its also easy to spot the villages not to be overflown!). Again, as for a normal circuit, fly downwind with the runway on the wingtip. Final approach is a matter of keeping the runway lined up ('string of pearls' profile with the edge lights, there isn't a lit centre line at Wellesbourne), and one red, one white on the PAPI. Over the threshold, there's no sense of the approaching runway, since you just can't see it: just the row of white lights either side. Aim for the row of red lights at the far end, and as the edge lights approach your elbows, flare! The landing light is demonstrably of no help: it's only practical benefit seems to be in showing other traffic that you're there. Interesting.</div> <bR> <div> Now my turn....! The wind by now has changed to 330/17, and it's a little frisky at circuit height. However, the approaches are at least reasonable. I do find the flare hight somewhat difficult to judge, with a tendancy to flare late rather than early, and not enough rudder on the take off pushes me well towards the left of the runway. I also notice as we reach the 300ft 'flaps up' point that I'd forgotten to push the prop lever fully forward. Alistair didn't say anything, but I'm sure he'd noticed. The next attempt was better, but it was possibly not the best idea taking off on full flaps! The third landing was very flat -- I almost didn't flare at all. Number four was okay as was the 5th and final. That just had me wandering left off the centre line as I slowed down.</div> <bR> <div> A cluster of blueish lights is the only real indication of the exit to the taxiway, and again the importance of maintaining the centre line becomes clear: There's a yellow painted feeder line indicating the turn off from the runway, but it's hard to make out in the poor light, even with the taxi light on. Too fast or away from the centre and you'd miss it. Once clear of the runway, non-essentials (including strobes and landing light) off, and head round towards parking. 2.6 hours in the dark! Next session: emergencies and solo....</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>