21 - Reach for the Pie!

<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="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="20 Second Solo"><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="id84.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="22 Into the Zone"><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="558a1780.jpg" border=0 width="161" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1 Trial Lesson"><U>1 - Trial Lesson</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2 Effects of Controls"><U>2 - Effects of Controls</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3 A trip to Henstridge"><U>3 - A trip to Henstridge</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="4 Straight and Level"><U>4 - Straight and Level</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="5 Or not!"><U>5 - Or not!</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="6 Up, down and around"><U>6 - Up, down and around</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="7 Stalls and Slow Flight"><U>7 - Stalls and Slow Flight</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="8 More stalls and PFLs"><U>8 - More stalls and PFLs</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="9 Into the circuit..."><U>9 - Into the circuit...</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="10 Golf Mike Bravo Going Around. Again!"><U>10 - Golf Mike Bravo Going Around. Again!</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="11 Circuits and spice (and Things Not N"><U>11 - Circuits and spice (and Things Not Nice)</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="12 More circuits (and brain fade)"><U>12  - More circuits (and brain fade)</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="13 Developing a flair for the flare"><U>13 - Developing a flair for the flare</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="14 Close But No Cigar!"><U>14 - Close But No Cigar!</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="15 Still no cigar"><U>15 - Still no cigar</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="16 Solo"><U>16 - Solo</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="17 Getting the hang of it again"><U>17 - Getting the hang of it again</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="18 I Follow Railways"><U>18 - I Follow Railways</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="19 Head in the Clouds"><U>19 - Head in the Clouds</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="20 Second Solo"><U>20 - Second Solo</U></A></div> <div> 21 - Reach for the Pie!</div> <div> <A HREF="id84.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="22 Into the Zone"><U>22 - Into the Zone</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="23 Back to the Circuit"><U>23 - Back to the Circuit</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id86.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="24 Another Navex"><U>24 - Another Navex</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="25 First Solo Nav: The going gets tough"><U>25 - First Solo Nav: The going gets tough...</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="26 Divers Diversions"><U>26 - Divers Diversions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id108.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="27 Diversions, in a roundabout way"><U>27 - Diversions, in a roundabout way</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id109.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="28 Landaways"><U>28 - Landaways</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id110.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="29 Solo Landaway"><U>29 - Solo Landaway</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id111.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="30 QXC"><U>30 - QXC</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id112.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="31 Where do you want to go today?"><U>31 - Where do you want to go today?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id113.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="32 Revision"><U>32 - Revision</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id114.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="33 Finals"><U>33 - Finals</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id82.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="21 Reach for the Pie!"><U>21 - Reach for the Pie!</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCCCE4" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>21 - Reach for the Pie!</I></div> <bR> <div> 26th September</div> <bR> <div> <B>Yesterday</B>. </div> <div> For one reason or another I'm temporarily unable to fly solo, and so as an alternative, Alistair suggested we have a go at a navex. He'd given me the course over the phone -- Gaydon (Remote Starting Point) to Melton Mowbray disused airfield to Silverstone circuit to Alcester and finally back to Enstone -- and I'd plotted it on the chart before leaving for the airfield. The last leg isn't strictly part of the navex, but it's a fair assumption that we'd want to get home afterwards, so I'd included it.</div> <bR> <div> At the airfield I added in the wind/velocity and fuel calculations -- I'm starting to get the hang of using the wizzwheel now -- and everything was smiling. Even the weather chart had a big toothy smile on it. Now I've not done met yet, but I've picked up enough to know that wasn't a cheesy grin, and while the front might be warm, it was unlikely to be welcoming! So we sat around for a couple of hours drinking coffee and waiting for the front to go through. Eventually the TAFs and METARs started to look promising, and the sky outside was showing a reasonable amount of blue stuff. We decided to go for it. </div> <bR> <div> Departure from Enstone was unremarkable. Surface winds were light, at 4 - 6 kts and the occasional bit of wispy cloud at 800 feet, which we easily skirted. We decided to climb to 2700, to be above the wispys and in clear air, and turned towards Wellesbourne. That's when we saw it: A solid wall of cloud all around us, with a clear bubble centred on Enstone A very quick no-brainer decision: straight back down to 1000 feet! I guess the weather hadn't been reading the same TAFs that we had! We were close enough to Wellesbourne to join the circuit for our touch and go (too high, probably the result of turning base too early) but by now we were bouncing off the cloud bases and no sign of improvement. So with hot coffee being considered the wisest course of action, we called it quits. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Today</B>.</div> <div> Another day, another METAR, as someone might have said (although possibly not!), but compared with yesterday the weather was 100% better; I was even wearing my sunnies! So, here we go: Nav 1 take 2. The route was to be the same as yesterday, with a touch-and-go at Wellesbourne and a short 4 mile hop to the Remote Starting Point at Gaydon (it's so close that by the time you've climbed to circuit height and turned left to leave the circuit, you're there!). The route was to be Gaydon -> Melton Mowbray disused -> Silverstone circuit -> Wellesbourne -> Enstone. The final leg being just a planning exercise as the plane can pretty well find its own way home from Wellesbourne!</div> <div>  </div> <div> <IMG SRC="5ff90650.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="357" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0">I'd already planned the route, so it was just a matter of copying yesterday's log sheet and calculating new speed and time values from the current weather. Done, checked, double checked remembering wind is From not To, and checked by Alistair, preflighted the aircraft and rechecked the fuel calcs against the dipstick. 3/4 tanks gave us 3 hours endurance: 2 for the navex and an hour spare. All okay, so off we went. </div> <bR> <div> Getting to the RSP at Gaydon was uneventful, The touch and go was better than yesterday, although still a touch fast, and I was a bit messy on the take off). Approaching Gaydon we did our first <B>HAT</B> chack -- <B>H</B>eading, <B>A</B>ltitude, <B>T</B>ime, and positioned ourselves to pass overhead on the correct heading for our next waypoint (Melton Mowbray, heading 031), and starting the timer as we passed overhead. ETA 22 minutes. 22 very busy minutes! Firstly a gross error check to make sure we're going the right way: Crossing the M40, Coventry off our Starboard bow and the very obvious chimneys of the Rugby cement works straight ahead. FREDA check, changing to a FIS from Coventry in the process. Then it was a continual process of comparing features on the ground and on the map, identifying them, double checking against the expected time to reach that feature, being yelled at because the plane had drifted off heading, being yelled at because the plane had drifted off altitude, checking features again, being yelled at again etc. It felt like I could maintain course and altitude OR look out the window, but not both! As we got to Leicester we were about 30 seconds late on our ETA and around half a mile to the left of track. We were pretty much visual with Melton Mowbray now so we could just aim straight for it. Leg 1 finished over 1 minute late due to a combination of wobbling about a bit and slightly lower airspeed than calculated against. </div> <bR> <div> Another HAT check and a turn over the town to bring us back overhead the disused airfield on the next heading -- 198 degrees. A bit more power to bring our airspeed up. Not so much in the way of close landmarks at the start of this leg, although the distant lakes and town of Leicester provided a gross error check. Also a road meandered in the same direction to Market Harborough. We estimated 11 minutes to Market Harborough, and we were there bang on time -- score 1! Approaching Northampton, we'd drifted half a mile to the right, so we applied the 'standard closing angle' -- turn 40 degrees from heading and fly 1 minute for each mile off track -- 30 seconds got us back on track, and back on heading again. </div> <bR> <div> Overhead Silverstone about a minute late, and another turn to bring us back over on the final heading back to Wellesbourne. By now the landmarks were starting to get familiar again, and we arrived on time and on track. Now it was just a matter of getting back home for tea and cake!</div> <bR> <div> Postscript: A couple of days later I was discussing the navex with another pilot of Mike Bravo, and he said that he thought the rudder trim was slightly misaligned, giving it a tendancy to drift of course unless you "watch the DI like a hawk!" Also, the fact that the front wheel spat is missing is reslulting in a slower than advertised cruising airspeed, which is why we were late on our timings. Next time I'll calculate against 95 knots and see how we get on.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>