24 - Another Navex

<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="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="23 Back to the Circuit"><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="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="25 First Solo Nav: The going gets tough"><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> <A HREF="id82.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="21 Reach for the Pie!"><U>21 - Reach for the Pie!</U></A></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> 24 - Another Navex</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>24 - Another Navex</I></div> <bR> <div> 14th November</div> <div> Nav: Stratford -> Tenbury Wells -> Monmouth -> Moreton-in-Marsh</div> <bR> <div> After several weeks of cancelled lessons due to persistent foggy weather, the day dawned clear crisp and cold. So cold that I had to scrape a thick layer of frost from the car -- the first real frost of the season. Over breakfast I had printed out the Metform 214/215 forecasts, and looked at the NOTAMs on NotamPlot. There were three things that could affect us -- low level kite flying over Worcester (to 800 ft), a tethered balloon over the Cheltenham racecourse (to 1000 ft), and the HON DVOR was out of service. I'd got as far as calculating the headings for our Navex when I realised that if I didn't get out of the door sharpish I'd be late!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5fc90100.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="272" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0">On the Drive up to Enstone, there was a lot of low level mist lying over the fields. Abingdon looked pretty much fogged in, and Oxford had their runway lights blazing away like a Christmas tree! There looked to be about 4/8 cloud at around 3000 feet, although there was some breeze and I was confident the mist would soon disperse. When I'd done this trip a week ago, the fog had got denser the nearer I got to Enstone, and at the airfield you literally couldn't see the opposite side of the runway! Fortunately I was in a position to take the Flight Performance and Planning exam (I scored 100%), but there was no such fallback this time.</div> <bR> <div> I had a 3 hour session booked, 9am till 12. Often there'd been nothing on afterwards and we'd been able to extend the session, however this time Alistair had a check out booked at 12, so we'd have to  make sure we were back on time. To help speed things up, Alistair went off to do the A-Check while I finished off the planning. We then went quickly over the route, headings, times, who we'd need to talk to and the impact of the various NOTAMS, and then we were ready to go.</div> <bR> <div> On calling up Enstone Ground we were given the local QNH -- 1038. This was by far the highest I'd seen it, and Alistair didn't recall flying with it that high either. Just as an experiment, we wound back the altimeter to see what it displayed at the standard pressure setting of 1013: 150 feet BELOW GROUND! The rest of the startup checks were performed flawlessly and we taxied round to Echo for the power checks and our departure.</div> <bR> <div> Alistair had said as part of the briefing that he was intending just to be an observer on this trip, and indeed, on the way to Wellesbourne we just chatted about things like the weather, visibility, the inadvisability of following roads instead of a heading (it's a 'fail' in the PPL test apparently) while doing the normal FREDA check, lookout etc. Reaching Wellesbourne we joined downwind for our touch and go on runway 18. Downwind checks complete, turn onto base, power back, flaps stage 1, and struggle a bit not to gain height in the process. I'm never quite sure of the turning point onto base on a right-hand circuit and I may have turned a bit soon, since the runway was looming closer than it should. But that was the least of my worries. Much more disconcerting was the sun. Bright, low in the sky, lots of autumn haze, and only maybe 20 degrees off the centre line. If you have the Pratt Met book, the picture on page 62 captioned "visibility into sun in haze" was exactly what I could see! I knew I was above the glideslope, so power right back, flaps full and pretty much guess the turn onto final. By squinting I could make out the lead-in arrows. In retrospect I spent too much time during the approach concentrating on getting down and not enough on maintaining the centre line -- the lack of visibility into the sun adds HUGELY to the workload!! -- and as a result the landing, which was reasonable in itself, was well to the left of the centre line. Still, for my first landing in a month I wasn't too upset, and Alistair said that he knew many qualified PPLs who would struggle to do better under the circumstances.</div> <bR> <div> Get the plane back onto the centre line, then full power and back up into the air. The navex had a remote starting point at Stratford Disused, which was merely a matter of extending crosswind until we got there. Having turned crosswind, we kept the climb going to our planned altitude of 2400 feet. We'd intended to ask Wellesbourne for a FIS on the first part of the leg, but by the time we could actually get a word in we decided to go straight to London Info. "Golf Mike Bravo leaving the circuit to the west; changing to London Information on 124 decimal 75"</div> <bR> <div> This was the first time I'd used London Information. It acts as a flight information service for about half the country, and as a result you can often only hear the controller, since the other aircraft may be literally hundreds of miles away. Listening out for a short time, it became evident that there was another Mike Bravo on frequency -- about to coast out over the channel at Lydd, and bound for Le Touquet. This meant that we would not be able to abbreviate our callsign, for a while at least. After getting through the who we were, where we were going and what we wanted chatter, we were asked for an estimate of our arrival at Tenbury and then asked to report same.</div> <bR> <div> The first leg would take us between Worcester and Droitwich and just south of Hanley airstrip, and we estimated it would take us 23 minutes. Worcester was the mid-point on the leg and, having positively identified it, we appeared to be slightly North of track. Hanley was on the top of a hill, and it's location was clearly identifiable from this distance and so, not surprisingly, we were back on track when we got there. At Tenbury we were just a few seconds late. We did our pre-HAT checks -- checking the  heading, altitude and time for the next leg, and then unto the turn procedure: Turn Time Talk. Just as we were starting to turn, London Info called and asked us our position. That threw me enough to exit the turn in completely the wrong direction, so pause, double check the heading and repeat the turn. We reset the timer and calculated the ETA at Monmouth. Since we'd just spoken to London Info, we skipped the Talk part of the process, and went on to the Post-HAT checks.</div> <bR> <div> Leg two would take us to the East of Hereford and West of Ross-on-Wye. The first part of the leg was over hilly countryside with little in the way of landmark features. As we crossed the FIR boundary we asked London Info for the Cotswold Regional QNH -- 1034, somewhat lower, and effectively dropping us to 2300 feet, which was our MSA. Monmouth was easy to identify, with the surrounding denesly wooded hills, the Wye valley with its very windy river and the Severn beyond. We were bang on track, but three minutes late. Oh well!</div> <bR> <div> After we'd turned onto our third leg, we changed frequencies to Gloucester Approach and gave them an ETA for us to be in their overhead. Arriving there, we were on time, but about a mile North of track. Gloucester reminded us of the NOTAM over Cheltenham racecourse, and de decided that since we were already North of track, if we didn't correct the course error, it should put us well clear of the hazzard. It was here that we started talking about the prospect of getting lost -- sorry, "Temporarily Unsure Of Position" -- and what could be done to locate ourselves. We called Gloucester and requested a QDM. This is the magnetic bearing to the station, which would enable us to find our way back to them (and establish ourselves at a known point). We then changed frequencies to D&D on 121.5 and requested a training fix. They asked us our last known position (10 miles East of Gloucester) and whether we were able to squawk (yes). They then gave us a squawk code, 3305, which we set on the transponder. After about a minute they came back and told us exactly where we were. Neat! From D&D we changed onto Wellesbourne's frequency.</div> <bR> <div> We arrived at Moreton-in-Marsh exactly on time, although we were off track to the North by about a mile. The final leg was the return to Wellesbourne. We turned onto course and could clearly identify the airfield ahead. Since we had no real need to go to Wellesbourne, and we'd demonstrated that we could find it, we decided to call it a day at that point and head back to Enstone for a coffee and debrief. Looking at our times, headings and corrections, we surmised that the wind was probably not as stong as forecast -- we'd drifted consistently to the North, and the Southerly leg had taken longer than estimated -- so at a rough guess the wind was probably 340/10 rather than 340/15.</div> <bR> <div> Next time, assuming the weather holds out, I'll be doing the same route... solo.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>