26 - Divers Diversions

<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="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="25 First Solo Nav: The going gets tough"><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="id108.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="27 Diversions, in a roundabout way"><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> <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> 26 - Divers Diversions</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>26 - Divers Diversions</I></div> <bR> <div> 4th December</div> <div> Nav: Wellesbourne -> Bromyard -> Coleford</div> <bR> <div> Most of the flying club has gone off to Waterford on a weekend flyout, to sample the crystal, or at least the black stuff that it contains. And so the clubhouse seems strangely empty for a Saturday lunchtime. Alistair is off doing a trial flight in the TB9, and Mike Bravo is out on a local flight. Both are due back at 1pm, the scheduled start time for my lesson.</div> <bR> <div> I made good use of the time waiting by downloading the weather, checking the NOTAMs and filling in the PLOG for the flight (not to mention drinking coffee and eating a slice of the Dundee cake). Ian brings Mike Bravo back at around five past, and I give him a hand putting some fuel in. We leave it about three quarters full, and then anticipating the return of the TB9, push it away from the fuel pump. There's not long to wait and Alistair is back shortly afterwards. Unfortunately with neither Richard nor Ben about, Alistair has to spend another 40 minutes debriefing and selling a PPL course.</div> <bR> <div> When Alistair is finally done, I've already pre-flighted the plane, and with a short brief we can be quickly off. However we are an hour late. Although the visibility at ground level was reasonable, once in the air it was none too great, with lots of low level mist around, and we can see low clouds over the Cotswolds.</div> <bR> <div> Changing frequency to Wellesbourne, there's no other traffic in the circuit, although we do hear a couple of ground movements. The actice runway is 36 so we elect to do a straight-in approach. Problem is, I can't spot the airfield. We know where it should be, and we're heading towards it... Eventually we can just make it out through the murk and we descend to circuit height and align ourselves with the centre line. There's a little bit of turbulence as we come in over the hill, which suggests I'm a bit low, but Alistair says no it's alright. A nice touch down, and back on with the power, turning to  heading 030 for the climb out. </div> <bR> <div> At circuit height, we turn crosswind and then Alistair asks me to fly heading 255. The flight plan I spent so much time crafting has been discarded before we even started! As we flew, we were identifying ground features and correlating them to the chart. Just North of Bidford gliding field, Alistair said "<I>Now take me to Great Malvern</I>". The first thing to do was mark a big 'X' on the chart to show where we were, and write the current time beside it. This gives us a known fix so that should we get lost later on we'll be able to retrace our tracks. We then drew a rough line (at least as good a line as can be drawn freehand in a Katana where you don't have enough space to lay the chart flat on anything). With that line we could estimate distance and track. Distance was estimated by measuring 'thumbs' (one thumb is roughly 10 nautical miles) and Alistair showed me a trick for estimating track: line up your pencil on the route you've drawn, then, keeping the same angle, move it to the nearest VOR rose, from which you can read off the magnetic heading. Make an estimate for wind drift (my flight plan comes in useful now, since I can estimate based on the calculated drift on it). Finally, an estimated time of arrival can be calculated from first principles (time = distance / speed). Simplifying the numbers, for 90 knots, divide the distance by 1.5 to give the number of minutes; for 100 knots, that'll do as a first approximation.</div> <bR> <div> Scanning ahead, this route was going to take us through the Pershore HITRA (High Intensity Radio Transmission Area), centred on Pershore disused, and so almost immediately we needed to divert around it. For this we turned right 45 degrees from track (there's a mark on the DI at 45 degrees, which saves the effort of calculating the new track -- just turn until your original heading lines up with the mark). Two minutes at this heading would take us two miles to the right of our original track, then two minutes on the original heading, and then turn left 45 degrees for two minutes to put us back on track the other side of then hazzard. Obviously this extra diversion would affect our ETA, and we needed to adjust it accordingly. At the same time we revised our estimate based on the distance covered. To our left we could see the aerials at Croft Farm, a landmark I'd used on my solo last week.</div> <bR> <div> Once we'd positively identified Great Malvern. we positioned ourselves to the North of the town in order to avoid the cloud covered high ground and another HIRTA to the South. Alistair aked me to fly to Leominster. Again, I reset the timer and drew a line on the chart, with an X over our current position, estimated the heading and ETA. At the mid point on this leg, was Bromyard, a waypoint on the original plan. We positively identified it from the pattern of roads, terrain and the disused railway line, and again revised our ETA.</div> <bR> <div> At Leominster, we diverted again to Shobdon. Alistair's plan had been for us to land here, but our late start meant that it would be marginal getting back by sunset. Also, as we approached, we could see a lot of clag rolling in from the hills behind, so we decided that we'd just turn in the overhead and set a new course back to Enstone. We'd contacted Shobdon Radio before reaching Leominster and advised them of our intentions.</div> <bR> <div> The diversion to Enstone was trickier. It was a longer leg -- about 5 1/2 thumbs -- and the direct track would take us straight over Great Malvern and the high ground (currently clear of cloud, but for how long?), so we split the leg into two, routing to the South of the hills. I'd estimated the heading and got an estimate of the time it would take, but I'd forgotten to start the timer! Fortunately we could recover the situation by recalculating from our current position -- 3 miles South of Leominster -- and so I marked a big X and started the timer before re-doing the numbers.</div> <bR> <div> We passed Ledbury and reached the M50 at the Southern side of the Malverns, but we were well ahead of my ETA. A double-check of the numbers showed I'd simply screwed up the sums. Sloppy, a case of brain fade, perhaps? Anyhow, I'd have to be more careful. So, of course I made exactly the same mistake calculating the final leg. D'oh! As we neared Enstone, however, we were in familiar territory, and recognised Moreton-in-Marsh and Chipping Norton. We'd hoped to join overhead and do a PFL to land, but the cloud base precluded that, and so we joined downwind and made a glide approach. Our landing was timed at 1555, and Enstone Radio went off the air for the night just as we'd backtracked to Echo, so we really wouldn't have had time to land at Shobdon.</div> <bR> <div> Next time we'll do more diversions, this time without even a starting flight plan, and there will be one or possibly even two landaways.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>