CAVOK Cross Country

Flying Hours Today 1:50, Total 31:35

P1 Flying Hours Today 1:50, Total 3:05

What a fantastic day for flying. The weather is CAVOK skies and zero wind which will make for great flying along my planned route which today will see me leaving Leeds Bradford (EGNM) and flying directly to the Humber Bridge. From there I'll head up to the disused airfield that was RAF Carnaby and then on to Scarborough before returning to Leeds.

This was my first completely solo expedition, once I was airside at Leeds I was on my own. And today the PA28 needed oil and fuel so I had to make to call to the handling agents.

I thought things couldn't get much better as the air was perfect, then as I was getting the PA28 refuelled - a Spitfire and a Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight made a low flypast along R32. It was one of those moments in life where I really regret not having a camera with me.

Time to take off, and I was soon en-route. Switching quickly from Leeds to Church Fenton (EGXG). It was busy in the air today - everyone else must have seen the glorious weather and decided to do some flying.

I flew without incident towards the Humber Bridge in near perfect conditions, as I crossed the M62 I switched to Humberside Radar and passed my message of who I was, where I was and my intentions to fly to the bridge then up to Scarborough.

As there was no discernable wind I flew the heading as the track and was soon over the bridge - a spectacular site.

Routing 020 towards Carnaby there was a lot of traffic about - some of it not in radio contact so I had to keep my eyes open and maintain a close watch out of the window. I soon spotted another aircraft passing below me on almost a similar track (probably 040) and headed directly out over the sea - for a low level run to Holland?

The disused RAF base at Carnaby was quite easy to spot. It was used in WWII as an emergency landing field for returning bombers who could just about make land, but no further. Overhead Carnaby I turned to head north and on to Scarborough.

Flying over Scarborough the sea and beaches looking fantastic in the sunshine. I turned back to Leeds at the north end of the town. I could see the radar at the RAF Fylingdales early warning radar station and didn't want to encroach there - having heard Humberside asking a pilot if he knew he was in a danger zone earlier.

As I approached York from the east I was given clearance to enter the zone at Leeds. So by the time I arrived over Eccup I was well prepared for my approach and landing.

I was instructed to join right base for R32 and report final. At this time I could very clearly hear someone attempting to contact Leeds - but with no reply. Before long the pilot of theWest Yorkshire Police Helicopter picked up the message and relayed it to Leeds who in turn asked for the police to request a 'pass your message' from the calling aircraft.

It turned out the calling aircraft was on the west side of the Pennines, miles from where I was yet it was out of direct sight from Leeds. The messages were relayed between the aircraft, the police and Leeds and eventually the other pilot was able to make direct contact with Leeds

The remainder of the route home to Leeds was routine until I came across gliders from theYork Gliding Center in the skies over Rufforth. Those things can really move and climb. After getting visual with one I decided to give it a wide berth as I saw just how agile they are.

After almost 1hr 50m at the controls I must have been feeling tired. My approach was very poor, I was going to request a go around but as R32 at Leeds is so long I decided to continue with the approach and touched down way down the runway. I was so far down the runway that I had to exit on Foxtrot. Shame on me - those who know Leeds (EGNM) will agree. But another great solo nav in the book, and flying on days like this is so amazing - you just want to share the experience with everyone.

During the debrief one of the new instructors at the flying school asked me about my pre-landing check routing. I mentioned first of all the brakes and to confirm that the parking brake was indeed off. He also mentioned the importance of pumping the foot brakes - in case there is no pressure there you will know about this before you land. He had had to land previously with failed brakes and it is better to know about this ahead of time before you touch down - yet another useful tip that I'll commit to memory for my next flight.

Cross Country Solo

Flying Hours Today 1:20, Total 29:45

P1 Flying Hours Today 1:00, Total 1:15

Last weekend my flying lesson had been cancelled due to low cloud. At the time I had been expecting to fly to Sandtoft (EGCF) to practice circuits and get some more local solo flying experience. It wasn't worth going above the clouds for further consolidation training of turns and general handling so the lesson was cancelled with the agreement of my instructor.

It has now been some 3½ months since I last flew solo - at the end of February. I haven't been in the sky alone since that date, instead I've been focussing on completing the flight training syllabus and doing a great deal of navigation. I haven't even been doing any circuit bashing.

So I turned up at the flying school today expecting last week's delayed plan to be put into action. How wrong could I be?

A senior flight instructor, who I'd not seen before, was waiting with a piece of paper and some questions to ask me. After he had reviewed my flying notes and I'd answered the questions to his satisfaction - what to do if lost, entering cloud, entering MATZ etc. - I signed the dotted line. I was authorised to go cross country solo!

Pilot Navigation

"When you have completed most, or all, of you basic flying training, the next challenge awaiting you is to deal with cross-country navigation.

Flying to another aerodrome, perhaps quite distant requires the additional knowledge and skills encompassed in flight planning and navigation."

From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual 1 I absolutely wasn't expecting this. I was a bag of nerves. I planned a familiar route: Leeds (EGNM), Castle Howard, Elvington, Leeds. Then made all the appropriate checks of weather and NOTAMs, checked, then rechecked than got my flying instructor to check one of the leg calculations.

I still was in a bit of a daze. I was going to go and fly some distance alone. I needed some reassurance so asked the flying instructor to take me up for a single circuit at Leeds Bradford - having recalled my last flight with ear problems I wanted to know that I'd be ok today.

I did the circuit extremely well, everything came together perfectly. The flying instructor got out and I was on my own at EGNM. I did everything right, especially the R/T and preflight checks, and soon was at Harrogate and changing my heading Castle Howard.

The route took me through the Linton-on-Ouse (EGXU) MATZ (Military Aerodrome Traffic Zone), and so I checked with Leeds ATC to confirm that it wasn't active - and as it was a weekend, the MATZ was clear. From there I flew on to Castle Howard passing the disused RAF East Moor airfield, a navigation way point from an earlier flight. All was going OK and to plan.

At Castle Howard I turned to Elvington, called Leeds with position and expected time at my next way point.

En route I was told of some unidentified traffic at my 2 o'clock, it turned out to be two microlights about 1000ft below me. Ahead, bang on the nose came Elvington runway, a long straight strip in the distance. I tried to confirm my position by looking for Full Sutton (EGNU), but couldn't make it out. I do find it difficult looking for grass strips from the air. I'm sure I identified the prison next to the airstrip so that gave me some comfort as a potential marker to confirm my position.

Keeping a good lookout, and heading directly for Elvington I suddenly noticed a large airfield in my 11 o'clock. Oh dear, something was amiss here. Further inspection of the 'runway' ahead now that it was getting nearer showed that it was actually a straight stretch of the A64 York by-pass but from where I was positioned it looked like a long runway strip. At this distance I couldn't see any traffic on the road. It did look like a long runway in the countryside.

I turned to Elvington and noted the time as I flew overhead, changed my heading for Eccup and reported my position to Leeds Approach.

I had been cruising at an altitude of 3100ft to avoid the Church Fenton MATZ. The cloud base was getting lower so I dropped to 2900ft. A minute or two later I realised I was still in the RAF Church Fenton (EGXG) MATZ. Oh Dear! I quickly made a call to Leeds to ask if the base was active today. They couldn't confirm, so offered me the Church Fenton tower frequency.

I didn't really know what procedure to follow so I made a sharp turn north to get out of the MATZ. This took me over York Racecourse where I could see the preparations for Royal Ascot well underway. I recalled the NOTAM for next week that the racecourse would be a temporary heliport ATZ, bring the rich and famous to this racing event in the North of England while the Ascot racecourse was undergoing redevelopment.

Once out of the MATZ I visually navigated around the boundary. North of Tadcaster then on to Boston Spa and Wetherby, using the radomes at RAF Menwith Hill as a reference point.

All too soon I was homing in on Eccup for entry back into the Leeds zone. Permission was granted to enter the zone, I was handed over to Leeds Tower. All the R/T was going very smoothly.

Leeds Tower gave me instructions for a right base for R32, I had written down the QFE and entered it in the altimeter. But then thought again: was that the QNH or QFE?

So I did what I've been trained to do and requested the QFE again. It was the value that I'd entered but it was good to get the confirmation from the tower. There was landing and taking off traffic as I approached the field but I slotted in perfectly for final approach.

An absolute greaser of a landing - why do these only happen when no one is in the aircraft to witness them? Parked up, closed down and back for the debrief.

Absolutely amazing. This solo cross country trip has given me so much confidence. A brilliant day of flying.