Flying Hours Today 2:00, Total 53:00
P1 Flying Hours Today 2:00, Total 12:15
I descended fine, crossed over the threshold of R23, to join downwind. Although I solo'd at Sandtoft I've never been at ease there. I don't know why as I've landed at similar small strips and even grass strips. But I never feel that I can get the circuit nailed and was dreading that I was going to make a mistake and fail my skills test.
And my Sandtoft nemesis rose again. This time in the form of a black Jet Provost who also decided to join the circuit. Now those things can move, as I was lining up for downwind I saw her turning wide and fast to the right of me. As I was on downwind doing the pre-landing checks I could see her burning past me wide on my right to turn a military style curved approach. All good learning stuff to be in the circuit with such fast moving traffic but not on my skills test please!!
On base I lost sight of the Jet Provost, where had she gone? Then I saw her doing a low approach and going around. I was rattled and not 100% focussed. I made for a standard landing, touched down and was straight back up again, I've never liked touch and goes on short strips and the examiner did state in the debrief that I had landed a little hard but in my defence I said it was probably because I was focussed on getting us back in the air before we had even touched down.
So we went around again, my heart pumping, feeling that I had really messed up.
Hearing the Jet Provost R/T and talk of approaching on R23 - the opposite runway? Did I hear correctly? There was no wind so why not? But I was active in the circuit for R05. I don't know if I heard this or not but I certainly didn't feel comfortable to be in this circuit pattern.
As we approached the turn for base I was told this would be a glide approach and I was to reduce power at my discretion.
Base leg 1000ft up, power off, glide approach and in, but I was too high, too fast.
I realised this early and said I was going around. The examiner asked me to complete as far as I could. I flew lower and lower and then we pulled away. The point here was that I could have landed, but it would have been a full stop landing and not a touch and go hence my reluctance to complete.
The examiner gave me another thumbs up for good airmanship for making the decision not to land if I didn't feel confident. I also had inadvertently ticked another check point on the list: the go-around procedure.
With the Jet Provost still buzzing around, and no offence mean't to the Jet Provost team - I'd love to go up in one some day, we switched to plan B and moved on to Doncaster for further handling.
I climbed out of Sandtoft at the best rate of climb (Vy 79kts) - you need to know your Vy and Vx speeds and routed for the short hop to Doncaster.
The examiner gave me another thumbs up for good airmanship for making the decision not to land if I didn't feel confident. I also had inadvertently ticked another check point on the list: the go-around procedure.
With the Jet Provost still buzzing around, and no offence mean't to the Jet Provost team - I'd love to go up in one some day, we switched to plan B and moved on to Doncaster for further handling.
I climbed out of Sandtoft at the best rate of climb (Vy 79kts) - you need to know your Vy and Vx speeds and routed for the short hop to Doncaster.
We flew abeam R20 with the airfield already lit up even though there was quite a bit of daylight left. A really impressive sight.
I was then asked to fly straight and level at 60kts and hold that speed. Another of my 'tricky' manoeuvres as I'm very wary of getting onto the back of the drag curve.
But it went fine, I was then asked to climb another 500ft at this speed and then level out. Again, fine, no problems and it was fun to fly so slowly overhead a big airfield.
Then a bolt from the blue. The examiner called Doncaster ATC and made request to do the PFL using Doncaster as the target field. ATC went away to ask someone important if this could be done. In the meantime I did my first steep level turn to the right.
Doncaster ATC came back on the radio: PFL approved.
The examiner cut the power. I put carb heat on. Then he asked me to land us in an appropriate field. I identified a particularly wide long black 'field' to my left where the number '20' is.
Wow, this was going to be fun. I was overhead the runway and had to get myself aligned for a PFL to aim at a very specific point and in a left hand circuit which had been active as we had waited for clearance.
OK, into the full PFL activity. Glide speed and trimmed, check fuel etc., at 2500ft I'm at the end of R20 looking at my landing strip. The W.O.S.S.S.S.S. check: no wind, no obstacles, the shape of the runway was good, perhaps a little narrow as a field, but good, surface good, size good, under and over shoot good, slope good, sivilisation good. Hey, this international airport makes a good selection for a forced landing.
Downwind at 2000ft and descending, practice mayday call, 1500ft and first stage of flaps, turning for base, don't think I'm going to hit the numbers but will definitely make the field. Second stage of flaps at 1000ft. Prepare the passenger for crash landing - unlatch the door (and he does!).
I was then asked to fly straight and level at 60kts and hold that speed. Another of my 'tricky' manoeuvres as I'm very wary of getting onto the back of the drag curve.
But it went fine, I was then asked to climb another 500ft at this speed and then level out. Again, fine, no problems and it was fun to fly so slowly overhead a big airfield.
Then a bolt from the blue. The examiner called Doncaster ATC and made request to do the PFL using Doncaster as the target field. ATC went away to ask someone important if this could be done. In the meantime I did my first steep level turn to the right.
Doncaster ATC came back on the radio: PFL approved.
The examiner cut the power. I put carb heat on. Then he asked me to land us in an appropriate field. I identified a particularly wide long black 'field' to my left where the number '20' is.
Wow, this was going to be fun. I was overhead the runway and had to get myself aligned for a PFL to aim at a very specific point and in a left hand circuit which had been active as we had waited for clearance.
OK, into the full PFL activity. Glide speed and trimmed, check fuel etc., at 2500ft I'm at the end of R20 looking at my landing strip. The W.O.S.S.S.S.S. check: no wind, no obstacles, the shape of the runway was good, perhaps a little narrow as a field, but good, surface good, size good, under and over shoot good, slope good, sivilisation good. Hey, this international airport makes a good selection for a forced landing.
Downwind at 2000ft and descending, practice mayday call, 1500ft and first stage of flaps, turning for base, don't think I'm going to hit the numbers but will definitely make the field. Second stage of flaps at 1000ft. Prepare the passenger for crash landing - unlatch the door (and he does!).
Final approach. We are committed to land. Third stage of flaps. Looking for a slow speed touch down, flare and round out and do it slowly, slowly and finally touch down.
Excellent. Flaps down, full power, carb heat off, and back in the sky. So that was the PFL and the glide approach covered in one. As Doncaster is such a long runway we practiced the fanstop on the climb out. Nose down, look either side for a field, but straight ahead is still more runway - I'd choose that. Looking back, the one thing I didn't do in the PFL was the power checks at each 500ft descent, but not to worry in this case.
Excellent. Flaps down, full power, carb heat off, and back in the sky. So that was the PFL and the glide approach covered in one. As Doncaster is such a long runway we practiced the fanstop on the climb out. Nose down, look either side for a field, but straight ahead is still more runway - I'd choose that. Looking back, the one thing I didn't do in the PFL was the power checks at each 500ft descent, but not to worry in this case.
Back up to 3000ft using best angle of climb to get us there quickly and time for the left hand steep level turn. This wasn't as good as the first, I lost about 100ft, but managed to recover and get us back on our heading and level.
And now time for stalls. Following a H.A.S.E.L.L. check we started with a clean stall. Power back, keep the height, wait for the warner, then the buffet then the examiner to state 'Recover'.
Nose down, power, climb away. Onto approach configuration: two stages of flap, turning and stall by raising the nose. Recover at the warner - nose down, wings level, power. Finally three stages of flap as if on final approach, stall warner, nose down, power, climb.
On to VOR tracking. Tune into Gamston and listen for the dah-dah-dit dit-dah dah-dah Morse identifier for the GAM VOR. Using the morse code table on my kneeboard to decode the signal.
Then I was asked to track us towards Gamston (EGNE).
OK, turn the dial until the VOR arrow aligns with deviation indicators. This would put us on the 120 radial. Turn to 120 heading and follow the track. No problem. At this point the instructor took my chart and covered the windscreen. I've just entered cloud and need to turn 180 degrees to get out.
I made a forgivable error here. I looked to use a 1 minute rate one turn. Firstly I turned too sharply so was over rate one, then couldn't decide whether to use my watch or the aircraft's clock. Settling on the clock I held the rate one turn for one minute then levelled off. Good procedure if done correctly but I had been sloppy on the entry.
I also notice that our 120 heading was to the right, I had turned too far, we should have been heading on 300 after a 180 turn. Brain fade I guess, so I then made use of the HSI to get us heading to 300.
And now time for stalls. Following a H.A.S.E.L.L. check we started with a clean stall. Power back, keep the height, wait for the warner, then the buffet then the examiner to state 'Recover'.
Nose down, power, climb away. Onto approach configuration: two stages of flap, turning and stall by raising the nose. Recover at the warner - nose down, wings level, power. Finally three stages of flap as if on final approach, stall warner, nose down, power, climb.
On to VOR tracking. Tune into Gamston and listen for the dah-dah-dit dit-dah dah-dah Morse identifier for the GAM VOR. Using the morse code table on my kneeboard to decode the signal.
Then I was asked to track us towards Gamston (EGNE).
OK, turn the dial until the VOR arrow aligns with deviation indicators. This would put us on the 120 radial. Turn to 120 heading and follow the track. No problem. At this point the instructor took my chart and covered the windscreen. I've just entered cloud and need to turn 180 degrees to get out.
I made a forgivable error here. I looked to use a 1 minute rate one turn. Firstly I turned too sharply so was over rate one, then couldn't decide whether to use my watch or the aircraft's clock. Settling on the clock I held the rate one turn for one minute then levelled off. Good procedure if done correctly but I had been sloppy on the entry.
I also notice that our 120 heading was to the right, I had turned too far, we should have been heading on 300 after a 180 turn. Brain fade I guess, so I then made use of the HSI to get us heading to 300.
I'd now used two instruments and was disappointed, but again I had shown good airmanship in identifying that my rate one turn hadn't been good and that correcting by the HSI was quite correct.
The examiner also asked why I had done it the hard way - I don't know, something I must have read somewhere about doing a 180 degree turn using rate one turns...
All that was left to do was the unusual attitudes. The examiner took control and put us in a climbing turn near the stall. Nose down, wings level, power. Then onto a spiral dive, power off, wings level, level attitude, climb away. And another couple of similar attitudes before it was time to head back home to Sheffield.
An uneventful landing, taxi, park up and shut down then a big congratulations. I had passed. Fantastic!
We had been going for 2 hours, if felt more like ten minutes. Back at the office I was exhausted mentally and physically and also quite calm. I would say that in terms of elation I would have to put the solo QXC first, then the first solo and then the skills test.
In the office there was lots of paperwork to complete: skills test certificate, licence application, R/T licence application, medical, log book review and stamp, etc.
I didn't have my passport with me but will need to copy it and get it signed and stamped by the flying school before I send off my application. That should take a couple of weeks and I can't go flying as a PPL until the licence is received.
Then it will be time to take friends and family into the air and to move onto other types. The flying school's Diamond Stars do look tempting!
The examiner also asked why I had done it the hard way - I don't know, something I must have read somewhere about doing a 180 degree turn using rate one turns...
All that was left to do was the unusual attitudes. The examiner took control and put us in a climbing turn near the stall. Nose down, wings level, power. Then onto a spiral dive, power off, wings level, level attitude, climb away. And another couple of similar attitudes before it was time to head back home to Sheffield.
An uneventful landing, taxi, park up and shut down then a big congratulations. I had passed. Fantastic!
We had been going for 2 hours, if felt more like ten minutes. Back at the office I was exhausted mentally and physically and also quite calm. I would say that in terms of elation I would have to put the solo QXC first, then the first solo and then the skills test.
In the office there was lots of paperwork to complete: skills test certificate, licence application, R/T licence application, medical, log book review and stamp, etc.
I didn't have my passport with me but will need to copy it and get it signed and stamped by the flying school before I send off my application. That should take a couple of weeks and I can't go flying as a PPL until the licence is received.
Then it will be time to take friends and family into the air and to move onto other types. The flying school's Diamond Stars do look tempting!
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