Flying Hours Today 3:00, Total 48:25
P1 Flying Hours Today 1:05, Total 8:35
A review of my flight log had shown that, as well as requiring more solo time, I still needed a few more minutes on slow flying and stall awareness and avoidance. The plan was for me to arrive at the airfield early, get some stall practice in en-route to Gamston (EGNE) and then go and do some solo circuits or a short tour.
As is typical in general aviation time gets eaten away so quickly. We waited for what seemed like an age to get refuelled and so were about 50 minutes late departing Sheffield (EGSY). I still needed to get the stall practice in so we took some time out en-route to Gamston to cover cleans stalls, climbing stalls, turning stalls etc. in all kinds of configurations.
I also took the opportunity to practice slow flying and low flying for a precautionary landing. Before we knew it time had passed by and it wouldn't be feasible to touch down at Gamston to drop off the instructor and then for me to get any decent solo time so we decided to continue with further handling exercises and to learn more about radio navigation.
The VOR
"The VOR (pronounced "vee-oh-are" is a very high frequency radio navigation aid that is extensively used in instrument flying. Its full name is the very high frequency omni-directional radio range, commonly abbreviated to the VHF omni range, VOR, or omni."
From Trevor Thom's Radio Navigation and Instrument Flying (Air Pilots Manual 5) To begin with we focussed on the VOR. Remembering that for radio navigation aids it is necessary to Tune, Identify, Test and Select. Tuning isn't so much of a problem, simply dial the appropriate frequency into the NAV radio - however there can be many combinations of devices within the cockpit that are interconnected and it is necessary to know just which instruments are connected so as to minimise confusion. For instance, in the aircraft I was flying the NAV1 radio was partnered with the VOR instrument that is embedded within the HSI heading indicator. The second radio, NAV2, has its own instrument. On top of this there is an independent DME installation which can be tuned independently or configured to be tuned into NAV1 or NAV2.
In the end we used NAV2, as it was clearer to view and operate than the one embedded within the HSI. We tuned in to the Gamston (GAM) VOR and began to track away from and then back to the airfield from some distance.
Remembering what I had learned during the week in reading my books I began to intercept at a 30 degree angle and then to gradually align with the radial as we began to intercept it.
It is easy to begin to zig-zag when intercepting as the radials are quite narrow and precise so you overshoot then turn and overshoot in the other direction. After some practice it does become simpler and once you can visualise the radial in the sky it becomes easier to intercept: as if joining a motorway at an intersection.
As we had more time than expected for this exercise we covered the VOR in depth, really getting to know how to follow and understand the TO/FROM flags and making use of the VOR as a command instrument.
The wind was slight but sufficient for me to have to take this into consideration. In all a very good introduction to VOR radio navigation aids.
Moving on to the ADF/NDB combination the work here was quite similar and easy to understand. I was surprised though at the relatively short range of an NDB beacon and that they have much more value when used locally. The difference in homing and direct tracking was demonstrated and again the wind factor was useful to work with.
It was now getting late into the lesson and we headed back to Sheffield for a good landing and some coffee. The idea would be that I would wait until later in the day and this time take off for some solo work.
I was scheduled for the 1500 slot and so had some hours to kill to review what had been done and to go and do some Saturday shopping.
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