volvodriver
5th Nov 2006, 08:11
I was in the Glasgow area yesterday visiting some pilot friends and like true sad people we were listening to the RT from Glasgow in the background.
We picked up on a message to G-OF on the approach channel giving details of location. Interesting, so our chat stopped and we listened for a while. As G-OF got closer to the Glasgow area and we were able to hear thier broadcast it turned out to be piloted by a female solo student who had got herself into some weather related problems and seemed to be disorientated. Although she seemed calm it was obvious from her voice and the time that it took to respond to the controllers requests that she was working very hard. QDM 050 was advised by approach to help her find the way to the airfield - coming from the south west would mean her flying over some high ground to the south of the field. This all happened at around 16:00 local time with light fading and lowering cloud and rain cells dotted around. After finding the airfield and being passsed to the tower frequency she landed onto 23 with the wind on the ground at 260/16.
So, you ask, why the post. It just sounds like a normal weather diversion to me.
A couple of things. Firstly, I thought that the young lady (well her voice sounded young) did a very good job in a very tricky situation. It would appear that she was trying to get back to her flying club at Cumbernauld - being asked to land at Glasgow International is demanding enough for us old timers used to a small field - how would it have felt to a solo student. Bravo to her and I am sure she will go on to become a wiser pilot by the experience.
Secondly, I admired the calmness of the controllers involved. Too often do we hear from other areas of the country of arrogant and unfriendly to GA controllers however, I bet these guys were from the old school that had completed a PPL and knew exactly what was going on in her mind and were therefore able to deal with the situation in a knowlegble way. Bravo to the Glasgow controllers.
Finally, however, what the hell was she doing up there in the first place! The TAF for the fields around the area were showing gusts up to 26 knots. It was 4 pm on a November afternoon in the West of Scotland - getting darker by the second. I'm not an instuctor but I would imagine that any intructor worth his/her salt would be asking the same questions to the person that authorised this flight!
VD
We picked up on a message to G-OF on the approach channel giving details of location. Interesting, so our chat stopped and we listened for a while. As G-OF got closer to the Glasgow area and we were able to hear thier broadcast it turned out to be piloted by a female solo student who had got herself into some weather related problems and seemed to be disorientated. Although she seemed calm it was obvious from her voice and the time that it took to respond to the controllers requests that she was working very hard. QDM 050 was advised by approach to help her find the way to the airfield - coming from the south west would mean her flying over some high ground to the south of the field. This all happened at around 16:00 local time with light fading and lowering cloud and rain cells dotted around. After finding the airfield and being passsed to the tower frequency she landed onto 23 with the wind on the ground at 260/16.
So, you ask, why the post. It just sounds like a normal weather diversion to me.
A couple of things. Firstly, I thought that the young lady (well her voice sounded young) did a very good job in a very tricky situation. It would appear that she was trying to get back to her flying club at Cumbernauld - being asked to land at Glasgow International is demanding enough for us old timers used to a small field - how would it have felt to a solo student. Bravo to her and I am sure she will go on to become a wiser pilot by the experience.
Secondly, I admired the calmness of the controllers involved. Too often do we hear from other areas of the country of arrogant and unfriendly to GA controllers however, I bet these guys were from the old school that had completed a PPL and knew exactly what was going on in her mind and were therefore able to deal with the situation in a knowlegble way. Bravo to the Glasgow controllers.
Finally, however, what the hell was she doing up there in the first place! The TAF for the fields around the area were showing gusts up to 26 knots. It was 4 pm on a November afternoon in the West of Scotland - getting darker by the second. I'm not an instuctor but I would imagine that any intructor worth his/her salt would be asking the same questions to the person that authorised this flight!
VD