Hour 3
From discussion with my instructor, it would appear the first few hours are aimed at teaching how to fly on instruments, and this progresses from the basic 6 plus tacho, to include how to track VOR and NDB beacons.
Hence hour 3 was basically more of the same. It has been over 10 days since I last flew and boy don't I know it. With a briefing out of the way refreshing the last lesson, the scan and identifying and tracking VOR's we then discussed a basic route involving VOR navigation.
I went out and checked the aircraft as usual and got my substantial frame levered into my trusty C152. The weather was moderate winds with significant cloud, broken at 2300 feet up to about 4000 for the tops. Looking at it from the ground it really didn't look forboding with nice fluffy cumulus floating by but hey, I am a romantic at heart. The plan was to get airbourne and established tracking inbound to the Daventry VOR at 1300 feet before me putting the hood on and off we would jolly well go.
It may be prudent to talk about visual limits now, particularly for takeoff. Reading the Air Pilot's Manual volume 5, the limits dictated for an IMC pilot to take off into cloud are a 600 foot cloud base (aal) and then 1800 metres visibility. My understanding is that the limit for visibility is mandatory and the cloud base is advisable, but I am in no position to argue and today I was in genuine IMC rating world. By that I mean that my skills could not be described as current and so the first few minutes under the hood had me meandering either side of my desired heading and altitude until I got my head round the scan again. This was much as I would imagine it to be for an IMC holder going into cloud with minimal currency. Not necessarily a problem, but definately concentrating the mind somewhat. I then thought about what it would be like to deliberately climb from an airfield into a 600 foot cloud base, without an autopilot. It was a sobering thought and whilst the limits for an IMC rating are quite restrictive over those of an IR, I can now see why and with each lesson expanding my knowledge and skills, I have an ever increasing acknowledgement as to why the weather needs respecting.
In any case, we went soaring off towards Daventry, climbing to 4000 feet as we went. The object of the flight was primarily to revise the instrument flying techniques and to practice VOR tracking. I was really struggling to maintain a heading and I always seemed to be veering off to the left. Scanning the AI... wings level....DI, turning. I then thought what is the turn co-ordinator saying.. in balance but left turn, how odd. A further look at the AI and I could now see that the wings level indication did not match the angle of bank pointer at the top. the difference being 2 or 3 degrees. Now this was really messing with my head as I reverted to the AI for pitch indication and the pointer at the top for bank, ignoring the wings for roll, and cross checking with the turn co-ordinator. Our track took us directly over the Daventry VOR into the zone of confusion (This is the area directly above a VOR where no useable signal is received.) As we went, I did get the chance to remove the hood only to be greeted by a thick bank of white surrounding the aircraft. Only too soon the cloud broke up a little and having increased my real time cloud busting to a grand total of 10 minutes I was back under the hood. I continued through the overhead for a couple of minutes before turning left to intercept the 010 radial. As I rolled out I could see the OBI was full left deflection meaning I was right of track, so I steered 330 for a 40 degree intercept. Nothing....... check the compass against the DI, yep that looks right, still nothing. Unbeknown to me the westerly wind was stronger than I had anticipated and we had gone quite far right of track. Patience is a virtue when you know the instruments are right and as the flag changed from to to from, the needle started to come back in.
Once I had figured out my wind corrected heading the outbound track was uneventful. We turned overhead the Leicester NDB and as we did so another aircraft reported Leicester NDB at 2500. It struck me that the safest way to fly in cloud must surely be to pick and obscure altitude like 3350 feet so that the chances of finding other at the same height are far slimmer.
That brings me onto the next step nicely. We then tracked back towards Daventry before breaking off towards home, self positioning to join the visual circuit at base. My instructor has commented that my standard of basic instrument flying is good and whilst he would normally continue with another hour or so of practice, we should get going on how to find our way around. Returning from our expeditions the objective is also to do some ILS' each time we come back. My next hour is a few days away, but we should be off doing VOR and NDB tracking up towards Staffordshire and back. I'm actually starting to enjoy this now and the feeling of accomplishment reminds me of each of the small hurdles in gaining the PPL in the first place.
Obs cop