Half way
A few of the lessons so far have had the odd 10 minutes or so on the end, so I have now done just over 7 hours which is half way, give or take 20 mins in the logbook.
Anyway,
We had planned for NDB approaches for this lesson and I can tell you it was one I was not really looking forawrds to. The hardest thing is the mental agility required as the ADF needle is not overlaid on your DI and so you have a continual fight figuring out where you need to be headed. Typically the weather was glorious.
As a side issue, for those who want to know when to slap the suncream on a bunk a day off work, PM me and I'll let you know when I am flying next. Monday to Wednesday this week, dire windy gloomy weather. Thursday, IMC lesson, 20k vis, no clouds loads of sun.
The astute may well know that I fly from Coventry and the idea of learning NDB approaches whilst avoiding wake turbulence from a 737 and constantly getting in the way of faster twins doing IR's is not really what I would call good sport. So the plan was to head over to Leicester and to practice a simulated approach using their NDB, to runway 28. All was well and good until we took off. We simulated an IMC departure so no sooner had I reached 500 feet and started to turn crosswind before departing from the downwind, than my instructor took control and my hood came down. I then went onto instruments and found it very hard to level out. I had gone onto instruments in a steady balanced climbing turn, and I had to force myself to follow and trust the AI. My "seat of the pants" believed that our climbing turn was indeed level and I had my first episode of the leans since my first lesson. The past few hour experience did however help because my scan has developed so that I can now easily cross check the instruments to reassure my head that the AI is not lying, my backside is.
The transit to Leicester was uneventful and I am now doing about 60% of the radio calls. ATC deals with us as if we are VFR and so I can't call overheads or traffic, but my awareness and capacity seems to be improving. The optimism is short lived however..................
The first thing we did having homed the Leicester NDB was a hold. Now whilst I had always thought these would be a perfect oval, I couldn't have been further from the truth. The wind means that virtually all holds will become a pear shape for the following reason. All turns are rate 1 and so in still air would have constant radius, but neading into wind the radius is smaller and with a tailwind, the radius becomes larger. We turned overhead the beacon and in doing so turned into wind. Thus our turn ended up being quite tight and it left us with an outbound track close to the beacon. This is altered by varying your heading by 3 times the wind correction angle towards the wind, and the result is a track that distances your aircraft from the inbound track. When you then turn back towards your inbound track, your new found tailwind greatly increases your turn radius, but because you positioned out wider in the first place, theoretically you end up right on track for your inbound run.
We tried a hold, with my instructor guiding me through it, and bingo, it worked. The practice is far easier than my description indicates, but it takes a huge amount of wherewithall to keep the plane on the numbers. We went from the hold into an NDB approach to 28. Whoa there, this plane has no pilot. It does however have a sweating imbecile who can no longer track a set QDM, work a timer and figure out altitude changes at the same time. Beacon out bound, set heading, start clock and wait for the turn. 30 seconds elapse before I realise I should have been descending from 2000 to 1500 feet on the outbound leg. Now my scan gets rushed as I try to get down in the remaining time before I have to start the turn inbound. I'm behind the aircraft and the guidance from my right is essential just to keep me there. 2 minutes 30, 1500 feet, level off and start the turn, and there is a God as I roll out on a QDM of 280. Vary my heading by 10 degrees to the south and hope, and DESCEND
Missed it again, but now only by 5 or 6 seconds. Following the QDM in, we continue all the way to our 600' minimum descent height (MDH) which we maintain al the way to the overhead and into a missed approach.
The second attempt was far less eventful, but time was of the essence and so we had to head back to base. The initial plan was to self position for an ILS but a 737 was inbound and corporate traffic screaming through the CT overhead meant we couldn't even play NDB homing on the way back. So, obviously curve ball time as my AI and DI was failed. The result was my first attempt at partial panel.
I sweated over my best friend the turn coordinator, left the throttle well alone and made tiny adjustments on the control column. So far so good, but we had to descend to get under Birmingham's airspace which put us right in the middle of the turbulence. Now if you have ever tried to balance a pencil on it's tip on your finger you know what I am going through. Tiny moments of joy and elation as it appears to be balanced, followed by the realisation that it's moved and without a quick but delicate touch you could well lose it. This is the most demanding thing I have done so far, my capacity vanished, my RT became sloppy and my brain hurt.
Next lesson,
Unusual attitudes and recovery on full and partial panel.
My studying is going well and so I took a mock exam and got 88%, so I'll probably try for the real thing at my next lesson as well.
For those who have been following this, I hope it goes some way to describing what is in the syllabus (which in itself is very flexible). For those who are considering doing an IMC, ask yourself how easy you found your PPL. I would suggest, the harder you found the PPL, then the more experience you get before starting an IMC rating the better. It will almost certainly make you a better pilot and increases your knowledge dramatically, but I feel I massively underated the amount of effort and ability required. It is terribly rewarding however.
Regards
Obs cop