I am still here
Well done Andy, that puts you in the same catagory as Jez (both g1ts for having passed, with me languishing a dismal third
).
Lesson, oh darn I don't know what number
Got airbourne late last week, but the winds were horrendous, full of lumps and bumps. Worst of it was that I was airsick, meaning a return to the field after only 20 minutes. Most of this is attributed to the long 8 week layoff from my last flight, with very rough air and limited visual references.
Should anyone be remptely interested in airsickness (and no, as supported by the RAF's School of Aviation Medicine desensitisation course attended by my good self, it is not all in the mind!) then I have made several posts on the medical matters forum. Suffice to say, I fly for fun and when it's no longer fun I land.
Lesson, oh darn I don't know what number + 1
Got airbourne on Friday afternoon. Eeek what a wind. We used this hour for a bit of beacon tracking, climb and descent practice and also partial panel work. The wind was Northerly between 35 and 40 kts, and we even had the joy of real cloud. The cloudbase was at about 1800 feet, so we climbed straight into the crud after a takeoff from 05. We routed initially towards Daventry VOR and climbed to 3000'. It was great to find out that despite the time away from the air I could still track a VOR. It was harder than usual as our Nav 1 VOR/ILS/DME gauge wasn't giving track information only distance and groundspeed. The Nav2 gauge only does track but is on the far right of the cockpit. This somewhat stretched my scan, but still small things are sent to try you.
Heading South East with a strong Northerly it didn't take long to get there, before I passed over the beacon and turned to intercept a 010 radial. A couple of minutes later I had crept about a mile north of the beacon into a vicious headwind. We climbed to 4000' to see if we could break the cloud tops but all I found was ice. It looks like stationary water on the wing struts, and in some ways looked quite harmless, but knowledge is power and so down we went. The warmer climes of 2500' soon cleared it as I laughed to airtraffic dealing with trying to deconflict several VFR aircraft trying to operate in the narrow band of 1200 to 1700' to remain clear of the cloud. Unhindered by such considerations we were powering North at a groundspeed of 50 kts
I am a strong believer in maintaining a picture of aerial activity when listening to the radio, and when a Thompsonfly 737 announced itself as inbound to Coventry on the radio, I pictured up an image of small IMC cessna in cloud, large 737 plus wake in cloud, both in uncontrolled airspace. sensing an AAIB enquiry and not knowing their whereabouts to ensure clearance I thought it prudent to update ATC with our position and altitude. By now we had crept to 8nm North of Daventry, crawling along and getting nowhere fast. Due to the wind, it was still bumpy in our little world of cloud, but I was feeling way better than last week, so much so that we even did 15 minutes of partial panel with climbs and descents included. Todays fun was some partial panel low speed flying at 50 kts in cloud. Whilst quite unnerving, the aircraft just needed some fine handling and there we were, a groundspeed of 15 kts. Some would say why bother, but just knowing the aircraft will do it gives me a boost of confidence, even though I may never do it again.
Indeed, gentle exploration of the limits of an aircraft with an experienced instructor alongside should be something that more people do when they do get a chance. Most flying training is quite prescriptive in what you need to learn/achieve, but there is so much more outside of this that really can develop and improve a pilot. Sometimes, just taking yourself out of the comfort zone is a good thing (as I say with an experienced instructor!)
Finally figuring out that we would probably never get to Leicester in our alloted time, we headed back to Coventry, but due to the traffic we just had to accept a conventional recovery.
All in all, pretty happy. No sickness, 1 hour to do and already ready for test - apparently
Again, well done Jez and Andy. BTW have either of you used your new IMCR's yet?
Obs cop