Shockers!! I had one last week - quite a long nav exercise, which my new instructor "created" for me - thanks pal! It was very busy, with a couple of major MATZ penetrations and a lot of R/T work - all very hectic. I got off to a bad start when I got ahead of myself, and began looking for the first waypoint when I was barely halfway there - its amazing how you can make the ground features fit what you are looking for! I managed to persuade myself that I was "temporarily unsure of my position" (OK lost!) when I was actually pretty well on track. Having held my hand up, the boss told me to turn around and start again - this time I was 'bob on', but it rather dented my confidence, and I was a bit shaky thereafter. I was sloppy on my height keeping, though the so and so in the right hand seat was throwing all sorts at me, and leading me to making mistakes (eg forgetting FREDA checks) All this was capped off with a poor approach, and a good thump on landing. Most distressing....
However, it made me really determined to get it right today - and by and large I was very pleased. I had trouble finding the last waypoint, a small grass airfield, which I thought was a larger one with tarmacced runways - should have checked pooleys beforehand, but that was the only significant mistake. I even pulled off a really classy landing in a stiff crosswind!!!
Regards wake turbulence, we fly with a lot of commercial traffic at E. Mids, 737's, 757's, A320's, even the odd Antonov and 747, but I have yet to suffer any wake turbulence. We are taught to stay high, and slightly upwind if we are following any large commercial traffic, and land after their touch down point, and ATC are very careful with separation etc. It must be pretty terrifying if you get caught up in it though. Our boat is kept in a Marina under the flightpath of Southampton airport, which is pretty busy with commercial traffic. I am amazed how often you hear the "rushing" sound of wake turbulence overhead, often some considerable time after the aircraft has passed. It seems to happen most with Ba146's, maybe it's their high wing configuration. I believe however, that the worst wake problems are caused by helicopters.
Cheers all,
Mike N