Dual QXC
Well after 5 days off work – I think that apart from Friday, it has been quite disappointing. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (my days booked in) were awful – lots of haze all day long and no chance of us going. On the Wednesday, we took off and left at Oulton Park – got to Poulton to climb and realised that it would be impossible. So, we turned around to land back at Liverpool. The good thing about not doing any flying is that I have had some excellent ground school and lots of good preparation time with my instructor – all essential for a successful flight. I took airfield charts/plates and studied them hard (these were Wolverhampton and Blackpool which has a minefield of taxiways!). I colour coded each taxiway to distinguish them and also drew on approach lines for overhead joins on different runways – this proved to be a massive resource, as you will soon read! I also had all my radio calls written out (and there were lots of them). Firstly, Hawarden, Shawbury, Cosford, Wolverhampton, London Information, Manchester, Wharton, Blackpool and Woodvale – so lots to study and write down, but once again, would prove gold dust whilst on the flight.
Friday was to be the day that I would have hoped to solo – but it was not to be, so as this day was perfect whether wise, we set off to do the dual QXC. I was quite nervous actually, I just wanted to get it right. The leg that I was concerned about the most, was from Liverpool to Wolverhampton (via Poulton) as this took us between Ternhill and Shawbury and was quite a long leg (43 NM if I remember off the top of my head). When we left Poulton I was amazed at how quick things were springing up on me, before long I had to call Shawbury and ask for the MATZ penetration and FIS – something which I had left a bit late, only calling them once coming up to Whitchurch. This they gave us without a problem and along we went. Feature picking along the way was quite successful and my instructor was keeping me on my toes by asking me what certain things were etc – he was very helpful, picking out the main things I should look out for on this particular leg. We did drift maybe a mile to the left of track, which took us nearer to Cosford, but we were ok, and before I knew it I had Wolverhampton in sight.
This is an important part – I have had a habit of looking straight out the nose and saying “Yep – that’s definitely it” when in fact, I am completely wrong – and would get hopelessly lost. What my instructor has drilled into me, is to remember the headings we are flying – for example, if we are flying with the nose to the left (to compensate for wind from the left we must remember that our destination will be to the right. So, when I saw Wolverhampton (well, what I thought was Wolverhampton) I stated that I may have seen it, but would not say for definite just yet, and would remain on heading – even though that our nose was pointing to the right of what I had saw. Eventually, I determined it was our destination, and remained on heading and to my amazement/comfort we flew right to the airfield. So it is very important to keep your discipline and remain on headings – it is very easy to think you have seen your destination, point the nose to it, and end up miles off track (don’t worry, I am still trying to tell myself this all the time!)
Here is where the fun starts – we had been told that runway 16 was in use, so I studied the chart that I had prepared and got in my mind what I was supposed to be doing, where I should be doing it and what height I should be at. It was as we were about to descend on the dead side that the controller asked us if we would be ok to change runway to 34 as there had been a slight wind change – I replied “affirm runway 34 no problem”. So, out came the approach chart again, so I could study the new configuration for landing – again, once I had this in my mind, we proceeded to make a successful landing – the runway was quite narrow and obviously not as long as I am used to with lots of bumps and slopes – so after an early flare, we made a safe landing and rolled over to the parking area. The controller asked me if I was familiar with the airfield, so I was honest and said “negative” to which he gave me excellent taxi instructions. So, off to pay the fees and have a brew in the café. We reflected on what had happened, then put it to the back of our minds – all the paperwork for that flight went in the bottom of the flight bag and it was time to concentrate on the next one.
This one was to be from Wolverhampton to Blackpool via Hixon (an airfield 5 miles north east of Telford) then to Ashcroft Farm (again, a small airfield by Oulton Park, 4 miles south of Winsford) then the low level route northbound to Blackpool. I have to admit, I was worried about finding Hixon, as I had it in my mind that it would be some tiny farm strip (nothing against farm strips of course, but they are more difficult to find). Anyhow, we set off, remembering to turn after 800 feet due to the 200 feet elevation of Wolverhampton, and set heading for Hixon. My instructor once again was very helpful at picking out features, and there were lots of them to look at – in fact, we found Hixon without a problem, which is actually quite big. Then it was on to Crewe, and it is here where we tuned into London Information. This is quiet an interesting frequency from my brief experience here, I could hear all kinds going on there, including a couple of N registered aircraft. It appeared that a couple of people seemed to ‘disappear’ from the frequency, not responding to calls etc – but anyway, amongst the busy chatting, I managed to get the calls in no problem and was asked to report Crewe. We flew near Stoke, and could see the White area of Crewe up ahead. Before I knew it we were there. Now the hard part – finding Ashcroft farm, and this was difficult, as it is a tiny farm strip and changes colour throughout the year. I used Oulton Park, Winsford and Calverly to try and point it out, which I eventually did. By his time I was on Manchester frequency, which was quite busy, but eventually came back to us so I could pass the details.
So, we were established with Manchester and on our way up the low level. This part of the world is feature rich, with the M6 as a good guide to follow. On the right you can see the Thelwall Viaduct, and if you get too close to that then you have infringed Manchester. To the left you can see the gas towers of Liverpool and the Runcorn Bridge. Up ahead though is a different story – you have Warrington and Wigan which can be confusing. My instructor was again helpful in pointing out where I should/shouldn’t be and what ground features to look out for. So, after a slight heading correction to remain in the centre of the route, we could start to see Ikea and B&Q which was what I was looking for, then I would know I was coming to the end of the route. As it turns out, the controller informed us that it was very busy and that we should keep a very good lookout – this advice I took! I don’t recall hearing anyone else on frequency who was using the low level route. So over our turning point, which was a huge roundabout of the M6 – we then turned North West towards Blackpool. There is a massive Y junction which can be seen – once you are over this then you are out the low level. The weather on the day meant that we were just about not able to see Blackpool tower, so I knew I would have to remain disciplined with my headings. We said thanks to Manchester then changed to Warton – who immediately gave us a FIS and MATZ penetration approval, and advised us to route to St Anne’s pier due to traffic. It was at this point that my local knowledge would have to play a part. This is where things started to get very interesting.
On our way to St Anne’s pier I could see two Chinook helicopters to our right, inbound to Warton I think. There was also two harriers taking off, a Nimrod 1000 over us flying in the opposite direction, a couple of Hawks and some helicopters – oh and all the regular busy GA traffic. We had our work cut out. The controller was excellent, providing good spacing and instructions to us. Eventually, we got onto Blackpool Tower (straight to tower, not approach as this was covered by Warton). So I got my approach chart for the runway in use, and started briefing myself as to what I was doing. As we were going to approach the airfield, we were then asked if we could join crosswind for runway 28 instead of overhead join 28 left hand. “Jesus wept” was the first thought in my mind really – it took a few seconds to orientate my mind to what we should be doing, and after I was happy with this, we set up the descent for crosswind. Eventually we got down with the best landing of the day, and my instructor had admitted that he had never seen anything like it when flying to Blackpool – we both had to do a lot of careful thinking and not get carried away in the mass confusion of aircraft. It was very good experience, but I never done the overhead join!
We had a brew and paid the landing fee’s and we mistakenly thought that we had booked out (the system has changed there). So whilst preparing to taxi, we were told that we had not booked out and had to give our details over the radio. The controller seemed ok with this and off we went through a minefield of taxiways. You may seem to recall the last flight (the only one really) that I had to Blackpool with my previous instructor – well at that time, I was dreading ever having to come back because of the complicated taxi system. Well to be honest, it wasn’t that bad this time as I had really studied the airfield chart properly, colour coding each individual taxiway to make it easier to read (I really recommend people doing this for somewhere they have not been before, it is a big help). We had actually been asked to park on the grass, so again, this was some additional experience for me. Anyway, we eventually got off after a scary take off – the runway is significantly narrower than Liverpool, so I had to be really careful with the use of the rudder. Also, the runway does undulate, which meant that the nose left the ground a little early at one point, so I just relaxed the back pressure, let the speed continue to increase to a safe one, then up we went.
The journey back to Liverpool went without a problem, and was the least challenging of the day, as I was now back in my ‘ponderosa’ as they say! We joined up and landed safely at Liverpool and thought hard about what I had done. I was happy with the way everything went, and have asked to do the low level route one more time (I have to fly to Blackpool to do the overhead join anyway so I may as well get some more experience in the low level). In summary, I was very pleased with the day, again I would like to improve my height keeping and discipline with the engine (RPM setting etc). I have some time off in the next few weeks, and I am hoping to get this one in the bag. Thanks for reading this.
Lee
P.s. Doing the Flight Planning exam soon so anyone got any advice?