From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary

[mazzy1026]

Right then - mock test/GST walkthrough.......

With all the recent happenings in the family, it felt like an eternity since I last flew. When I arrived, my instructor was out flying, and he had left me this instruction:

"Take us to Lichfield".

Lichfield is a small disused airfield on the north west tip of Birmingham - I thought it was quite a long leg, pretty much the same distance as the first leg of my QXC. This was an area I had not flow in precisely before, so I would have to pay special attention to features along the way (Crewe, Telford etc). The wind was 25 knots and from the north east, so it would be a slow initial leg. The vis was, well, rubbish - the corona effect of the sun was apparent, and this was to prove highly problematic later on.

I done all the planning - which was minimal to be honest, one leg and a return plan. I knew he would throw us off course for some dead reckoning so I wasn't worrying about the return journey too much. When we got about two thirds of the way down he said:

"Ok, take us to Welshpool".

I found it on the map and my initial thought was:

"(insert four letter expletive here) that's a long way off!"

It was about 50nm. He took control whilst I drew the line on the chart and estimated a heading to fly based on the wind. Bearing in mind that the length of your thumb from tip to first joint is approximately 10nm and 7 minutes flying time on a 1:50,000 chart, I gave him my estimations and off we went. When we turned onto the new heading, we had our first shock (well I did). Couldn't see a thing. The sun was dead ahead and the mist/haze meant that we could only see what was directly below us - meaning I had to work extra hard. I think the flight would have been considered legal for a PPL as we were not in any cloud and could see the ground - but anyone flying solo without training in this would be a fool.

I contacted Shawbury for a FIS and MATZ penetration without hitch and to my surprise, we were actually tracking exactly as intended, picking out features close by as we went. Welshpool is located (near or in I think - Neil will know?) a valley, so once we had this in sight, my instructor was happy with everything, it was time to do some radio nav. He said:

"Take us to Sleap".

"Great" I thought, Sleap is hard enough to find in full VFR, never mind in these conditions! However, to my relief, I remembered that Sleap has an NDB on the airfield, to which I promptly tuned into, identified, tested and followed (TITS !!). Before that though, I was asked to give a couple of position fixes using the VOR, which again went very well. After a few minutes - Sleap was dead ahead and as we turned overhead, I was asked to climb to 3000 feet for some upper air work. My feelings at this point were relief and excitement, as the Nav had finished and handling was about to begin - something of which I have not done in a long time, after all this navigation training!

First thing's first - stalling. Carb heat on, power at idle, ailerons level, apply enough back pressure to maintain height (not go up or down) and keep level with the rudder. "RECOVER" Nose down, full power, carb heat off (I forgot this the first time) and climb away. I was a little too gentle on the first attempt, having remembered my first attempt at stalls about a year ago, when on the recovery, I shoved the controls forward, and as the centre of pressure shot backwards to the trailing edge of the wing (I hope you are still up to scratch on your theory ladies and gentlemen!!) the aircraft literally took a dive, and our heads hit the top of the canopy. In the Tomahawk, simply by removing the backward pressure on the controls, is enough to get the nose down to a recoverable position. A few more later, including with flaps etc and it was onto steep turns. These went well - always remember to apply power as you turn, not once fully developed - I was duly notified!

A couple of rate turns (15 degree turn through 90 degrees should take 30 seconds I think (off the top of my head)) later and an attempt at a PFL (the visibility was shocking, and kept losing the field - may need to do one or two of these again) and I was asked to take us home, using only local knowledge for navigation. This wasn't a problem, as we were pretty much over Wrexham, so it was a case of heading north for a rejoin at Chester.

The approach was exciting actually - we were asked to keep it tight, having been given number one with a 737 on long final. The approach was diagonal all the way to over the numbers - very strange indeed! A successful landing and debrief, followed. My next flight will be a couple of PFL's with a solo on the end (I opted for solo circuits to keep up to scratch).

Until then, thanks for reading.

Lee