SKILL TEST PART 1 (b)
I went off into the kitchen and sat down with the Examiner, he briefly told us where we would be going and some information/advice about the test. He was very good at settling nerves! Before I knew it, I had a route planned: from Liverpool, out the zone at Seaforth, then north to Cark. Cark is a parachute dropping site, which is north of Morecambe Bay – I have never even flown more than a mile north of Blackpool, so the whole area was new to me! We went north because of the weather to the south.
I completed all the checks, and we were both sat in the aircraft – I noticed he didn’t have his harness on, and when I prompted him, he didn’t want to put it on, saying it was uncomfortable. I harassed him until he did! I gave him a passenger brief, something along the lines of:
“Don’t touch anything, if you do, don’t panic, just tell me. Don’t talk to me if you hear anything being said on the radios or if I put my hand up (polite for “shut up”). Enjoy yourself, keep a good lookout for me, if you see any other aircraft, just tell me as quickly as possible. If you feel sick, tell me etc etc….”
He also said to me that, because I had a radio license, he was happy to do most of the radios – what a relief! I did do quite a bit though, all the way up to calling Blackpool. The takeoff was to be into 1 left hand circuit. On the way down to the holding point, I noticed the turn coordinator wasn’t working whatsoever, and the red flag was on – he promptly pushed the fuse back in! Sneaky tactics! On the downwind checks, I checked all the gauges, but I didn’t check them properly! he had pulled one of the fuses again, and he pulled me up for not checking them properly – I got the classic feeling of “I have failed already”. We carried on and he said that there would be no tricks in the navigation.
We departed via Seaforth, and he said that I was quite confident on the radio, I said, well I enjoy using the radio’s so that is always a bonus. I gave Woodvale a blind call, and also Warton – they were both closed. He then contacted Blackpool, who initially didn’t want us in the overhead at 3000 feet due to traffic, but he persuaded them and they let us through! Just past Blackpool was our half way point, he was very helpful and made me feel at ease the whole way. I was a little concerned about my height keeping – but it wasn’t too bad and didn’t go outside the limits. Now then, I was about to experience something which I had never experienced before – a pretty strong downdraught. With full power set, and lots of back pressure, I was having difficulty making the thing climb, in fact, it was just about staying level. This was do to the fact that we were very close to the Lake District, and the wind was head on, which resulted in the down draughts coming from the mountains.
Cark wouldn’t let us in their zone (well, they told us they were dropping at that time and please would you not go in)! I had to turn early, and intercept my next track, which was from Cark to Leeds Bradford. My times were all within a minute or so – I was made up with that. I knew I wouldn’t be flying to Leeds, and that the divert would be initiated. We got about 10 miles into the leg, and then decided to establish our position over Ingleton – a lovely walk which I done a few years ago with Jane, my g/f. Loads of you have probably been there. It is worth mentioning that we were over quite high ground, and it felt like we were really low! We had a bit of a laugh actually, trying to find the blue caravan on the top where they serve tea etc. my divert was to be over Blackpool – I drew the line with him at the controls, I was relieved to see that he was willing to fly it for me. I estimated the track and time/distance etc, and again to my surprise/relief, it actually worked – got us right over the airfield. It’s amazing how this dead reckoning works.
When we got over Blackpool, I knew the navigation side was coming to an end. He asked me if I would like to land……….