Sorry for the delay guys - its been a hectic couple of weeks!!!
We've had a few days of pretty bad weather - low cloudbase, CB's, Squall lines etc & also was busy renewing my PPL too....
So the usual story - trainings been delayed a few days due to unfavourable conditions...
DAY 4
A fun day today, some would call it a 'VOR bashing flight' but to me it was showing me how all the things I've been learning all come together...
The plan was to take of from Cranfield and get to Manston aka Kent International Airport for an SSR Precision approach - this is where the ATC controller has you on his radar and he simply gives you vectors ie turn right/left 10 degrees or so, speed up, slow down, descend/climb and when he tells you to go visual theres the runway right on the nose and all stablised for landing - its a comforting feeling let me tell you!!
Well we took off from Cranfield and routed via Barkway VOR/DME, Brookmans Park VOR/DME, Lambourne VOR/DME, Detling VOR/DME and then onto the approach for Manston and on the journey there I've got to say it was hard work! My problem was that I was 'behind the plane', things were happening pretty quickly and I was constantly catching up with things rather than anticipating them and being ready for them.
Just as we passed Rochester we switched to Manston and the controller already had us on radar and proceeded to vector us in. Things suddenly became lots easier let me tell you! All I was doing at this point really was making sure my altitude stayed within 100ft, my speed within 15 kts and my heading within 10 degrees of wherever the controller told me to go - before long the controller said that the runway is directly in front and that i was cleared for landing. When I looked up I remembered my words.... "F*** me thats massive!!!!" (not over the air thankfully!) This being my first time to manston i was shocked to see how big the runway was - an joking aviator said to me that I'd have more than enough room to land ACROSS it let alone along it and after seeing the size of the runway you probably could!!!
After taxying back we decided to have a spot of lunch at the nearby Spitfire museum (theres a fantastic cafe next door), homemade sausage bacon and brie pie mmmmmmm! As it was such a nice day we ate outside whilst watching a citation practising touch and go's - nice to see that its not only cessnas and pipers that have to do 'bounce and go's'.
The flight back was much much much easier, Stuart decided to let me get on with it so everything from speaking with ATC, tuning identifying and testing all the appropriate navaids along the way, flying (obviously!), frequency changes etc etc was all done by myself - a little minor achievement I was quite proud of! As I knew what was coming up and was already expecting it I found that I was better prepared and was 'in front of the plane' on the return, so a bit of advice - do your homework the night before and the flight will be a hell of a lot easier!!!
As if my life wasn't busy enough, I had agreed to do the Three Peaks Challenge the following weekend so another mini break - for those that dont know, 3 peaks is climing (and driving between) Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdon in Wales all within 24 hours!!!! (our time was 22hrs 53mins & 7 seconds
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DAY 5
Obviously still recovering from the gruelling weekend but no pain no gain eh?
We covered SIDs (standard instrument departures), Holds, NDB's and ILS.
We completed a full instrument departure which entailed taking off, tracking an NDB outbound, then onto a radial from a VOR at which point we were then allowed to climb up and oh my god, the first time going through cloud!
After the first few minutes, I'd settled down and found it was no different to flying normally (apart from the fact that you've REALLY got to concentrate on your instruments while you're being bumped around, its pretty easy to be flying along at an extremely unusual attitude as you loose that 'seat of the pants' feeling!)
DAY 6
The weather was getting slowly worse day by day and just to make things a little more interesting the wind decided to change direction too.
In the morning as the minimas were just way too low (cloudbase at 400') Stuart decided to take me up to the tower and show me how things worked up there.
It was pretty quiet due to the minimas but there were a couple of planes attempting to get into cranfield on minimas as the cloud was lifting slowly.
Darren the controller explained that as bad weather comes along the tone of pilots voices change, from being happy in sunshine to being pretty serious, sometimes worried and often stressed in bad weather.
Just as he had said this a pilot called the tower and requested the approach - it was pretty clear from his voice that he was indeed a little anxious! this was my que to shut up, listen and watch. I decided to get my approach plates out so I could follow whereabouts the plane was in the sky (obviously we couldn't see where he was due to the cloud!)
As the plane was coming into the hold there was some more bad news for him, the glidepath was out at Cranfield - when the pilot was informed of this you could instantly hear the stress levels in his voice shoot up, the next call we recieved was informing us that he was going to do another hold (possibly due to all the things that the poor guy had just had thrown at him!)
After that he called us up when he was established on the localiser and hey presto the glidepath came back into life, Darren relayed this to the pilot - warning him that the glidepath had come back into life after resetting it, but he couldn't guarantee that is was accurate! You could hear the relief in the pilots voice, he was set up on the localiser, he had glidepath indications (even though he had to manually check heights at certain stages this was still easier than no glidepath at all!) and he was just starting to come out of the cloud
Just as we saw him, he broke left for a low level circuit and then proceeded to land, quite a stressful few minutes, and this was taken from ground perspective!
As the cloud lifted, we were within limits and as the wind was coming from the opposite direction, obviously the runway direction changed also!
This at cranfield meant tracking different things outbound, a pretty major right turn pretty much soon after take off to return to the original SID and landing was a lot more interesting!!
After doing the original STAR (standard instrument arrival) ie going into the hold, doing your timed turns etc, establishing yourself on the glidepath and localiser, following it down, at 610' it was a case of look up, see the runway, break left for a low level circuit (taken at exactly 500' AGL), do a very close oval circuit keeping sight of the runway at all times and then straight in for landing! A few things I was very aware of as I was so low - flaps, speed and the possibility of overbanking!
DAY 7
The big day!!
In the morning Stuart took me up for a quick 40 min flight covering Standard departures, VOR tracking, Low level circuits, Holds, NDB's and ILS - it was good consolidating these just before my test as it helped keep everything fresh in my mind
The Test
I was flying a C172 that belonged to MWG Aviation at Cranfield.
I then found out that my examiner owned the company and also the plane.
Then I found out that he had also just recently spent approx 60,000 refitting the plane (wings, interior, flight instruments, gps...)
- lets just say I was now worried about the plane even more!
All dues to Martin Glencross (the Examiner/Owner), he was a fantastic guy - putting me at ease with the situation and going through everything he needed to in a friendly and non stressful way! I'm sure he could have made it a lot harder by being 'not as nice', but his demeanour was much appreciated!
On the test we did a standard instrument departure, climbing to the levels assigned by ATC. then after tracking the 307 radial from Daventry for 10 mins Martin then broke me off the navigation section of the test to start the general handling.
As we were just on top of the cloud and had the screens up i literally couldn't see anything apart from my instruments - se even a sneaky peek wasn't possible!
We did a couple of unusual attitude recoveries, then timed turns, partial panel turns and descents and so on (trying to remember everything but its all such a blur!!!).
After the general handling Martin said 'so far so good' and to return direct to Cranfield for landing.
We headed back towards the hold whilst I called ATC who instructed me to come in for a direct procedure (no holding thank god! I was told that if they ask me to do a hold I'd be tested on it, if they didnt ask then obviously I wouldnt be tested on it!).
After flying the glidepath down (now all fixed and working I might add!) to 700' Martin took the screens down and there was Cranfield in all its glory lit up like a Christmas tree! Obviously I was beaming from ear to ear but I knew I had one last thing to do - circle and land!
Breaking left for a low level circuit and a nice, gentle landing we vacated the runway at which point Martin told me I had passed! It took a lot of control stopping myself jumping out and running round the plane........
At the debrief Martin had a few points which he discussed with me - not all bad as I initially thought! There were a couple of things I could have done better at, my initial pick up of the Daventry VOR was slow and over correcting sent me into a snake like chase for the needle - not good!
Secondly I was (again) over correcting initially on the glidepath - at least I'm consistent!
Lastly Martin complimented me on being able to keep altitudes, tracks, speeds, descent rates etc bang on the numbers - he said its not often that someone who hasn't flown for so long can jump in a plane and be able to fly to that standard within such a short time.
For this I must thank Stuart - for being a meany when he needed to be and not let me get away with things!
Final Thought (yes it is Gerry Springer!)
Im extremely happy that I've passed, but even more glad that I decided to do my IMC before starting an IR. It really is a big step from the PPL to the IR and if anything, the IMC has introduced me into the world of IR flying in a relatively quick, easy and painless process. I would much rather muck up an hour of flying a C172 at £140ph than a twin at close to £300ph and at twice the airspeed!!!
So if you're thinking about doing your IR, instead of burning a hole in the sky when you're hour building in the states, leave off 15 hours to come back to Blighty and do an IMC in some cloud!