I'll describe this one, just so you get the feel of the rough edges that Bruce wants me to iron out before the Skills Test.
As I drove to the airfield the glider pilot in me rejoiced at the cumulus bubbling up all over Kent this morning; the stude PPL glowered at it, all too aware of the bumpy ride to come. Bruce had asked me to select my own route so I planned for Headcorn-Swanley-Heathfield-Headcorn; a nice triangular route mostly under the 2'500 base of the London CTZ and edging the east side of the Gatwick zone. I was to sample the excitement of communicating with a radar service by talking to Farnborough Radar en route.
We can't join or depart from the overhead at Headcorn so I climbed out on 29 for Staplehurst, to gain height for my first leg. Visibilty was great so I selected a feature in the distance after allowing for drift. Almost immediately I became aware of a tendency to turn slowly right. I corrected straight away but annoyingly I had to keep doing this all the way to Swanley, and I wondered if I was getting the leans at this point.
I transferred to Farnborough Radar, and by and large, dealt with it. I wasn't as nervous as I have been and kept on top of most of the calls. There was an important one I missed, though. A problem with flight in this area is that you are 'squeezed' between the safety height for the 900' Wrotham mast and the London CTZ at 2,500'. The thermic weather meant that I spent a lot of effort avoiding level busts from my cruising height of 2,300'. It was during one such episode of trying to stuff the aircraft down in an area of stonking lift that Bruce gently call my attention the fact that ATC had been calling me - to point out that I was approaching controlled airspace from below! (I mean, I knew, already!) - and that was their third attempt. Oh well.
Turned at Swanley, settled on new heading, did FREDA. Check big picture, enjoy view. Oops! note time & set stopwatch - some minutes late! (I guessed four.) Heading was generally better maintained by now but I was still fighting the thermals and sink. One moment of excitement came as Bruce took control and made a firm turn to the right and a PA28 drifted across our nose from right to left, about a quarter of a mile away. Note to self - until this point I had been unaware that I didn't properly include the quarter from 3 to 6 o'clock in my scan, and that now was the time to change that!
Bruce kept looking at my plog and chart to satisfy himself that our TMG was going to keep us clear of Gatwick, which it did. He pointed out the view of the airfield, straight up the runway, about 15 miles distant.
Heathfield appeared, more or less as advertised, nestled in the woodland and I turned over the town for home; remembering everything this time. I transferred from Farnborough back to Lashenden Radio. Bang on track, passing the eastern tip of Bewl Water, I called them up and got a QFE. Where's the field? Ah, that must be it- set the QFE on the altimeter. "Can you see the field"? said Bruce.
"Yep, about 5 degrees port, say 10 miles ahead".
"No, according to your drift it should be 5 degrees to starboard and that's exactly where it is".
Damn! Focus moves 10 degrees right. After a couple of minutes I started sweating.....the blasted field just wasn't coming into view. I could see Staplehurst and Headcorn village itself, but not the field! This was getting serious. I owned up to Bruce because there was no point in blasting up to the overhead feigning mastery of my position. He pointed out the field to me which lay innocently in shadow about three miles in front with the usual mass of white aircraft un-highlighted. This was really embarrassing. It was the first time I'd failed to spot the airfield in over a year or so. It was due to an unfamiliar aspect of it but that was no excuse. I'd failed to add up the sorrounding features to project the airfield's position.
As a sop 'YL allowed me a lovely landing: fully held back, right on the stall, bang in the middle of the runway.
Bruce's verdict was that "it isn't quite there, yet". Trying to accomodate all the tasks involved seemed to induce an occasional lapse of concentration. If I wanted he could put me up for the Test but I would need to be on a good day. As these seem to be in short supply at the moment, I declined. So another nav is planned for next week, to another route of my choice. More of the same!
