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Old 17th Oct 2009, 19:54
  #25 (permalink)  
kr0me
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: London
Age: 48
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Passed!!

Thanks to everyone that wished me luck.
Was a piece of piss apart from a couple of curve balls they through into the mix of which escape me now but they invloved the ICAO territories/registered state etc. For anyone that still has to sit the test, if you come across a question that you've forgotten the answer to, try and eliminate 2 of the answers by process of elimination then weigh up the two remaining answers by asking yourself what the safest or most sensible answer would be. The chances are that you'll be right! Bear in mind that the majority of the time, your first instinct on an answer is normally correct but make sure you read them all thoroughly before answering, as someone else said, there are 1 or 2 trick questions in there that can catch you off guard unless you pay attention.

Anyway.. After I'd done the exam, We'd planned to do a solo cross country, as I said before, I haven't been flying for a couple of years due to lack of funds, so now I'm back on the scene I'm trying to get through the rest of it as quickly but safely as possible. I've got 45'ish hours under my belt now and in the last 3 weeks were just to get me back in the hot seat and try and carry on from where I last left off but because my air law had expired I couldn't go solo straight away. So today was the day for it and it all went pear shaped from there!
I'm based in London so Elstree Cabair is my local school. I'd been from Elstree to Cambridge a few times with my instructor but never alone although I'd done a few solo cross countries to other destinations when I was flying before.
We started with a couple of circuits to make sure I was comfortable and then shot up to Ware and Buntingford just to familiarise myself again with the area and where I'd be going. This all went without a hitch. We returned to Elstree where my instructor got out, made sure I was confident and comfortable which I was and then off I went. Due to getting quite late in the day and the impeding sunset at 18:03 we decided that rather than going all the way to Cambridge, I'd get to Buntingford via Potters Bar and Ware then turn around and come back. Once leaving the Elstree area, I'd dial Farnborough into the box and get a basic service.. Again, all fine. I got to Potters Bar so dialed Farnborough with the usual "I'm a student Pilot" and requested what I needed. Got told my squawk code and regional QNH so dialled those in and away I was in the direction of Ware. All this time I was checking my position, time and usual formalities like FREDA checks. I got to Ware and nothing was wrong, all good so far..
When I finally got to Buntingford, I checked my time, looked at my board, map and DI for the return leg, no sooner had I got on track, Farnborough started to call me with details of other aircraft in my vicinity.. Nothing strange there of course but I started to get a bit unsettled as I couldn't see the other aircraft. This kind of threw my concentration off and before I knew it, I'd lost my bearings. Now anyone that knows the area will tell you it's no more than 10 mins flying time at 100 kts between Buntingford and Ware and this track routes between Luton and Stanstead. I was looking out both sides trying to work out where I was now and I should have hit Ware a minute ago but still couldn't see it. I heard a voice on the radio with my callsign telling me something about Stanstead and turning right so I started to bear slightly right and carried on trying to work out where I was. Again the voice came over "can you confirm you are turning right to avoid Stanstead?" I confirmed and carried on staring out of the window. another 30 seconds passed and Finally the voice said "G-**** turn immediately right before you encroach on Stanstead.. This time I took a sharp 90 turn to the right and waited for a bollocking.
After 2 minutes there was still silence so I was confident that I was now far enough away as not to cause any problems but now my main problem was I was seriously lost. I hadnt a clue where I was, it was starting to get dark and I felt a complete tit for losing my way. I'd never done this before but rather than flying around at 2200' in the roughly correct heading I called Farnborough and asked them to give me a heading to Elstree. Within 30 seconds, they'd given me my position, heading and distance to get home and stayed with me all the way untill I could see the runway.
I've never been so grateful to an ATC in my life. In my mind, I'd messed up big time by letting everything start escalating and thought I'd messed up even more by asking for assistance but when I got back on terra firma, my instructor who'd been listening in on the whole thing said yes, I'd lost my bearings and made a couple of simple mistakes but I'd done the right thing in the end and I'd not endangered myself or anyone else by asking for help. ATC are there to help and as such should be used whenever needed.
My advice to any student pilot on a solo navigation exercise is;
Never be too proud to ask for help! ATC such as RIS is there to help so use the service! It helped me out big time today and I'm extremely grateful to them for just doing their job.

Anyway.. it's the Navigation exam next so hopefully I won't **** up again!
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