Qx/c complete

[Hersham Boy]

This is a bit self-indulgent, I know... But I'm well pleased to have done it!

Redhill - IOW Sandown - Lydd - Redhill. Cloudbase got a bit low at times (1500' over the water 'tween Havant and IOW was a little lower than ideal!) but was a fantastic experience and not quite as tiring as I thought it would be. Encouraging words of luck and advice on the weather were given by some friendly chaps at IOW, too - thanks for that!

The cold pint once I got home tasted SOOOOOOOOO good! :D Good marks from the chaps at IOW and Lydd have given some more confidence to press on and do the scary Skills Test as well - just maybe I can be a good pilot!

While I think about it, if anyone knows who the lady with the ultra-calm voice who is often (wo)manning Farnbro' Radar please pass on my compliments... who could fail to feel relaxed after talking to her?!

Laters, all

Hersh

[Aussie Andy]

Hersham Boy, well done!

I believe the nice lady at Farnborough is called Annabel :)

[sennadog]

Congrats! Hopefully, I'll be able to do mine in the not too distant future.

Has anybody flown into Southend recently? That is one of the landaways that I have to do and before hand I'm after a bit of information as supposedly it's a bit more complex than the usual airfield.

[Who has control?]

Congratulations HB, you must be very near the end of your training.

OK Sennadog, what would you like to know about Southend? I did all my training from there & most of my flying since has been from EGMC. When are you planning to visit & where are you coming from?

[Simon W]

Well done! I did my q/xc just last week. A great feeling!

Regards,

Simon

[iainpoll]

Well done Hesham Boy.

Can you believe this, I've had my solo Q/XC cancelled four times now. Three for weather, and today when at last the weather was good, the aircraft went tech! Crossing fingers for tomorrow.

Good luck with your skills test BTW.

[sennadog]

I don't know what I need to know other than the obvious, Pooleys, PPR etc. I'll be flying from Redhill but for some reason I have to visit with an instructor first even though this is on my QXC as apparently, Southend is more "technical" than other airfields. Hopefully, this weekend.:)

[AerBabe]

Already said this by email, but well done Hersh!!! Buzz ain't it! Still remember mine as if it was yesterday (for good and bad reasons). GFT next old boy (take to your bunkers :p )

Fingers crossed Iainpoll. It'll be your turn soon enough. Let us know how you go :)

[iainpoll]

Thanks Aerbabe, will do.

Stapleford - Lydd - Shoreham. Sounds like fun!
:D :D :D

[Who has control?]

Sennadog,

Southend is a controlled airfielod, but as long as you do as ATC tell you, there will be no problem. They are well used to all sorts of training aircraft.

I would suggest that you try and come up to Cliffe on the north Kent coast, to the west of the VRP St Mary's Marsh. It get s you away from Rochester and is a very good landmark. The runway at southend is 24/06 and with the weather we have at the moment, I would expect to be using 24, so you will have come in from the north. All circuits are to the north west side of the runway. If you make your first call at Cliffe they will either give you 'downwind for right base' or 'left base' joins.

If you get 'downwind for right base', steer about 050-060 towards the airfield, but look out to the left, just off the nose for two large grey/ white gasometers. These are the local turning point for turnwind, so you can fly over them onto downwind. Next, look for two small square lakes, and turn base over them, as they are two miles from the threshold.

I'm sure you can manage the next bit onto the tarmac, it can get a bit bumpy over the trees though. Its a long runway & you will be able to stop before the intersection where you turn left & taxi to the apron, in front of the tower.

If you get a left base join from Cliffe, you head for the sea end of the Pier. Call 'crossing the pier' and if you look along the line of the pier, it points at the airfield. After you cross the coast, turn north and look for a river in front. The is a well defined inlet on the opposite bank which is convieniently 2 miles from the airfield. If you fly over the inlet, you can call 'Base leg - 2 miles'.

Try to avoid southend in the mid/late afternoon, as the sun is straight down the runway. Tuning the VOR to 111.35 helps.

I hope this is of some assistance, enjoy the flight and I hope the weather stays good for you (and all of us!) One day, I really must come down to Redhill.

[Penguina]

Well done! What's it like? I did my first landaway yesterday and tried not to let myself enjoy it because that seemed to be just asking for a cockup... but the only thing that went wrong was when my pencil broke as I was calling for joining instructions on the way home! Is it possible that the QXC could be fun?

[sennadog]

who has control Cheers mate! Exactly what I was after. I'm planning this for Sunday (WX permitting) for late afternoon so in the unlikely event of some sun, I'll avoid Southend.

As you say, I'll have to sort out the landings myself!

:D

[Hersham Boy]

Thanks to you all for your kind words!

Penguina - enjoy it. I know what you mean but it's too expensive a hobby NOT to! I actually found that when I relaxed and got into the rhythm it became much easier and less tiring. Hope you will, too.

Good luck to Iainpoll and sennadog... maybe we'll bump into each other (metaphorically, of course) at Redhill sometime?!

Hersh

[Evo7]

Congrats, Hersh, and good luck everyone else. Looking forward to hearing about it :)

I'm a little bit behind, but hit another milestone today by going solo into the local area - I've finally escaped the circuit! Being on my own at 3000ft over the coast under perfect blue skies was absolutely priceless, and made all those 18030G42KT 3000 BKN005 OVC010 days disappear. It's not quite up there with the first solo, but it was much more fun.... :D

First Navex Sunday too :) :) :)

[AerBabe]

Oooh... well done Evo! Where are you going on this navex then?

[sennadog]

Hersham Boy....

I'm the one bouncing round in a Katana so, yeah maybe we'll bump into one another. Evo , is this your first "real" navex with an instructor or solo? Either way, have fun!

[Evo7]

It's a dual navex - Goodwood -> Whitchurch (just NW Popham) and back. It's a start :)

[wookiepilot]

CONGRATULATIONS HERSHAM BOY!!!
I think that it has to be the toughest step of the whole PPL course, just proving to yourself that you have what it takes to do it ALL by yourself(not forgetting that sultry sonding lady at the other end of the radio...)

Having just past my skills test last tuesday(11-06) I can understand that you'll probably still be on a high, and quite rightly so.
Just one more hurdle to jump and then you can relax and just ejoy the scenery as floats by out the window.

:D :D :D

[Send Clowns]

Well done, Hersh :) (and congrats wookie on the test :D )

[Hersham Boy]

OK, sennadog... keep an eye out for those C152s from that "other" club ;)

[Who has control?]

Sennadog,

Did you get into Southend at the weekend??? Tell us all about it.

I was up exploring new territory between London & Luton on Sunday am.

[sennadog]

Whohascontrol . Yeah, I made it to Southend on Sunday which was useful as I needed to take an instructor with me into Southend before I take my QXC - one of the club rules as the circuits are different there. I also needed to go up with an instructor as I hadn't flown for a month due to holidays and stuff, so I killed two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Sunday must have been a bad day for ATC as the guy at Redhill was throwing his toys out of the pram and the bloke at Southend sounded pissed off to say the least. My approach was a bit ropey as initially they wanted me to do a left downwind join but I was a bit slow over Canvey Island so he then instructed me to continue on to a right hand join.

Came into RWY 24 with hardly any wind (probably why my Navex was spot on!) and a sudden but gentle gust just over the railway line which woke me up a bit.

As I said, the guy in the Tower was a bit sarcastic instructing me to park in the 3rd row, which I questioned (his right or left) and he had a pop at me as we departed. His taxi instructions were waaay too quick for me (I should have asked him to repeat I suppose) so I had to confer with the instructor what the WX etc was doing. In the meantime he came on the RT again and said "Holding Point A1 is at your 3 o clock in case you were woindering"....

On the way back into Redhill I had a minor point of interest as I was approaching for an overhead join. Around Godstone, this aircraft came at me, dove down to about 500ft and then proceeded south into Gatwick CTR:confused: Dunno where he was off to but he won't have been too popular...:D

Anyway, thanks for asking and sorry about the long winded reply! I'm off for a jaunt around Godalming,Shoreham, Bewl Water and back this afternoon. My first proper solo Navex, so I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for your help.:)

[Hersham Boy]

sennadog - surely that was a normal ATC day at Redhill? Only kidding... we love you guys in the tower ;)

That's an uplifting tale about Southend... perhaps the person after you will be les willing to ask for more info and cross an active runway on the way to the wrong hold? :rolleyes:

I suppose we all have off days - may your skies be blue and your winds be light and straight up the runway :D

Hersh

[sennadog]

Cheers Hersham Boy ! The ATC at Redhill seem to have a reputation as being a bit short sometimes but that's the first time I've encountered it. Anyway, I completed my first Navex today which was a success and the chap in the TWR at Redhill was definitely on form today.

I transitted Shoreham this avo and the woman there is bombproof. Very succinct, clear and friendly - I reckon you could have 20 aircraft in the circuit there, a couple of emergency landings and stick a live grenade in her hand and she wouldn't flap.:D

Anyway, sorry for hijacking your thread mate!

[Who has control?]

Sennadog,

Glad you made it into SND OK, sorry, I forgot about the windshear over the railway, it always gets me too.

The guys in the tower are normally very good, they get to deal with a lot of students so are very patient. Guess he was having a bad day - nothing personal - they have shot me down on more than one occasion, but they have helped me out a lot of times. I have noticed that they do have a habit of giving you all the info - QNH, runway, weather, traffic, etc etc all in one long stream so you are not alone in missing some of it.

When do you do your QXC?

[sennadog]

Who has control , I bet you didn't forget the windshear over the railway line, you just wanted to see my reaction!;)

QXC? Hopefully I'll get to do it soon.