Lesson 20 - Third solos

The week's weather forecasts were pretty accurate this week - good weather but windy. No need for de-icing today.

The plan was to go up with Tim for 2 circuits, drop him off at Seawing then 5 circuits by myself. Given my lack of ability to count last week, Tim said he was asking me to do 5 circuits so that I could count them off on fingers!

We were in Lima-Whiskey today and using runway 06: both were less familiar to me than flying Foxtrot-Romeo from runway 24.

There was quite a bit of haze today, and flying quite early meant that the sun was low and it was difficult - almost impossible - to see the runway on the downwind leg.

There was a lot of wind on finals, but the landings were reasonably uneventful - the first one being the best of the two. Then I dropped Tim back to the club and set off by myself. There was an increasing amount of traffic during my circuits, but not as busy as last week, however on my third circuit I was asked to orbit at the turn from downwind to base while an aircraft landed using an ILS approach. I did a couple of orbits here, then ATC informed me that a second aircraft was making an ILS approach and please could I continue to orbit until they told me to stop! I must have done seven or eight orbits before they advised I could continue, however as the wind had been increasing, my orbits had gradually been drifting further and further away from the airport, so it was quite a flight back to the airport. I was so far away, I nearly asked ATC for a bearing back to the airport! However using the ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) and the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) and the simple process of following the coast and looking out for places I recognised, I was able to find my way back to Southend.

The wind when cleared for touch and goes was given as 110/13 (wind from 110 degrees at 13 knots). The maximum crosswind component is 12 knots and the wind was at 50 degrees to the runway, so using the sixths rule, 5/6 of the windspeed could be counted as the crosswind component - approx 11 knots. The wind ahd been steadily increasing and this was getting a bit near the limit, so instead of a touch and go, I requested and was cleared to land.

This third landing was the best of my solo landings (the first had been a bit of a bounce, which I had controlled) and I taxied back to Seawing. ATC thanked me for my patience in the circuit.

So I am getting quite used to dealing with traffic and making orbits in the circuit, now had some solo experience of flying in higher winds..

Stats at end of lesson 20
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:30	1:00	5	5
Total	19:00	2:10	51	43

Lesson 19 - second solo

Well despite some varying weather forecasts during the week, today turned out to be the best day for weather over the past couple of weeks. Consequently Tim advised that it was perfect for doing my second solo flight.

The plan was for me to fly three circuits with Tim, then he would get out and I would do a further three circuits myself. We had a brief briefing, just to cover off what I should do if I have a radio failure, receive instructions from ATC I am not comfortable with and some advice that I only need to say "Student" once. On my first solo I had rather over-egged the point, but I did want to make sure that ATC knew!

The weather was good, but it had been icy the night before, so a good episode of de-icing the aircraft was required. I did the walkround, while Tim started the de-icing, leaving the de-icing of the wings for me to do. All of this to a background of swapping a few jokes - none of which can be typed here!

The aircraft had been refueled the day before, but then not taken up, so we didn't need to make a trip to the pumps, but instead set off for runway 24 and holding point ALPHA-1.

There was not much surface wind, but the wind at circuit height (1000ft) was a bit stronger from the NW. This meant that on the downwind leg I ended up quite narrow to the runway. We were also asked by ATC to make an early turn on to baseleg and with the wind behind us on base leg I ended up turning on to final still at about 1,000ft, so we needed to shave a lot of height off. Consequently the rate of descent was higher than usual which led to a harder landing than I would have liked. However, power on, chance to do it right the next time!

On finals on the last circuit Tim had requested that we would practice a "fan stop" on climb-out. For those who have read previous posts you will remember that this would simulate an EFATO (Engine Failure After Take Off). However, still thinking about not getting the previous landing right, I had forgotten his communication with ATC, so was quite taken in when all of a sudden the engine RPM dropped from 25,000 to around 700! My first glance was to the throttle and seeing it all the way back I remembered, so selected my field (that big brown one) and set the aircraft into a glide before going through the engine checks and telling Tim what my radio call would have been. Once we were confident we would have made the field, we climbed out of the glide and Tim advised ATC that we were on our way again.

This time we requested a glide approach to the runway. I turned in at the right moment, but cut the corner on the turn to finals, which again put us high on approach. However following Tim's prompting, I remembered the flaps, applied full flaps and was amazed at how quickly the aircraft dropped. This landing also wasn't the best - the high rate of descent meant that I had a low bounce on landing, but the aircraft settled down again and we were OK. Tim advised that if I was by myself I should go-around in that situation and to get the nose higher on the flare.

I wasn't sure there was enough runway to take off but Tim said there was loads and he was right. This final circuit was to be a normal circuit - no sudden EFATOs thrown in! This time I kept a much better circuit and the landing was much better.

We taxied back to Seawing, Tim jumped out and I was off on my own to Alpha-1 and the power and pre-takeoff checks. My first indication on how busy the airport was getting was when I glanced round during the checks to find 5 more aircraft with me at Alpha-1 all doing their checks too! As I say - first decent day for a few weeks.

I was cleared to take off after another 152 was on its climb-out after a touch and go. I then followed this aircraft round the circuit. The other pilot was taking a much longer circuit, but I didn't feel I could stick to the usual tighter circuit Tim had taught me to follow without getting too close to the other aircraft so I also followed a longer circuit. This was the case for all of the solo circuits I then did.

I really enjoyed doing these solo circuits. Although obviously still nervous, there is so much to concentrate on that there is no time to get scared! Unfortunately my high levels of concentration meant that I actually lost count of the number of circuits I had completed and ended up doing 4 instead of 3. Whoops! Tim was OK about it afterwards, but said he had come out of the club house ready to receive me back only to wonder where the bloody hell I was going as I took off again into the great blue yonder. After that he thought he would stay in the warm and watch through the window until he was sure I was really coming back.

One of the other highlights from my solo circuits was that a large Boeing came in to Southend. As there were 4 or 5 aircraft in the circuit at that time, ATC had us all fly in neatly spaced orbits on the downwind leg to increase the separation to the equivalent of 7 miles distance from the landing Boeing. I wasn't entirely sure of all the correct radio calls for doing the orbits, so following the "if in doubt, shout" rule; advising ATC when I was starting and completing my orbit. I also started it at the same time as the Cessna I was following, as this seemed the safest option - although we were probably a couple of miles apart. I do still find it difficult to judge distances in the air.

All in all a good fun lesson.

Stats at end of lesson 19
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:30	0:50	7	7
Total	18:30	1:10	46	38

Lesson 18 - Short-field operations: trip to Rochester

I had been looking forward to going to Rochester almost as much as I had been looking forward to my first solo - and it had been quite some time coming. I had really been enjoying the flying, but generally we had only flown to the training area near the river Blackwater, or recently had been flying circuits around the north of the airport. So this was my first chance to fly further a-field.

In the pre-flight briefing, Tim went over the fact that Rochester was an uncontrolled airport, with the tower only providing a flight information service.

We would therefore need to do an overhead join (see diagram). We would approach with QNH set, at 2000 feet on the "deadside" (i.e. not the circuit side) of the airfield. We would obtain and set QFE on the altimeter, then, whilst descending to the circuit height, which is 1,000 feet for Rochester, we would turn out to the left, then turn back to the right, so that we joined the circuit on the crosswind leg, where we would follow the normal circuit pattern to land.

We would be using the short-field take off method, practising it at Southend first. For this, we set flaps at 10 degrees (normal take off is clean, i.e. 0 flaps), we would then rotate at 50 knots, then maintaining Vx which is 60 knots we would climb to 300ft. At 300 ft we would lower the nose,bring the flaps up, then climb away at 70 knots. This method is used to avoid obstacles in the climb-out flightpath.

We would also use a short-field landing method, which is flaps at 60 degrees (i.e. maximum flaps) and 60 knots airspeed. This creates more drag, so more power is required and much more effort is required in the flare.

Finally, Tim pointed out that we would need to book out from Southend (a task done via a brief phone call to the tower) and that we would need to take the tech-log with us.

We were in G-BNFR, and it needed fuel, so first stop was to the pumps, before following a twin-engined aircraft back to holding point ALPHA-1 for runway 24. It was a very windy day - in fact I hadn't been sure we would go at all, until I checked the weather via a METAR from home before I left. The crosswind component at Southend was well within limits, and the wind would be straight down the runway at Rochester. Tim had reckoned on a journey time of 15-20 minutes, but with the strong headwind, it actually took us 45 minutes to get there and land!

It was really interesting to fly over the Thames, start speaking to another tower and then to fly over the Chatham Historic dockyard, see the Channel rail link and follow the Medway. The overhead join was a new experience for me, and I was surprised at the level of radio chatter that we were now tuned in to. Rochester Information was obviously servicing a number of aircraft coming across North Kent on route to and from Biggin Hill. It was difficult to get a word in edgeways to announce that we had joined the circuit and actually picked up QFE from a different message we had overheard.

The landing was fine - not as bumpy on the grass as I had expected. But the taxiing to the main aircraft parking area was fun! The taxiway was very muddy, so we were skidding all over the place. As we didn't seem to be able to engage 4-wheel drive, a slower taxi was required!

We parked up between an Arrow and a 172 and went over to the Pilot Reporting - which was also Rochester Information who we had been talking to. On the way over, I had to stop to let a Cirrus-SR22 taxi past. This was the closest I had got to one and it looked beautiful!

We had a brief chat with the very friendly staff in the tower, I paid for my landing and 4 circuits, they advised us of how to get back to the runway and Tim told them about my "reducing to 1,500 knots" faux-pas of a few weeks ago! Then we were striding back to G-BNFR. We both did the walkround checks, and soon we were taxiing back towards the runway threshold for 20L, which is the relief runway at Rochester. We had some ground-based navigation problems (ahem!) before realising we were looking at the runway and not the taxiway we had just come along and so proceeded to take off.

This next bit was the scariest event so far of my brief flying career. We were taking off towards a hill and it was very turbulent. Our poor little aircraft was being seriously buffeted and was rolling considerably. I began to feel slightly unwell for the first time since I had been flying and Tim said he had control. I decided he was welcome to it! We were climbing, but the hill in front of us did not seem to be diminishing in size as we got closer to it, all the time still being buffeted by strong gusts of wind. Finally, clearing the hill we turned onto the crosswind leg and then the downwind leg and things calmed down a bit.

Tim asked what I wanted to do and I said I still didn't feel too good and we agreed that the climb out was NOT fun. Therefore we radioed Rochester and advised we were heading back to Southend. They said they didn't blame us, that we could use the fees next time we were back and then said cheery-bye! I look askance at Tim on what I should call back and decided "Cheery-Bye. Golf-Foxtrot-Romeo" would suffice!

It took us about 5 minutes to get back to the Southend area, with this impressive tailwind. However back in the Southend circuit (with the very professional manner of ATC) we were required to do a couple of orbits before we could turn onto base leg and finals. The landing again was a good one (two in one day!) and we taxied back to Seawing.

I felt disappointed that the blustery wind had detracted from a day I had really looked forward to and that I still felt a bit unwell even during the debrief. However I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to go to Rochester, looked forward to going back soon and felt not in the least bit put off by the whole experience.

Stats at end of lesson 18
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	1:25	0:00	2	2
Total	18:00	0:20	39	31

Lesson 17 - First Solo!

The lesson this morning was an early one - 9am. As usual, in the days leading up to the lesson, I had regularly checked the weather on my current 5 favourite sites and the forecasts had varied, but on the morning itself the sky was blue, there was almost no wind but it was pretty cold. I had to de-ice the car before leaving home and the temperature gauge on the car was reading -3 on the drive to Southend.

Tim and Stefanie were in the club house when I arrived. Tim asked me what sort of lesson I thought the weather would mean, I answered that it would either be the long awaited trip to Rochester to practice on grass runways, or the day for my first solo. Tim replied that with such perfect weather it was first-solo day.

He made me a cuppa and we went through for the pre-flight briefing. We covered communication with Air Traffic Control: as I was a student on solo practice, I had to append "Student" before my callsign, so initial communications to the tower would be "Student G-BNFR...". We also discussed what I should do if ATC asked me to do something out of the ordinary, such as an orbit on base leg, or even worse, an orbit on final - which is against regulations anyway. I was to say "Student - unable to comply" and continue as is, awaiting alternative instructions.

I appreciated that some of these measures had been brought in following a tragic fatal accident involving a student pilot of this very flight training school several years ago. As with many pilots, I have read a number of AAIB Accident Bulletins which provide a useful source of information on how accidents have occured and the lessons learned.

We went on to discuss the pre-solo questionnaire, which I had mostly completed, but not quite got round to fully completing. We went through the gaps in my answers - pretty much all of which I knew, but just hadn't filled in on the sheet.

The other useful skill I was about to learn was how to de-ice an aircraft. I started my walkround of Foxtrot-Romeo in the cold morning air, while Tim went in search of the de-icing equipment. I completed the walkround and then Tim took me through the de-icing procedure, using a hand pumped pressure pump with a spray nozzle. The ice was quite heavy on the whole aircraft, including below the wings, which surprised me. Tim demonstrated the de-icing and started off de-icing the port side of the plane, while I went back to the club house to get the steps so that we could better de-ice the tops of the wings. We use a different type of de-icer to that on larger commercial aircraft (which Tim reliably informs me smells of a combination of vinegar and cat urine - and which we had recently smelt on the flight back from Finland). Therefore we should never accept anyone else de-icing the aircraft, as they may be using a different type. The de-icing took quite some time to complete and required a refill of the de-icer, during which time Tim called the tower to advise 20 minutes delay on departure for our circuits.

Finally we pushed Foxtrot-Romeo back from the stand onto the grass and while I hopped on board and did my internal checks, Tim took the de-icing equipment back to the club house. We were cleared to taxi to holding point ALPHA-1 on Runway 24 where I went through the power and pre take-off checks. Again we got some rough running on the left magneto test, which Tim cleared by running at 2300rpm for 30 seconds. I continued through the checks, re-checking the magnetos which were fine now. Southend tower were not yet on air, so we were communicating via Southend approach.

We were cleared for take-off on runway 24 and so we set off down the runway to perform a standard circuit, with a standard approach. Whilst there was little or no wind on the ground, there was a northerly breeze at circuit height. Unfortunately, because I didn't detect this, I became narrow on the downwind leg, which combined with being a bit high, meant that after the turn onto final I was really too high. I said that I didn't think we would make the ground this time, so wanted to go-around. Tim agreed, so I put the carb. heat away, applied full power, waited for a positive climb rate then brought the flaps up in stages, whilst advising Southend tower of the go-around. During the debrief, we discussed that - although I shouldn't have got myself into the position I was in, so high on final - I had made the decision to go around in good time and positively.

The second circuit went much better and I came in for a reasonable touch and go, albeit I had been high on finals again and touched down quite a long way down the runway. On finals, Tim had requested a simulated fan stop during the climbout - i.e. a simulated engine failure, so I knew it was coming. I climbed to the required 600ft before turning and had continued to climb on the crosswind leg and at 800ft, Tim applied carb. heat and reduced the throttle to idle. The nose naturally dropped and I pushed forward to obtain the glide speed. I was later reminded that I didn't need to do this so much and that I would lose valuable height in doing this. I set the aircraft up for the glide, selected a field I thought I could make within 45 degrees of straight ahead (a large brown one!) and headed towards it. I then went through the engine checks from right to left (ignoring the obvious one that the throttle was closed!). Tim then asked me what radio comms I would make. I replied that I would say Mayday three times and give the callsign. I omitted to mention the fact I had an engine failure - which was a genuine reason for taking the mickey out of me later! Once we were sure I would have made the chosen field, I climbed-out and rejoined the circuit. The simulated fan-stop had thrown me somewhat, so I completely forgot about the pre-landing checks and the radio call until Tim reminded me. Although the landing was OK, at this rate, unless I picked up my game, I was not going solo today!

On the third circuit we once again did a simulated fan-stop, but this time I was much better and remembered my checks on downwind. On base leg, I reduced the RPM down to 1,500 and so came in well for the landing, although the flare out was a bit up and down.

The fourth circuit was once again a standard circuit and it all went well. During the circuit we were requested to transfer over to Southend tower. Tim called final and requested an option for touch-and-go or a stop. I took it that this landing would be the final determining factor on whether or not I went solo today. As it was the landing was fine, if a bit long, and we backtracked along the runway a few yards to taxiway BRAVO. We taxied back to Seawing, where we completed some paperwork in the aircraft and I signed that I was happy to go solo.

Tim had been concerned by the left mag, so we checked that and it was a bit rough. We pulled off the taxiway on the grass so that we could run the engine at higher revs for a bit to clear any fouling without obstructing anyone else. The problem again cleared itself and Tim jumped out.

This was it, I was on my own.

Enjoying the extra elbow-room in the cockpit, I radioed through to tower and made sure I prefixed the call-sign with "Student". I was cleared to holding point ALPHA-1, to where I taxied for the power and pre take-off checks which I did slowly and carefully, double and triple-checking each line in the checklist. I paid special attention to the ignition checks, but the mags were fine this time round. I radioed the tower again with the following message: "Student G-BNFR at ALPHA-1 ready for departure ON FIRST SOLO CIRCUIT". I know the last bit was non-standard, but I just wanted to make sure they knew about it! I recieved the call to line up and wait, then very soon after clearance for take-off.

I had been warned, but was still surprised at how readily the little aircraft jumped into the sky with only one person on board. I pointed this out to Tim later and suggested it could be that he had eaten too much over Christmas. he replied that even with over-eating he accounted for about 10% of the weight of the aircraft! Everything went very well on the circuit. I talked to myself fairly continuously and really enjoyed the feeling of freedom during climb-out. I was a bit high on the downwind leg - the aircraft seemed much more predisposed to climbing than descending. However, I used the reduced RPM setting on base leg and turned neatly onto final, reporting final to the tower as I did so. The PAPI lights were pretty much spot-on - 2 red, 2 white as I continued approach, just becoming 3 red shortly before landing. I have to say, it wasn't my best landing, I flared a bit high had a small bounce, which I controlled, but the runway was a bit icy and I skidded slightly to the right. However I was down and both me and the aircraft were in one piece. The tower congratulated me on my first solo, which I thanked them and confirmed I had vacated the runway before stopping on taxiway BRAVO to do my after landing checks.

Jubillantly, I taxied back to Seawing where I saw Tim pacing, like some expectant father. He gave me the thumbs up and I shut the engine down. He came round to congratulate "Captain Westcott" and to shake my hand. We emptied the aircraft and walked back to the clubhouse, where others also congratulated me! Tim also told me that, of all the students he has trained, I have been the quickest to reach first solo at 16.5 hours. I felt proud!

Following the debrief and the paperwork, I headed out to my mother-in-law's house and called home. My wife had strictly forbidden me from telling her before I did my first solo, but at least I could now tell her that I had done it.

Stats at end of lesson 17
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:50	0:20	5	5
Total	16:35	0:20	37	29