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