Advanced Instrument work
It's been quite an intensive couple of days. Our instructor, Scott, now only has Steve and myself to teach, which means more flying time for us. Yesterday morning we were scheduled to fly very early - two flights for Steve and one for me.
Steve took to the air first and flew over to Mobile airport to practise the holding pattern and NDB approach for runway 9. It was a very nice flight - a few Germans for us to dodge over Mobile, but nothing too scary. Steve landed at Mobile and I jumped in and took control. Unfortunately there had been a build up of cloud in the area:
October 25th. Sunny weather, 80 degrees. Love it.
The clouds were very low down, with a base of 3000 feet in some places, which dashed our plans somewhat. We left that area and flew over to the east, to try the hold over the Stansfield VOR, for the Casa Grande runway 5 approach. There were low clouds here too, but I managed to carry out the hold and the approach, but when I flew the missed approach and headed back to the VOR, the cloud condition was much worse. We should have landed at Casa Grande in order for Steve to have his second flight, but instead I just took us back to Goodyear. At least we both got to have a flight, which is more than some of the other guys did. We also ended up taking the plane to maintenance as there was a problem with the primer and the magnetos.
Today I was scheduled for two flights and Steve for one. We almost ended up not flying as the aircraft had a problem with the carb heat, but it mysteriously sorted itself out. I took off and headed over to Mobile and flew the NDB hold. It was very windy this morning, so it made for an interesting flight. Also the instruments in the aircraft were all in disagreement - the compass and GPS seemed to agree with each other, but the HSI and RMI each read something different. This also seemed to affect the ADF - so the non-precision approach was very much that, something not helped by my rather dismal performance.
I landed us at Mobile (barely) - and Steve took over. Steve flew much better, and did a nice job of flying the approach, and subsequent missed approach with a departure over to Buckeye. We landed at Buckeye, took on some fuel, then I jumped in for my second flight. The winds were still quite high, but were predominantly from the north which means a headwind for landing, which is ok.
I flew the VOR hold over Buckeye a few times then flew the approach - went missed approach then took us back to Goodyear. The flight went really well - much much much better than just a couple of hours previous. My approach into Goodyear went really well too, topped off with a very tidy landing. Scott was very happy with everything, and with 3 flights left to go before PT2, he seems confident that all will go well.
Needless to say Steve and I were both completely knackered when we landed - the advanced instrument work we are doing now is much more intensive than any of the other flying we have done - and to do two of those flights in one day takes its toll.
Tomorrow morning I am due in the sim at 6am - my last ever simulator session for the Warrior. Can't say I'll be that sad....
Steve took to the air first and flew over to Mobile airport to practise the holding pattern and NDB approach for runway 9. It was a very nice flight - a few Germans for us to dodge over Mobile, but nothing too scary. Steve landed at Mobile and I jumped in and took control. Unfortunately there had been a build up of cloud in the area:
The clouds were very low down, with a base of 3000 feet in some places, which dashed our plans somewhat. We left that area and flew over to the east, to try the hold over the Stansfield VOR, for the Casa Grande runway 5 approach. There were low clouds here too, but I managed to carry out the hold and the approach, but when I flew the missed approach and headed back to the VOR, the cloud condition was much worse. We should have landed at Casa Grande in order for Steve to have his second flight, but instead I just took us back to Goodyear. At least we both got to have a flight, which is more than some of the other guys did. We also ended up taking the plane to maintenance as there was a problem with the primer and the magnetos.
Today I was scheduled for two flights and Steve for one. We almost ended up not flying as the aircraft had a problem with the carb heat, but it mysteriously sorted itself out. I took off and headed over to Mobile and flew the NDB hold. It was very windy this morning, so it made for an interesting flight. Also the instruments in the aircraft were all in disagreement - the compass and GPS seemed to agree with each other, but the HSI and RMI each read something different. This also seemed to affect the ADF - so the non-precision approach was very much that, something not helped by my rather dismal performance.
I landed us at Mobile (barely) - and Steve took over. Steve flew much better, and did a nice job of flying the approach, and subsequent missed approach with a departure over to Buckeye. We landed at Buckeye, took on some fuel, then I jumped in for my second flight. The winds were still quite high, but were predominantly from the north which means a headwind for landing, which is ok.
I flew the VOR hold over Buckeye a few times then flew the approach - went missed approach then took us back to Goodyear. The flight went really well - much much much better than just a couple of hours previous. My approach into Goodyear went really well too, topped off with a very tidy landing. Scott was very happy with everything, and with 3 flights left to go before PT2, he seems confident that all will go well.
Needless to say Steve and I were both completely knackered when we landed - the advanced instrument work we are doing now is much more intensive than any of the other flying we have done - and to do two of those flights in one day takes its toll.
Tomorrow morning I am due in the sim at 6am - my last ever simulator session for the Warrior. Can't say I'll be that sad....
posted by Simon Davidson @ 11:38 PM
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