Aviate, Navigate, Communicate : Week 50: PPL Flight School Week 19

Tuesday
My final basic instrument flight was scheduled at 1400hrs, right smack in the noon when turbulence usually is at its most severe level. Nevertheless, I went up in conditions which were not easy to handle. Strong crosswinds were present along with raining clouds in certain parts of the training area. The hood was on but I could still see the rain drops on my side window. The lower clouds also meant that I had to fly at a lower altitude of below 5000ft where most of the turbulence are present.

Did a few Rate-1 turns but was totally having trouble maintaining my height due to the conditions. Climbing and descending were fine, the same for my PFL. Next was recovery from unusual attitudes using the standby instruments as my G1000 screen was dimmed to an almost un-viewable brightness. My instructor wasn't so gentle with the controls this time and I was close to getting airsick after a few of his maneuvers. Recovery with the standby instruments wasn't easy as they are located at the bottom of the panel where it is hard to read them properly.

There was one very important part about the standby compass which I didn't realise until this flight. The keywords are ONUS - Overshoot North Undershoot South and SAND - South Accelerate North Decelerate. I have to overshoot the reading by 30degrees when turning northwards and undershoot the reading by 30degrees when turning southwards. And when I accelerate the compass with rotate towards south and then towards north when I decelerate. That is something I will never experience in the G1000.

Then it was revision with the VOR needle thingy, which was already quite easy by now after getting used to it. The lesson ended with me joining an empty circuit and landing on a runway I've never landed before by myself. Luckily it went fine to my great relief.

Wednesday
Big day with my flight scheduled at 1300hrs. It was my first navigational flight which I had to do lots of planning and preparation. The night before, I familiarised myself with the route to fly through the land features along the flight path. Lots of things I had to remind myself to do while in flight. To kinda "play cheat", I went onto Google Earth to see how it's like to be flying the route. To be honest, it isn't 100% helpful as the season is different and the colours do not match the season I'm in now. But it at least gave me a rough idea of how things are going to look like.

Reported for flight earlier than normal as I had to go through the flight plan with my instructor to have his approval. My navigation flight was a 3-legged one with two checkpoints before heading back to base. Total distance to be covered was 154 nautical miles and planned flight duration about 86minutes.

My instructor approved the plan and I keyed into the system my flight details. My first mistake was when I keyed in a wrong SAR Time. SAR stands for Search And Rescue and it is a time which the Australian authorities will activate a rescue team to go look for you when you don't return to base by then. Usually we set our SAR Time as return time plus one hour. In this case, I keyed in my return time, which gave me a very tight timeframe for my flight. If I didn't cancel my SAR Time before it hits the timing, I will have rescue teams come looking for me. More on this later.

I took off after some delay with the planning and headed for my first checkpoint at 3000ft. Conditions were tough as it was turbulent as usual and my altitude was pretty inconsistent, often climbing and dropping by 200ft while I looked out for features on the ground. Checklist to run through during nav flight is what we call CLEAR checks. It will have to be done at least at every midpoint and checkpoint.

C - Compass, heading, leading features. Check that my track and heading are correct.
L - Log Times. Check that my flight is consistent with the timings I've calculated.
E - Engine Temperatures and pressures. Check that nothing is wrong with the engine.
A - Altitude, Airspace(QNH). Check my height and the QNH I'm flying on
R - Radio Frequency. Check that I'm tuned to the correct frequency for the particular airfield.

My first-leg midpoint was reached within 12minutes just as I've planned. It felt great that nothing is going wrong. I hit my first checkpoint just as planned and this was where my trouble came. Upon reaching the checkpoint, I had to change my track and heading on the G1000. Turning two knobs while flying and turning wasn't easy. My instructor was even saying "c'mon you have to turn the knobs and fly at the same time". Had I known this, I would have turned knobs and set my heading/track way before I start turning.

My next checkpoint was 40minutes/67nm away and it's easier to get lost when it's so far away, coupled by a very hard to spot feature on the midpoint of this leg. Keeping my track as consistent as possible, I went for it hoping I do not screw up. Lucky enough, my eyes were sharp enough to spot the midpoint and my instructor kept quiet all the way. There were alot of lakes along this leg which I've used to track my path on the map. However, much of the lakes have dried up and they do not look quite close in terms of shape as compared to the ones I see on the map. It wasn't easy and because of that, I missed my 10nm point where I had to make a radio call telling everyone my impending arrival.

The airfield of my second checkpoint was a tough one to spot as the runway was grass and its colour sort of blend into it surroundings. It took me a full minute to finally discover it when it was just right before me. And learning from my previous mistake, I started turning the knobs to change the settings while still flying towards the checkpoint. Then when I fly over the checkpoint, I turned to follow the new track/heading which I've set. This was way easier!

The final leg was 22min/47nm away and it's way easier to fly than the one before it. Checking that I do not have much time left before I hit the SAR Time, my instructor increased the throttle to shorten the duration of my flight. As a result, I reached base earlier than planned and did a glide approach to simulate engine failure. The glide went well until the final moment when I extended Full Flaps too early and I ended up landing short. Scary moment when I'm so near the ground but I'm still a few good metres away from the threshold. That very instant reminded me of the Asiana flight accident at San Francisco. My balls shrank and I added some power to land safely. Phew!!

Knowing that my SAR Time was so close, my taxi speed was way higher than usual and I ran back to the flight centre to make the SAR Time cancellation call. I was 2minutes away from hitting the timing when I was making the call. What a close shave. A huge lesson learnt on this mistake and I shall not repeat it ever again to give myself a heart attack.

My instructor was happy with my navigation in the post flight brief but commented on my poor altitude maintenance, which I agree need some work on. My glide approach was good but need to judge better when to extend my flaps. However, he added that I would probably have taken out the lights of the runway but will still land safely. Not a bad first navigation flight I must say, and I'm looking forward to more.

Planning for my nav flight the night before

Friday
The day is finally here, I was scheduled for a solo check at 1715hrs. It's a great timing for flying and I was the last person to fly the aircraft which means I can finish my solo circuit hours in one shot. My batchmate flew for the same solo check just before I took over but he didn't manage to clear the check. His result worried me as the conditions up there might not be easy to fly in.

We were also flying with the same instructor, so chances of me not clearing the check to his standards were quite high. I had a chat with him before hopping onto the aircraft and he assured me not to feel the pressure and just fly to the best I can.

I took off with slight cross wind of about 6kts. Turning downwind I gained more than 100ft in height and I was so afraid that he would scold me for that. Trying my best to correct it after he made a brief comment to keep my height in check. Downwind was fine then turning into base and finals I was too high and had to go into idle to lose more height. I manage to correct it and landed alright for my first round.

My instructor seemed comfortable with my flying as he didn't really get mad at me. Subsequent rounds improved but the crosswind got stronger and started becoming inconsistent which caused me to have some trouble landing properly. He made the decision not to send me solo on such conditions and we ended the check with 0.7hrs flown. At least he was happy with the rest of my circuit flying and told me not to be too harsh on myself. Well, tough luck I guess, hopefully it will be third time lucky for me on my next final solo circuit check.