My second solo nav check was scheduled at 1215hrs. Did my planning the night before, this time with three checkpoints, two of which I've never been to. It was gonna be quite a challenge I'm up for. However, there was also always a chance to get diverted so I'm not sure where I would really be going in the midst of the flight.
Reported 2hrs before flight to get the weather forecast checked out and finish up with my planning while waiting for the instructor to return from his lesson with another course mate. Showed him my flight plan and he seemed satisfied with everything. I proceeded to key in my plan into the system and this time round, I mistakenly keyed in local time for my SAR Time. Ended up I had to make amendments to it. I guess the rush to head out had caused me to be careless, a thing which is not good in aviation. I will have to remind myself to double check properly from now on.
Lifted off the ground and climbed to 3500ft with clouds relatively close to the level I was cruising. I had to keep a good look out of the cloud level while navigating my way to the first checkpoint. Took me about 30seconds or so to spot the runway of my first checkpoint. It was a tarmac runway so it wasn't that tough, to my relief. Next, I changed tracked and headed for the second checkpoint which was also new to me. Enroute there, I flew past a mountain which is very close to 3000ft in height, an obstacle which I had anticipated beforehand, thus my cruising level of 3500ft.
Upon reaching my second checkpoint, I was having trouble in spotting the runway as it was brown in colour which blended very well with its surroundings. I was circling the area for close to 2minutes before my instructor pointed it out to me. "Next time if you can't spot the runway, try looking for aircraft parked near it", he advised me. Fair enough, I could see the white planes with their wings much easier than the runway. I'll keep this advice in mind the next time I'm new to an airfield.
Finally, heading for my last checkpoint, surprisingly with no diversion. When I was close to the halfway mark, I was told to carry out circuit flying in my next checkpoint. From that moment on, I was preparing myself the whole sequence of events which I have to carry out. Radio calls, descending, lookout, which runway to use, tuning my CDI and altitude bug etc etc.
After getting myself accustomed to the airfield's runways through my chart brief, I descended to 500ft above circuit level to check on the windsock to determine the direction of the wind. The previous time I did circuits in another airfield, I had the luxury of listening to the AWIS which is capable of informing me the wind speed and direction.
Spotting the windsock at 1500ft AGL wasn't easy when you don't really know where to look out for it on the ground. Nevertheless, I spotted it with one flyby and went on to descend to circuit height to join midfield crosswind on the active runway in use, which is a right hand circuit. Doing chart brief seriously is a very crucial part of navigation flying as it gets you oriented to the airfield.
I managed to do everything correctly this time, except that I forgot to set my altitude bug to circuit height, which my instructor helped me to set it up. First round was a normal landing, and from it, I realised how scarily short is the runway other than being narrow. The second round was a flapless landing and the third round was a glide approach to simulate engine failure. I was too high and too fast, the approach was messy but the final landing was smooth and safe.
Due to the messy approach, I landed close to the two-third mark of the runway, which resulted in insufficient runway for me to do a touch&go. My instructor had to signal me to brake instead of applying full power for take-off. While backtracking the runway after making a full stop, I did a comparison in runway length and discovered the runway is a good 200meteres shorter than my base runway.
At the end of the backtracking, did my final checks on the aircraft setup, my instructor told me to bring us back to base. Full power I went, took off, climbed back to 3500ft by circling above the airfield and headed back to base. There was some slight rain along the way but it was only passing showers. Circuit area was a little congested back in base but it was handled well. Had to keep my eye on some aircraft but I landed safely eventually with a fair bit of strong crosswind.
"Well done mate, that was a good flight", my instructor commented after I killed the spinning propeller. If he's happy, I'm happy too. He was very relaxed throughout the flight, with his seat pushed back so that he can literally take a backseat and watch me fly. Haha, my ultimate aim is to bring my instructor to snooze mode with my flying. He signed my solo nav form and I'm looking forward to my next solo nav flight. Let's go!!
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| Flight plan |
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| Foggy morning which cleared after the sun rises |
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| The day I was scheduled for solo nav |
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| Pussy wants my breakfast? |
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| Starting my Friday early in the morning with a car wash |
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| Dinner 280314. Very nice nasi lemak by my housemate |
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| Friday night with wine and TV |
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| Lunch 290314 |
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| CAVOK conditions but I'm on the ground |
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| Broken CBs on Sunday but it was another great day to fly |
My solo nav was cancelled on Thursday after the weather turned for the worse. What a disappointment. Since then, I haven't been scheduled for flight while facing great weather conditions for three days from Friday to Sunday. Argh, I'm itching to fly! Oh and I realised it's been a full year of training since I've started with this course back in 2012. It reads my 52nd week, but it's longer than that due to the 5-month break last year. I hope things can progress more swiftly in the days to come.
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