A bit of VFR 'on top'

Another two flights in a row last week-end, and that was quite enjoyable in the middle of the final revisions weeks.
I flew the Cessna 172 on saturday and the PA28 on sunday, both solo.

Me: 'G-BJWI at BCFT with Information Yankee, QNH 1030, Request taxi'.
ATC: 'G-WI, QNH correct, give way to a Falcon passing you from right to left to FR Aviation, then taxy behind, to November via Mike, for runway 26 departure'.

Holding at November (holding short of runway 26) after the power checks and 'before take-off checklist':
Me: 'G-WI at November ready to copy clearance'
ATC: 'G-WI, hold position, your clearance is to leave the zone on track to Sandbanks, not above 2000 ft, VFR, Squawk 7010'.
Me: 'Hold position, not above 2000 ft cleared on track to Sanbanks, VFR, Squawking 7010, and ready for departure, G-WI'
ATC: 'G-WI, readback correct, after the landing Citation line up and wait 26'
Me: 'After the landing Citation, line up and wait 26, G-WI'
And here I am, on that 2300m (7500ft) piece of asphalt facing west and ready for take-off.
Feet on the brakes, 2000 rpm, brakes released and full power applied. RPM checked, airspeed is alive, 65 kts, rotation, positive rate of climb, 80 kts.
Passing 500 ft I slightly bank the aircraft left to a heading of 217°, when Tower asks me to contact Radar on 119.475. (VFR Map is included, see below)
Me: 'Bournemouth Radar, G-WI passing 700 ft climbing to 1800 ft, on track to Sandbanks, VFR'.
ATC: 'G-WI, report leaving controlled airspace'.
Me: 'Wilco G-WI'.

Just on time to take a picture of Bournemouth town centre with its beach and pier, Boscombe pier in the background.













Leaving the zone to the South-West, I'm now heading towards Old Harry Rocks a bit further along the coast.













Turning left towards Poole Bay:













Right turn on track to the East (heading 085° with a 12 kts / 350° wind at 2000 ft), I soon reach 'The Needles' as it's called, which are the arm-shaped cliffs of the Isle of Wight (west side).













Left turn to Lymington and then Stoney Cross (a disused airfield now used as a VRP), cruising at 1800 ft as the Solent CTA starts at 2000 ft, just in between Bournemouth CTR and Southampton CTR. There's not much in this area and as the visibility inland isn't very good i'm giving it a better look out to find the grass-now-closed airfield. I see Brokenhurst just below me 3 minutes after passing Lymington, VOR set on the Southampton VOR (Sierra Alpha Mike), radial 260, the needle comes in, and I see my next turning point.
This is the easy part, I now have to track 261° (heading 270 to allow for wind) for 12 min before reaching Blandford. It happens to be aligned on the 260 SAM VOR radial all the way to Blandford.
I check the ATIS, it gives a cloud base of 4000 ft (BKN), I climb on top at Verwood to enjoy the superb view we get over the clouds layer.













Soon time to start our descent as Blandford is in sight, still on the Radial 260 of SAM, I contact Bournemouth Radar for rejoin, 2000 ft, left turn Heading 099 to enter the CTR via Tarrant Rushton (VRP). I'm cleared to join the downwind for runway 26, I turn 111° and the NDB needle is now pointing straight ahead. ILS frequency set (110.50), descent to 1000 ft, before-landing checklist complete, base leg and then final for a runway 26 landing. I put the camera with the self-timer on and it takes the picture right on time as I flare the aircraft a dozen feet above the runway.

Night Rated and Magical Sunset Views

Another small step forward, I got my Night Rating on wenesday night after my second solo flight and a fifth stop-and-go landing.
I did it on the Cessna 172, which takes a little getting used to, but is a nice plane to fly.

If the weather permits it (after the awesome blue sky we had all the previous days, I really hope it'll be alright), I should fly this afternoon my first pre-CPL solo nav on the PA28.

I backseated yesterday on the PA28, taken around Bournemouth and enjoying an awesome sunset over Poole Bay (the town next door), and then up to Salisbury further North. It makes us almost forget that we are still doing the ATPL theory and that the next and last 7 exams are in just 4 weeks time.

 

Blackadder 23 final 26 touch-and-go

Not much new in Bournemouth.
I went flying yesterday, backseat on the PA28 and P2 flight on the Cessna 172 doing 1 hour of circuits.
Enjoy the pics.

Some flying at Bournemouth EGHH

I'm still waiting to do my night solo but we are stuck on the ground at the moment, due to some very nasty weather. Here is the Taf for tonight : 231857Z 2319/2402 13005KT 4000 -RA BR FEW005 BKN009 (4km visi, light rain, mist, few clouds at 500ft, broken at 900 ft). And this is pretty much what we'll have all week and what we had everyday of last week.

I managed to record a video though when I did a backseat on the PA28, just before doing my circuits.



I also recorded some footage on the apron for about 20 minutes, it gives quite a good idea of how dense the traffic can be at times ...

Night Flying

There won't be much to say for once since the pictures speak quite nicely for themselves.

I did my night navigation last tuesday : Bournemouth EGHH - Tarrent Rushton (entry/departure waypoint) - Dorchester (town on the coastline) - Blandford (small town in the middle of nowhere) - Stoney Cross (crossing both Southampton and Bournemouth axis) - Lymington - Bournemouth EGHH.
Tonight was circuits day, I backseated two flights and did the third one, ending up with total of 3 hours in the plane, doing 18 landings. I did as P2 a bit less than an hour and 6 touch-and-goes, simulating different lighting failures, onboard electric failure, too low / too steep approaches, etc ... It was quite fun!

Next week we've got the PT1 (Progress Tests) for the last 7 ATPL subjects.
I booked my flight to the States where i'll be building hours for 2months 1/2 in California on both single and twin engine aircraft (based in San Diego, CA).

Below is a picture of a Be-76 having trouble while landing. As a reminder of how safety is important in aviation and all our training, where we spend so much time learning how to cope with unexpected situations.

 

Familiarisation flight and Night Rating

This is getting quite hard with 35h of lectures per week, and the night rating at the same time, and the exams coming up in just over a month. But hey, I'm really loving it, it is just so great to fly again !

So yesterday, we went for a familiarisation flight on the Piper PA28-161, under the callsign Blackadder 26. Fourteen months seen my last flight as a pilot in command, what a feeling to be in control of a plane again ! I did pretty well, but my R/T in english was terrible. Not easy when you've been doing this in another language for several years. New aircraft, new airport (I didn't know until yesterday the airport layout, the taxiways, procedures and such), and new way of flying. And that might be in fact the most surprising bit, flying with a flying club, and flying with a flight school is just totally different. You've got to be accurate, precise, ahead of your aircraft at all times, and the checklists are 3 or 4 times larger.


"Blackadder 26, Bournemouth Approach, Standard Sandbanks departure VFR, 1800 feet". I really have to work on my R/T in order to fly solo in a couple of days (could be wenesday if things go well).
We did some engine failures yesterday, went over the 4 VRPs around the airfield, the landing was ok, and I was very very happy.

I just really have to remember that Pre-Landing Check :

B - Brakes off
U - U/C down and locked (fixed on the PA28-161)
M - Mixture, Master, Mags - Full rich, On, Both
P - Pitch Prop (fixed on the PA28-161)
F - Flaps (0-25° on the base leg here)
F - Fuel - On and sufficient
A - Alternate Air - A/R (as required)
I - Instruments, Engine Ts + Ps, Altimeters set
H - Harnesses
H - Hatches
L - Landing lights - On
A - Air Conditioning - Off

And the frequencies (tower : 125.6 , app/rad 119.475 , Atis 133.725, ILS/DME 110.50, NDB 339, ...).



Tonight was my very first flight at night, and it also was my very first time flying in clouds ! We took off on runway 26, standard special VFR (we are sVFR within the controlled airspace, IFR outside) departure via Sandbanks (track on the South-West). We did some general handling over the sea, and went into clouds (not really on purpose, but there were clouds everywhere). 180° turns in clouds, climbing and descending turns on instruments (all Rate 1 turns at night), etc ...
That was just awesome, this is such a feeling to fly at night, in clouds, on instruments !!!!

1h flying, and then back to Bournemouth EGHH, missed approach on rwy 26 to get an idea of the low and high glide slopes, right hand circuit and a full stop landing.

Overwater Aerobatics and Formation Flight

7:00 am, Sunday morning, it's already time to get up.
On a normal day, I would stay in bed for like 10 min waiting for the next alarm to wake me up again. If you didn't know yet, french guys are quite lazy and I'm not an exception.
Today was different however, James was waiting for me at the Bournemouth Flying Club to go on a formation flight to Goodwood (Chichester Airfield).

Two flights in a row, what an awesome week-end that is !
We flew from Bournemouth Airport (EGHH), taking off on Runway 08 under some pretty bad weather conditions (Clouds SCT at 400 ft, 10k visi though) but it got better really quickly. We then went straight toward the East, overflying the beautiful Isle of Wight with G-ECON (Cessna 172) on our right wing, then Portsmouth, Hayling Island, Chichester and finally Goodwood (EGHR).

Goodwood is a four grass runway controlled airfield with some very nice aeroplanes. There was a beautiful Extra 200 waiting for its pilot to do some aerobatics.
It is actually an ex-RAF airfield and was also used by the USAAF in 1942 as a fighter airfield for the 308th and 309th Fighter Squadrons.
I don't know if there are some of the old Spitfire V5s in those big hangars but it definitely is a great place to visit.

This is the Bulldog T1 after landing at Goodwood.
As you can see, it wears the RAF three concentric rings symbol on the fuselage, and in fact is was used as a trainer aircraft not that long ago.

Powerplant is a 200hp Lycoming with variable pitch propeller, enough to enjoy some aerobatics as we did on the return leg back to Bournemouth.

First Backseat Flight - PA28

Fourteen months after my last flight on a light aircraft, here I am back in the air !
And what a great feeling that was !

I and a friend of mine flew at the back of a Piper PA-28 161, the student pilot was doing his circuits training prior to first solo.
In a busy environment with 737s operating on the same runway, the lovely view with Poole in the background, the sea not too far and Isle of Wight somewhere on the South-East, we had enough to be kept entertained as we were also trying to catch every bit of the ATC communications at the same time.

I should be back in the air again tomorrow, formation flight on a Bulldog along the South-Coast.
Keep tuned, more to come soon !