I had not flown well with an instructor since January 17th, but I did want to get my Solo Land Away sorted. Solution, book two sessions for Sunday. Two hours dual in the morning with an instructor to prove I could still fly after all the mistakes I made last time and then a two hour session solo in the aftenoon subject to me flying well (and weather).
British Summer Time meant I had to get up an hour early then expected but I managed to get the weather downloaded and complete my flight log (PLOG)
METAR EGNJ 300550Z 23015KT 9999 FEW022 SCT030 07/04 Q0993
TAF EGNJ 300522Z 300513 23015KT 9999 SCT025 TEMPO 0513 25017G27KT
The TAF was a little worrying 27 knot gusts sometime between 05:00 and 13:00 GMT. So I might get the dual done but not the solo!
I managed to get to the club on time and with all my route planned, maps and PLOG. The only problem was I had forgotten my wallet so would have to borrow £10 pounds from Stewart for the Full Sutton landing fees.
G-BCRL would be the plane I would be flying, so I headed out to the grass to uncover her and check her out while Stewart booked us out.
Checks done and Stewart in the Co-Pilot’s seat I got the ATIS and then requested taxi instructions and headed over to holding point Bravo as normal.
Power checks and take-off checks complete I got back on to the Radio.
‘Solo05, ready for departure’.
‘Solo05, line and and wait runway 21’ Humberside Tower replied.
I lined up, and before I even had time to fully stop and put on the brakes, I was given my clearance to take off with a right hand turnout.
I quickly checked my DI and gave it full power and some right rudder. At sixty knots I raised the nose and we left the runway behind. The stall warner quickly started to churp and I lowered the nose to pick up more speed. I glanced down at the ASI (Airspeed Indicator) and noticed that it had two scales, oops. I had been looking at mph and not the knots! I let the speed climb to 80 knots and then raised the nose to the normal climb attitude.
At 500 feet I made a right turn and with the nice clear weather I could easily see Elsham Wolds. Over head I started my stop watch and made a quick note of the time and turned onto my heading.
Full Sutton from Elsham Wolds is a track of 326 degrees True. The morning weather reported 255 degrees at 20 knots for my planned height. That gave me a heading of 314 True and 317 degrees magnetic. I called it 315 and turned to that.
Humberside Tower handed me over to Radar and I requested a Flight Information Service. I levelled off at 2500 feet. I had a quick scan of the instruments and noticed I had forgotten to turn off the fuel pump at 1000 feet. I turned it off and checked the compass against the DI and adjusted it by about 5 degree’s. I corrected my heading and tried to trim the aircraft for hands off flying.
Once trimmed I checked the map and considered my position. As well as my track I had draw lines 5 degrees each side to aid my corrections. I nearly across the River Humber should have passed to the right of Brough Airfield but was passing it to its left. That made me about 5 degrees off. Stewart suggested we should try the 1 in 60 rule, so I turned right by 10 degrees to correct and checked the time. I would maintain this 10 degree correction for the same about of time I had been flying to bring me back on track.
This area of the country is very unfamiliar to me from the air and while the major motorways are easy to spot, the towns all look very similar.
An airfield appeared to my left, that had to be Melbourne, I looked ahead trying to spot Pocklington airfield. I had to be careful of that as it was a glider side and was bound to be busy at this time. I spotted it further to the right then I was expecting. I was still further left of track then I expected. The wind must be calmer then forecast.
Humberside Radar suggested I free call Full Sutton so after thanking them I tuned the radio to Full Sutton and switched over. Thinking ahead is still not something I do enough of when flying. I should have tuned the radio when I switched from Humberside Tower to Radar saving me this rush now.
Full Sutton appeared ahead slightly to the right and I turned towards it. Here I made a mistake. I should have turned much sharper right for a while then towards Full Sutton, so I would have the airfield appear on my side of the aircraft. Instead the field came up on my right and soon disappeared under the aircrafts nose! Stewart took over the radio while I descended as I had not been able to raise them on the radio. By the time I was downwind the radio bust into life, so there was somebody home! I continued round in the circuit and made a reasonable landing on runway 22.
We taxied down to the club house, shutdown and went and found the coffee. We had made it just to early, they had not put on the coffee pot. Oh well it would have to be instant coffee.
I had a rest then we headed back to the aircraft. I questioned Stewart on the correct radio calls as I am used to full ATC and not a small airfield like this. We started up and taxied to runway 22. A having a good look round and seeing it clear and hearing no one on the radio I lined up and took off.
Climbing out I said good bye to Full Sutton, switched to Humberside Radar and Requested a flight information service. This they gave and a squawk code. This happened at the same time as I was attempting to level out, so I was struggling to flying the plane right down the information Radar gave me and reach over and change the transponder settings while answering Radar on the radio.
Stewart suggested next time I made sure I am all settled before I make my call to Humberside Radar.
The journey back was far more straight forward. Once I reached the north bank of the river Humber I could see I was too far west so corrected, no calculations this time, I could see the Humber bridge and Elsham Wolds so headed straight to the VRP.
Radio passed me to Tower and I was given a right hand base join, but asked to wait a while. I was number three. Once the first plane landed I was cleared to long finals so I slowly descended to circuit height and turned finals at about 4 nautical miles out.
The wind had started to get up now and was a gusting crosswind at 22 knots. I kept letting it blow me left and I was now well off the centre line in the last 500 feet. Stewart spoke up and said to me.
‘If you do not get control soon i’ll take over.’
Well that was all I needed, its been a long time since an instructor has had to take over to land the plane and it was not going to happen now. I crabbed strongly and got us just to the right of the of the centre line. Just in time I kicked in with the rudder to get us straight and dropped us onto the runway.
Stewart commented that I only just got it straight in time and that I needed to think a bit more about crosswind landings. It had been a very long time since I had landed in such a strong crosswind and I was not too worried about how it all ended. Stewart said my flying was acceptable and if the weather held I could go so solo to Full Sutton have a coffee and then fly back. Yes! that was what I was waiting for.
I headed back to the club house to have my lunch and Stewart took his next student out. He was going to give him a few circuits then let me go solo for some circuit practice.
I relaxed and ate my lunch while listening to the Humberside Tower on the radio, the wind seemed to be varying between 17 and 22 knots. This made me a little nervous, would I be flying this afternoon or not. Well we would see … .. .