CPL day 11

Today the initial destination was the disused airfield at Driffield. The wind at altitude was forecast to be all over the place which meant planning pretty much stick a finger in the air and think of a number and was not likely to be very successful.

Took off and got in my RT calls to Linton in a nice punchy fashion and got a MATZ crossing at 2000 feet (cloudbase didn't permit any higher). My GEC points of Boston Spa and Wetherby meant I was heading in the right direction. My main features of Tadcaster, York and Elvington arrived as expected and I was just slightly to the left of track (but not worth correcting) and about half a min ahead of scheduled which meant revising my ETA to add a minute. Full Sutton maximum security prison and Pocklington gliding field arrived to the left and right as expected. After that it became more challenging as the cloudbase forced us down to about 1500 feet and there are precious little features to navigate by in the run in to Driffield. But kept to my heading and tried to pick out the lead in roads. Did manage to pick them out, just, by the sunlight glinting off a few cars and duly the disused airfield appeared, easily identifiable by the hangers and a few bits of disused runway/perimeter track.

Was then given a diversion of Breighton (about 5nm east of Selby). Much more easily plotted my line on the chart this time (having obtained smaller bulldog clips) and filled in most of the plog properly. Did a TTT having arrived on schedule for the revised ETA and set my new ETA for +12 mins at 00.

Didn't do a GEC and there things got bolloxed up. Should have been to the right of the road heading south-west, but hadn't spotted I was to the left of it. Only spotted my lapse when Market Weighton appeared on the nose when it should have been about 3 nm to the left. Applied the standard CPL technique to request to track of a turn of 30 degrees towards desired track for one minute for every nautical mile off track. Three minutes later and about to turn back onto my desired track when the instructor asked me what correction I should apply. One of the things he taught us on the debrief of the first nav trip was that three things can result in you being off track:

• Pilot error
• Turned too early/late at turning point resulting in a parallel track
• Wind stronger/weaker than forecast

Only a wind induced error requires a correction once you've rejoined your initial track, so my answer to his question was, and I quote verbatim, "None, because I bolloxed it up". Nevertheless I arrived at my halfway point nearly on schedule so no ETA revision was required and spotted Breighton shortly after and arrived only a minute behind ETA.

Returned back to Leeds much the same way as before from what I remember by tracking the NDB back in whilst remaining clear of Church Fenton's ATZ. Contacted Leeds Approach and was cleared to rejoin via Ecup. Shortly after I would have failed my CPL test because I forgot to change my QNH to Leeds from Barnsley Regional (which is always lower to guarantee a certain level of terrain clearance). Fortunately I joined at Ecup at 1700 feet on the Barnsley (which would equate to a circuit height of 1000 feet aal on the Leeds QNH) which when I wound on the correct Leeds QNH I was at about 1950 feet and the clearance is almost invariably not above altitude 2000 feet. Had I joined at 1900 feet on the Barnsley I would have busted my cleared altitude and probably been reprimanded! Still, better now than on the test. The approach and landing were pretty decent from what I remember.

Was pretty annoyed about the GEC failure, but at least it'll teach me to get it right next time. The instructor was overall happy with things, and looking back on it, it was actually a good trip because I learnt two valuable lessons in practice and hopefully won't make the same mistakes again.