Mini-nav and GH

After four days of not flying I was somewhat aprehensive about flying yesterday (Weds 22nd Oct) as I felt like I'd forgotten all the useful minor corrections I had been given on the two previous trips.

Planned a short nav out to Kirkbymoorside airfield, but with the wind from the west it was largely behind me and my calculated groundspeed of 160kts meant that the 26nm would happen very quickly (in 10 mins). Clocked Knaresborough as my GEC quickly and easily but thought that I was too close to Boroughbridge and was about to make a heading correction since I couldn't spot Tholthorpe disused airfield. But the instructor pointed it out and I didn't in fact need to correct my heading. Duely spotted the destination and was on time & on track, at which point I was given Holme-on-Spalding Moor as my diversion.

Planned the essentials and turned onto my new heading. Then I got bogged down in trying to find something for a GEC and wasted valuable time until the instructor pointed out the obvious - Castle Howard was on the nose - muppet! Anyway, things were on time and on track and I tuned in and identified OTR VOR but I wasted more time faffing with my plog around the halfway point. So by the time I used the VOR to position fix myself on track I was already almost at my destination, but it worked out well and I verified myself as on the 300 radial from OTR at 27D.

Was then asked to demonstrate the stalls. Had to have a few bites at the clean stall though the basics were ok. Just forgot to do the two reds, two blues, three greens at 80kts (though this wasn't on the original instructions we were given), and also didn't bring the nose back up enough after the initial lowering of the nose on initiating the stall recovery. The approach stall went quite well only I forgot to catch the prop as I applied full power, though I did get it right on the second attempt. Finally the landing configuration stall also went pretty well and I managed to do a second and not miss out or mess something out on either.

Onto the instrument work and note to self - I must remember to set 18/23 as the screens are going up to make things easier. Did my IMC brief again so hopefully that's ingrained again. Did struggle again to get my height keeping and trip setup nicely, but once that was sorted we did the basics of climbing, descending and turning on full panel. Onto limited panel and the bastard timed turns. These went well apart from one where I was 10 degrees off my target heading and I didn't reset the OBS to my actual heading and turned the wrong way for my 3 seconds correction. Must remember to use the OBS even for small corrections, even if I only count time in my head. Unusual positions work went well and I managed to arrest the climb/descent ok (mostly) and not overshoot the level flight position into a descent/climb respectively. Might seem like a simple task, but on instruments and especially limited panel it's quite hard to judge correctly.

Once the screens came down it the final bit was steep turns. The first one was a bit poor for a few reasons, but the only one I remember was that my height keeping in the turn was all over the place. The second attempt was much better and the one in the other direction similarly good.

Headed back to Leeds, did the field approach checks, routed in via Eccup and did the downwind checks as I joined on right base for 32. Managed to more or less get the descent right and the instruction I'd been given to work on speed control also went well. Once I got fully set up on base I kept the speed relatively nicely at 90kts and then on finals at 80kts and this time I remembered the 2 reds, 2 blues, 3 greens. Did drop slightly low right at the end but I masked that error by stating that I was going for the threshold and did quite a doozy on a landing on the centreline and onle just past the threshold!

In the debrief the instructor said he didn't really have much to say - just a few minor points he'd not covered in the air. So all in all a very good trip and I was really happy with things. If all continues to go well, I might just have one more trip to polish up the asymmetric curcuits and then I might be onto my 170A (Mock test).