170A (aka Mock Test)

Finally the weather is suitable again and the CFI is available, so we're a go for the 170A!

Arrived at the airport and was given a route up to Stanhope with circuits at Teeside (the same as before) which I duely planned, along with the mass & balance and performance calculations. He left it to me to decide which VRP to enter by which I'd not decided on before the preflight briefing (more on that later). I felt a little rushed on this aspect of things and figured I'd decide when the time came because that's what a diversion would be like. After the preflight briefing in which the CFI outlined how the test would be conducted (which items & in what order, and what he was expecting of me) I went out and checked out and started he aircraft, shortly after which the CFI joined me.

I gave him the required passenger briefing though it was poor, shaky and incomplete (and I knew it - nerves clammed me up and I wasn't confident about it anyway). Completed the starting checks and taxied to the hold and did my power up checks. Then lined back up at the hold and started my captains brief. ATC interupted asking if I was ready for departure and I told them to sod off (figuratively of course - ie. "standby"), and completed the brief which went much better than in the previous flight which was faltering and lacking in confidence.

NB. some of the critiques of the flight in the following are as a result of the postflight briefing and some my own personal views on my performance.

Got my clearance, lined up and took off. Did all my after takeoff checks ok and headed for Harrogate and requested further climb to 4500 feet which was my planned altitude. On leaving the zone I made unnecessary work for myself by requesting flight information service but not requestion a change to Leeming Zone. They gave me a next frequency of Linton Zone and I had to come back to them to say I was going to Leeming. On setting the initial heading at altitude everything worked out ok, though initially I didn't get it in trim properly and my height ballooned to 4700 feet before I got settled down. The nav went pretty well, noted that I was 2nm left of track before arriving at my half way point of Catterick and made a heading correction and noted it down on the plog. The rest of the leg went fine and I was on track and on time. I got handed over to Teeside and requested the Tyne pressure from them and asked them if they could clear me with Newcastle which they duely did and handed me over. Arrived at Stanhope on time with no ETA revisions required.

Decided to enter via Sedgefield as I'd not done too well on my entry previously via the A1M Junction VRP. In hindsight this was a poor decision as we'll see. I requested descent to 2000 feet with Newcastle and was cleared before they handed me back to Teeside. It wasn't so easy to see with the glare from the sun now reducing visibility. I thought I had spotted Sedgefield and continued my descent towards my Teeside zone cleared altitude of 1500 feet, but it turned out not to be as they told me it was still 5 nm to the south when I called overhead. This threw me and I couldn't spot it and it started a chain reaction of events that caused me to get behind the aircraft and cock up the join.

I then climbed back up to my previously cleared altitude which was stupid and baffled the CFI - I should have continued down to 1500 feet and then I would have been fine on entering the zone. Finally spotted the windfarm that is to the north east of Sedgefield but it was on the nose so I was clearly off track (and incidently should have picked up on this when they said Sedgefield was 5nm to the south). Turned roughly south, now directly into the sun and tried to pick out Sedgefield of the airfield or anything! The CFI asked my what my cleared altitude was and I told him 1500 feet, but I was still at 2000 feet so had to hot-foot it down to 1500 feet. I also had failed to get the ATIS.

Entered the zone for a right base join for runway 23 and eventually picked out the large factory on left base and suddenly realised that I should now have been at circuit height so had to get more height off quite quickly. This meant my field approach checks were rushed and only partially complete, as were my downwind checks. I also failed to get and set QFE which, while there was only one millibar (30 feet) difference between them, was a Bad Thing (tm) - at Leeds there is roughly 22 mb difference which equates to about 660 feet! I turned onto finals without having put my props to 25 as I should have done on my downwind checks, and had to be prompted for them. Fortunately the first circuit was a flapless so I didn't have to deal with getting the flaps down which helped. Finally got myself sorted and did a decent landing.

***TBC***

So effectively the result of the 170A (Mock Test) was a ...

since the pre-pre-test...

I know it's been a long time since I last updated the blog, but generally the weather has been abysmal and hence there's been next to no flying, but also cos I couldn't be arsed...

The day after the pre-pre-test I flew with an instructor to polish up on the items the CFI had highlighted:

• Steep Turns
• Fully Developed Stall

Without the pressure of flying with a CFI and (relatively) relaxed in the knowledge that I was more or less there as regards the required standard, all the practice in this flight went much better. I was much less fixated on the instruments in the steep turns and looked out much more. The stalls were also generally much better though I still need work on the clean (aka fully developed) stall as I'm still not pitching down enough or holding it there long enough to properly unstall and get a nice recovery. But I'm getting it better each time. And the unusual attitudes under partial panel instrument flying were more precise.

Then the weather and CFI availability stuck a honking great big spanner in the works. The weather on the next day (Thu 30th Nov) when I was due to have my 170A was marginal and forecast to worsen which it in fact did, getting upt0 20 knots gusting 32 by 12:00 (was only forecast to be a tempo of 15 gusting 25) so this put paid to any 170A that day. On the 31st the CFI was away and he also doesn't fly on the weekends which meant that the next day to try for the 170A would be Mon 4th Nov.

But of course the British weather, and especially Leeds flicked me the bird and said, "uh-uh". The airport was pretty much fogged in for four to five days on the trot (including the weekend), and even the IR pilots who were lining up for their 170A and tests couldn't fly. Totally frustrating!!!

When the weather finally cleared up on the Friday, as luck would have it, the CFI was again unavailable. However, in order to keep some semblance of currency I did do a short flight that day to brush up on steep turns & stalls and to try to boost my instrument flying time which I'm, a little short on. Everything went pretty well and Brian (who is probably the most critical of the instructors [but in a good, tell it like it is way]) was pretty happy with all the flying I did that day. So I was quite pleased considering my concern about things especially with my lack of recent flying.

But of course the weather intervened yet again and after the weekend both Mon 10th and Tue 11th were scratched because of being blustery showery days.

And this brings us up to the present!