Tuesday 28 February 2012

Lesson 41: Rochester to Chichester Goodwood

Sunday 26, 2012 and my instructor and I headed down to Goodwood for some familiarization. It was the first good weather weekend for a while and it seemed everybody was out and about. Visibility was OK. I was in a different aircraft, a recent arrival to the fleet which was being run-in. This meant cruise RPM was about 2,400. This is G-BNKV, a lovely aircraft with a nice clean dash and cockpit array. That said the Radio played up a bit and the transponder seemed to be Mode Alpha only as Farnborough Radar asked us a couple of times to ident to no avail.

It was the first time for me to Goodwood and it looked a lovely airfield. Lots of grass and a wide runway. On the way down we went down to Heathfield and turned west direct to Goodwood. On the way across I tracked to the beacon at the airfield, passing south of the Parnham Glider site and north of Arundel and Tangmere. I joined overhead at 2000 feet and descended to a circuit height of 1200 feet. We were on Runway 14. The landing was OK.

Coming back home we headed north to Midhurst and Ockham / Guildford and then turned east passing south of Biggin Hill before joining downwind at Rochester. Runway in use was 34, again the landing was OK.


The next step then is to do my Qualifying Cross Country. This is to be Goodwood, Lydd and then back to Rochester. For this the weather needs to be good in each area. I have been a bit unlucky recently with the weather and also with my instructor being away. I was also ill (last weekend) with flu like symptoms. We shall see what the weather has in store. 

Logbook:
 
41. 26/02/12 C152 G-BNKV EGTO EGHR 10:45 11:45 1:00 1-1 EX18A
41. 26/02/12 C152 G-BNKV EGHR EGTO 12:30 13:25 0:55 1-1 EX18C


HOURS = 35:55 INSTRUCTOR + 08:50 SELF

Lesson 40: More Cross Country Navigation

Jan 15th 2012 and I was doing another navigation exercise. This time it was SSE down to Heathfield before turning east to head over to Lydd and then onto Ashford. The flight passed without incident until I got back to Rochester where I should have gone around when I found myself following somebody on final approach. I had not found myself in this situation before and was not sure of the best course of action. I was concerned that if I went to pass on the right hand side by going around, if he did the same then that would not be good. In the end I tried to keep my distance and did a "land after". This I now know is not the best course of action and so next time I will take a different option, and go around. You learn by your mistakes.I think I should have been more diligent in general when entering the circuit and tracked better the person going downwind who seemed to go long and come back very high. This would have avoided the situation where it got congested on base/final. 

The only other thing to say was the visibility generally around the south coast was not very good, especially true when heading East into the sun. 


The next step after this is a trip down the Goodwood with my instructor. This is in preparation for the Qualifying Cross Country trip which apparently is to include this airfield.

Logbook
 40. 15/01/12 C152 G-CEFM EGTO EGTO 09:30 10:40 1:10 1-1 EX18A/C

HOURS = 34:00 INSTRUCTOR + 08:50 SELF