Lesson 43: Cancelled QXC and an Aborted Instrument Flying Lesson

Yesterday (Tuesday 3rd of April) I was meant to do my QXC but like so many before me, come the big day, the weather was borderline and ultimately,'twas not to be. My instructor was great and explained the area of high ground which was the concern. As it transpired he must have had a 6th sense anyway as more drama would have unfolded for sure had I progressed with the flight itself.

I had arranged beforehand though that in the event this would happen I would do a lesson around the Instrument Flying exercise. This is the 1 hour component of the ppl course which covers flying the airplane wearing "foggles" which prevent you seeing anything but the instrument panel. Of course, this is an alien feeling but a really enjoyable and challenging one.


Anyway, let me rewind a second and say that it's good I didn't do my QXC because the airplane my school gave me had a faulty transponder. The display was showing wrong digits for what you typed! Now how was that going to work when being given a squawk code from Farnborough Radar? It wouldn't have. This was a bit disappointing to say the least as it was not in the tech log for the airplane.

So, about the instrument lesson. I was really getting into it when the next problem came along! The vacuum pump failed, suction went dead and I lost the heading indicator and the attitude indicator (artificial horizon)! So , instrument lesson aborted I agreed to do some stalling and recoveries and then head back! The lesson was finished with a Practice Forced Landing (PFL).

The aerodrome was very quiet being a Tuesday. I have rescheduled my QXC for a couple of weeks time.

Logbook:

43. 03/04/12 C152 G-BNKV EGTO EGTO 09:55 10:55 1:00 EX19 (25 minutes), EX10B
HOURS = 37:15 DUAL + 09:10 SOLO