Flight #3 - Shoreham - Straight and level

I'd been waiting for my next lesson for some time. A summer holiday abroad and then a weekend of hazy weather had prevented me getting airborne again. The haze was particularly frustrating as the weather had been generally good but the flying school reported no lessons were taking place because there was simply no horizon visible once aircraft were in the air.

To compensate I booked two lessons for the following weekend - one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning. This blog covers the Saturday afternoon one.

To keep as safe as possible I didn't have any carbohydrate before the lesson. A cheese and ham omelette for breakfast followed by some ribs for lunch (minus the sticky sauce, tomato soup, and garlic bread that my family had with them) kept me eating just protein with no insulin needed for either. For energy I knew the ribs were quite fatty plus I had a small packet of peanuts at the airfield before I flew. Blood sugars were 6.6 before my omelette, 8.3 an hour and a half before my lesson, and 7.5 half an hour before my lesson.

I received a good briefing from my Flight Instructor (FI) before going to the aircraft. Today was about learning how to fly straight and level whilst scanning the outside in a methodical way for other aircraft, known as "traffic". You scan in 30 degree sectors making sure you look above and below the aircraft, and at the end of the scan you check something according to the FREDA acronym. Also, you alternate scans with one looking close to the aircraft, and the next looking into the distance.

FREDA stands for Fuel, Radio, Engine, Direction indicator, and Altimeter.

• Fuel: Check level of selected tank and switch to alternate tank as required (approx every half hour).
• Radio: Check selected correct frequency and that you can hear others as expected.
• Engine: Check Temperatures and Pressures (T's & P's), occasionally select Carb Heat on and check for no material change in RPM that would indicate icing.
• Direction indicator: Ensure magnetic compass aligns with Directional Indicator and adjust DI as needed (it does drift over time).
• Altimeter: Check you are at the height you intended, that you are allowed to fly at that height, and that the barometric pressure is correctly set.

We took off on runway 07 which is a grass strip and turned right, over the coast, then right again to fly westerly. I took over once we got above pattern altitude and we climbed up to 5,300 ft while negotiating around clouds (fun!) until we were in clear air and had a clear horizon. I hadn't flown this high before and the view of the south coast and the Isle of White was just lovely.

My FI then set the aircraft into certain attitudes by inducing a climb or descent, different engine speeds, different trim, at one stage a gently descending turn, and each time I had to regain straight and level flight with the aircraft back fully trimmed. This was great fun and a challenging exercise. We did this flying in different directions over the Solent, so we could keep away from Goodwood Revival festival just north of us.

We headed back to Bognor  then turned right towards Worthing Pier and started our descent from 5,300 ft aiming to be at 1,600 ft over the Pier. During this descent I saw an aircraft beneath us below our right wing. I thought it was 1,000 ft or so below us and pretty much on our bearing. I called out the traffic to the FI and he took control wanting to have a look. He did quite a sharp bank to the left so he could see below the aircraft, followed by quite a sharp right bank to bring the aircraft into his visibility with us flying straight again towards the Pier. Due to the relatively close proximity of the other aircraft he remained in control, and by the time we passed the other aircraft at about 2,000 ft we had Shoreham in sight for a straight in landing on runway 07. He did a lovely landing as usual and we headed to the fuel area to get the aircraft fully fueled for the next day. The time was now about 6pm.

Here's a video of me scanning, spotting the other aircraft, and the FI taking control to bank left and right to get a good look at it...

And here's a chart of our flight...

Weather

- EGKA 131450Z 05011KT 9999 FEW014 SCT024 21/14 Q1024

- AT 14:50 GMT on 13th (September) wind 50 degrees at 11 kt, visibility 10+ km with a few clouds at 1,400 ft and scattered clouds at 2,400 ft. Temp 21 degrees, dew point 14 degrees. Barometric pressure 1024 hPa.

Blood sugar readings...

> 2 hours before flight: 6.6

(> 1 hour before flight: 8.3 - not needed to be logged by CAA rules)

< 30 mins before flight: 7.5

Landing: I didn't test before landing as I wasn't doing the flying for that part of the flight

Flying hours...
This flight: 1h 0m
Accumulated: 3h 0m