Adam Rahnavard has reached hour 30 of his training towards his Private Pilot’s Licence at Multiflight Flight Training Centre at Leeds Bradford International Airport. The weather has been causing some disruption to his flight training over the last few weeks, but his latest lesson, conducting his first navigation exercise, went ahead. You can read all about it below in Adam’s latest PPL flight training blog:
“Following recent poor weather I have had a few lessons that have not been able to go ahead. However there appeared to be a window in the dull and damp conditions which would hopefully allow me to conduct my first navigation exercise I had planned out after my last lesson.
On the day the conditions were just about holding. Paul, my PPL flying instructor, asked me if I had factored into my calculations the wind and drift effect which can only be done on the day. This basically is to ensure that when working out the headings, or rather compass magnetic directions I am going to fly, I have allowed for the wind pushing me off course. This ensures a much higher chance of accuracy when in the air. The route was Leeds to Castle Howard, then on to Market Weighton and then back to Leeds and would assess my ability to get from A to B to C accurately and safely. I was keen to get going but as I was going through my start-up checks and going through a procedure I am now very familiar with realised that this was the first time every aspect of being a pilot would be brought together. Not only would I need to apply my route plan in the air I would need to factor in everything else I had learned from taxiing to take off and from good radio communication to general handling of the aircraft as automatically as possible.
Once we were airbourne and heading out over Eccup reservoir the navigation starts. Having done 30 hours the surrounding area from the sky is quite familiar now so getting up and over Eccup reservoir is second nature thankfully. Once over Eccup I moved radio frequencies from tower to radar and moved into uncontrolled airspace to start the navigation. I had calculated times and distances having been shown by Paul beforehand who had explained the logic and process of nav with ease and hence making it straight forward to work out. I was able to start my stop watch and settle in to the flight, every few minutes checking ground features to my track on my map: all was going to plan. This first leg involved requesting a ‘MATZ penetration’ which in general terms is permission to transit across the airspace of an RAF base, in this case RAF Linton on Ouse. This is very straight forward and involves making contact, passing details of our route and obeying any instructions such as a minimum number of miles to steer clear of the actual base. Once away from the zone the RAF base continued our radar service. What seemed only a few minutes later we could make out Castle Howard and all seemed on track. Stunning views of this building and its grounds was a highlight of this exercise. Upon reaching this point I took up a standard left hand loop over it and then settled on to my new heading for Market Weighton. As part of any new leg you are required to check against your map in terms of ground reference you are on the right track called ‘gross error checks’. This can happen more regularly as can checks of how the aircraft is performing, again more and more becoming second nature as say you would from time to time glance at your speedo in a car. This part of the Vale of York is quite rural so Market Weighton, following a slight heading alteration for more wind drift, was quite obvious. Similarly to last time we looped over this next checkpoint, logging the times and settling on to our next and final heading back to Leeds. This took us again over an RAF base but in this case RAF Church Fenton. I was able, while still in touch with RAF Linton on Ouse to request a MATZ penetration without changing frequencies.
The views continued to be amazing and I was now getting a feel of what it is like to conduct a whole flight myself. There were interventions from Paul to point out key learnings or where my handling/settings were not to the high standard he has always demanded but I was growing in confidence knowing he appeared to be ok with my first navigation exercise and that it was going well. Before too long it was time to switch frequencies back to Leeds so we could request permission to rejoin the zone. Before I did this though Paul did what he had promised to do over the next few lessons and throw general handling issues at me to see how I coped. Out of nowhere he pulled the throttle back and said ‘right Adam, engine failure’……pressure was on for me to demonstrate the engine failure/landing procedure he had taught me only a couple of lessons ago. I jumped straight into action as I knew what I was doing which Paul seemed pleased with. This is all in preparation of what could be requested for demo on my skills test. After this Leeds radar granted zone re-entry in the usual way and very soon positioned downwind for a left hand Runway 14 join. Paul, to keep my skills sharp, requested a flapless landing which was ok, if not a little heavy. Keeping landing judgment accurate is a skill and something I think you never stop trying to improve.
I really enjoyed the first nav lesson and Paul’s feedback on the whole was positive that and I had picked up the key things. We both agreed though that the workload was much higher given the need to monitor position and flight progress but this would become easier, just as the things I had learned in my first few lessons starting to become second nature.
Paul asked me to plan up another route for our next nav lesson which this time would involve a trip over Dewsbury to Denby Dale, then to Goole followed by Elvington before coming back to Leeds.”
