My IMC Diary
IMC
The IMC Syllabus and privileges of the licence
The training consists of 15 hours of flying and a skills test. Before I can be qualified I must have 20 hours in command of an aircraft, of which I can use the 10 hours I logged during my PPL(A) training. So I’m going to have to do at least 10 hours of flying solo or with friends and family, which will be something to look forward to.
fly on instruments, unusual attitudes, stall recovery.
failure of vacuum pump affecting instruments such as AI / DI
then unusual attitudes and vacuum pump failure
vor/ndb/ils procedure
fly anywhere in uk ifr except class A
ILS approaches allowed
use it to get on top and confidence for weather
IR is more accurate and holds etc. but fundamentals are the same
IMC Introduction
If you followed my PPL(A) diary you will be aware that I passed my general skills test back in November 2005. I had to wait an age for my licence to arrive and then there was poor weather over the UK over Christmas and the New Year so I wasn’t getting any flying experience. I was feeling decidedly rusty and so before taking friends and family flying I wanted to have a refresher lesson with an instructor.
But rather than just go and burn holes in the sky I wanted to get some value from the hour with the instructor. I’m not keen on night flying at the moment – it sounds too risky in a single engine aircraft, so I asked if I could start my IMC training and this request was approved. So here is my IMC diary. Before I go further I’ll explain that the IMC is a UK specific rating, to enable the pilot to fly solely by instruments in Instrument Meteorological Conditions.
Talking to other pilots this is a good rating to go for as it helps to develop accurate flying skills, get to know and understand the radio navigation instruments in more depth, it will give me the option to fly in certain conditions which would keep a VFR pilot grounded and it will also give me confidence should I inadvertently fly into IMC conditions on a VFR flight.
The IMC rating is by no means a full Instrument Rating. The training is much simpler, the rating isn’t recognised around the world, and the rating doesn’t qualify the holder to fly on instruments in Class A airspace.
14JAN06
IMC Hours Today 0:45, Total 0:45
On to my first briefing.
I had not been at the controls of an aircraft for some weeks, and the first question I was asked was “What are the six instruments you use for flying? And where are they located in relation to each other?”
I had to stop and think. I had sat in front of these instruments for over 50 hours and yet I couldn’t name them and their positions without thinking about it. After a few seconds I had the answer: across the top, from left to right, the Airspeed Indicator (AI), the Artificial Horizon (AH), and the Altimeter (ALT). Across the bottom from left to right we find the Turn Co-ordinator (TC), the Direction Indicator (DI) and the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI). These six instruments will become my friends throughout my IMC training.
IMC training is undertaken with the student pilot wearing a hood, or with the windscreen and windows blocked out. We used the second option, using an old sectional chart as an excellent means of stopping me seeing the horizon directly or through my peripheral vision.
With this in mind my first objective will be to fly us straight and level without reference to the outside. I’ll be using a basic scanning technique: focussing on the Artificial Horizon for wings level and no pitch, then to the Altimeter, to ensure we are maintaining altitude, back to the AH and then to the Direction Indicator to ensure we are maintaining our heading and flying straight.
I learned something straight away here. The Artificial Horizon can be adjusted so that the dot at the centre actually aligns with the centre of the horizon. Sometimes it can be a few degrees off, which isn’t so bad when you can see the outside world, but this is not good for instrument flying. So I made a not to adjust the AH once we were airborne and flying VFR straight and level. I’d never noticed the adjustment knob before, but now was using it keenly to ensure our instruments were set up correctly.
Once straight and level flight was mastered, it was time to get to grips with climbing and descending. The same rules as VFR flying apply, using the same acronyms. For our climb it was time to recall the Power, Attitude, Trim steps and start to climb. I had to take note of the balance ball during the change in power to keep the aircraft in balance, again during VFR flying it is easy to do this as things ‘feel’ wrong but with instrument flying you don’t have quite the same sensations.
The climbing scan is an addition to the straight and level scan. Start with the Attitude Indicator, looking for a climbing attitude with the dot one bar above the horizon, monitor the Airspeed Indicator to ensure we are at a correct climbing speed, back to the AH and then across to the Altimeter to confirm that we are climbing and to note when we are approaching our target altitude. Back to the AH and then scan below to the Vertical Speed Indicator, back to the AH and finally to the Direction Indicator to ensure we are maintaining our heading.
When we approach the target altitude use the Attitude, Power, Trim steps to bring us back to straight and level flying. At this point take the opportunity to check the power setting.
After climbing, we start descending.
Descent PAT
one bar below the horizon.
ASI <-> AH
^
v
DI
Not going too fast. then
ASI <-> AH <-> ALT
^
V
DI
Power applied 50-100 feet above target alt (going down is more accurate than going up! due to hard surfaces)
Turns at rate 1. 360 in 2 mins, 180 in 1 min, 3 degrees per second. Watch the TC and ALT during start
AH <->ALT
/
TC
then
AH <-> ALT
^
/ v
TC DI
And then do all this in the practice lesson. Once the basics are mastered lets move on to doing two together - e.g. climb/descend to a an altitude while turning. Need to have much better coordination of instruments as a power changes affect multi axis.
As we flew the first lesson in partial darkness I had to log my entry partly in night time, so I had 25 minutes day flying, 30 minutes night flying to total 45 minutes of IMC flying. We can’t count the taxy, take off and landing minutes as IMC time so the other 15 minutes of the hour is regular flying. Note that my 30 minutes of night flying also doesn’t count towards a night rating should I take up that option in future.
25FEB06
IMC2 – Stalls and Unusual attitudes, C172
IMC Hours Today 0:55, Total 1:40
A very windy day. Buffetting on the ground during checks. Should we stay or go?
Other student on just his second lesson! Welcome to turbulence.
On finals Steve taking the reins and making a perfect crosswind landing.
Flew in Diesel C172 which is same engine and management system as the DA40. The cheapest aircraft to hire from the flying school. Worth noting.
Clouds at about 2000ft and thick enough to do some exercise in (spiral dive recovery). Mainly all exercise above the clouds with the map covering my visibility.
IMC minima 500ft, IR minima 250ft.
Stalls and unusual attitude recovery.
3 stalls to be recovered on instruments.
Full clean. Entry: power idel, carb heat, raise nose to maintain height, maintain direction. Aircraft will yaw right due to power loss.
Do recovery AT STALL WARNER due to lack of visibility.
Full power, nose on horizon line, wings level (using AI). Then climb back to altitude.
Approach Stall
Done without flaps in reality as flaps would be used once on finals and visual. Note that IFR is a tool to get into cloud and back down. We will still learn this as it is covered in the test.
Power to 1700 + carb heat (or about 35% on FADEC systems). Simulate turn from base to final. 2 Stages of flap when in the white arc. Rate 1 turn left or right. Keep nose raised until stall warner.
Full power, carb heat off. Wings level, nose on horizon using AI. +ve rate of climb (watch altimeter or vertical speed indicator), knock off 1 stage of flap. Then when climbing well remove all flaps.
Landing stall.
1700 RPM + carb heat
3 stages of flap
Raise nose
STALL WARNER
Full power, Carb Heat off
Wings level, nose on horizon, two stages of flap
+ve RoC then 1 stage
Then all flaps off.
There is a pattern here: Power On, Wings Level, Nose On Horizon
Unusual Attitude Recovery
- recover to straight and level
High nose
Increasing altitude
Decreasing airspeed
Turning
- Apply full power, wings level, nose to horizon NOT DOWN otherwise get into oscillations which are difficult to get out of when in cloud.
Speed up, altitude will sort itself out
Speed OK then to straight and level
Spiral Dive
Increasing airspeed
Decreasing altitude
Turning
IN THIS ORDER: Power off, wings level, nose to horizon. To prevent tightening turns.
We covered all but the unusual climbing attitude. The spiral dives had taken us into cloud and I completely lost my bearings. The map covering the windscreen is good to get you to focus on the instruments but peripheral vision keeps things in view to some degree. In cloud this goes.
On the spiral dives the wings were level and the nose on the horizon but we were still dropping according to the vertical airspeed indicator. A major problem as my brain was getting confused. The vertical speed indicator is of course a delayed indication but it still confused me. A couple of these and I started to feel a little nauseous for the first time in a long time. We decided to head back to base and dropped out of the clouds about 3nm south of the airfield. I made the join to right base for R10 (over the outskirts of Sheffield) then the instructor brought here in in the gusty crosswind (060/17G25) and made it look so easy.
08APR05
IMC 3
IMC Hours Today 0:35, Total 2:15
Climb / Turn / Descend, IMC partial panel, PA28
Blustery weather 25 kts at 270 just almost straight down the runway. In G-..YM PA28. Short field take off. Two stages of flap. Make most use of the runway by lining up right on the edge, apply brakes then full power, when engine spinning release and go. Wait until about 50kts in this weather and when rotated keep in line as a turn sideways will unbalance the aircraft. Take off before Bravo, climed like a lift straight up in the headwind. Turn at 500ft and feel the wind almost blow us over.
Turning on compass. Holding the controls very firmly, gripping too much. Quite tiring and tough.
On approach, I handed control over, I was tired. 25 kts down the runway. Blustery. Approach flapless and keep the airspeed up to say 90kts as you will soon slow down and need to keep control and be aware of a wind drop. Come in close, two stages of flap now to get us down, nose down quite steeply and into a shallow dive, pull out over the numbers, then let the speed bleed off in the wind. Don't pull back too sharply otherwise you might balloon and climb again then if the wind gust drops you will risk stalling and falling. Nice touch down. Job done.
Pre-lesson questions. 15 hrs instruction of which 10 have to be on simulated instruments. Trevor Tohm 5 is the best book to get. Generally we will be doing XC on VOR from Sheffield to the Trent to GAM, OTR and POL. Using NDB XC via DONC and SHE. Also flying at Humberside on SHE-DON-HUM trips.
Lesson 3 - Partial Panel - General Handling
Six primary instruments
ASI AH ALT
TC HSI VSI
TC is electrical, not suction and there is a good reason for this.
In event of suction pump failure the AH and HSI are lost so need to find a way to navigate without these. In reality if this happens fold a piece of paper to 1/3rd widths and then hook it to cover the two instruments so they can be ignored.
In this lesson.
Straight and level using the ALTIMETER and TC. Us the compass as a check for direction to turn. The VSI is not much value in this configuration, use ALT and TC.
Climb and level off (PAT)
Descent and level off (PAT)
Use the compass to monitor turns. Note that the compass can only have value when S+L rather than accelerating in any direction.
Now for climb
Full power, S+L trim is retained. Slight nose up for a cruise climb at around 90kts.
Watch the TC and apply right rudder if necessary
Watch the compass, there will be slight error.
Level off, maintain alt, power back and watch compass.
Descent
Let some power off (say to 2000-2100rpm), carb heat, nose forward, cruise descent at 90kts
Car heat off. pwer and then level off.
Turns
Always at Rate 1 = 10% + 7 of airspeed as an introduction then watch the TC.
Turns will be 180 in 1min, 90 in 30s, 30 in 10s and 3 in 9s. i.e. turn required / 3 = seconds to turn.
Enter turn, click stopwatch, wait until time up, exit turn.
Key is to hold rate 1.
Use the ADF timer
Work out which turn direction will be shortest.
After exit turn wait for compass to settle then small adjustments of, say, 3s for 10degrees.
07MAY06
VOR Tracking, PA28
IMC Hours Today 0:55, Total 3:10
After a couple of days of perfect CAVOK VFR skies the bad weather arrived for the weekend. Ideal for an IMC lesson. As it turned out we were the only GA aircraft in the skies under Doncaster control. Wind was calm but with rain and low cloud these weren't the conditions for VFR lessons or pleasure flights, this was real IMC weather.
My instructor had just returned from Denham, NW London in just 42 minutes - less time than it takes me to get to the airport. The 'clag' was bad, even at 7000ft. So the lesson might actually be cancelled as we were to practice partial panel recovery from unusual attitudes and stalls and this wasn't really ideal weather for such a lesson. So what about VOR tracking? That sounded like a good idea.
I was given a route to plot, using my sectional chart as a basis, but then to transfer the basic route to an A5 sketch. The route as follows:
Leave Sheffield and track 210 radial to Trent. When 5NM from Trent turn East until intercepting the 050 radial to Gamston. Fly overhead Gamston and then on to the 010 radial from Gamston until the 250 from Ottringham is intercepted. Follow this track until we intercept the 320 radial from Pole Hill.
OK, sounds simple enough and time to plot the route and make some measurements. I also needed to take a note of the VOR idents:
210T TNT on 115.7 - -. -
050T GAM on 112.8 --. .- --
010F GAM on 112.8 --. .- --
250F OTR on 113.9 --- - .-.
320F POL on 112.1 .--. --- .-..
This provided an irregular pentagon, with legs of approximately 19, 14, 14, 12 and 20NM respectively. I also needed to mark on the end of the 1st leg the 5DME marker to indicate our change of direction at that point. Similarly I needed to mark the distance from OTR to our turning point from the GAM 010 as this would be used to add to our final leg. The OTR is at 32NM when we turn, and so after a 20NM leg we will intercept the POL radial at 52NM.
All done apart from one more detail. We now need to fly using the quadrangle rule. So I needed to apply the appropriate flight levels. FL40 when in the SW quadrant out bound. FL55 on the 090 track as the SE quadrant is 90 to 179 degrees, FL50 when heading in the NE quadrant for the next two legs and then FL40 on the return leg to Sheffield.
Once again, a new aircraft. This time G-BPYM (check). A PA-28 from Sheffield Vintage Flying School. G-WX was out flying, but actually wasn't by the time we were ready to depart. It was raining, drizzling as I completed the A-check. Then we were ready to go in the miserable weather. Carb Ice was already forming as we idled - something to be aware of in this moist weather.
Slight wind from 300 and take off from R28 for a left hand turn. Before we had even completed the crosswind leg we were in cloud - so a low base of just 5 or 600 feet. This was suddenly very real. Spatial disorientation all around as we became enveloped in cloud - immediate switch to the instrument scan was called for and we switched the altimeter to 1013 (from 1017) to start using flight levels.
We had already tuned TNT in the Garmin 430. But as we climbed there was no register on the primary VOR - combined with the HSI. So we had to quickly switch to the secondary VOR on NAV2. Tuned and tested we were on our way, and the DME was tuned in too - but no morse on the DME. The distance looked right and was decreasing so we were on the right track.
Calls to East Midlands for Radar Information service and away we went. Without any visual references I was having difficulty maintaining flight level and heading. We made a quick call to East Midlands to request a confirmation of our FL (Mode C) and it was reading what we were seeing. When previously using the map to cover the windows I must have been seeing the ground turning below me out of my peripheral vision. In this case I was totally flying by instruments and kept on turning left and right without noticing.
Using the VOR as a command instrument it was a simple case of aligning the movable line (the radial representation) with the fixed dotted line (our aircraft) and tracking the DME distances. Ensuring that we didn't aim to cross a radial at too great an angle otherwise we would bust it.
There was a slight easterly breeze which meant adding 10 or so degrees to our heading to compensate. This made sense but I couldn't really 'feel' why we were doing this. And a little rudder trim was also added to keep us in balance - again, something that I hadn't spotted but the instructor had.
Usually the exercise would be executed with two VORs so that the next radial can be intercepted while tracking the current one. But with the primary VOR U/S we had to make do with one, so once we were on a steady track, compenstated by the wind, and when the DME was indicating our distance was nearing an intercept point I would switch to the next VOR radial.
I also found how easy it was to begin to tend towards an unusual attitude - not fun when climbing to change FL and to turn direction. It is so easy to begin to loose control so the early lessons came in very useful indeed in getting back to a known position.
As we came to the end of our OTR radial and ready to return to Sheffield the HSI began spinning as I attempted to change the heading bug. It stopped and we realigned with the compass as the instructor made a QDM call. At the same time he began to use the 430 GPS to find heading and distance to Sheffield. As is usual in these lessons we switched to QFE and at about 1200 ft dropped out of the clouds heading directly on a final approach for the lit up airfield. Although there is science behind all this it still amazes me when things like this happen.
Wind was calm, but we were high and 3 stages of flaps. I suggested S-turns to lose the height but was warned against that path - later to be told that that is a good way to head for stalls (S-turns and full flaps) and to spins. Not good at low altitudes! So instead we dived to aim for the lights ahead of the threshold, speeding up to around 100kts then to pull back and let the momentum take the aircraft forward and down. In my eagerness to get us down I landed on all 3 wheels and the nose castor could be felt at this speed (around 75kts). Ideally I should have just let the aircraft glide and then gradually pulled back to a stall touch down. There is plenty of runway to use.
08JUL06 C172
IMC Hours Today 1:15, Total 4:25
Non precision approach to Gamston. 1st steve twice me. dme failed so done by dead reckoning.
All about VOR, climb, descend, distance, inboud, overfly, outbound radial, distance, rate turn, approach radial, distance and altitude, descend to 600ft DH and then time for go around follow extended track of runway, to 2nm out, right rate one turn , climb then do the approach once again.
IMC Lesson 6 DA40, NDB Tracking
29 JUL 06
IMC Hours Today 0:50, Total 5:15
NDB Tracking. Nightmare to use, but should be simple. A beacon with the ADF arrow points to. DME is usually paired with the VOR.
NDB / ADF
RBI / RMI
DA40. Downdraft from helicopter. Close canopy!
Tune to SHF - not-operational from tower. Tune to FNY (Finningly. Use phonetic).
Strongish southerlies around 25kts at 2000ft. Take off on hot day, around 27C (relatively hot in UK!). Stall warner at 60. Keep level, very poor climb out performance.
Head to FNY. Climbing to 4000ft. Will be doing practices over FNY. Inbound from west, overhead, track out on E, turn right and intercept for 300. overfly, turn and track out on 360. North. Then turn to the right and track in on 210 - worked almost perfectly. Much easier than in the books. Push head, pull tail. Or if in alignment (following head, the fall right, turn right, if tail (back to front), fall right, turn left). Add in correction for the wind, perhaps 10deg into wind. DA40 is an accurate instrument but it was very flaky compared to VOR. Wild swings for no reason, then settle down again. Don't chase it. Turned for one more to East. Then turned to track in from W, maintaining 4000 as a ThomsonFly 737 was making circuit approach to our right at similar altitude. Earlier had cleared airspace to go North track rather than South after seeing passenger jet lining up for 20 departure. In from W then turning south the W to head to Sheffield after an hour of fun.
It had been very smooth air, as descended into 3500ft the turbulence hit us. Ahead, over the pennines saw the weather front closing in. It was only 11am and the weather was due by 1600L but we could see that it was becoming blustery. In to Sheffield. At VRP 1500ft, power back, T/O flaps at 108kts, then glideslope in at 3degrees or so. At 500ft landing flap. Getting concerned about the gusting crosswind. Quite an exciting landing as at 500ft we started to sink, apply power and more power, then settled again. On the numbers then a bumpy landing down the runway, not quite ballooning but also not a perfect connection with the surface.
15OCT06
G-YM
Instrument Flying Today: 1:05 Total: 6:20
ILS Approaches
To get down in poor weather rather than SRA. Today we would be doing radar ILS approaches, i.e. with Doncaster ATC instructing us, the next lesson will cover procedural ILS approaches.
Plan view of the runway and the approach. There is a localiser beam which is in the vertical plane, following the extended runway centre line for perhaps 30+ nm in line of sight.
The glideslope is a horizontal beam which typically might have a 3 degree angle to the ground. However this angle may be steeper where necessary. For instance, at the time of writing the glideslope at London City Airport (LCY / EGLC) is 5.5 degrees.
Recall from previous lessons that the rule of thumb states that a descent rate of 5 x groundspeed will give us a 3 degree approach e.g. approaching at 90kts, a descent rate of 5 x 90 = 450ft/min will give us our desired approach descent.
Today we would be flying in Yankee-Mike, an aircraft I’m very familiar with. Even with its quirks such as setting the QNH / QFE using inches of Mercury and giving myself extra workload in doing the lookup between millibars and inches. The HSI in G-YM incorporates the ILS approach instrumentation: the glideslope indicator and the localiser indicator.
The yellow arrow is set to be aligned with the runway direction, i.e. 201 degrees for Doncaster where we would be training. The arrow will deviate left or right indicating that I’m deviating from the localiser beam. As this is a command instrument I need turn to follow the deviation, e.g. as shown on the left hand side I would fly left to bring the needle bar in line with the needle once again. A deflection of less then one half of the full scale indicates that the localiser has been intercepted and we can report this fact to ATC.
The glideslope is also shown on this instrument. The yellow bars at the sides of the instrument indicate how closely we are following the glideslope. The left hand instrument shows a perfect interception of both localiser and glidescope. The right hand shows that we are flying slightly below the glideslope and therefore need to climb slightly, again this is a command instrument, if the glideslope bars are above the centre position then we also need to pull the nose up to climb.
When we have the localiser established we will be in a descent configuration with around 2000rpm in the PA28. Adjustments to height to maintain the glidescope position are done by small adjustments in pitch, with a view to anticipating the interception of the glideslope so we don’t begin to oscillate around the ideal approach profile.
Note that we will also be approaching without flaps. This is so that in the event of a go-around at the decision height we are in a clean profile and can expedite our climb away.
We planned to fly out to Doncaster and use their ILS for radar approaches. The ATC will vector us to the localiser by giving us headings and altitudes. Once we are established on the localiser we will begin to fly the glideslope.
Our IMC minimum height, i.e. our decision height will be 500ft QFE as this is a precision approach – note the difference to the 600ft decision height for previous non-precision approaches we have made. As usual, if we can’t see the runway at 500ft then it is time to go-around.
A note here on IMC minima: the minimum height is 200ft plus the IR minimum plus 50ft for instrumentation error, with a overall minimum of 500ft. This means that if the IR minimum is 200ft, we add our 200ft base and the 50ft error, giving us 450ft minimum, as this is lower than 500ft we have to use 500ft as our decision height. In another case the IR minimum might be 300ft, so adding the 200ft and 50ft we get to 550ft which will be our decision height.
I’ll be learning new radio-telephony language during this lesson. Firstly a “Request for radar vectors to the ILS”, to which ATC will respond with a number of vectors and altitudes to get us on a course to intercept the ILS. The last call from ATC will be along the lines of “Turn right 170, report localiser established”. Once we have less than ½ scale deflection we respond with “Localiser established” and may get a reply along the lines of “Roger, descend with ILS, report at four miles”. Of course, we will be using our DME to get our distance reading. We must also be aware that when given the instruction to descend we must WAIT until the glideslope indicator begins to activate and then we follow the descent profile provided by it. This technique is known as radar vectored ILS, procedural ILS will be covered in the next lesson.
So it was time to book out in G-YM. The usual first full A-Check of the day, and I noticed the oil was low and so a top up was in order. Soon we were on board and ready to go, using R10 at Sheffield for a change. The cloud base was quite low with a misty grey sky overhead. Just before we began to taxi I did the ‘Controls: Full and Free Movement’ check and for the first time in my flying career found that my instructor’s headphone leads had become caught and were preventing my applying full left lock. It shows that these checks really do have value even if they never draw anything to your attention previously.
And so we were in the air and very soon into IMC. It was an interesting challenge to do some real IMC flying. Once your peripheral vision has gone it really makes you focus on the instruments. As it had been so long since I’d been instrument flying my scan wasn’t quite up to scratch, but I soon got back into the hang of it. We busted out of the clouds at 4000ft and it was glorious to be on top with blue sky and perfectly flat white clouds everywhere. We were heading north and my instructor made the call to Doncaster for the ILS approach.
There was lots to do, and the peaceful VFR R/T was gone, we were now being called every few minutes with new vectors and altitudes to attain. Using rate one turns and descending at 500ft/min. At the same time I had to tune in the DME and the NAV1 box to the Doncaster ILS (110.95), and identify it on both. I-FNL is the call sign and I was soon scurrying through my Morse alphabet and correctly identified that the correct signal was being received on both radios. I was told that as part of my pre-landing checks I would need to be able to ident on both radios once again, so I made a quick note of the Morse to listen out for during the lesson: o o o o – o – o o – o o.
Flying on instruments, tuning radios, flying in cloud, identing stations, reading Morse, it was overload time and thankfully my instructor was doing the R/T with Doncaster approach and making notes of headings and altitudes.
Soon we were on our first approach and ready to intercept the localiser from the right. We didn’t have an old chart obscuring my view so as we broke through the clouds at about 1200ft the runway was ahead and slightly to the left. I continued to work on the glideslope and the localiser and at 500ft we made the decision to climb away to the East and climb on full power to 2500ft. That was excellent, it was so reassuring to see the runway where it should be!
We flew out East and back into cloud. My instructor put up the chart to cover my forward view. We were given a wide circuit to follow as a Thomson’s 737 was on approach, they had us on their TCAS and Doncaster assured them that they had us under control. My instrument flying went slightly awry, I was chasing headings and heights and getting into a too-steep attitude – it is so easy to soon get out of a controlled position, but I soon recovered by focussing on getting us level and then worrying about climbing and getting the correct heading.
I was following the vectors and altitudes and after one more turn it was time again for the pre-landing checks. I hadn’t heard the controller mention we were on base and I wasn’t being astute enough to realise we were on a 90 degree track to the runway. The pre-landing checks are the same for a visual circuit, but with the added fun of re-identing the stations again. My Morse code training is coming along well.
The final heading given to me is to enable me to intercept the localiser. I was fixated with following the bug and didn’t notice the localiser needle was aligning rapidly – something to note for the future. Following the localiser was a challenge, I could feel that we were making noticeable S-turns inbound as I chased the needle. Adjusting the glideslope with small pitch adjustments at 2000rpm was achievable though.
Another go-around to the east, and time for one more approach. This time my localiser tracking was much better, but my glideslope not so, but that’s how it goes with this training. If you focus on one thing it is usually to the detriment of something else. There was another Thomson 737 ready to depart at Doncaster on R02 (we were approaching on R20) so we had to remain above 400ft at all times. As soon as we were at 500ft the chart was removed and I could see the runway clearly, an easy option to drop flaps and land. Note that if I wanted to land on R02 I would get to the decision altitude and then make a low level visual circuit to align correctly to land.
We headed back to Sheffield on a heading of 230. The gloom was closing in and so I track the NDB on 333 to get us near to the airfield and visual with the M1/M18 VRP. Time for an approach for landing on R10, not my favourite procedure with the slight over flying of residential and commercial estates so I kept things high, and speed up at 80kts with two stages of flaps and then made for a glide approach to R10 and cut the power – with carb heat on of course.
A really good lesson, brilliant IMC conditions and excellent use of the precision approach equipment. Working with controllers who are also handling large commercial traffic is always a bonus too.