Learning to fly – Hour 48 - Operations at Low Level

I arrived at the airfield early Wednesday morning and there was a hoar frost, I had to push the old wing miles to find a sunny spot, which was well 100 yrds or so away.
 
However, Soon Gunny was rigged and ready for action. “OK GT lets do the brief, said Rob”, we discussed the reasons WHY, WHEN and HOW we were going to go about this session.
 
What struck me at first was how low we would be flying, along a route that Rob my instructor had set. Along this route there where Pylons, Masts, Woods and Villages which all must be avoided.
 
We discussed the 500ft rule, and the ceiling height I was to fly at, this height for todays session was to be 1200ft. if I climb above this height, I would be in cloud, not good if you are trying to fly the VFR .
 
Soon we were in the cockpit, and I was going through my checks, I got to the end, and through the intercom Rob said, “GT, that was shit, twice you said “harness and helmet checks and on both occasions, you failed to check your helmet strap, and if you had, you would have found it to be disconnected. You also failed to check choke, to see if it was off, Not good GT, at this stage you should be getting things right all the time, not good mate, not good at all”.
 
Now feeling, a bit of a twat, I said I would do better next time. I suppose its ok saying that, but I really need to remember to do it, fuck sake!
 
Then it was off to runway 30 for departure. Soon we were airborne and getting onto track. The first obstacles I encountered were the masts, these things at low level, in good visibility, stick out like a sore thumb, however, in poor weather, I bet they are somewhat harder to see. I gave this phallic symbol a wide birth and started looking for the railway line to keep on track, these I picked and kept on track. Then all of a sudden, ENGINE FAILURE, fuck!, fuckity!, fuck!, fuck!, not much time to react at 1200ft, but to the right of me was a perfect stubble field, so in we went, OK GT, we’re in full power back up to 1200ft and continue with the flight.
 
All the time you are weaving between villages and woods to ensure that you have clear ground below you, just in case you have to make a landing. However, soon we we’re on the second leg of the flight, with this leg I had to pick up another Mast, but more importantly find a railway station which I was meant to turn at onto leg three. Nearly missed this baby,  but at the last minute, spotted it and flew over it and turned Phew!.
 
The heading for the third leg was to pass to the right of Mast’s that we had already flown by earlier,  this we did with out any problems.  Soon after this Rob said I was to carryout a powered landing. The reasons for making a landing off field could be that you are low on fuel, the weather is closing in, a mechanical problem or one of the crew are unwell, i suppose there could be other reasons too, if your really thought about it.
 
So I picked my field, and circled at 500ft to check it out, looking for pylons cables etc, after this the second pass was at 250ft, now looking for ditches, fences, and obstacles in general. Then it was back up to 500ft
 
The last pass was at 100ft, and this time we were looking at the surface for unevenness and rocks etc. We then climbed back to 500ft, and I turned Gunny around to set up an approach for the landing.  Once on the approach I crossed over a few houses, over a motorway, and was about 100ft off the deck and Rob said, OK GT, we would have got in there, wouldn’t we, Yep boss, I replied.
 
The remainder of the trip back to Plaistow’s was uneventful, apart from my landing on runway 30, which was of a pretty good standard, in fact so good Rob made me take off and do again, and do it once again, which i am pleased to say was another good landing ... bring it on!
 
To conclude, the de-brief was all good, good map reading, good airmanship, good control and last but not least, a good landing on a particular runway that is a little bit tricky to say the least.
 
After the debrief, I said to Rob, I am in for another flight this afternoon, what’s the chances of going on a cross country run this afternoon, Where he said, what about Holmbeck Farm, OK, lets see what’s the weathers like for later, and file a flight plan and we shall see.
 
Read the next blog to see (as the song title said) Should I Stay or Should I Go…
 
Happy Landings
GT & Gunny Flexwing