Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Back to circuits!

After one poor and a couple of ‘less than good’ landings last Saturday (albeit in gusty crosswinds) I resolved to return to the circuit for a thorough refresher. The weather was so good today that I couldn’t resist and trotted off to the airfield.

Got the plane out and for some reason, Gloucester was busy, not so much with students in the circuits, all sorts, loads of helicopters, a couple of light twins, as Cessna Caravan etc.

Anyway, booked out and started up and taxied out. They are giving runway 09 and 1013, so presumably still anti-cyclonic – excellent visibility though AND a high scattered cloudbase.

I did the power checks, all OK there then was held while a jet backtracked for take-off. While I was holding, the engine started to sound rough. So I checked the mags again and there it was – a big drop on the left mag. I did the usual ‘lean it off and run it hot’ trick to clear what I hoped was fouling – but no joy. Tower advised me that I was clear for take-off but had to tell them that I wanted taxi back to maintenance due to rough-running.

I figured that was it for the day and cancelled my booking-out. I parked up – yes, definitely a plug on the left mags gone. After shutdown, I marked up our tech log then wandered into Aeros, our maintenance organisation. Met Dave and told him the story and he offered to come straight out and fix it! Great, I was about to give up for the day!

We start up and yes, it is chugging! He tells me to leave it running on the left mag only for a couple of minutes and taxi round to their hangar – sounds odd, but OK. I get there and shut down, then he explains. By running the engine on the mag with the defective plug for a few minutes after start-up, what it means is that it is only firing on three cylinders, so once he takes the cowling off and touches the cylinders, the one that is coolest is bound to be the cylinder that was not firing and therefore the one with the defective plug – OH I SEE! Thinks ‘commit to memory and bore people to death with it later!’.

He spots what he says must be a blob of lead between the gap shorting the plug. We replace it and yes, it is much better. So I book out again and taxi out again. The airfield is quieter this time and I pay particular attention to the power checks. It all looks good, I get clearance and I am away.

I have not done a complete flight on circuits for some time, but it is all still there. First landing – hmmm. OK, not bad even, but I think I can see what I am doing wrong now. Approach is good, approach speed OK, but then on very short final, I seem to be rounding out too high, rather than just checking the rate of descent, then losing airspeed such that I have very little in the hold-off.

Second landing, yes, that is much better. Nail the airspeed on 75 all the way down, check descent, flare then a determined hold off.

Third approach and the Tower try to slot in a backtrack departure of a twin while I am on base. The twin gets to the end of the runway then says he is not ready for immediate, so I get a go-around. Oh well, only my second on in a couple of years – good practice I suppose.

The following landings are all much better, nice and smooth and I even hear the stall warner chirping as the wheels touch on the last one! In all I do 6 landings (7 approaches).

It is funny how you can suddenly have a ‘bad patch’ on things like this. Apart from when I was a student, I have not had this happen to me. I know many people say that they too go through bad patches on certain things (landing is the most common), I guess I just thought it didn’t apply to me – well now I know what they mean!

Well I am now quite happy that I have sorted that problem – it is all about accurate airspeed all the way down, don’t anticipate the flare (just check the descent) and hold-off hard!

I guess I had better get some instrument refresher training in ‘just in case’ on this Europe trip in May. I have the ADF tracking and NDB/DME approaches going well on FS2004, I guess I had better get back to the real thing with an instructor.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Flyer Forum Student Fly-In

For weeks now, the Flyer Forum has had a students fly-in planned on Saturday 18th March to Wellesborne Mountford airfield near Stratford on Avon. Needless to say, the weather forecasts looked dodgy, with a high pressure giving poor visibility, winds and occasional sleet!

Saturday dawned with a gusty wind and claggy with poor to moderate visibility. I had teamed up with Alan White who flies out of Gloucester. Gloucester to Wellesborne is hardly a challenge, being less than 15 minutes in the Arrow. At a late stage, one of the other pilots had to drop out and I agreed to pick up Leia who flies out of Pembrey. She did offer to train it up to Gloucester, but I agreed to try to pick her up in Pembrey – well, I hadn’t been there before so why not?

With the weather as it was, it was questionable whether I could make Pembrey, but the forecast did say the weather would be better out west and I could at least try. So I met Alan at Gloucester and off we went, with Alan doing the flying a navigating and me doing the radio and cross-checking the navigation – no I wasn’t cheating with the GPS – I had that turned off of the map page (OK – I used VOR and DME instead).


I planned to route around the north of Cardiff zone between the city and the high ground. Given the ceiling of about 2300’ and a visibility that was given by EGBJ as 15 km but looked to us more like 8 km, this was a good call. So we flew IFR (I Follow the River) down the Severn and called Cardiff Radar. We turned to follow north of the M4 just past Newport. We headed towards the wind farms, missing Cardiff zone by a couple of miles. Then on to Pembrey over Swansea. We had a belting tailwind of about 30 kts, giving us 160 kts groundspeed (yes, I checked the GPS for that – so!). Just east of Swansea, the cloud starts to break and by the time we get to Pembrey, we are bathed in sunshine!

Alan has done a good job of navigating and we spot Pembrey. I do a standard overhead join and line up for 04 with a nasty crosswind (070 / 15G25 IIRC). I didn’t like my first approach so for the first time in a couple of year, I do a go-around. Second approach is better and looking good, but I can only describe the landing as ‘an arrival’. A crosswind, yes, but no excuses, just not good.

Leia is waiting there. A quick cuppa, then off, this time direct to Wellesborne. We pretty much retrace the route, only a little more inland behind Cardiff playing in some of the valleys with Leia doing the navigation and flying with me at the radio. We are beating into a 30-40 kt headwind and the groundspeed varies between 90 – 100 kts! As we pass Cardiff, the sun disappears as does the visibility! We head east and pick up the Severn at Newport, then IFR again to pass north abeam Gloucester. Straight line now to Wellesborne – there’s the racecourse, Bishops Cleeve, Bredon Hill, Evesham – yep, nicely on track.

I take over with about 10 miles to run and we play ‘spot the airfield in the murk’. Wellesborne are giving 36 left hand with winds of 070 / 15G25 – oh joy! This will be sporting! We spot the airfield and I position for a left base join. The approach is fine and give me a good idea on the wind, I am cranked quite a bit into it to hold the approach line. I flare a little high and of course a gust catches me. Lower the into wind wing a bit, continue the flare and we are down – and the landing - not perfect, but not too bad. We park up with all the other forumites on runway 05 and about 12:50 – a lot have made it.


Into the airfield café for lunch and we spot quite a few forumites and say hello. The café is pretty crowded – maybe it’s us! We follow some of the others to the museum which opened especially for us and have a poke around. Nicely done and run with enthusiasm.

Time marches on and I am aware that we have to get back to Pembrey AND beat our way back into the headwind to Gloucester. I round the troops up and head back to the parking line. We hear Nigel Webb take-off in his Jet Provost – so much for noise abatement! The parking line is starting to thin now as I start up and taxi out. We take-off and I follow the noise abatement, heading for the green roof. We climb to 2200’ which is about all we will get in the murk and head for Gloucester. I use the NDB and DME of course while Leia and Alan dutifully check the ground features. We beat our way past Gloucester and head down the river again. This is a retrace of our steps – I am surprised we don’t hit our own wake vortex from the last trip!

Leia is doing very well – good height holding and seems very adept at visual navigation – while I point out to Leia and Alan how to use Brecon VOR radials and DME to establish position as we go. The other side of Cardiff and the clouds break again and we are again awash in sunshine. Cardiff hand us off to Swansea warning of traffic over Swansea bay. Swansea don’t know anything, but Leia spots it – a Tomohawk above, in front and to our left. We keep an eye on him as head heads north-west and we swing behind him. I hear him call me as visual on Swansea frequency, so I call him an air-to-air telling him what we are doing. Leia says he is one of the Pembrey school aircraft and instructors.

Again, we approach Pembrey and I take over to land. The wind is better now – IIRC 050 / 15kts. Better circuit this time and an adequate landing – not as horrible as last time, but still not smooth. I park up and check the fuel – from full tanks this morning I now have 75 litres left. Enough to get safely back to Gloucester, but in this poor visibility and headwind – I go for the safe option and refuel – at least to tabs at Pembrey. The most useless thing in the world is fuel in the pumps (when you need it in the tanks). I swear the chap burned more fuel starting the bowser and driving it up to the plane that I uplifted.


We bid farewell to Leia – I think she had some fun and has found an easier way of navigating to Gloucester. Alan takes over in the front as we take off and set course for Gloucester. This time, we elect to route direct via BCN – we are at 3000’ in scattered cloud, but of course approaching BCN, it becomes overcast, so we dip below. I am helping Alan to navigate using the VOR and DME with checks against ground features. Alan is having fun with the trim as we gain and lose a few hundred feet here and there. To be fair, as we get closer to Brecon, it has more to do with up and downdrafts. We have sensible visibility even if we are below MSA. Some of the hills look pretty close then drop dramatically away as we cut across the valleys.

It is a bit bouncy as one would expect, all good experience. We hit a bit that is quite a bit bouncier as Alan bangs his head on the roof and wears his headphones as a visor! I think he is still enjoying it? We pass in sight of the BCN VOR keeping a very good lookout. Then ten miles the other side, the ground drops away and reveals low fields and gently rolling countryside. We pass over Monmouth and the Forest of Dean. I call up Gloucester. They are giving 04 with left hand circuits and a wind of 050 / 20 kts – good old Gloucester – lots of runways, so rarely much of a crosswind.

At 5 miles I get cleared for a straight in approach – they really are not busy at all today – I wonder why?! The approach is again good, but I balloon a bit, so again an adequate but not a great landing. Right – it’s circuits for you next flight my boy!

We park up and I do the admin. Alan has enjoyed himself and I think he had some fun in the turbulence over the Brecon hills! We bid farewell.

A good days flying in occasionally challenging conditions. Visibility wasn’t great and I didn’t fancy going above the clouds as they were sat at freezing level. I am sure it would have been great up there, but would have defeated the object for the students, which was to practice visual navigation. Next serious trip is the Flyer Forum trip to Italy in May. I will try to sneak a trip in to France before then though – after some circuits though!

Monday, March 13, 2006

Bomber Circuits!

A couple of members of the group had previously reported slight vibration in the climb and recently some vibration in the cruise. The cruise turned out to be plug fowling which was fixed, but the vibration in the climb seemed to be continuing. I think this all started when one of the group went up with an instructor who spotted it and suggested we get it checked out. Needless to say, checking with our maintenance organisation has revealed nothing and it cannot be reproduced on the ground.

Well, of course once something like this is pointed out, we were all getting a bit up-tight about the slightest odd engine noise etc. A couple of members have been reading around the subject and wondered if the propeller needed balancing etc.

What the engineers needed they said was to go up with one of us. On Thursday 9th March, I was at a loose end in the afternoon, and although the weather wasn’t great, it was good enough, so I left early and set up a quick local with an engineer to move this forward.

Dave is an experienced engineer who works mostly on PA28’s and owned and flew an Arrow for a few years, so he came pretty well qualified in my books. We started up and took off. In the climb at 25/25 there was a slight vibration which he felt. He asked me to level out on the same settings and fly straight and level, which I did, and the vibration disappeared. Dave then played with many different power and prop settings, both straight and level and in the climb. The only time there was even slight vibration was in the climb.

Dave explained that he felt quite strongly that there was nothing wrong with the plugs or the engine and that it most certainly wasn’t propeller balance – if it was, it would happen in a narrow range of power / rpm regardless of the angle of attack. He asked if any of the group had experience in operating an aircraft with the three bladed propeller (as ours has). None of us do – he was convinced that it was simply the angle of attack on a three bladed propeller and that they routinely felt like this (where a two bladed propeller wouldn’t). He said that it would probably feel much the same on a power run up in a steady crosswind etc. He advised us strongly not to waste our money chasing this as there was nothing wrong! Well, that was good enough for me and I agreed to write his comments up for the benefit of the rest of the group, but that one or two of them might want to talk to him direct about it.

We headed back to the airfield, where it was pretty quiet. I was given a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits. It seemed that I was joining overhead at the same time as another aircraft. I looked hard, but didn’t see him until I was crosswind, where I saw him at the same level, ahead and to my right. He was too close for spacing, so I elected to extend crosswind as he turned and called downwind. I then turned and pulled the gear down to slow the plane up to gain space. I was given as number 3. I could see both aircraft in front, with the furthest looking like he was about to turn base.

During the downwind checks, I lost the furthest plane in the ‘ground clutter’ but stayed visual with the near aircraft. The near aircraft had also lost the other guy and called ATC to ask where he was and could he turn base? He was advised that the furthest aircraft was now on 2.5 mile base – hmmm… what is he doing out there? So we both extended a long way downwind. Eventually we both saw him now on 3.5 mile final!! It was only a PA28 – what the hell is he doing flying circuits outside the ATZ especially as there were no aircraft in front of him!

I commented to Dave that I had never seen anything like this. We both joked about a certain flying school based at Gloucester who are notorious for flying ‘bomber circuits’. I was on base and the aircraft in front was on final following the ‘Vulcan Bomber (PA28)’. Then Dave heard the offending aircraft and declared that it was ‘one of his!’ (the flying school who also owned his maintenance organisation). Well, from my vantage point at about 1.5 miles, holding height with high power, I could see the PA28 about to land with the aircraft in front of me close, but far enough away to expect a late clearance. The PA28 landed nice and slow and seemed to be certain to stop by the intersection, so he could vacate early. Instead he trundled past a slow walking pace! I heard ATC start to say ‘cleared for short back-track…’ when they stopped as the PA28 trundled slowly to end of the long runway! He hadn’t cleared and the chap immediately in front of me was ordered to ‘go around’. I was by now just inside 1 mile and descending. I was cleared to land and put it down easily in time for the intersection.

Well, I commented on the PA28’s poor airmanship in flying such incredibly wide circuits with no other traffic about. Dave said he would raise it with the flying school so I left it at that (otherwise, I would have gone over there and had a friendly chat. I could only assume it was an early student doing solo circuits, but he really should be made aware that it was very poor airmanship and dangerous as we were forced to overfly Cheltenham town centre a slow speeds and high power settings at 1000’).

I have since corresponded by email with the ATCO who may also look into it. I am certainly no expert and I am sure that I have been guilty of poor airmanship in the past (and will probably make mistakes in the future) and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but either he or his instructor really need to know that circuits are not flown like that.

Next time, I will ask to ‘cut in front’.