Family daytrip to Sandown

Third time lucky This was planned to be our third flight with the family. Previous trips had been dramatically shortened by bad weather, the last being a short local from Kemble. With a close eye on the weather, the plan was to fly from Kemble down to Compton Abbas and either stop there or continue on to Sandown on the Isle of Wight. The forecast was for fairly strong winds 

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IMC Training Day #14: More holds and practice approach

After a summer holiday break, it was back for more IMC training at Oxford. After an early (6:30am) start, I had two separate slots booked for 9 and 1:30. I had a few problems with the car in the morning (faulty suspension meant I had to swap to our other vehicle) so despite originally setting off in good time was a few minutes late getting there. As it happened, the 10:30 slot

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IMC Training Day #12: More Revision

Another IMC training day in Oxford Following on from an earlier session at Pilot Flight Training in Oxford, I spent all day there and had a couple of training flights to continue brushing up my IMC skills and prepare for a retest. It was fairly clear that my instructor wanted to go through the syllabus and ensure I was up to scratch on everything. Today, we’d cover holds in the

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Plymouth Ho!

No IMC training today Although I had hoped to continue with my IMC training, the Oxford flying school had a club flyout and weren’t instructing today. They organise a club trip every month, alternating between Saturday and Sunday, to a variety of destinations. Of the clubs I’ve been to, no other does this and I believe it keeps up the interest of both PPLs as well as showing students what

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IMC Training Day #11: Back to basics

Another new flying school With weekend flying no longer available from Lyneham and more IMC training required, I chose Pilot Flight Training at Oxford to bring me up to scratch. With comprehensive instrument approach facilities, training school with PA28s (which I’m used to) and reasonable prices, this seemed a good choice. The downside being a 90 minute car trip each way. It wasn’t an easy decision and I serious considered

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A breezy afternoon on the South Coast

A sunny day With the weather forecast for Sunday looking like it might be sunny, I had offered earlier in the week to take the family up for a trip across to the Isle of Wight. My normal base at Lyneham is now closed at weekends, and the club isn’t planning further weekend availability until at least  after it moves. I booked a PA28 from Compton Abbas, where I’d had

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IMC Tracking and ILS

Rush, Rush, Rush This evening’s flight was a bit of a rush. I managed to leave work on time and got to the club shortly after 6pm, to find Roger was in the air with his previous student and looked to be running a little late. I took the time to check the wind, note down the ATIS and calculate headings with the whizz wheel in preparation for ADF tracking and an

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A disappointing IMC Skills Test

Quick Departure After yesterday’s technical troubles, today’s problems were entirely down to pilot error. Quickly rescheduling from yesterday, I rushed off after work to Lyneham and was sitting in the clubroom when Roger returned from his previous sortie. He’d also had a busy day. I booked us out with ATC, preflighted and started up – giving the engine enough time to warm up before power checks as well as tune

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Abandoned IMC Skills Test

A total electrical power failure I can now confirm that after a complete and total electrical failure, a light aircraft engine continues to operate and the most important instruments continue to work. Fortunately, this happened on the ground (just as we were about to line up) rather than in the air. There are procedures to deal with radio failure in flight, but without even the transponder working, it might not

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