Radio Check..

Ok, so having not quite left you with a clear understanding of what I am doing with regards to my training at the moment, I got my CPL a few months ago (Woohoo..!) and the associated Gold Wings.

I am working towards my Instrument Rating at the moment; and for my less acquainted readers, this is essentially what is required for flying in clouds; flying with opaque screens over the windows. Having spent the past four weeks in a simulator practicing my instrument flying we had got to a stage where we were forgetting what it was like to fly a real plane (having been 7 weeks since last being in a real cockpit); our instructor was adamant that we would be aviating this week.

Monday started in this vain with back to back flights with my flying partner.

Today, mine was the first flight of the day on an aircraft returned from Maintenance; so in theory this aircraft should be fine. A walk-around and pre-flight check confirmed that she was fit to fly.

Before takeoff the IF screens were up and I was to fly by instrument, shortly after departure we were well on our route to the first waypoint. After being handed off to airfield approach frequency I got a questionable read-back. We were just practicing in the local area, so it wasn't much of a concern. A few (perfect) laps around the hold later we were outbound to the next beacon for a hold. I relayed our intentions to our ATC ground unit.

- "OXxx leaving BOTLY heading WCO, maintaining Altitude 3,500ft"

- No reply...

I looked across at my instructor with a confused and somewhat concerned look

- "Did you hear a read-back to acknowledge our message?"

He shook his head and languidly replied

- "No, it's fine."

Approaching the hold at the next beacon saw me set up in the approach configuration and attempt to obtain the aerodrome ATIS (weather); no luck. So I entered the hold while my increasingly concerned instructor began requesting radio checks from every station on the ground in our vicinity.

I continued the hold as per planned; my instructor shortly looked across at me and calmly said

- "Right, so our radios are buggered, what is the procedure?"

My flying partner and I promptly brainstormed over the aircraft intercom and decided on our plan of action. Here it was;

- Squawk 7600.

- Head towards the airfield above the circuit altitude whilst making blind transmissions.

- Observe the traffic situation in the circuit.

- Descend to circuit altitude joining in a gap in the traffic.

- Perform a low pass of the runway flashing landing lights to indicate our intention to land.

- Go around and perform a visual circuit to land.

I was the pilot flying and the instructor took control of the radios.

We continued towards the airfield whilst making blind transmissions. Once we had the field in sight, we joined the circuit and found a safe leg to descend into. We were now going to do a low pass of the runway flashing the landing lights.

[This is something which you read about in the theory textbooks and don't think you will ever have to do; I was excited and could barely contain the grin which was erupting on my face.]

Flashing on and off the landing lights frantically as we passed overhead the centreline and climbed out again to circuit altitude. As we continued our visual circuit and arrived abeam the tower we heard a crackling transmission giving us a landing clearance.

- "Cleared to land, Runway 01, there is a fire engine waiting for you and will follow you once on the ground"

Two whites, two reds, a nice soft landing to taxi back to the ramp.

As we climbed out of the cockpit my instructor looked across at me with a smile and said

- "That's a first for me..!"

Poor Vis..

For the past few days the weather here has been awful; an indication of the week to come, came when I received a text from my IR Instructor on Sunday afternoon, it read

"I have just seen the weather for tomorrow and it looks like there will be heavy fog for some time, we definitely won't be flying..."

And so yesterday arrived with a heavy fog from before sunrise. Most of the day saw the crew room filled with some cadets with faces pressed up against the windows watching the fog remain over the runway, whilst others watched as red crosses slowly removed name after name from the flight schedule. This was not a day for aviating..!

TAF for the area forecast BKN 000; hhmm, broken clouds at ground level..??! As the day progressed it looked like there might be enough of a silver lining to get airbourne, but alas, this was not the case. The fog became denser and denser as the sun began to set.

It became clear that the following few days would be the same; the high pressure system, low temperatures and light winds would mean this weather would be here for a while.

Today was much the same with with airport remaining closed for most of the day, the fields surrounding were much the same with roads being a danger to be on. From the crew room it was barely even possible to see the aircraft parked on the ramp.

Let's hope this doesn't continue for too long, otherwise my flying will be limited to sitting in a very expensive room, pretending to fly..

AWOL..

Right folks, I haven't posted for quite some time, in fact nearly four months. I am sorry for the break in posts. I have been meaning to post something for a very long time, but have not got round to it.

I am now back in the UK following the completion of my fair weather flight training in Phoenix Arizona. I have now been back for over a month and have been working towards my IR here in the UK.

Over a few drinks in London, a friend asked as to the reason for my lack of posts. Whilst I had envisaged having lots of free time in America being sat by the pool in between flights, therefore having time to post liberally, this was not the case at all.

Early morning flights had me wake at 0300hrs in the morning to plan, pre-flight and a host of other things. This happened all too often, leaving me back in the apartment by 0900hrs but being shattered at the same time. So, every moment when I wasn't in the air or in the crew room waiting/planning to go in the air, I would be catching up on much needed sleep.

This not being the only excuse; when there was no sleep to catch up on and we were off duty and having bottle to throttle hours to spare, we would be routinely going out drinking, socialising and frequenting the local bars and clubs.

Thus, for the duration of the five month stint in the States, my free time exclusively adopted a few hobbies; sleeping, drinking, socialising and clubbing.

Here above are the reasons for the no-posts. Hopefully I can post more regularly now I am back in the UK, but suffice to say, those activities listed above, take precedence over blogging..