![\"Solo](\"http:\/\/www.fortyfivehours.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/solonav2routegeneral.png\")
<\/a>Solo Nav #2: General Route<\/p><\/div>\n
The dilemma, take off to the north and then what?<\/p>\n
- \n
- Turn right and fly south?\u00a0\u00a0(Effectively flying in the circuit).<\/em><\/li>\n
- Turn left, climb and then fly south (In theory departing via the overhead)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
I was concerned about doing the former, if I did this at what altitude should it be flown?<\/p>\n
- \n
- Climb into the circuit height and depart from the end of the downwind leg?<\/li>\n
- Turn and climb above the “Normal” (GA) circuit height and then fly downwind?<\/li>\n
- Perhaps turn and fly out of the circuit rectangle and then fly south?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The latter sounds in theory the better choice,\u00a0 turn and climb above the ATZ, point plane for Six Mile Bottom, what could go wrong?\u00a0 You’re above the ATZ so limited risk of traffic problems & banging into something in the circuit.\u00a0 This all sounds great, but I’d urge you to remember that at this point I had 50 hours total in the log book, departures on 05 I could probably count on one hand, with the other hand I could count the total times I’d headed to six mile bottom and combining those two things (or an “overhead departure” for anywhere for that matter)<\/em>:\u00a0 Zero.
\nYou might feel an urge to point me at PPL Book 3, Nav 76 (Departure Procedure), you’ll find limited words of wisdom there and actually vagueness and “it varies”.<\/p>\nSo I formulated a plan in my head to go with the former and turn right on the climb out and then fly south in the circuit.\u00a0\u00a0 I was conscious this might upset ATC, I was hopeful that they knew this was a Student Solo Nav and would be forgiving if it was wrong and my rationale for doing it went like this:<\/p>\n
- \n
- If I fly the circuit, at worst I’m going with the flow of the traffic – I should be able to see them, they should see me.\u00a0\u00a0 Sounds like a good safe option<\/em>.<\/li>\n
- Climbing above the circuit would be stupid, it might be a 1,000ft circuit for General Aviation – but Jets fly a 1,500ft circuit and helicopters a 600ft circuit.\u00a0\u00a0 I want to be well clear of both of them……if it turns out to be stupid, to any other GA fixed wing aircraft it should look fairly normal, at least to begin with.<\/li>\n
- Worst case it’d be hard for ATC Tower to not be visual with me so if it was stupid, at least I’d be doing it wrong in front of them, instead of behind and above them.<\/li>\n
- Stick with what you know – there’d be enough new things today without needing to complicate the event further by trying to find somewhere you’ve rarely found before in whole new interesting ways (getting lost 50 miles out is one thing, but it’d be simply embarrassing to get lost 5 miles from the airfield)<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Clear for Take Off<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"Lined](\"http:\/\/www.fortyfivehours.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Runway05solonav2linedup.png\")
<\/a>Lined up Runway 05<\/p><\/div>\n
Not a cloud in the sky, it never gets old to line up on a mile long runway with nothing but a blue sky calling out ahead of you.<\/p>\n
The wind being 090, 7 knots.\u00a0 We can do a very quick check of the crosswind by using the clock system.<\/p>\n
Take the difference between the Runway direction and the wind direction (e.g. 90 – 50 = 40).\u00a0 Now imagine a clock face, if the difference is 30, then your crosswind component is approx. half the wind speed, 45 it’s three quarters and anything approaching or exceeding 60 assume 100% of the wind, you’re essentially are at 90+ degrees to it and you’ve got the wrong runway today \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
So for example, today:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Wind from 90 Degrees – Runway direction of 50 Degrees = 40.<\/li>\n
- 40\/60 =\u00a0 0.666 or two thirds.<\/li>\n
- 7 knot wind speed =>\u00a0 Two Thirds of that =\u00a0 Approx 4.5 knots.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Do the math completely and it quickly tells us<\/a> that our quick and crude method is pretty much on the money, coming out at 4.4 knots crosswind.\u00a0 Our crude method is a little pessimistic, but that’s no bad thing and the error is very acceptable.<\/p>\n
In a very quick calculation we know crosswind is well within student limits of 10 knots crosswind and the take off shouldn’t be too much of an issue – but at the same time it ain’t all straight down the runway<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Finding Six Mile Bottom :\u00a0 Altimeters & Human Factors<\/strong><\/p>\n
Nobody started shouting down the radio so I think we got away with the departure, a quick call to state intent of departure to ATC seemed to keep everyone happy.<\/p>\n
It shouldn’t have been a relief to find the railway that leads to six mile bottom, but it was.<\/p>\n
Just beginning to settle down, I knew where I was, I was bugged up for the first heading and now talking to Cambridge Approach I’d just stopped the climb and beginning to level out when they called with an interesting query<\/p>\n
\n
What Altitude are you climbing to?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Without a second thought I started my reply “…remaining at………”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 a glance again at the altimeter showed a classic human factors error.\u00a0\u00a0 The dial actually said 1,500 ft, not 2,500ft.\u00a0\u00a0 Ever wanted to know the benefits of the “Student” prefix, here’s proof.\u00a0\u00a0 ATC lending a little helping hand of verbal assistance perhaps \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Nice easy flight to Framlingham<\/strong><\/p>\n
I find that a few minutes in the nerves fade away and you start to fly better and perhaps more as trained.<\/p>\n
Stowmarket was nice and easy to find and Wattisham Approach were friendly enough and gave us MATZ penetration without any issues.<\/p>\n
Framlingham being as far east as I’d ever have flown on my own, I’d done my homework before taking off.\u00a0\u00a0 A little bit of Google Earth goes a long way once you’re up in the air.\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically I totally missed the fact that Framlingham has a massive Castle to its north east, I never ever saw this at all.\u00a0\u00a0 What I knew it had, was a big ‘lake’ \/ pool of water to its north and I used this as the key reference to identify it as being Framlingham.<\/p>\n
Diss and Snetterton<\/strong><\/p>\n
Wattisham were ahead of me and called up to ask where I was routing next, before handing me off to free call Lakenheath, another Military ATC.\u00a0 Usually there and usually sounding very much like you’d imagine military air traffic controllers to sound.<\/p>\n
\n
Student Golf Hotel Echo Romeo Charlie Squark Zero Four Five Six, MATZ Penetration approved<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Diss is easy to find, it has a great big railway and an even bigger industrial site around that railway so from the sky it stands out – it’s as if someone thought about this route and good places to send students on their first attempts at seriously spreading their wings \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Sadly there was no racing on at Snetterton, so I didn’t get treated to any overhead views beyond that of the race track itself – maybe next time.<\/p>\n
![\"Snetterton](\"http:\/\/www.fortyfivehours.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/snetterton.png\")
<\/a>Snetterton Race Track<\/p><\/div>\n
The final leg of the trip, Snetterton –> Cambridge emphasizes the need for precision heading holding relative to previous legs.<\/p>\n
![\"Snetterton](\"http:\/\/www.fortyfivehours.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Snetterton_Cambridge_Airspace.png\")
<\/a>Snetterton -> Cambridge Airspace<\/p><\/div>\n
As you can see from the airspace chart, the plane has to be flown between Honnington ATZ and Lakenheath\/Mildenhall CMATZ, with real vigilance required for avoiding flying into Mildenhalls ATZ<\/p>\n
However the ATZ stops right on the A11, so as long as you keep that road on your right – you know you’re safely out of their air space.<\/p>\n
Other than that, it was just a run in the sun.<\/p>\n
- If I fly the circuit, at worst I’m going with the flow of the traffic – I should be able to see them, they should see me.\u00a0\u00a0 Sounds like a good safe option<\/em>.<\/li>\n
- Turn left, climb and then fly south (In theory departing via the overhead)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n