I was up the school today for PPL Lesson 36: Navigation and Diversions. I am in the final stages of my PPL and actually have a week of work and I will be at the airfield everyday.
This week has been busy for me as I have been studying for my radio telephony practical which I was due to take after the the lesson.
The navigation was just a simple nav to bittersworth industrial estate. Once we got there my instructor did some aerial photography as he is a scout leader and the scouts were having a camping trip. This was SO much fun as I got to fly low, do steep turns and just generally have some fun!
After this we routed back to Northampton where I was told to plan a diversion to Bedford disused.
I did this quite easily using my 10 mile thumb (my thumb is basically 10 miles) and estimating the heading. I was actually shown a MUCH better way using what is known around the school as a “beer mat”, I will do a post on that at a later date.
After the diversion I was then told to head back to the airport where I negotiated my rejoin, was told to report left base runway 21 and I came in to land. I was a bit high on my rejoin which is something I can’t do going forward as you should be at circuit height (1000ft). It also meant that I was high on all the other parts (base, final) and had to sort it out.
I then landed and we returned to the school, however I was not done for the day! I had that RT practical that I had been worrying about for a while. The instructor for the test was one of the friendliest and nicest people ever. He gave us a through brief and even though I had been reading the CAP 413 for a long time this really helped.
I will do a post on how to pass your radio telephony exam but all I can say to you is don’t stress to much about this. I had also thought about taking an RT course before the test, but put it this way, I would have been annoyed if I did that as it really was not needed. Maybe it would be more use if you fly from a non controlled airfield but I’m not so sure.
I am glad to say I passed the test with a Level 6 and was told that technically I was very good I just needed to practice and pick up the speed a bit.
All in all a good day! …. oh, it’s also my birthday! 31 now, getting on a bit 🙂
