“The Answer my friend is blowing in the WIND” – always know where the wind is and make drift and head wind – tail wind corrections as necessary..

Learning to fly in IMC conditions has made me a much safer, better and more disciplined pilot.

A-MICE-ATM Checklist

A – AWOS/ATIS : Get the information.
M – Marker Beacons/Mag Compass (align).
I - Identify EVERYTHING that you may need (including GPS setup).
C – Course inbound on the final approach.
E – Entry (Straight-in, procedure turn, DME arc, vectors to final, etc).
A – Altitudes (as per the profile view).
T – Time (if applicable).
M – Missed Approach – at least the initial climb and turn(s).

At a meeting held at the CAA on 26 January 2010, the CAA Chief Executive Andrew Haines confirmed to Martin Robinson of AOPA that it is CAA policy to retain the UK IMCR. The CAA is to begin dialogue on how this could be achieved once the EASA licensing system is implemented. For those considering on embarking on more flight training, the IMCR would be a good course to do in my opinion having experienced it first hand.

filmed February 21, 2010 at BBC Centre, Wood Land, London.

“Freedom in the Air allows people with disabilities to push back boundaries and experiences something that they could never have imagined. The freedom of flight has really transformed people’s thoughts and opinions and changed attitudes towards those with a disability”

Mick Dhillon, Chief Executive, The Disability Resource Centre.

Flying is one of the few activities where disabled people can participate to the same degree as an able-bodied person. The exhilarating experience rebuilds confidence and restores self-esteem. This, in turn, empowers people to explore their potential by extending their personal boundaries. In the air, we all fly at the same speed; nobody is disadvantaged or disabled.

The ten young participants, come from a variety of organizations (such as PHAB club, the Autistic Society, Barnardos, the Disability Resource Centre, the Young Carers Association and so on) will learn all about being a pilot, before having their own private 20 minute experience flight in a light aircraft with family members, where – if they wish – they can take control of the aircraft. All of this is carried out with full supervision of aviation safety practices.  We fly a PA28 Cherokee – fitted with the Vision air hand control – and a Cessna 172 – fitted with the Union hand control. These fittings enable pilots with lower limb disabilities to operate the rudder pedals with their hands.

Freedom Wings days are great fun. We challenge, we educate, we empower.  We use flying to raise people’s sights, expand their horizons and fulfill their potential. The day begins at about 11:00 when the group is welcomed to our aerodrome at Cranfield.

As a new team-member of the Wing walk display team, I will be expected to perform a 15 minute display of low level fly-pasts and steep climbs and vertical dives from 500 (subject to weather conditions).  It is probably a very foolish thing for me to be doing, however, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

My pilot will be Mike Dentith. Mike has been a professional display pilot for the last 25 years, first with the Tiger Club in Redhill where he learnt the skills of Formation flying and aerobatics, and then The Skyhawks Aerobatic Team with whom he travelled all over Europe and as far as Chile.  More recently he was the Flight Leader for the UK’’s famous Wingwalking team, initially as the “Crunchie Flying Circus” subsequently called  “Utterly Butterly Barnstormers”, travelling with the Team to Europe, Dubai and China.

This is a video of him flying a wing walker

So far i have flown 18 hrs. I hope to do the General flight test this week having passed the ground exam at the end of last week.

 

I took my ground exam and passed with 92%. I have flown through heavy rain, strong winds, heavy cross winds and feel so much better for the learnership. I know the training has helped to make me a much safer and better pilot. Here are some video i found on utube that help to explain some of the things i have had to master. Then put them all together to fly a standard instrument departure (SID), an enroute section in IMC conditions, through controlled airspace, do all the radio work, then descent from altitude, then go into a hold procedure, and then fly a Instrument arrival procedure (IAF) and land off it to minimums..wow….
IMC flying

Here you can see the charts:

 

Departure brief:

Runway in use 21 / Wind= 260/ 21  – QNH 989, QFE 976 / Cotswald 985 / Barnsley 979 / Chatham 980 / Luton Approach 129.55

Our Max drift = 30 deg (wind velocity / true airspeed x 60)

So: After departure from RWY 21, climb on QNH to 1000 ( then after take off checks).  Then Identify Westcot (WCO) NDB, capture 220 and climb to 3500 using cotswold QNH. Once over WCO, we carried out our approaches. outbound on 280 and inbound on 070

 

• Full panel work developing the necessary skills and techniques required for straight and level flight,    climbing, descending and turning.
• Limited panel instrument work, simulating the loss of the vacuum pump, which drives the Attitude    Indicator and Direction Indicator.
• Recovery from unusual attitudes full panel and limited.

This then moved onto doing a short nav ex using VOR to rack and NDB’s to get QDM’s from our various positions. We did a round robin flying from Cranfield direct to Westcost NDB, then  DCT to Bovingdon VOR. We called Luton approach to tell them where we were and what our intentions were. We did not ask for a zone transit and instead navigated between the Luton and Stansted control zones. So, from Bovingdon we tracked to Brookmans Park, then intercepted the Barkway 020 radial and finally tracked back to Cranfield and joined the circuit from Stewartby reporting point.

A taster of what the IMC is about…

The ground examinations for the IMC Rating include questions on the planning and execution of a typical flight under instrument flight rules (IFR) outside of controlled airspace.

Privileges:
The IMC rating allows the PPL (A) pilot to fly:
a. out of sight of the surface.
b. IFR in un-controlled airspace, and IFR in Class D and E airspace.
c. in reduced visibility (3km) in Class A Control Zones.

I am planning on doing my Instrument Rating (the mother of all ratings in flying!) once I meet the requirements. The IMC rating touches the basics of IR training. Doing the IMC will lay a foundation layer of experience to help me in the IR stage.

The minimum requirement is  to have 15 hours dual training with an IMC instructor in an aircraft that has the required avionics and sit a ground examination and an IMC flight test. Those 15 hours can be done in real IMC conditions (in cloud, poor weather and poor visibility) or it can be done in a nice VFR (Visual Flying Rules) day where the IMC student (me) has a device attached around the head called a “hood” or foggles, these devices do as they suggest, they block the pilots vision of the windows. So all flying done by the student will be completed on sole reference to the instruments.

It has been just over 2 years since I passed my general fight test and after many hours of flying across the UK, it is now time to sharpen my flying abilities. There is a huge campaign to keep the IMC rating in the UK. I am a big supporter of this and AOPA have a strong voice in their advocacy and lobbying with European Aviation Safety Authority.