After a couple of weeks of not achieving much due to weather and technical issues, I managed to get back in the air yesterday. The weather was great, and I still needed 1hr 55mins to meet the insurance requirements for 'CC so we decided to do a longer route around Wales, and to make it really interesting, we'd maintain a height of about 500ft above the ground all the way.
I love flying at low-level: It's what you imagine flying will be like when you're a kid. At 2000ft, everything seems quite a long way away, and you lose a lot of the sensation of your speed. When you're low, the bank angles are a lot more obvious, and you can really feel how quickly you're covering the ground. The downside of this excitement is that it's a bit more mentally draining, and that you're pretty limited on options if you were to have an engine failure, so it's not the way you'd like to fly every flight! But, although good flight planning should mean that you don't have to scud-run under bad weather at low level, it is still good to be well practiced at low-level work, just in case you get caught out...
The rules of the air in the UK state that the absolute minimum height that you can fly over any "person, vehicle or structure" is 500ft. If you're over the water, or land that you can be sure is uninhabited (if there is any in the UK) then you can, in theory at least, go lower than this, but the RAF like to play in the airspace below that level. Hawks and Tornado's come up pretty fast, so it's a good idea to stay out of their levels, especially as they fly a lot in Wales, although normally in Snowdonia than the area we were flying in.
Phil and I hadn't planned a specific route, other than to head over towards Hay-on-Wye, at which point we'd drop into the Wye valley and follow it up into mid-Wales. This was, strangely, the exact same navigation route that I flew on my skills test, which was also with Phil, so it was a sense of deja vu! This time though we were at about 700ft. Although I had my GPS switched on, I didn't really look at it, and I was surprised at how easily we found the town, considering how nervous about it I was on the test. A sign of some progress at least!
At Hay we dropped into the Wye valley, and followed it to Glasbury before turning North-West. Here the valley gets very steep sided and deep, so at 500ft below the surface you are actually at a level below the tops of the hills on either side, and it's great fun - hands on flying at 130mph, banking and turning to follow the bends in the river. You've got to watch out for down-draughts too, where the wind rolls down the valley sides - sometimes these winds can produce a sink rate greater than the aircraft's maximum climb, in which case you can find that you're at maximum power and climb attitude, but still descending. Obviously, this can end very badly!
At Builth Wells the valley opens out, and we pass a huge quarry before heading out over a flatter area of land. We've decided to go and find the Elan Valley reservoirs, but initially head up the wrong valley before making a turn up the a smaller valley and dropping down over Elan Valley air strip. From here it's another turn up the valley towards the reservoir.
We cross the dam at 500ft above it and head out over the reservoir, adding power over the water, gaining speed to climb up out the valley and into the open air on top of the hills. Most people would pretend that they're in a Spitfire at this point, but CC has yokes, not sticks, so for today it's a Lancaster. Childish, I know, but it's fun!
Once we've popped out the top of the valley and settled over the land again, I look at the altimeter. We've been flying while largely maintaining our altitude 'by eye' and it's a surprise to see that although we're only 500ft above ground, our altitude above the QNH (sea level) is 2500ft. A bit of a sobering reminder that if you get caught in IMC and get lost, there are potentially plenty of things to run into, even at altitudes that you would think are probably safe for the relatively flat UK terrain.
We've been radio free for a while, and we told Gloucester that we'd only be gone 90 minutes, so the decision's made to head back, albeit via Brecon and Abergavenny. We still maintain this at low level, and when we get to Abergavenny, we finally turn the radio back on. There's one last bit of fun in store as we pass Eastbach Farm strip, and Phil wants to do some fly-bys to say hello to the people he knows who fly from there. He takes control to do it, and it gives me a real demonstration of flying skill and confidence that I can only aspire to at the moment, but then Phil has 18,000 hours of light aircraft experience, and I have 55, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it!
I call up Gloucester over May Hill, and make an overhead join (my first for months!) into a circuit with just one other aircraft. I land on runway 22 into a decent breeze, and make one of my best landings for ages. It's been a good flight, and we've been away 1hr 35mins, which means I only need 20 minutes more before the sign-off in CC is complete. A couple of circuits should do the trick for that. More to the point, this flight has boosted my confidence in CC, because it's been solid maneuvering and hands on flying from start to finish. I'm starting to feel at home with her, and I can't wait to log some solo time!
I love flying at low-level: It's what you imagine flying will be like when you're a kid. At 2000ft, everything seems quite a long way away, and you lose a lot of the sensation of your speed. When you're low, the bank angles are a lot more obvious, and you can really feel how quickly you're covering the ground. The downside of this excitement is that it's a bit more mentally draining, and that you're pretty limited on options if you were to have an engine failure, so it's not the way you'd like to fly every flight! But, although good flight planning should mean that you don't have to scud-run under bad weather at low level, it is still good to be well practiced at low-level work, just in case you get caught out...
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| Drop too low and you might run into one of these...not good! |
Phil and I hadn't planned a specific route, other than to head over towards Hay-on-Wye, at which point we'd drop into the Wye valley and follow it up into mid-Wales. This was, strangely, the exact same navigation route that I flew on my skills test, which was also with Phil, so it was a sense of deja vu! This time though we were at about 700ft. Although I had my GPS switched on, I didn't really look at it, and I was surprised at how easily we found the town, considering how nervous about it I was on the test. A sign of some progress at least!
At Hay we dropped into the Wye valley, and followed it to Glasbury before turning North-West. Here the valley gets very steep sided and deep, so at 500ft below the surface you are actually at a level below the tops of the hills on either side, and it's great fun - hands on flying at 130mph, banking and turning to follow the bends in the river. You've got to watch out for down-draughts too, where the wind rolls down the valley sides - sometimes these winds can produce a sink rate greater than the aircraft's maximum climb, in which case you can find that you're at maximum power and climb attitude, but still descending. Obviously, this can end very badly!
Google Map of the Approximate Route Flown
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| One of the Valleys near Elan that we flew up. |
We cross the dam at 500ft above it and head out over the reservoir, adding power over the water, gaining speed to climb up out the valley and into the open air on top of the hills. Most people would pretend that they're in a Spitfire at this point, but CC has yokes, not sticks, so for today it's a Lancaster. Childish, I know, but it's fun!
Once we've popped out the top of the valley and settled over the land again, I look at the altimeter. We've been flying while largely maintaining our altitude 'by eye' and it's a surprise to see that although we're only 500ft above ground, our altitude above the QNH (sea level) is 2500ft. A bit of a sobering reminder that if you get caught in IMC and get lost, there are potentially plenty of things to run into, even at altitudes that you would think are probably safe for the relatively flat UK terrain.
We've been radio free for a while, and we told Gloucester that we'd only be gone 90 minutes, so the decision's made to head back, albeit via Brecon and Abergavenny. We still maintain this at low level, and when we get to Abergavenny, we finally turn the radio back on. There's one last bit of fun in store as we pass Eastbach Farm strip, and Phil wants to do some fly-bys to say hello to the people he knows who fly from there. He takes control to do it, and it gives me a real demonstration of flying skill and confidence that I can only aspire to at the moment, but then Phil has 18,000 hours of light aircraft experience, and I have 55, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it!
I call up Gloucester over May Hill, and make an overhead join (my first for months!) into a circuit with just one other aircraft. I land on runway 22 into a decent breeze, and make one of my best landings for ages. It's been a good flight, and we've been away 1hr 35mins, which means I only need 20 minutes more before the sign-off in CC is complete. A couple of circuits should do the trick for that. More to the point, this flight has boosted my confidence in CC, because it's been solid maneuvering and hands on flying from start to finish. I'm starting to feel at home with her, and I can't wait to log some solo time!
