PPL Lesson #23: Low-level navigation and instrument appreciation
Got massively lucky with the weather for this morning’s lesson after the miserable weekend: clear blue skies, 10°c and nil wind on the ground.
We started with a bit of low-level navigation over the outskirts of Reading up to Goring. I managed to leave my chart at home but thankfully I’d memorised what I expected to see on the route, and was able to glance at the instructor’s unmarked chart to cross check where needed. The shift in perspective flying at a relatively low level of 1300’ over Reading definitely made structures - particularly the windmill at Green Park just off the M4 - and terrain stand out, and I was able to easily fly my way to Goring nestled among the higher ground to the east and west.
Overhead Goring we turned due south, and my instructor produced the dreaded hood: it was time for some instrument appreciation. We started off with me closing my eyes completely so that the instructor could take us on a bit of a roller coaster ride as a means of reinforcing just how rubbish our other senses are at identifying orientation when deprived of sight. After a bit he asked me what I thought our orientation was, and what felt to me like a nose-high right bank turned out to be a fairly steep left bank (though the nose was indeed above the horizon, so I’m claiming half a point). He did that again and what I thought was a nose-high left bank was actually bang on straight and level. Lesson learned!
From there I took control to first maintain straight and level, then climbing and descending to specified altitudes, followed by rate-1 180° turns with and without the DI to practice safely getting out of inadvertent IMC. The instrument scans were straightforward enough, but I found keeping on the intended heading whilst climbing particularly tricky and had to correct by 15° before we got to the top of the climb. My instructor seemed pleased with everything else.
We had a bit of time left at the end so we closed the lesson out with a few touch and goes. I’d managed a (relatively gentle) tricycle landing in the previous lesson, and given I don’t fly a tailwheel the instructor just wanted me to work on better flare technique to make sure I’m always getting the rear wheels down first.
Scarily, when I look at my training record there are now only two “lesson” items left on it: solo consolidation and landaways. I’m still only at just about 25h flight time so I’ve still got a LOT of flying experience to gain yet to properly embed and reinforce the stuff I’ve been learning, and I still have my solo nav and QXC to do, but it’s bizarre that I’m mostly out of new stuff to cover.