Flying with the Chief

Since my last post, another couple of lessons had been cancelled due to weather - something that is getting more and more common as winter approaches. Happily though, although the weather at home was bordering on dismal the airfield was reporting nice conditions so yesterday I had my first flying lesson in 3 weeks or thereabouts.

Turns out that this was my best flying lesson to date, despite a scare on the runway - more on that later. I was flying with the club's CFI (chief flying instructor) who as it happens is one of the most pleasant people you could ever hope to meet and a fantastic instructor. I had my uncle and aunt along to see the club and they were invited to sit in the back seats for the flight - a nice surprise for them. David, the CFI, told me to go out and preflight G-UFCI whilst he did the flight authoisation paperwork. I got my relatives into the back seat and did my walkaround inspection - the water coming off the plane after a recent rain shower as I lowered the flaps and climbed up on it to check the fuel soaked my jeans and made me glad I was wearing a waterproof jacket for the flight.

After about 5 minutes David came down from the clubhouse and shortly after we hit our first snag: one of the seatbelts in the back of the plane had come apart and we had to re-assemble it. By the time it was secure and the passengers were back in the cramped rear seats of the C172 we were running about 30 minutes late and I was seeing my flight time for the day dwindle (or so I thought).

After running through the checklists and starting the engine, I keyed my mic and announced over the radio: "Newtownards radio, Scrabo 01 on the ramp, requesting airfield information". They came back telling us that the QNH (local barometric pressure setting) was 1012mb and runway 22 was in use. I read this back and commenced the taxi to runway 22. On the way there we swung the plane into the wind to commence the routine engine power checks. These passed without incident, we crossed the hold short line and I announced, "Scrabo 01 lining up."

Next came the second snag of the flight, and it was a biggie that really gave me a scare. As we lined up on the runway, I reduced the power and hit the brakes to stop the plane. As I reduced the throttle to idle though, the engine cut out. With numerous red and yellow messages coming up on my PFD and warning buzzers sounding in my headset we were suddenly left without a source of forward thrust. The CFI and I exchanged worried glances. A dozen "What if...s" were running through my head - like "What if I had idled the power in the air?" (as we often do in order to glide down during the descent). I'm sure it was just because the engine was cold (this being the plane's first flight of the day) but it was still a bit disconcerting. Miraculously, the engine restarted and I was able to take off - although I was careful not to reduce the throttle below 1000rpm after that.

As we climbed out from the airfield, I was on the radio again: "Newtownards radio, Scrabo 01 departing to the south-east, calling Belfast now, see ya." I would be doing the radio for the whole flight - something I hadn't done before and was a little nervous about. Things were progressing well however. I called Belfast, who told me to stand by. After he had time to take my call, I rattled off "Belfast Approach, Scrabo 01, type Cessna 172, 4 persons on board, flying down the peninsula not above 3000." A very stressed-sounding controller came back to me with details of our Flight Information Service and gave me an update on the pressure setting: still 1012mb. There were apparently about 6 aircraft over the Ards peninsula at that time so we were going to have to be careful. I dutifully acknowledged that.

About 4 minutes later we were levelling off at 3000 feet, avoiding low cloud and enjoying the view. David was very good at including the rear-seat passengers in the flight - pointing out landmarks and he would later direct me on a sightseeing tour for their enjoyment! There are some really interesting things to see over the Peninsula, one of the many reasons that I love where I fly. I'd fly with this guy every time if I could.

After about 45 minutes in the air David was giving me directions to get back to the airfield. By the time I got back to the airfield, I would have had one full hour in the air despite being about 40 minutes late taking off - fantastic! We ran into some rain on the journey north to the airfield, which made visibility a bit of a pain but I liked the added challenge. I called Belfast again. "Belfast Approach, Scrabo 01 passing Greyabbey at altitude 1800 feet, request a change back to the Newtownards frequency." They came back with "Scrabo 01, freecall Newtownards 128 decimal 3." After acknowleding this I pressed the little button in the top-right corner of my PFD screen to change back to the airfield frequency, where I repeated our position and stated our intentions of a full stop landing for the benefit of other aircraft in the vicinity.

The approach and landing went smoothly although we did have a bit of trouble getting a microlight that had just departed the field in sight. I taxiied the plane back the apron and we ran through the after landing/shutdown checklists. During the debriefing David congratulated me on my flying and my radio work, telling me he likes to get the student to do all the radio, whereas other instructors find it easier to do a bit themselves. I thanked him for a wonderful lesson and sightseeing tour. It will be difficult to top this lesson in terms of sheer enjoyment. Hopefully I'll get to try and do that in November.

Thanks for reading.