DA42 at North Weald (again)
To what lengths would you go to fly your favourite aeroplane? I recently returned to North Weald in order to fly my favourite, the Diamond DA42 Twinstar. The last time I visited the Essex aerodrome, where the aircraft is based, I flew down. This has both advantages and disadvantages. On one hand it is a lot quicker and less stressful than driving, but on the other, leads to return flight issues of weather and work pressures if you don't get home in time. With this in mind, I thought I'd drive down, stay overnight, and fly the twin on Saturday morning.
I was flying with the aircraft's owner, Sue, and the mission was to head down to Manston, fly a procedural ILS and a radar vectored ILS, before landing for a drink and then heading back to North Weald. Sue is more qualified than me, holding an instrument rating. I would be using my IMC rating for this flight and I'd done the planning the previous evening. I was not current on the approaches but the weather was such that we would be below the clouds and well above decision altitude.
We departed North Weald and routed towards Manston via several airway intersections. I hand flew all the way, setting up the ILS and NDB frequencies prior to being cleared for the ILS procedure for runway 28. There was a northerly surface wind of 11 kts and our heading was taking us directly into the outbound leg of the track required from the IAF which was 111 degrees. This track is held for 10.2 miles on the DME before a left turn to intercept the localiser. Having an IR holder sat next to me was a help, as Sue realised my wind correction of 105 degrees was insufficient and we were drifting too far south. This became apparent after the turn to intercept but, with my unpaid "assistant" prompting me, we established and commenced descent and were nicely aligned and visual with the runway at decision altitude.
The missed procedure was not required to be flown as we were to be radar vectored for the next approach. I applied full power, established a positive rate of climb, raised the undercarriage and flaps and climbed on runway heading to 2500 feet. Our instruction on reaching 2500 feet was to head 170 degrees, which we did. Further turns were made before our closing heading to the localiser, but we were given no descent instruction. Sue realised before I did that we would be way above the glideslope and effectivley this was a missed approach as you can't "dive" to get on the glide. As we were visual, I did descend rapidly, establish and complete the approach to a nice crosswind landing. I did not ring ATC after we landed to ask what went wrong, but clearly something did. We taxied in to park up and get a coffee.
The facilities at TG Aviation are very nice and the folks were helpful and friendly. After a drink, Sue and I headed back to Essex. I used the GFC 700 autopilot to fly the aircraft home and we landed at North Weald early afternoon. I enjoyed the flights and the instrument approaches but they reaffirmed the need for constant refresher training and practise.
After lunch I set off for home, a long drive ahead of me. This trip worked out well, but it's really not practical to keep these going with all the time and expense involved. Maybe three or four times a year could work. The problem is I love the Twinstar.
I was flying with the aircraft's owner, Sue, and the mission was to head down to Manston, fly a procedural ILS and a radar vectored ILS, before landing for a drink and then heading back to North Weald. Sue is more qualified than me, holding an instrument rating. I would be using my IMC rating for this flight and I'd done the planning the previous evening. I was not current on the approaches but the weather was such that we would be below the clouds and well above decision altitude.
We departed North Weald and routed towards Manston via several airway intersections. I hand flew all the way, setting up the ILS and NDB frequencies prior to being cleared for the ILS procedure for runway 28. There was a northerly surface wind of 11 kts and our heading was taking us directly into the outbound leg of the track required from the IAF which was 111 degrees. This track is held for 10.2 miles on the DME before a left turn to intercept the localiser. Having an IR holder sat next to me was a help, as Sue realised my wind correction of 105 degrees was insufficient and we were drifting too far south. This became apparent after the turn to intercept but, with my unpaid "assistant" prompting me, we established and commenced descent and were nicely aligned and visual with the runway at decision altitude.
The missed procedure was not required to be flown as we were to be radar vectored for the next approach. I applied full power, established a positive rate of climb, raised the undercarriage and flaps and climbed on runway heading to 2500 feet. Our instruction on reaching 2500 feet was to head 170 degrees, which we did. Further turns were made before our closing heading to the localiser, but we were given no descent instruction. Sue realised before I did that we would be way above the glideslope and effectivley this was a missed approach as you can't "dive" to get on the glide. As we were visual, I did descend rapidly, establish and complete the approach to a nice crosswind landing. I did not ring ATC after we landed to ask what went wrong, but clearly something did. We taxied in to park up and get a coffee.
The facilities at TG Aviation are very nice and the folks were helpful and friendly. After a drink, Sue and I headed back to Essex. I used the GFC 700 autopilot to fly the aircraft home and we landed at North Weald early afternoon. I enjoyed the flights and the instrument approaches but they reaffirmed the need for constant refresher training and practise.
After lunch I set off for home, a long drive ahead of me. This trip worked out well, but it's really not practical to keep these going with all the time and expense involved. Maybe three or four times a year could work. The problem is I love the Twinstar.
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| At North Weald after the flight to Manston |
posted by David M at 9:45 PM
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