Progress Test 3

Since PT2, I have been predominantly doing IFR flying and solo landaways. My original flight home was actually supposed to be December 6th, now my return flight has been moved to February 9th 2014. I did plan on spending Christmas back at home with the family, however I opted to stay to try and get some more flying done, and delays in training is something that's to be expected, especially considering that we are the first Oxford class out here in Falcon Field, and being a double class of over 40 students also doesn't help things. So far there's about a month spread between the students in my class (AP344) with the expected due back dates ranging from early January to mid February.

Despite the logistical problems, the quality of training is still incredible, after my second progress test I was assigned a new instructor who I got on with very well. He is not as strict as my last instructor, however teaches a lot more professionalism in terms of check lists and CRM, so I really enjoyed my time with him.

Progress Test 3 focuses on Navigation and Diversions. Not a particularly difficult one, however a lot of steps to think about. For my test, the examiner gave me my route one day in advance so I could plan it all on our charts and fill out our navlogs. What you are expected to do is fly out the departure procedure, start the navigation properly with the appropriate HAAT and FEFL checks, and when given the instruction, divert to the given alternative destination. 

My ground brief started at 11:00 on the 23rd December 2013, but I made sure that I got to the academy three hours before hand so that I was fully prepared with the weather en-route, performance, mass and balance and also the pre-flight. In the brief, my examiner told me that I would do a Chandler Departure, which involves departing to the south-west, transitioning over Chandler Airport at 3200ft and the departure ending once Chandler's D Airspace has been cleared. Afterwards I was expected to track south towards a point called the Donnelly Truck Stop, then turn eastbound to a place called Picacho Stagefield, which is a heliport. At some point along the route I was told that I would be diverted to a random destination. After that I would be expected to perform a Practice Forced Landing (PFL), then once successful do a Chandler Arrival back to Falcon Field.

After a rather quick brief, we went out to the aircraft. Weather on that day was calm with no adverse conditions, with easterly winds forecast at my cruising altitude. The initial stage of the flight went very smoothly, after spotting the final destination, I was diverted to a private airstrip called U of A, which was north-west of Picacho Stagefield. I circled just east of the Stagefield to do all of my diversion planning, taking me about 3-4 minutes. In the diversions you are expected to plan out your new heading (corrected for magnetic variation), altitude, ground speed, ETA and fuel burn. All pretty simple, but care needs to be taken since the priority is that the aircraft is flown first.

My diversion didn't at first go to plan, I made the mistake of planning a wrong heading, which I spotted since my first significant visual point on route was the wrong city. After verbalising my mistake to the examiner, I used my drift lines to correct my track and rejoin my originally planned route. Upon reaching my diversion, it took me about three attempts to actually spot it since I had never seen it before. Very promptly after, the examiner cut the throttle and I went straight into a failed engine emergency procedure. Everything worked out well, apart from the fact that I didn't pick the private airstrip that I was already over! Don't ask me why I did it, I think it was just a bad day at the office and I am pretty disappointed with myself for doing that. 

After arriving safely back to Falcon Field, I was given a very good debrief from the examiner. The main points that he mentioned were that instead of circling to plan the diversion, it should always be planned when approaching the next destination or turning point. His point was that it wastes time and money when circling, which is a big deal to airlines, and if there is not enough time left to calculate everything, plan just the heading and altitude first, then do speed, time, fuel burn and ETA when actually en-route to the diversion. He also mentioned about the attempts I took to spot the diversion, which is my fault since I at first I was looking at completely the wrong side of a highway and that visual clue alone would have probably helped me spot the diversion first time round. The last comment he had was of my PFL. Although my field was reasonable, it doesn't really compare to the 5000ft private airstrip which I was already over! 

You'll be glad to know that I passed, but I don't feel that I passed with flying colours. I am happy that I can progress, but there are a few things that I need to take a bit more care on. I know that I need to be a lot more disciplined and methodical in my planning whilst I am flying. My advice to people when doing navigation and diversion is to take your time, have a set structure when doing everything. For instance, pre/post HAAT checklists, FEFL checks. In the diversion, simply do a HAAT checklist, so get the heading and altitude, see if you have enough time to plan the rest before you need to start your turn, if so then carry on, if not then concentrate on aviating, then take care in planning the rest of the diversion after the turn. It's very easy to be drawn into doing things quickly, however the examiner is looking more closely at how methodical you do things, with good PIC decision making, rather than speed.

The next stage from here is IFR, concentrating on Holds and Approaches. I am looking quite forward to it since I have enjoyed all the IFR flying to date, and plus it is much more applicable to what we will all be doing once we start working for an airline.