Thought I'll do a quick update on my recent flying...
I did do a one day trip from FAHG to FATM (Stutterheim 70km north of East London) during Jan 2013. It was a Friday, been keeping a good watch on the weather and spoke to my friend there, whom I was going to visit. He consulted the local pilots and got the load down on best conditions. So Friday the 3rd of Jan I took of at 5h50 local time and got to FATM at 9h00. I had a nasty headwind to deal with, but it did not present any problems.
Landing at FATM was, well, how does one put it... Memorable, yes, memorable indeed. 70kmh surface wind and a landing strip with an uphill slope of 1:30 made it pretty interesting. Everything worked out well and I spend a lovely morning in one of the most beautiful little towns. At 14h30 we left the house and went to the field and TO was at 1450. Had a little tailwind and was back at FAHG at 17h40, what a pleasure
What I learned from this trip:
A headwind can mess your fuel consumption in a big way!
Clouds are scary!
Don't trust a cellphone GPS and always load your route into the plane GPS too (if you have one like I have thankfully)
@ 12000 ft (1013.25) my Mooney is not in her element and at 3DegC, neither am I
Best FL is around 085 or 095 for my Mooney it seems, but at 12000 the air was so smooth!!
The Drakenberg is more scary than clouds!! Those peaks are HIGH even from the distance. I understand why one should avoid Lesotho
ATC is GREAT and they do a stirling job!
Clouds:
So just past Zastron, I notice this white layer of cloud from all the way on my left (Lesotho) to as far as I can see to the right. It is not a high build up, typical sort of high ground cloud I guess, but it kept me thinking and worrying for a while.
It always seemed to me that I'm too low while at a distance. As I got closer (10500) I realised that I'm actually not that low at all, but quite high above the cloud. So I did decide to fly above the cloud as it was broken cloud and I could always see the ground. I opted for this as I knew that there were may ridges and valleys and all sort of high ground from there to FATM and I did not want to risk flying under the cloud. It was also nice a smooth above the cloud, not sure what it would be like under it, but I guess it would have been a bumpy flight down there.
So I stayed high and had a great flight, but missed my TOD completely... I was looking more at the cell phone GPS and not really at the plane's and jip, the phone one had frozen! It showed a little movement now and then, but it was completely wrong and way behind. 20nm out was the plan to start descending and 11nm out ATC asked me about my descend... Oops, quick look at all the instruments and yes, I was almost over FATM and in EL special rules. Informed ATC that I've got cloud and will be descending from 12000 overhead, for which they thankfully gave me clearance (no other pilot was taking on the surface wind down there
) and I had all the airspace to myself. So looking for openings I learned that it is easier to fly between the clouds than dive through one opening, as the cloud is over a 1000ft thick! With the broken cloud lovely channels opened up to fly between the clouds and that way I don't get to VNE, which I almost reached twice trying to dive through openings!!
Thus, lesson learnt. The cell phone AirNavPro is great for planning and setting way points etc, but the plane GPS is indeed the way to fly. Thankfully I did put all the way points into the Garmin and saved a Route, so I always had good info too, if I looked at it that is!
Respect clouds as well. I really do not ever want to fly in a cloud, the whiteout is not something I think I'll enjoy. I spent lots of time on the flight sim flying whiteout and all is well until you momentarily have a lapse of concentration... Then things go very wrong very quickly and it is not easy to correct it!
I also did take the family on a couple of trips, Zabula and Parys being it, but it is a good start and everyone in the family enjoys it, including my wife
So the future is green, or shall I rather say, sky blue
!! At this point get the family up regularly on some short trips to get them used to "light plane travel" and do some longer ones on your own relying on pure map reading for navigation. Most important after all the hard work - GO HAVE FUN !
