Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

United States

How to fly UK style

If you are a pilot from across the pond and plan to visit the UK to do some flying, a recent post Jill W. Tallman for the AOPA Reporting Points blog about the differences between flying in the USA verses flying in the UK is a must read. Jill began her post by noting that a friend of hers named Fox Cutter had visited the UK and spent some time at the airport in Cardiff to find out what its like to fly UK style. According to Fox, there are a couple of things that will trip up pilots from the USA if they are flying in the UK:

1) How pressure is measured

In the UK, pressure is measured in millibars instead of inches and there are actually two pressure measures: QNH and QFE. According to Fox:

QNH is the setting for sea level, it’s just like you would get in an ATIS over here. QFE is where you might have trouble, this is the pressure setting for your altitude over the airport. As the highest airport in Britain is about 700 feet, the use of QFE is a convenience, it lets you land at zero. You might be tempted to ignore this, you’re used to landing at every elevation so it’s natural for you, do not do that.

Many of the altitudes for VFR approaches are based on QFE. If you don’t know this you can find yourself flying two or three hundred feet lower than you should be.

2) How airspace is used

In the UK, there is no Class B airspace while Class F “sneaks in” around the north parts of the country and Class A airspace all over the place. Hence and if you are flying in the UK, Fox noted that you will need to be familiar with the local airspace.

3) Lack of online charts

In the UK, there is “no good way” to view the relevant aeronautical charts online. Hence, Fox pointed out that you will need to pick one up at the airport. Moreover, you will also need to double check if your planned altitude will get you anywhere near Class A airspace.

Jill’s post and Fox’s comments provide a great summary of the differences between flying in the USA verses flying in the UK. However, we would like to ask our readers who have flown both in the UK and the USA one quick question: Are there any other items not mentioned above that might trip up USA based pilots flying in the UK for the first time? Feel free to comment below.

UK Flag

C152 to Jaguar at KHPN

This is a guest post by Jason Schappert from the highly recommended M0A blog.

Having been a pilot all of my young life I find having an aviation story to inject into just about every conversation a cinch.

I’ll never forget the day our school agreed to send myself and a fellow classmate 600 miles west in the schools C-152, all expenses paid. We were the laughing stock of the school leading up to the flight; I at the time was 6’4and my friend was 6’6. Our classmates marveled at the idea that we could possibly last as long as we did crammed in a Cessna 152. [Read more…] about C152 to Jaguar at KHPN

Viva Las Vegas! Part 2

MaCarran Airport

John Page starts his CPPP flying training in Las Vegas and flies into the famous Nellis Air Force Base.  A long lie-in, all the nines, sky clear and 18 degrees.  In March.  Who says instructors work too hard?

Saturday, the first day of the CPPP proper. The students arrived at Northtown terminal early. Really early.  Air Force early. Meanwhile the instructors had a lie in. We didn’t actually meet until 10.30 for our instructor brief before flying at 1200 with the first of our students.

This was when I first heard the names of my victims: Floyd Kearns from Texas and Mark Bellio from Colorado. All the instructors were given packs including NOS approach plates and sectional charts.

Not having flown in the Las Vegas area before I had already purchased the charts from Marv Golden and they were delivered to me a few weeks earlier so I could study them. I highly recommend this if you are planning on flying in an unfamiliar territory. All the instructors studied the charts and were given a brief on the airport itself by the airport manager.

Las Vegas Northtown has the number one spot for runway incursions. Not something to be proud of. Therefore ‘hold short’, ‘line up’ and cross runway’ instructions must be read back. The controllers simply will not accept ‘wilco’ as a valid answer. Due to the amount of Cirrus traffic departing into the area around Las Vegas at the same time we were given designated areas to fly to. Mine was to the South East, which was great because that included the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam as visual reference points.

One of the instructors, Jeff Moss had managed to organise approaches at Nellis Air Force Base – an opportunity not to be missed.  If only we could have got into Area 51.

Floyd and his plane

Just before noon we met up with our students, Floyd was flying first while Mark continued with ground school until 1500. We had a bite to eat and briefed about the flight ahead. Floyd is a lovely guy with over 600 hours on his SR22, N989DF. Floyd’s Cirrus was an older six-pack model with a Sandel EHSI but an upgraded release 6 MFD with weather. It’s obviously Floyd’s pride and joy and he keeps it very well.

The FAA are always looking at ways to improve their pilots currency. One way of doing this is via the Wings Programme, advisory circular (AC61-91H). Instead of the BFR every two years a pilot can fly a phase of the Wings Programme each year. It consists of three hours of flying. One hour of flight training must include basic airplane control, stalls, turns and other manoeuvres directed towards mastery of the airplane. One hour of training must include approaches, take offs and landings including crosswind, soft field and short field techniques. Finally, one hour of instrument training in an airplane, FAA approved aircraft simulator or training device. The insurance companies like this too, as I was told later in the day by Mark my other student whose insurance company stipulates that he has recurrent training every year.

With all of this in mind myself and Floyd decided to brief on the manoeuvres required for the Wings Programmes and discussed where we were going to fly. We chatted about the radio calls required at the airport and while airborne in the busy McCarran airspace.

We walked onto the ramp, behind the Citations and Falcons down to where the light aircraft were all parked. The Clear blue skies and 18°C heat meant the day was lovely and comfortable.  I wistfully thought about the chilly days in the UK as I climbed into the aircraft.

Sectional Chart of Las Vegas