| -- Preparation -- |
|---|
There's a saying "if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail". You've probably heard it off your instructor when you questioned why you had to work out the wind correction to the exact degree when you know well that winds aloft reports are usually not very accurate! Well, it's a good idea to get prepared if you are licensed with the FAA but want to take a flying trip in England. Here's what I found useful to do - basically read the regulations (it's called the Air Navigation Order), get a map of the area you'll be flying in: decide which type you want because you can either get a quarter-millionth (same scale as a U.S. TAC - 1:250,000), or a half-millionth (equivalent to a sectional, scale 1:500,000). Or even get both depending on what you want to do. A book on R/T procedures (radio work) is a good idea too because there are some differences and some concepts that simply don't exist in the US (for details, see the next section). And finally...have a good talk with the instructor you get checked out with.
| -- What to read and what you need -- |
|---|
CAP 85 and Trevor Thom's RT book made the bulk of my reading. CAP 85 should be supplimented by the real Air Navigation Order and reading the AIP's etc. The ANO is FAR sized, and at Barton, the LAC had a copy of this plus the AIP's for licensed aerodromes (a bit like the A/FD except it covers instrument approaches and has airport diagrams) and various other useful publications that you can peruse. Getting a copy of Pilot magazine is good too so you can read the issues of the day (Pilot is probably the best aviation mag I've ever read. It's really good. Additionally, Flyer has good articles). Another thing that you had to do at Barton was read and sign the Pilot's Order Book. This is a file with local information, noise abatement info (such as don't fly over the graveyard to the NE of Runway 09/27 and avoid the airport grouch's house) and safety notices from the CAA.
Study the charts, too. Most of the symbols are the same as on a sectional, but quite a few of them are different. As an example, airports are depicted differently. Magenta means privately owned, Blue means Government owned (usually air force) rather than non-towered versus towered. Airspace depiction is different too.
Prepare for a bit of a price shock. Avgas is a bit more expensive
in the UK and at the time of writing, the dollar was extremely weak relative
to the pound making it twice as expensive per hour compared to most
places in the US.
Britain is friendly towards the FAA-licensed private pilot.
You may fly G-registered aircraft day-VFR within the UK with your FAA private
pilots license. It is worth your while getting a restricted radiotelephone
license from the F.C.C. too (it lasts a lifetime and requires only minimal
paperwork).
| -- Checking Out -- |
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Many GA airports in the UK are grass. Additionally, Barton is fairly short too and the grass is not quite golf putting green standard! However, if you apply the standard techniques you were taught as a student about grass fields (note that grass is not necessarily a soft field!) you'll do fine - all this talk about how flying off grass is so tough is complete nonsense - it isn't hard at all so long as you have good airspeed control and don't prang the nosewheel or land flat. Main wheels first isn't just something to impress the instructor... it makes sure your nosewheel remains attached to the airframe on a rough field! Of course you are already used to landing a light single with the yoke all the way back, I hope! My checkout involved the normal PPL manouevers - some touch and goes, steep turns (to 60 degrees of bank) and stalls. My checkout lasted an hour and held no surprises - it was pretty much the same checkout I did when transitioning to a new aircraft in the Bay Area Aero Club.
Get a bit of a tour of the local area from the instructor so you can find your way home when you go solo. Around Barton, the airspace is quite complex (Class D overlying the airport, with a SFC-1500 MSL local flying area around Barton so you can get out of the area without having to contact Manchester Approach, plus a low-level VFR corridor that lets you get out to the south). The hardest thing about grass runways is finding them! Have the instructor point out a good landmark that directs you at the aerodrome. From 1500 ft, a grass airport looks like just another farm field until you get close enough to see the planes parked on it.
Checklists.
Use them! The policy at LAC was use the written checklist for ground checks (preflight, startup, run up etc) and use memorized checks for everything in flight. For example, before stalls or steep turns, a "HASELL" checklist is commonly used in the UK (this is good practise wherever you are!):
H - Height Above Terrain (sufficient to recover at a safe altitude AGL)
A - Airframe, clean
S - Security: Occupants and articles
E - Engine - Temps, pressures, carb heat if required
L - Location - Clear of controlled airspace and congested areas
L - Lookout - Check clear all around and below (ie make a clearing turn)
If you use one of the locally-supplied checklists, you'll find
most of it is what you are used to with only minor differences. The instructor
I flew with was fine with things like GUMPS as a pre-landing check.
I bought one of the LAC's checklists for the Cessna 150/152/172
- they make nice flip over checklists which I think are better than what
Cessna supplies by default.
| -- The differences -- |
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Here's what struck me particularly (apart from the fuel price of course!) as differences you are likely to encounter:
What the hell are these Q codes!? One thing you hear in the UK that you don't hear in the US is use of Q codes. Two of them are very common - the rest not so common. Thom's R/T book covers them all, but these are the ones you'll hear all the time:
QFE - Altimeter setting that will make your altimeter read zero on the
airfield.
QNH - Altimeter setting that will make your altimeter read height above mean
sea level.
You'll hear these on ATIS, from AFIS officers, from A/G outlets and from ATC very frequently. See my section on a typical flight from Barton on how these fit in.
I bought my chart...but it's a huge rolled up poster sized thing! You have to fold your own charts. This may seem strange at first but it does allow you to fold them so that things you don't want to be on a fold in the map aren't. The best thing to do is to get it out on the floor and decide how you are going to fold it. The charts are also laminated so bring a supply of felt-tip pens so you can draw on them then just wipe it off afterwards.
Flight plans: You need them if you want to fly in controlled airspace classes A to D (most of the airspace in the UK is actually uncontrolled, class G airspace, and in practical terms a US PPL will only ever be able to go into Class D since class B is all above FL 240, there's no class C and you plain aren't allowed into Class A unless you have a CAA-issued instrument rating.) If you need to fly through class D airspace unexpectedly, you can file over the radio. Talk to your instructor if you expect to need to do this. For other flights, just like the FAA does, the CAA recommends that you file a flight plan for exactly the same reasons that the FAA does.
Class A airspace: In major terminal areas like Manchester, class A airspace gets quite close to the ground, so be careful! In London, around Heathrow Airport there's class A to the surface!
Altimeter settings are in Millibars: The altimeter is marked this way, so it's not a big deal. If, for some reason, you end up flying an N-numbered plane you will need your E6B handy.
Runway lengths are metric: But don't fear, you can do the calculations on your E6B if you want to know what it is in feet. A conservative WAG (Wild Assed Guess) method is to just multiply meters by 3 and you'll get close enough to feet (slightly fewer feet than reality, so it's slightly conservative).
Overhead joins: No 45 degree pattern entries. The standard circuit entry (that's what the pattern is called in the UK) is to join overhead and make a deadside descent. For example, at Barton, you enter the circuit at 1500 feet MSL, then make a descending turn to arrive at the 800 ft. AGL circuit height by the time you are crosswind. You'll get to do this when you get checked out - it's not hard and it's actually a nice procedure as you get to observe the airport and all the traffic as you make the deadside descent (deadside is the side of the runway not occupied by the circuit (traffic pattern) - the "upwind" side in the U.S.). At a towered airport, you may get instructions to join downwind or straight in depending on the circumstances just like you would in the U.S., but you'll often get an overhead join too.
Flight levels can start as low as 3000 ft AGL (FL 030): Depending on atmospheric pressure and the area you are flying with, you set the altimeter to standard pressure quite low. In the UK you set the altimeter to 1013 millibars (this is equivalent to 29.92 in Hg) when you are above the transition altitude. Also, "flight levels" doesn't mean class A airspace as it does in the U.S. - you can cruise up to FL240 in class G airspace in most of the country - check the charts which clearly mark class D and class A airspace limits.
Quadrantal rule for VFR cruising altitudes: In the US, we have a hemispheric rule. However, in the UK, cruising altitudes are defined by the quadrantal rule once you're above the transition altitude. To summarize: on a magnetic track of less than 090, fly at odd thousands of feet (e.g. FL 050), 090 to 179 fly odd+500 (e.g. FL 055), 180 to 269 fly even thousands (eg. FL 060) and 270 to 359 fly on even thousands plus 500 (e.g. FL 065). The even and odd thousands coincide with the FAA's hemisperic rule - just remember to fly on the thousand or thousand+500 depending on the quadrant you're in.
Landing fees: Arrghh, you've probably read AOPA's article about user fees. However, it hasn't quite got completely out of hand in the UK (never saw stuff like "ramp, communication, fuel pumping fees" at Barton as is common in Germany). However, it depends where you fly. For LAC planes, to fly back to Barton there was no landing fee at all! Barton also has reciprocal agreements with other airports to waive the landing fee (at the time of writing, Barton flyers were welcome free-of-landing-fees at Ashcroft Farm, Breighton, Crosland Moor, Netherthorpe, Mona, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Rednal, Seighford and Sleap). Ask your instructor about this sort of thing.
Booking out: This is a procedure that's common in the UK. You have to "book out" by filling in a few details on a booking out sheet for ATC purposes. Booking out is done at the building marked with a big C on a yellow background (and that's where you pay the landing fee too). At some airports you can book out on the radio - check with the airport concerned.
ICAO signs: Although these are commonly used on large airports in the US, they are used everywhere in the UK. The big C is just one example. CAP 85 has pictures of them.
PPR is required wherever you go: This will probably be the biggest culture shock - all civil airports are privately owned. This means you have to get prior permission to use the airport to land at the airport before you go (unless you are landing there due to unforecast weather, emergencies etc.) The AIP contains information on who you need to phone. According to a report I read in Pilot magazine, most RAF bases can be used by GA with PPR, so it's not all bad. Talk to your instructor for full details.