First airways flight post IR
Having passed the CBM IR skills test mid-August the license finally came through the door during the first week of September. Pretty good as I understand many had been waiting in excess of a month for the paperwork to get sorted
With this I was keen to get on with my first airways flight post the CBM IR
The flight had many new aspects to it
*First airways flight post training
*First airways flight from a radio operated airfield (home base White Waltham)
*First time to Guernsey (EGJB)
IFR flight plan
I used Rocket Route for the IFR filing although many advocate Autorouter (free) as a preferred option for filing IFR
I used Rocket Route in my training and hence was slightly more familiar with it
Although it comes at a cost (roughly £230 inclusive of VAT for a year’s subscription) there are a number of features that I like about it
The first being that there is a telephone number to call and speak with a human within a minute or so if any help is needed. Something that I am very happy to pay for at my current level of experience
And then when a flight plan is filed you are sent a text message with an acknowledgement number for the filed flight plan. Potentially of use if a controller were to say that there was no record of the flight plan
Rocket Route also has an easy i-pad and i-phone app for filing and then adjusting the flight plan if needed
A nice feature I am told of the Autorouter is that you are sent a Squawk code about 30 minutes before EOBT. To my knowledge this doesn’t exist with Rocket Route
The route was pretty simple
Using Rocket Route I put in that I wanted to fly at flight level 80 on the way to Guernsey and return at flight level 90
The outbound route EGLM (White Waltham) SAM ORTAC DCT at F080
The inbound route EGJB (Guernsey) ORTAC PEPIS DCT at F090
Departing radio operated airfield for an IFR/airways join
My IR training was at Gloucester where the departure clearance was obtained from the tower. After the power checks I would request the departure clearance to be typically given remain outside controlled airspace, a squawk and the next frequency on route to talk with
My home base (White Waltham) is only Radio operated and I asked a number of people for the best practice in obtaining a clearance for an IFR airways join
Many local pilots advised to just file IFR, get airborne and talk with Farnborough LARS requesting a traffic service and an airways join on an IFR flight plan (and then to expect a squawk and remain outside controlled airspace as Farnborough spoke with London control)
Others advised to just get airborne, talk with London information and put a call in “requesting airways joining clearance”
Others advised if leaving a field with no services calling the Senior Watch Assistant at Swanwick (02380 401110) who in turn would assign a squawk, frequency to talk to next and again typically a clearance to remain outside controlled airspace
And then of course having spoken to the guys at White Waltham they are able to get the clearance before departure as well (calling the above number I guess as well)
The advantages of Autorouter (sending an assigned squawk 30min or so prior to EOBT seems to be a fantastic tool if correct)
As it was I called Swanwick about 30minutes before departure and they were very happy to give a squawk and a frequency to contact (in my case Farnborough) and then a clearance (as expected, remain outside controlled airspace)
Metar for Guernsey was 330 at 7k, 10km or more visibility, few at 800 feet, broken at 1100 with a TAF showing temp. broken at 1000
As such we (I had a friend with an IMC in the RHS) expected an ILS for 27 and conditions looked perfect for an first airways IR flight. The synoptic chart was clear with no frontal pressure anywhere
Snag with the NOTAM’s
I use SkyDemon as one of the resources for flight planning and when I checked the NOTAM for Guernsey saw nothing of concern. My friend however, also using SkyDemon, saw that the ILS for 27 was unserviceable until Oct. 2nd
Neither of our i-phone Skydemon accounts showed the ILS as being unserviceable and then to complicate it further I asked a few friends to check and in turn they also didn’t see the NOTAM that the ILS was u/s either (using their SD a/c on their i-pad)
Remains a mystery (to myself at least)
Either way I called ahead prior to departure to check and indeed the ILS was u/s so at least we had time to look over the RNAV approach for 27 before we departed
Airways flight to Guernsey
The flight itself was very straight forward. Farnborough passing us to Solent Radar who initially said to remain outside controlled airspace before clearing us in the climb to FL080 and passing us to London control
The flight flown was almost exactly as filed. We picked up the ATIS (on the VOR frequency) around the Isle of White (which confirmed that the ILS was u/s) and then were passed to Jersey control before ORTAC and then to Guernsey where we requested the RNAV for 27. Cloud was better than forecast between scattered around 1400/1600
Guernsey
I used ASG flight support (mandatory handling) who were excellent. Around £30 all in. Nice facilities and very helpful. Avgas I understand was £1.09 per litre although we didn’t need fuel
No more than 10 minute walk for a nice pub lunch and then a return. I had filed for 1330z on the return but we were a little early so I used the Rocket Route app on the i-phone to bring this forward 30minutes and it couldn’t be easier. New acknowledgement code sent through within seconds. Very straight forward
Airways flight returning to White Waltham
On the return leg Guernsey gave a SID (ORTAC 3W) which was a first (for me)
I had JEPP FD on the i-pad and quickly briefed the SID which was pretty straight forward thankfully. We were soon passed to Jersey control and then London control and then onto Solent radar
Being dumped from the airways into a Glider free for all
The issue came as we passed Southampton who put us on a heading and basically brought us down and dropped us out of controlled airspace into a massive sh&t show of gliding activity before asking us to contact Farnborough radar (who in turn passed us to their approach frequency) who then spent the next 5 minutes almost with nonstop updates of the multiple contacts all around us
I genuinely felt very concerned. Literally crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. We saw 6 gliders/planes within a few minutes and missed considerably more. Very happy to be back at White Waltham on the ground and done with it all.
In sum
Ticked the box with a first airways flight and again from a radio service. The conditions were very good and in turn that was probably no bad thing
In all the flight time was 1.3 (EGLM-EGJB) and 1.6 on the return flying in G/BBFD (the Piper Arrow that I co share) on Saturday 19th September
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