Lesson 14 PPL
14 Feb 2005Another navigation exercise in this lesson, flying from Plymouth to the disused airfield at Davidstow Moor, then to Great Torrington, then to Mortonhampstead, and then back to Plymouth. The weather again wasn’t ideal, with some low cloud around. But we opted to go anyway, as it would be really good practice for what happens when you either have to diverge off course due to unexpected weather, or the winds aren’t as predicted.
When we were flying from Great Torrington to Mortonhampstead, we came into heavy cloud. By flying around it to remain clear, we ended up just north-west of Okehampton. As there is a no-fly zone in the middle of the moors (due to occasional military firing) and I am not allowed to fly through cloud, regaining the original track just wasn’t going to be possible.
Luckily, we were flying along the A30 and knew that it went roughly in the right direction (for now) and would keep us clear of any high ground. With the worst case being that we’d end up following it all the way to Exeter airport, we just followed it for quite a while heading towards Exeter. I was sure at one point that I saw somebody point up at me from their car, not surprising really, as I was only 600ft above the road.
Once we’d followed it for a while, away from the high ground of Dartmoor, the clouds thinned we managed to spot Bovey Tracy & Newton Abbot in the distance through a gap in the clouds, which allowed us to head there & then get back into Plymouth.
Really fun flight dodging the clouds and some real world experience of having to pick the best of limited options.