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If everything goes well, and weather permitting, my next flight will take place in one month. As often, the plans change with time. The Bournemouth Guernsey leg is still on the roadmap, but another promising idea appeared regarding the rest of the plan: making three in a row.

Making all that effor to fly to Guernsey and the not make a quick VFR jump from to Jersey and Alderney seems to be a shame. This is may the an unconscious influence of Sylvia’s idea of flying all the British Islands, combined with my natural attraction to islands. And while I’m there, why not stop on the Isle of Wight on the way back ?

Jersey and Alderney also have IFR approaches, but VFR allows for much flexibility on short notice. No need to file a flight plan one hour in advance, no processing in Brussels, and so on. I did not read all the regulation about flying the Class A airspace around the Islands in VFR, that comes next on my list. Note that flying VFR in Class A airspace is something… special (special VFR… got it ?).

The relatively lower workload of VFR also leaves more time to enjoy the view. After a four months break, I also want to profit from the simple pleasure of flying. I like the systematic and technical aspects of IFR flying, but a VFR promenade in good conditions is also a good fun.

Just after getting my IFR rating, I thought that it was THE way of flying, and I somehow overlooked VFR flying. I later found out that VFR also has many advantadges, particularly when it comes to flexibility. I can now enjoy both, but it’s sometimes hard to choose.

In periods of low flying time like the one I’m going through for the time being, this leads me to what I call SFR: Schizoprenic Flight Rules. What to choose ? IFR ? VFR ? The time and money available are limited, so I have to choose.

Decision making… again. However, the final call will depend on weather. I hope it will not ruin all the plans. Mid August is probably amongst the better times of year, but I’ll be there for three days only. Only time will tell…

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Category: Pilots Talk
Tags: Alderney flight preparation Guernsey IFR Jersey VFR

This post is the first in a series about preparing (and hopefully executing) an IFR flight from Bournemouth to Guernesey. Everything going well, this flight should take place in August. It’s an early time to start preparing it, but I did not flew IFR for a while, so diving into it again is not bad.

Planning an IFR route always starts the same way: by the destination. Trying to navigate the airways’s maze from origin to destination is not obvious. But if you know where to which point you’ll have to go with the airways, it’s then possible to go backwards to the departure aerodrome.

Standard arrivals (STARs) to Guernesey from the North start from four different intersections: SKERY, BIGNO, LELNA and ORTAC. Looking at the en-route chart, it’s clear that SKERY and BIGNO are too far west. LELNA is connected to a single airway, with a minimal en-route altitude above 18′000 feet, well above what a non-pressurized, non-turbo single engine will ever reach, so it’ll have to be ORTAC.

As Bornemouth is not that far, it’s time to look at the existing departures. All departures to south and west end-up at THRED intersection. THRED is on the R41 airway… goind to ORTAC. Here’s our route, THRED R41 ORTAC. Easy to intercept and follow, it corresponds to radia 206 of the SAM VOR - there will be a back-up for the GPS.

Interestingly, there is not track guidance to THRED. If departing from runway 26, the left turn is at 2′000 feet. Departing from runway 08, there is a right turn at 4.1 DME. As far as I understand this procedure for the time being, finding a heading to THRED is up to the pilot. Each country have different procedure design, and my limited experience never included something like that. I’ll have to cross-check that later on.

The minimal altitude on the R41 is 4′000 feet, not exactly a problem. I’ll file something higher however, to ensure good radio and radar contact. Flying towards west, FL080 sounds good at a first guess. And 4′000 extra feet between water and the plane are quite good either.

Depending the runway in use at Guernesey, the distance between ORTAC and GUR VOR is 41 or 45 nautical miles, and the approach starts at 2′000 over GUR. With the typical 300 feet descent per nautical mile, this is more than enough. FL080 will be fine.

Next step will be a much more detailed study of the possible departure and arrival procedures, as well as the approaches. The inbound course to GUR VOR could require flying a reversal procedure there before flying the outbound leg. IFR joy at its best. Stay tuned to see the next steps of the preparation process.

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Category: Flying Tips
Tags: arrival departure flight preparation IFR procedure SID STAR