I recently undertook my BFR (Eddie Lamb at North Weald kindly did the honours), and threw in an IPC with approaches at SND and Lydd.
On my return from North Weald to Oxford, I set course for BPK and noted that at 1,200’ AMSL (300’ below the southern stub of the Stansted CTA), I was around 800’ height (courtesy of my vintage RADALT) and would be approaching a built up area soon. A few seconds later the Garmin 530 gave me an obstacle alert – basically a big message that fills the screen), I checked the Garmin 530 moving map and ‘thought’ I had left the southern stub area, based on the Garmin 530 map. As the weather was somewhat murky, this was during the extensive dunkelflaute we experienced with ceilings around 2,000’ and not great visibility in flight, I initiated a moderate climb. North Weald A/G advised me that I had penetrated the CTA, and I immediately descended. Probably inside the south western corner for less than ten seconds. The inevitable MOR has arrived.
More time thinking about a TEM brief on the North Weald departure would have been useful to the chicken (to paraphrase Bertrand Russell). I had thought of going straight south, but this places you in conflict with Stapleford. Routing BPK would be sensible, but a new item on the TEM menu is the lesson here. If you are departing low level VFR in relatively murky conditions (probably around 6-8 km in flight visibility), and below MSA, it would be useful to check what obstacles are in the vicinity, and plan a course of action. The obstacles near BPK are at around 800’ AMSL, hence the obstacle alert while flying at 1,200’ altitude. The Rule 5 issues of overflying a built up area (Hoddesdon slightly to the north of track), presumably may be covered under the landing and take off dispensation, although arguably I had departed this phase.
The new MOR process asks if you are running a GPS with aural alerts. Which I wasn’t, in part as I notice the link between my iPad and SkyEcho is not that reliable, also I don’t use an iPad as part of my scan. The usual place for an iPad in my airplane makes it difficult to check three greens! I also tend to do most of my flying in the IFR system under radar control, so stick with the avionics on the panel, which include a TAS.
So there it is, better planning on the low level departure may have made me double check my precise location when I got the obstacle alert, and prevented me following my natural response to initiate a climb. Checking the exact DME range from BPK to the CTA border would have been a useful departure brief item. A good reminder that terrestrial nav back up OCAS is a good practice.
Pilots with more familiarity of North Weald may switch to Essex Radar but given the short time under the stub? but am not sure this would have helped given how busy Essex can be.
@Peter thank you for posting, and I can report that the CAA team do apply this approach and have been very fair, but also thorough, in their findings on this MOR.
RobertL18C wrote:
The new MOR process asks if you are running a GPS with aural alerts. Which I wasn’t, in part as I notice the link between my iPad and SkyEcho is not that reliable, also I don’t use an iPad as part of my scan. The usual place for an iPad in my airplane makes it difficult to check three greens! I also tend to do most of my flying in the IFR system under radar control, so stick with the avionics on the panel, which include a TAS.So there it is, better planning on the low level departure may have made me double check my precise location when I got the obstacle alert, and prevented me following my natural response to initiate a climb. Checking the exact DME range from BPK to the CTA border would have been a useful departure brief item. A good reminder that terrestrial nav back up OCAS is a good practice.
I’ve never found any panel-mount GPS very good for establishing one’s exact position with relation to CAS boundaries. The lines are generally there, but often the other information isn’t so I’ve always found SkyDemon much better.
When departing from underneath a shelf one always needs to be conscious of the vertical profile of the departure. Learning to fly at White Waltham taught me this, although there is a bit more room there than at North Weald. When you described what happened I looked at SD and for a while was thinking “what obstacles?” and then I saw it – beyond BPK as you say, but perhaps close enough at Bonnie speeds?
So one thing to think about is perhaps the sensitivity of such terrain warnings? I have never bothered to change the settings, but I’ve often found that SkyDemon is more sensitive than is appropriate for the kind of flying I do. Perhaps not a great thing as I risk becoming de-sensitized to the warnings. I presume you can modify them on the Garmin?
When I used to fly out of NW, going west I would normally head south west first to be clear of Stansted’s CTA as soon as possible, then climb to a safe altitude. Alternatively, you can get clearance to enter the CTA. I have never tried this on departure, so not sure how practical it is, and not sure if NW A/G can coordinate (I suspect they wouldn’t). Also never tried to dial in Stansted from the ground at NW, but this could be another option if you need to climb into the CTA. But going SW first would keep you clear of obstacles and get you out from underneath the CTA as quickly as possible.
I can also second what Graham said, Skydemon is pretty good at showing the airspace accurately, with the exception that I have often found that the altitude it displays is often mismatched from what I see on the altimeter so I go with my altimeter as the definitive source of altitude information.
