Gatwick's over to my right hand side. Don't fly into Gatwick don't fly into Gatwick! November 4
Mike whiskey just caught shouldn't let the city's own side and be by about an hour okay we can take
a right shortly and go overhead the QE2. Yes come on Stef! You're doing it you're doing it!
this station is
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Today's video is going to be a story about confidence having too much of
it or too late basically it's a story all about flying and confidence Brighton Pier
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and we're going to go around Heathrow not through Heathrow apparently that's frowned
upon in these parts of the world and November 774 Mike whiskey run-ups complete we're ready
for it departure will be downwind VFR climbing 2 300. and uh format whiskey
rotter taxi holding Point Brothers taxi holding my bravo four for Mike whiskey
seven seven four my whiskey I've had to write down the new registration of this
aircraft on a Post-It note here because I'm clearly going to forget it otherwise
now November 744 Mike whiskey is a Cirrus SR22 turbo which was kindly organized by my friend
Philly you know Philippe the one who I flew to Iceland with last week hope it does work
yeah that was all right actually it's like he was in the plane with him I'd ask Felipe if he
could organize an aircraft for me for the next couple of days because I have three days here
in the UK before I fly back to Australia and I wanted to try and just do some general aviation
flying but really try and build my confidence of flying in UK airspace something I have done
before but never solo I've done it as pilot and command but always with someone sitting
next to me in the right seat so today well today was like a really big deal for me hey
can I just confirm that it's fiberglass one three two decimal eight after this
good day
airspeed's increasing on both
go Alpha Hotel final two six
hour only two six times to go your discretion the instant win three one zero degrees seven knots
all right let's try Farber radar this first time I'm going to ask for one of these uh these basic
service things or Traffic Service maybe Barbara uh Barbara radar November 774 Mike whiskey
and then the 774 Mike whiskey from radar kid uh good morning November Simpson for
my whiskey we are a Cirrus SR22 VFR just out off L Street 1500 uh tracking eastbound uh
remaining outside class uh controlled airspace but just a request of basic service if available
774 Mike whiskey and actually if available is it traffic service available
yeah and the fallback whiskey identified Traffic Service
traffic service for Mike whiskey thank you it will be reduced traffic information due to your level
uh possible later warning of traffic from below there is activity in the Stapleford circuit just
keep a good look at as you go I guess you're going to go just to the size of that copied over we are
going south of Stapleford and I'll keep it an iron thank you so for my whiskey we're doing it we're
flying solo in the UK the flight I planned was a really simple VFR low-level flight from L Street
down here to Brighton I was originally going to go a little bit more around the southeast of England
but as it turned out because the weather was so bad on the ground in the morning I think the cloud
base was about 800 feet broken when I first got to the airport I decided to wait so I sat there
doing a bit of flight planning waited a little bit longer and it was only about two two and a
half hours later after getting to the airport that I actually saw there was going to be a bit of a
break in the weather the cloud base had lifted a little bit just enough to depart VFR now Philippe
was down in biggin hill at the time and he gave me a bit of a weather update from down there he
said that the clouds were lifting a little bit and I want to I want to read out the text message
that he sent me he knew that I just was lacking the confidence to actually go ahead and do it
and he sent me that I'm so freaked out about not wanting to bust airspace battery Reservoir must
be that Reservoir over there I'm a little bit off so let's go towards that November 4 Mike whiskey
just caution the uh London City Zone Saturday copy that yeah we just turned into Banbury
and then we're going to track uh away from the zone now thank you for my whiskey no problem uh
police rotary leaving the Zone southeast of You by about two miles tracking Northbound slightly below
traffic size here for bike whiskey oh okay so London to my right another Airfield to my left
um literally stuck in the middle of the two of them but I'm gonna make a right turn shortly
and uh here before my whiskey are you roughly going to be following the M25 round across the
QE2 down to assure them that way hey firm that's right we're going to take a ride shortly and go
overhead the QE2 for White Whiskey it's the right place to turn yeah it's the right place to fun
thing about the QE2 bridge is I went to school in Dartford I remember when they built that it
was only the Dartford Tunnel I see it straight ahead that's cool it was only the Dartford Tunnel
when I was growing up in the UK but then they built the QE2 bridge I remember when it opened
actually and now I'm using it as a navigation Aid to make sure that I don't bust London's airspace
so I'm guessing the Lars is like in air well we have an area frequency in Australia where we can
just uh talk to them and let them know what we're doing but I think there's more assistance here
in the UK I actually think it's quite good these last Services because like now I've got a traffic
service so as long as he can see the other pins he can help me maneuver away from traffic he's
not separating me from the other traffic like you were IFR and controlled airspace but it's
actually really good to have that extra pair of eyes on me from what I understand and let me know
in the comments for all you Pilots that fly in the UK I don't think you need to talk to anyone
because we're in uncontrolled airspace now but having that having that person there to talk to
I I kind of like why wouldn't you why wouldn't you do that wow and over to my right hand side if you
can see that that's London city of London actually get quite close coming across this way we should
be flying over Bran's hatch pretty soon which is close to where I used to live around here in Kent
in this area of Kent a near a place very small town called opford if you know it take Graham Hill
band I think I can see it up ahead yeah so that's Brad's hatch I used to spend a lot of my time down
here watching the Motorsport I think that's why I've got such a love for Formula One now I used
to come down to Branson that's where I kind of cut my teeth in my Motorsport they got some sort
of motorcycling I think that's going on at the moment it's a Moto GP Style the fuel tank change
done it's really easy in the turbo I don't need to play around with the mixture so much and the fuel
pump I just keep on all the time so things like fuel tank changes are literally for me it would be
fuel pump on switch the tank fuel pump off maybe have to lean the internet again with this is just
quite a lot of traffic around the UK now it's quite a bit of IFR above me which is
good because that's all above the clouds but not many of us just uh trying to get underneath the
clouds my aim by the way is I'm trying to get to the South Coast I'd like to get down to the South
Coast flying along here and apparently there's an Airfield called Shoreham which if you fly in the
UK I'm sure every pilot at some point has landed at Shoreham but apparently it's supposed to be
very nice and uh so I thought I would go and check it out Gatwick gatwicks over to my right
hand side even though I've flown in the UK before with people and obviously I've played in Australia
solo a lot and in some other countries overseas this is the first time I've ever flown as pilot
command and solo with no one next to me in my old home country this is quite a big deal for me
and of course we've got bad weather coming up up ahead when it comes to confidence I can normally
precede it with three different words when it comes to me my personality and my flying I can
either be suffering from overconfidence a or on good days I can have a degree of self-confidence
but on today's flight because the airspace was unfamiliar because I'd had the weather delay
beforehand because the aircraft was brand new things started building up on me maybe the anxiety
and the stress got to me a little bit and on this scale well I kind of ended up more more down here
774 Mike whiskey at what point would you like me to switch over to uh Shoreham approach oh crap
okay if it's getting used for the UK Aerospace so uh I'll let you know when I switch over hey just
be where you've got opposite direction traffic just departed them about eight miles same level
I got my tea cast but I'll keep an eye out thank you same with them for White Whiskey
therefore White Whiskey it depends a lot some people go really late some people go
really early age depends on the pilot usually so initially in a particular type of approach
then it's up to you really okay understood thank you for the advice I appreciate it
before like risky that traffic is now left at nine o'clock two miles left to right same level looking
for traffic still got them on tcats instead for my whiskey and November 774 Mike whiskey switching to
Shoreham approach one two three one five five now before that whiskey that's uh traffic well
behind you now nothing I've seen service terminate squawkcon security bye conspicuously welcome thank
you help me uh services sure I'm approached November 774 Mike whiskey November 774 Mike
whiskey show I'm taking off an impart your message vf5 series SR22 from L Street we are now eight
miles to your North East 1400 inbound unfamiliar with Aerodrome request joining instructions
so before my question that's understood thank you it's a basic service set score three seven six
three basic service and three seven six three for my whiskey before Mike whiskey from your
present position make a straight-in approach Runway 2-0 and report on the Four Mile final
Australian approach 2-0 and we'll report four miles seven seven four more whiskey
ah Aerodrome inside how good is that
and before Mike whiskey Runway 2-0 the wind 220 degrees one one not clear to land Runway
2-0 clear land 774 black whiskey and just confirming that's the uh asphalt
Runway correct before we escape so it's the uh hard Runway two zero thank you
all right sure okay this this could be my new favorite airport of all time actually even
though it's called Showroom on the radio this is also still technically known as
East Brighton airport and as well as general aviation people like me coming in and out of
here there's also some I think it's probably not Charter it's probably rpt transport air Albany
is one of them never heard of them before but they're logo it's got a freaking Puffin on it
thank you [Music]
so I think the thing about confidence is it's all right to be in any of those three zones but you
don't want to sit in those three areas for too long for example a little bit of overconfidence
can give you sometimes the courage to go out and do something you otherwise might not but
if you're overconfident all the time I think you could get into some problems in the same way that
if you lack confidence sometimes that's not a bad thing because maybe you'll be more extra cautious
about something you would have otherwise gone ahead and done but if you lack confidence all the
time you're never going to achieve anything and even if you feel self-confident in every single
thing you do with self-confidence sometimes comes complacent I think with confidence it really comes
down to just be aware of where you are and always realize that whatever your level of confidence is
it can be changed through education and experience like flying here to Brighton today
I feel really proud that I'm here and I flew here myself I think my confidence is
it's gone up a little happy with that
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