Much haze today, some of which was obviously between my ears, as my 'routine' profile to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight turned into a catastrophe. The visibility was down stated as being 6km, although looking into the sun it was more like 1.5km.
Without dwelling too much on the details, I received a routing from Bournemouth which didn't fit my planned track, so I had to improvise the navigation to the Island. Fortunately it is quite hard to miss, so no great panic there.
However arriving into Bembridge was not my best effort, partly because I've been there so many times in the Cessna 150. Keeping a tight circuit is easy at around 80 kts with one engine, but in the Duchess, a little more planning and distance are required. Needless to say the first circuit was rushed and I was too fast, too high and too close to the runway without being ready.
So we 'went around' (aborted the landing) and tried again. The second and third circuits were better, but the overall flight was not satisfactory and so I will need to do it again tomorrow. Same sortie, hopefully better weather and hopefully a more alert and concentrating pilot.
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