Tatenhill

OK - Had the plane booked for a landaway on Saturday and really wanted to go to Caernarfon, but only if the weather was top notch - no point in risking anything in icing conditions over Welsh hills.

So of course the weather was forecast to have an occluded front coming into precisely that part of Wales in the afternoon, so despite a hopeful looking sky in the early morning, I decided to switch to the alternate - Tatenhill.

Only reason I wanted to go there was simply because I haven't been yet, so a bit of 'airfield collecting' to keep my hand in over the winter months is pretty much what I try to do.

The weather wasn't great with some low, thin and scattered cloud at anywhere between 2200' at Gloucester, to 1500' at Wolverhampton. Then a big clear gap up to the next layer at 6000'. Tempting to go between the layers, but that would have been in sub-zero temperatures, and if the lower layer decided to close up and go solid, I could be in a bit of a pickle trying to take a sub-zero airframe through visible moisture - so I decided against that and in favour of 'scud running' (that, plus the actuals at Tatenhill were excellent, so the clag was west and it was much better east).

Uneventful trip up there. Routed almost due north and turned west of Wolverhapton, 2 miles outside their ATZ and went between them and Cosford to Tatenhill. Sure enough, with about 25 miles to run the lower cloud and most of the upper layer disappears and there is streaky, high cloud and sunshine!

Spotted Tatenhill easily enough and did a direct left downwind join for their runway 26, with a crosswind of something like a quoted 330 at 13 kts. Approach was fine, but again allowed it to get a little too slow and didn't managed much of a flare before landing. This aircraft is clearly very draggy with everything down - learning point for next time.

A paltry landing fee of £8 was all we paid. Tatenhill is a nice little airfield and the canteen lady was very cheerful and helful indeed and made us feel very welcome.


Going back to the plane, we spotted a nice yellow T6 Harvard WW2 trainer in authentic RCAF Canadian markings - so of course, I had to have some photos. I am very much looking forward to my birthday treat flight in the T6 at Shoreham in the spring - the size of the aircraft is amazing - its huge!


Got back to G-GYMM, started up and away in reasonably short order. Weather was fine again until we got close to Wolverhampton and we were down to around 1300' to stay out of the low stuff. Fumbled my way between Wolverhampton and Cosford, then set course straight to Gloucester. By about Kidderminster, the cloud started to lift and we could climb to a heady 2500' AND have something like a horizon - bliss!

Given a standard overhead join for 36 right hand circuits. We got into a busy circuit and were forced fairly far out on base to hold distance from a Cessna. I did my best to keep my distance and pulled everything vaguely draggy on pretty early. We were given a late clearance to land when it was clear the Cessna had just vacated the runway. A much better landing with the extra few knots and a nice flare this time.

The aircraft behaved fine, except that the anti-collision light seems to have gone (again) and the plane was still covered in bird poo from being in the hangar - there are birds in the front roof beam. We need to get Gloucester to sort this out before I bring an air rifle in myself - you really dont expect to pay what we pay for hangarage only to have your paint attacked by acid bird droppings!

Anyway, another fun flight to keep my hand in. More of the same over winter, then probably some IMC refresher instruction in the spring.

First landaway in G-GYMM

Now that we have bought the Arrow 2 from Leland at Cranfield, the group have a new aircraft to fly. All of this went through while I was on holiday in the USA, so one of my first tasks was to take it up for a local last week to get used to the handling and especially the panel. An uneventful ‘maiden flight’ around the local area at 130 kts IAS was enough to convince me to book the aircraft for a landaway.

Where to go? Not too far given the short days and winter weather, but a long enough trip to get really settled in and see what the plane can do and somewhere with a bit of tarmac (not grass in this weather). So I decided on Peterborough / Conington. It then occurred to me that there might be a free landing voucher somewhere – sure enough, one for November in ‘Pilot’ magazine, so I bought the mag specifically for the voucher!

I went to the airport on Sunday midday with my usual ‘self-loading baggage’ - Dan. In the terminal of ‘Gloucestershire International’ I spotted a work colleague. He was showing his brother-in-law around who plans to move to the UK and maybe bring his aircraft with him. He flies a Rockwell Commander 112 around Joburg and might fly this up to the UK and base it here. We chatted about flying in the UK and basing in the local area in particular and I have since sent him a few useful UK web links.

I check the aircraft out while Dan cleans the bird poo off the aircraft. Although it is hangared, it turns out that the birds are too! We must speak to the airfield about that. As always, it is low on fuel. So we hauled it over to the pumps to re-fuel. During the checks, I had a bit of a problem with the intercom and the squelch level. A bit of fiddling with some unfamiliar and very modern panel instruments soon revealed separate pilot and passenger squelch and volume controls.

That done, it is the shortish taxy out to 36 for power checks and take-off. Clear to take-off so I line up and apply full power. A healthy boot of right rudder (well – more that I am used to) keeps her straight on the roll and we rotate at 65 kts. She climbs very well once the dangly bits are raised and we set course NE to DTY then to Conington.

The weather is great, a few ‘fair weather cumulus’ at 2500’ and lovely blue sky above. So I elect to climb above the clouds as the gaps between are huge and I can easily get down again without an instrument let-down. Up at FL45, I call Brize Radar who give my FIS to DTY where I change to Sywell. What a great day for flying and very good visibility heading east. The plane handles well and is easy to trim. I add a bit of rudder trim to correct a slight left drift of the aircraft. Well, it really is 130 kts IAS at 24/24 – although the GPS show groundspeed as 115 kts, so some kind of headwind component.

Before I realise it, we are over Sywell and I switch to Conington and have to start thinking about losing some height and slowing the plane down. Conington are giving 28 left hand and they are pretty busy by the sounds of it. I do a standard overhead join and slot into circuit traffic for a not terribly good crosswind landing.


Anyway, we are down as I backtrack for parking – but where? The place is very busy, but fortunately an aircraft is taxying out, so I take their space.

I used to live in this part of the country, so the flat landscape does not come as a surprise. But it is a very nice looking airfield and we get a good welcome in the clubhouse. Unfortunately, with the landing voucher and the excellent weather, the place had been all but cleaned out on Saturday and much of the menu is off – including bacon sandwiches!!

We down our food and coffee and I go on a wander of the apron. Nice and varied selection of parked aircraft, including an RV4 dressed up like a Mustang and complete with three (yes, three!) GPS’s – two in the back and one in the front – someone is keen not to get lost! The hangar has some lovely aircraft (looks like it might be a paint shop) with a nice Commander and a Maule on floats.


Back to my own recently acquired aircraft for start-up. I did know the 200 hp injected engines could be tricky to start – quite different from the standard Lycoming 0-360. Anyway, a couple of ‘warm engine’ start routines has it running. We line up and take off holding the extended centreline to clear the local villages before turning en-route.

This time, I climb to FL40 and squint my way back to DTY – flying west into the low sun and the now ‘dusty’ horizon make for poor visibility. My passenger has the hang of the aircraft, so I try the auto-pilot again. It does very well too, but as Dan points out ‘It can’t hold the height like me!’ – Dan has competition! Our airspeed again is exactly 130 kts IAS at 24/24, but this time with 145 kts groundspeed. We are fairly whipping along compared to what I am used to.

Brize throw me away with 25 mile to run so I contact Gloucester and start to descend to slow the plane down. They are now on 04 with left hand circuits and I am given direct downwind join not below 1500’. I report downwind and am cleared to descend to 1000’ QFE circuit height and number 2 to land. The Cessna in front is pulling quite a wide circuit and is some way further out on base than I would be, so I am forced to go further out than I would like. I do my ‘Red / Green / Blue’ finals check and the aircraft is nice and slow at 80 kts with all flaps. I am cleared to ‘land after’ and do so with a much better landing than at Conington.

Taxy clear and shut down and write up the log (noting the anti-collision light failure). Just as I have finished, Garry, one of the other group members rocks up. As it is now 16:00, he can only be wanting a night flight, so I give him the bad news – no anti-coll, no night flight! We swap experiences with the intercom which he was struggling with last flight.

All in all an excellent and very smooth flight. I think I am getting used to this aircraft very quickly, hardly surprising as I trained on PA28’s. With an aircraft flying 130 kts IAS at 38 litres and hour fuel burn, I am very much looking forward to some multi-leg trips around Europe and Scandanavia!

Air Combat USA!

Went on a special birthday holiday to the USA at the end of October with the wife, so minimal flying content, except that as a special treat, I had booked the all day ‘Fighter Lead In Program’ at the famous ‘Air Combat’ outfit in Los Angeles. Fighter pilot for a day – yep, that got my attention – not cheap, but I would get to throw a high performance plane around the sky and shoot the bad guys! I had this booked on the second last day of my holiday on Tuesday 1st November.

I turned up at Fullerton airfield in Buena Park, near Anaheim in LA at 0930 and saw on the board that I was (as expected) slated for two flights. I was welcomed by the instructors for the day, ‘Nails’ and ‘Party’. Both are ex-Navy pilots of different generations. Nails flew F8’s and Party (Marty Stowe) flew F14’s and now flies for American Airlines. One of Marty’s claims to fame is that he is in a scene from the film ‘Top Gun’ as he was in the navy at the time.

I was partnered with Marty and he helped me suit up with a natty USAF flight suit, helmet with integrated headphones, parachute and lifejacket. We went through the safety drills then sat down to the pre-flight briefing.

Flight 1

First flight was for both me and my ‘enemy’ to practice manoeuvres that would place us in a position bring guns to bear. These included high and low yo-yo’s, loops, high speed turns and barrel rolls etc. The principles and importance of ‘lead and lag’ were explained as were the rules of engagement (hard deck at 2500’, no forward quarter engagements, lose sight, lose the fight etc).


Following the briefing, we went out to the aircraft, me to the Extra 300 (yippee) and my foe to the Marchetti 260. The company dictates that the instructor must do both the take off and landing, but apart from that and demonstrations of manoeuvres, I flew for the rest of the time.

As I am 6’ 2” and 210lbs, you don’t so much get into the Extra 300 as put it on! I flew from the front seat and had only two dials to worry about, airspeed and altitude. The visibility in the bubble canopy was fantastic. It was a warm and sunny day and I fully expected to get roasted the minute we buttoned up, but it wasn’t too bad as it was not at all humid – not something I am used to from the UK.

I have not done any formation work before so was pleased that we were going to fly formation out to the aerobatic area off the coast south of Long Beach and east of Catalina Island. I found the formation work not as difficult as I expected (possibly because the leader was holding a very stable course), but it certainly does take concentration and fine adjustments, it must be easy to get it wrong and attempt to ‘over-control’ and end up chasing too many things at once.

After checking the alignment of the gunsights and tracking on each other in turn, he then played the part of the ‘dumb bogie’ and maintained a steady 30 degree turn while I carried out low and high yo yo’s. All good fun, but reasonably tame, pulling no more than 3G or so. We practiced one loop (which was brilliant fun) and I was invited to do a few aileron rolls (aka victory rolls) which I duly did. The first was a bit ropey, but the rest felt much better.

After this, back to base, again with me holding the rear formation slot. I handed over close to the airfield where Marty carried out a sort of formation ‘run and break’ join using a military style ‘racetrack’ circuit and sideslipping final approach (as the Extra 300 has no flaps, is a taildragger and has a huge nose which you can’t really see over). I have to say, he really greased it on with a perfect 3 pointer nice and gentle with no hint of a bounce.

The debrief was carried out on two video screens, showing one of the three camera views from each aircraft so that we could see what both aircraft were seeing and doing at the same time. What a good learning tool that was.

Following the debrief, we re-hydrated, drained the lizards and relaxed for an hour or so while the planes were refuelled.

Flight 2

Full briefing again with a reprise on the basic combat manoeuvres, then out to the planes and airborne. Again, my chance to get some formation flying in as we flew out to the area.


On arrival at the area, we gained height up to about 6000’, then positioned so that we crossed in opposite directions flying ‘left to left’ level at about 160kts. At this point the instructors announce ‘fights on!’ and we manoeuvre as previously practiced to try to get on the opponents tail. It is fair to say that the instructors are advising you a fair bit and keeping a good lookout for the opponent, but the certainly expect you to watch the opponent yourself and have your own intercept ideas.

I try a low yo yo, but overdo it by pulling waaaayyy too hard in turn and induce a high speed stall. Started with wing buffet then quickly ‘snap rolled’ me out of the turn as it dropped a wing. I realised my opponent was gaining in the turn, so promptly did the same thing again, and again and again! This was not helped by my opponent’s instructor cheating on the radio by saying ‘pull harder Steve!’, which I obligingly did! My opponent put me out of my misery and shot me down as the Extra 300 obligingly belched smoke to indicate the kill.

After a few words of advice from Marty, we start the second engagement. I won’t bore anyone by describing each engagement in details (6 in total) and will jumble them up and generalise. Bottom line is that I won the next 5 engagements (although I think my opponent, who was an Air Combat pilot-in-training, was being kind to me). My opponent’s instructor tried the same ‘radio dis-information’ thing on the last fight, but I had by this time I had learned!

Highlights were at least two loops with half rolls on the way down, a couple of successful yo yo’s and other manoeuvres that clocked up nearly 1G negative and 5.3G positive on the ‘G-metre’. It is absolutely amazing to pull hard loops and rolls and see the sea and the sky change places and at crazy angles – just like a simulator except that you don’t have the radio chatter, not to mention the G to worry about.


I have to say that although I felt the G I didn’t seem to notice it too much as I was fixated on getting behind my opponent. On a few occasions, my instructor asked if I was OK as I suspect he didn’t want the inside of his Extra 300 pebble-dashed with vomit. I was having far too much fun to feel sick and felt absolutely fine throughout. I think it is easier if it is you flying the manoeuvres rather than being a passenger.

After a couple of victory rolls, I rejoined the Marchetti in formation and returned to Fullerton.

After the landing, I had just got out and into the flight centre when my wife turned up after a heavy day’s shopping to join us for the debrief. I have to say (and my wife commented) that Marty looked drenched in sweat while I was fine – perhaps it is a lot harder having a green student throw you around the sky in unexpected moves from the back seat – of course it could just be that it was a hot day!

The mistakes of the first flight were highlighted and potential opportunities that I could have taken in other flights suggested. All useful learning points.

Conclusion

As part of the program, I got a ‘free’ A2 leather flight jacket with the appropriate badges to sew onto them. I mentioned to my new American friends that I would get laughed / sniggered at back in the UK for having badges on the jacket. They looked confused and asked why – I just couldn’t explain and frankly don’t care anyway – the badges are going on, so smirk all you like! I really do find the American view of things so much more like my own, perhaps it is my Canadian background?

Oh, and the handle they bestowed one me was agreed to be ‘Grimace’ after they saw the determined facial contortions I was using on the videocam trying for the kill – total concentration is my excuse!

Did I have fun and was it worth £1000 odd? ABSOLUTELY!

What a FANTASTIC day and what a nice bunch of people. I got to:

• Throw an Extra 300 around the sky,
• Try formation flying for the first time,
• Perform many of the basic aerobatics unaided,
• Log a total of 2.5 hours as P U/T,
• Shoot the bad guys down 5 times (he was being kind),
• Have an A2 flying jacket that I can cover with badges,
• Shot full of enough adrenaline to last for a month,
• Full videos of both sessions that I can bore people with for hours,

IT REALLY DOES NOT GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS!

Now, if the ‘Ultimate High’ in the UK can equip their aircraft with gunsights, cameras and smoke and whistle up LA style predictable weather, I would be over to Kemble like a shot.

PS - To my wife's friends (you know who you are) - Yes - I am a spoiled brat!