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!
