New neighbour

In the little cul-de-sac where I live, three of the five neighbours are renting their houses (hmmmm... is it me?). I now have a new Canadian neighbour called Martin with his two kids and his wife joining him a few weeks. So what better way to introduce myself, than offer them a flight around the local area to build their geographic knowledge?

Turns out he is very keen and we meet up at the airfield on Saturday with his step-son.

It is one of those showery days with good visibility and fortunately, easy to see and avoid showers. So I do the walk around slowly, explaining what I am doing and why. I give them a detailed safety brief then we load up. I plan on a short hop to Kemble, but via the overhead of Fairford (where Martin gets his shopping at the airbase).



Gloucester is busy, but I get away from 27 with a left turnout. I change to Brize Radar just before the ridge and tell them my plans. They give me clearance to clip the western edge of their zone and overfly Fairford as long as I remain clear of South Cernety (who are 'meat-bombing' as usual). I then set course for Kemble via the Cotswold water park to stay well south of South Cerney, but out of Lyneham zone. I call Kemble who are very good as usual and join left base for 26 with a curving, descending approach to stay inside and away from Kemble village. There is a bit of crosswind, so I crab into it and kick it off in the flare for a nice landing. Taxi and park up and over the the AV8 for coffee and aircraft watching.

Unfortunately, no jets at Kemble today. Only bit of fun was Ultimate High doing a formation take-off in the Extra 300's.

So we load up and take off for a bimble around the area before going back to Gloucester. I level out at 2200' over Stroud and as Martin to take the controls. He is a bit reluctant and I think I can see a 'death grip' as we start climbing slightly. So I tell him the 'think of the yoke as dog t*rds covered in tissue - that is how tight you should be holding it!'. I think he gets the picture!



After that and a chat about the picture of the horizon and flying visually, he holds a good height and heading. We fly over the Severn south of Gloucester, then head to Ledbury. We orbit around the iron age fort on the Malverns then I head to the west of the Malverns for some general handling. I check that they are both happy if I try some steep turns and sweep the area - I may as well have some fun! So I set myself a challenge to do a complete 360 turn each way, holding the height to within 50' either side of 2500', cranking in at least 50 degree AOB if not more and roll out on the original heading. First to the left which went very well, then to the right when I gained then had to lose 100' during the turn and rolled out 5-10 degrees before the chosen heading - well 50% isn't bad I suppose! Jackie in the back is enjoying it as he lets out some whoops in the steep turns.

We wander across to the north of Bredon Hill to Evesham. Along the way, I show Martin the primary and secondary effect of rudder and he has a go. Then we fly along the Cotswold ridge to Winchcombe then along to where we both live for a 'spot the house' orbit.

I get the ATIS then call Gloucester for rejoin. I hear on the ATIS that despite a wind at 260 they are giving runway 22 and saying runway 27 is out of action - sounds ominous!

I do a standard overhead join for 22 and crab into the crosswind. A bit fast in the flare so I float a while, then kick the crab off for a very soft landing (more luck than judgement I think!). Martin was pretty good and can hold height and a heading. Next time i'll show him turns and holding height in those.

We park up and get a few pictures. I ask at reception what the story was with 27 and was told that a 'Tiger' (Moth or AA5??) had an 'incident' and goudged the runway, so it was close until inspection and repair. No trace of a damaged aircraft or ambulances, so I hope everyone was OK.

On the way out I drop into Transair. Annie is sorting the new south of England maps which have just arrived - great, i'll have one! I recognise Manuel Queiroz (the round the world record attempt from Gloucester in an RV8) and have a chat. He is selling shares in his aircraft. 1/6th for £10000 plus monthlies. I am sorely tempted, but as there are two shares for sale in my current group, it is hardly the time to sell. But I will bear this in mind for the future as shares are bound to come up - 170kts in a two seat taildragger would be great fun!

Well, I now have the aircraft booked in for its annual on 4th September and will start the task of updating the logbooks. Next flying is hopefully more taildragging next week - hopefully some crosswind handling.

Solo Taildragging

Since I now work away from home during the week in Peterborough, I decided to give taildragging a try at the Northamptonshire School of Flying based at Sibson. So far I had managed three lessons, followed by an enforced break for the last three weeks while the Cub was on loan to another school and then for a further week due to a 28 kt crosswind.

On the last lesson I took three weeks ago, it really didn’t click. I arrived still stressed from work and frankly fought the aircraft around the circuit feeling it was a mortal enemy. I really should have known better and not gone up. As a result, my landings weren’t great except of course for the last one when I began to relax a little. It doesn’t matter how many hours you have, you can still screw yourself up! Anyway, I went away and thought long and hard about that. I swore that no matter how busy the day at work, I would relax on the way to the airfield and look forward to meeting my cuddly yellow friend, the Cub.

Well, I did just about managed that and was in a good and confident frame of mind and looked forward to feeling the aircraft and being part of it rather than at war! James was his usual self and gave me a thorough ‘remember this’ brief. Although there were CB’s about and a big one had passed half an hour earlier, they were easy to see looming up and the air was quite still, so we decided to go from the short runway 15 (at 550 m).

The first take off was OK, the run was not perfectly straight, but I caught it and James corrected me and got the nose further down, but I felt it was OK and off we went. James carefully directed me around the circuit to avoid any of the villages as most of the villages around Sibson obviously have residents who have lived there for 50 years or more and pre-date the founding of the airfield, so have every right to complain about the noise :-o. I have to say I felt I was ‘feeling’ the plane and got some reasonable co-ordinated use of controls.

The approach was good and I kept 70 mph on the way down and 65 mph over the hedge. As a result, I floated a lot, but held it off fine and didn’t balloon it for a nice landing. That reinforced my confidence and we trundled back for another take off. James encouraged me to approach at an even slower speed and blip the power if we were sinking too fast. This I did and the next landing was good. Two more and James (and I) was starting to believe that maybe this wasn’t a fluke and sent me off on a local. He said to bimble around Morborne TV mast area and experiment with the aircraft for a bit then come back and do two circuits. He wanted to see me stopped by the intersection – probably 150 metres or so – no pressure then!

So out he hopped and off I went. Of course the plane was very much lighter and far more responsive, so the tail was up quickly and before I knew it, we were flying. Hold it low to let the speed build and the wing start to work, then up into a climb to the south. I couldn’t resist a childish ‘wooo hoooo!’ on the radio – ‘Glad you’re enjoying it’ came the response. I climbed to 1200’ (funny how that seems high in the Cub, but low in the Arrow!) then tried some sustained slow flight on the back of the drag curve. This seemed to work well nicely nose high with power at 50 mph. Then I tried three stalls. Power off and nose up and up to sustain height, then at 40 mph, it mushed down and the height dropped off – no wing drop at all. Power on, nose down and recover. I was surprised at how little height was lost after the recovery.

I bimbled around where my wife used to live when I first met her (in Folksworth), the picked up the A1 and avoiding the dreaded villages, tracked it north back to Sibson. As I joined downwind for 15, another aircraft was due to take-off on 06. So I called as I passed through his extended centreline as I saw him start the take-off run – so civilised these ‘Radio’ fields and pilots seem to try so hard to make them work!

The first approach was nice, this time slower at 65 and 60 or slightly less over the hedge for a nice flare and a fairly long hold-off. I was light and obviously still a bit fast. Even so, I was amazed to see myself stopped at the intersection. James congratulated me on the radio and gave me a very generous 9/10 and said do it again. Off I went again and this time tried hard to park it on the numbers. Perhaps I tried a bit too hard as I came in at the low 50’s with a bit too much sink – a blip of power would have served nicely. Nevertheless, it was firm but fair and I was stopped pretty quickly and taxied to the hangar.

James was very kind and encouraging and remarked that he knew I was ready for a ‘proper’ solo when I was taxying out and that I was far more relaxed and in tune with the plane – high praise indeed.

Anyway, I marked up the logbook and was relieved of about £100. While James has not formally signed me off, he said he wanted me to go up again very soon by myself to consolidate today. So I agreed to tomorrow afternoon weather permitting. He said he would be happy for me to fly solo in light winds but wants to do one more lesson on crosswind and wheelers, then will sign me off ‘proper’.

I now have a total of 3.5 hours on the Cub and I am feeling good about it. Once signed-off, I’ll do a few locals and general handling then take up some of the braver work colleagues. I did comment on the Tiger Moth in the hangar and said that once I was signed off on the Cub, I fancied stepping up to a go in that. James surprised me when he said ‘If you can fly the Cub, the Moth is easy’. I certainly wouldn’t be that cocky about it, but I will give it a go – something about a biplane with an open cockpit and a sheepskin jacket really appeals!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself today and again learned the lesson of the value of relaxing into it while still concentrating.

Yours truly is a very happy camper tonight!


PS - My instructor made the local papers the following day because earlier in the day a nasty cell came over and a tornado touched down in nearby Baston. He was of course airborne at the time in the Tiger Moth and did a precautionary landing in a field and waited for the strom to pass.

Low, slow and draggy

I hadn’t flown the Arrow for a couple of weeks so I booked it for Saturday morning. The early weekend forecasts sounded good, with high pressure and nice clear skies. So imagine my surprise to open the curtains on Saturday morning to see drizzle and very low cloud. A quick look at the charts showed a weak warm front crossing very slowly with improving weather behind. So off I went to the airfield, planning a leisurely walk-round and maybe a late morning flight to nearby Upfield Farm and back.

Visibility wasn’t good but it was the cloudbase that was poor – giving scattered at 800’. So I waited and waited. Some fine drizzle sent the visibility to probably 2km and while I was waiting, the scheduled flight from Jersey did a go-around on instruments because they didn’t become visual and MDA. I spotted it going through the overhead through odd breaks in the cloud. Ten minutes or so later it came in.

By now the drizzle had stopped and clouds, though still low, had started to become more ‘hard-edged’ – so I thought, great, it is slowly starting to lift. I had long ago abandoned plans for Upfield Farm and booked out for circuits. The desk checked with the tower who said that low level circuits were all that was on offer and if the base was less than 500’, they would call me back in – no arguments from me!

So I started up and got going. I was ready for departure and got the speil from the tower, saying currently reported as 700’ and 5km visibility but that drizzle wascoming in from the north. I elected to go and off I went. All went well and I turned crosswind and climbed to nearly 800’ before getting very near the cloud. As I turned downwind I realised I couldn’t see the airfield – 5km?? You must be joking! I guess the drizzle came in faster than they thought. I would estimate it was 2km max. Anyway, I knew where I was and was clear of cloud with decent downward visibility. I called downwind to land – no point in circuits in this soup – unless I fancied inadvertent IMC and rusty NDB / DME approaches for real at minimums – no thanks!

On base, I caught sight of a distinctive, large ‘doughnut’ shaped building and knew that was a decent turning point for final on 27. So I did this and at about 1.5 mile final, spotted the PAPI’s on 27 in the murk. I was nicely lined up and good height with nil wind. Though I say it myself, it was my best landing for some time. With no one else about, I was given a backtrack and asked about conditions. I confirmed I broke off the circuits not due to cloudbase, but due to poor visibility in the drizzle.

So I got back and shutdown. I had the plane until 14:00 and could see the drizzle would pass soon, so I thought IO would use the time to give the plane a quick was and rinse on the upper surfaces, which were looking a little grubby following another members trek to Spain.

I went to the airport café for lunch and uh-oh! There was some sort of classic American car rally going on with country and western bands and US rebel flags etc. Not my cup of tea, so I grabbed a bacon baguette and a cup of tea and tried to sit as far away as I could. I was half-expecting to meet up with chap from Flyer Forum so I hung around until 13:00, but no show – he probably wouldn’t find me in the crowd anyway.



The weather was better now, with nice ‘hard-edged’ but low clouds and decent visibility, so I decided on a quick local to blow the cobwebs away. I started up, trundled out and was away from runway 27.

I decided on a quick round trip of the Malverns then back. I managed 1500’ easily and was up around 1800’ eventually with only the very odd, small cloud below me on occasions. Around about Bishops Camp (iron age fort) on the south of the Malverns, I spotted a huge gathering of tents and cars. I later found out this was ‘The Big Chill’ concert near Eastnor Castle. I gave it a wide berth and rounded the Malverns.

So I called up Gloucester at about 14 miles north and they offered a direct right base join for 27 with report at five mile. I established a gentle cruise descent to keep the power up and the engine temperature up (we are running it hard for the next 50 hours as one of the cylinders is new).

Came into an empty circuit heading for the doughnut at the right height as I lowered the gear and pulled flaps on to slow the plane down. Did the ‘Red / Green / Blue’ checks and turned final. Good angle, maybe a bit high, but no problem. Nice approach and hold it over the large displaced threshold. About the right height, start the round-out and flare – hold-off, more yet, more and down. A bit long but not bad. Given another backtrack and taxied back to shut down.

One of the other members is going up later, so I tidy it up and leave it out. I grab photocopies of the log so I can bash them into the spreadsheet than update the proper engine and airframe logs with the hours later.

The plane is running nicely and while it could use a proper clean and polish to get rid of all the fly-splats, it still looks good. The annual is due in mid-September, so I will leave it until after that.

Next up, some more taildragger training at Sibson – look forward to that!