Flooding and Sea Kings at Gloucester

Where I live in on the Gloucestershire / Worcestershire border was the subject of ‘biblical’ rains on Friday. It started the Thursday evening and didn’t let up to drizzle until Saturday morning. When I say ‘biblical’, I mean it was the sort of rain that would get you very wet dashing from the back door to jump in your car in the driveway! The weathermen said we got 2 months average rainfall in 24 hours and I for one believe them!

Few of the local houses were flooded, but there was a near river running down Gretton Road outside my house covering the entire road up to the top of the kerb. They say there used to be a small stream there in the old days and it would seem that nature has a better memory than man!

My wife took three hours to drive back from her work in Gloucester (about 15 miles) and even then had to park at Cheltenham Racecourse and walk 4 miles, once wading up to her thighs to get home.

I was due to pick up my buddy from Canada on Saturday morning from Heathrow and was really worried I wouldn’t be able to make it. The alarm went off at 05:00 and it was still raining, but not as hard. So I set out hoping to get through. I expected empty roads at this time of the morning, but was greeted by traffic I would normally expect on a normal weekday!

I made it to Bishops Cleeve (1.5 miles!) and stopped dead in a traffic queue backing up from the flooded Smiths Industries roundabout. I did a u-turn and used my local knowledge to drive past the school to Southam and Prestbury. There were loads of abandoned cars at all angles along the main road. In Prestbury, the main road was closed, but I diverted around the back streets and made it through. Once on the A40, it went well. Around Oxford, it stopped raining and the clouds lifted a bit. By the M25, it was broken cloud and sun! Needless to say, Dan was early and made it through from the time the aircraft switched off engines to arrivals in 15 minutes – a new world record.

Sunday was a much better day locally. Although by midday it was threatening rain again, we decided to take a trip to the airfield for lunch and maybe a local to look at the extent of the flooding. We got there to be greeted by the site of two RAF rescue Sea King helicopters and their crew taking lunch in the Aviator. It took a while to get served, but all the while the weather improved and we even spotted a few blue bits, then the sun poked through! The weather was improving all the time.

Lunch cleared away, we went airside to take some photos of the Sea Kings. While doing so, a couple of the crew arrived and kindly offered to show us around. We had a good look around and I was astonished to learn that the pilots had to climb through the gap in the seats to sit up front, there were no doors – only one precarious spot to plant your foot on some blanking plates. Put a foot wrong and you would wipe out some expensive looking avionics – but the lady pilot merely shrugged and said ‘you get used to it’.







They really are big, solid beasts.

I went back to the terminal to book out and met the SATCO at the desk. Darren told me that Gloucester was the centre of the rescue effort on Friday and Saturday and that they had put people winched out of their home up in the terminal overnight and that it was just starting to wind-down now. The Sea Kings were due out later and were likely to impose restricted airspace around Tewkesbury and Upton to protect their flying operations.

Unfortunately, when I got to the aircraft, there was no key for the ignition on the coaming as I expected. Last week, the other owner of the plane had a problem with the ignition and mag’s barrel that the key goes into and couldn’t select both mags. With a local repair in France he made it back to the UK and immediately got Aeros (our maintenance organisation) to take a look. They confirmed it was shot (it is a 1959 aircraft after all) and replaced it, hence my need of a new key.

So unfortunately, no flying today. But we did get the unexpected bonus of having a look around some rescue Sea Kings and a chat to the crews.

I think Gloucester airfield did a lot of good for themselves the way the worked for the community in this recent crisis. It served as an ideal base for the rescue effort with all the facilities already on site that the Sea Kings would need. And let’s face it, Tewkesbury, Upton and most other places on the Severn often get a pasting from floods on a yearly basis – although there is no doubt that this is the worst that anyone can remember.

Perhaps the planners and NIMBY locals should remember this before they decide that the airport would be far better as a massive housing estate!

Canada Dan's third 'official' lesson

Some of the Flyer Forum guys will remember the 'larger than life' Canada Dan. He was a regular flying companion with me and a very good 'auto-pilot'. When he went back to Canada, I bought him an introductory flying lesson at his local airport in Ottawa, Canada. Well he finally got around to taking this flight and I couldn't resist publishing his email here.

Wow! That was really awesome! Nice day with lots of huge white clouds, some bursting into rain. I told the instructor, young man in his mid 20s, that I had some experience flying before in the UK and Europe. He had a quick look at the two entries in my pilot log book and seemed puzzled at the unusual entries... circuit flying and aerobatics! Still, it seemed to be enough for him to let me take the controls from the time we sat in the plane until we returned from this "intro" flight.

I must admit when he told me to taxi to the departure point and get the plane into the wind for system checks, I became a bit nervous. I had only once before touched the brake pedals and I didn't want him to know that I was unfamiliar with them. I also quickly found out why you always had an easier time than me to swivel the plane around, much easier when you are in control of the brakes.

VQQR C-172 was identical to GBRI you took out in December, so that helped me a little. I knew where the throttle, trim and flaps were and also remembered there were no variable pitch prop. So I think I was confusing him further because of the little experience in the log book, but still seemed to know my way around the cockpit.

So it is with full throttle and slight pressure on the right rudder that I initiated my 30 minute flight over Ottawa and the Gatineau hills. I rotated at 55 kts and maintained a climbing speed of 70 kts as instructed by Andrew. I did remember what you told me about the Cessna... it wants to take off on it's own with sufficient velocity.. and I did notice it as I hardly touched the yoke and off the ground we were. I started to turn right immediately after take-off as I still had my foot on the right rudder, but that was ok because this was normal protocol to avoid flying over local residences... so again, it just looked like I was doing all the right things.

"Aim for those smoke stacks and climb to 1700ft"... this is when I started to realize he was going to let me fly the whole way and already, my mind was starting to go through circuit and landing motions... well, the ones I saw you go through, over and over again. Then we went port side toward Meach lake, and always wanting to impress him, I initiated a 30 degree turn, leading with left rudder while staying level. Again, I surprised the crap out of myself because the turn seemed so smooth and level. Andrew wasn't saying much at this point [Steve - were his eyes bulging from the suppressed scream in his throat?] other than pointing out some scenic landmarks (lakes, ridges etc.).

We climbed to 3000ft then turned back East heading for the airport. Descended back to 1700ft where we flew over the runway to check for circuit traffic as this is an uncontrolled runway (don't remember exact term). One plane in the circuit on base, so there wasn't much to worry about at this point... well, maybe worrying a bit about what was coming next. "I want you to turn right and descend to 1200ft". As I was descending 500ft and doing a 30deg starboard turn and leveling while in turn, I said to Andrew: "descending, leveling in a turn while getting ready to land, can I do anything else?" I guess my way of saying: bring it on! I can handle it.

By this time, I'm on a high and filled with anticipation. I know what's coming next as we are turning downwind. I heard his downwind radio announcement then he starting going through the "breaks, undercarriage, mix, pump, fuel etc..." and I knew next turn was base and flaps were next. "10 deg flaps he said". So I reached over without really looking at the switch and lowered it one notch. He didn't say anything so I assumed that was 10 degs. "Another 10" he asked and we are turning right for final.

A million things are going through my head at this point... I kept hearing your voice saying "picture, picture, picture" and I kept reminding myself that "throttle controls the altitude and the yoke speed". I kept the plane at 70 kts, as requested and the picture was right. I mean, it was dead on! Beginner's luck I guess. Over runway 27 markings (yes, same as Gloucester), I started to pull, maybe a bit early as I felt a bit of flaring... oops. But the Andrew said that's fine, "just hold and try to prevent the plane from touching ground" - Where did I hear that before? ;-)

No stall warnings, but a landing straight in the middle of the runway, which felt awesome! Grinning from ear to ear, I asked the instructor if at any time he felt worried to have given full controls to someone with almost no experience... he said that I have "a "knack for it, especially not having flown for over a year". I realize that he has to say that to try to get me into spending a few bucks at the club [Steve - No, really, I think you do - you are a lot more 'natural' than me]. Nevertheless, I still think I did extremely well... all thanks to you, Steve!

Yesterday, was like everything was coming together, from the take-off to the flying around to the landing. What a feeling!!! All I need now, is a few bucks to complete the training.

Steve, thanks for the wonderful gift.

My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it buddy. See you Saturday and I look forward to our flying trip at the end of July!

RIAT 2007

I like to get to RIAT at least once every two years and this year I was due. Spoke to my Canadian neighbour and after a few gulps at the price (converted to Canadian Dollars), he decided to go with his step-son.

Originally, we decided on Sunday as my wife was due at an all day conference for her work. But on checking the weather forecast, Saturday looked do-able and Sunday look truly horrible- solid rain with severe weather warnings. So I had a quick chat with Martin and we decided to make it Saturday instead.

I packed the lunch and we packed up the ‘camp’ – chairs, binos, lunch, airband scanner – all of life’s little essentials! On the road from just north of Cheltenham at 0830 – we hit traffic just crossing the bridge from Cirencester – from my previous experience, this didn’t bode well! So it transpired! We crept along slower than someone would walk and finally parked up at 10:45. I don’t understand how two years ago it flowed so smoothly and this year it was such a cock-up – you would have thought that if they got it right once, they could just copy the traffic flow for following years – and no, it wasn’t particularly because all of Sunday’s crowd had made it Saturday – the crowds there looked like a regular sized RIAT crowd to me. Almost make me wish I had decided to fly-in, but then I thought about the £250-odd landing fee – no, I can’t bring myself to pay that!

While queuing, the airshow had started and I glimpsed what I though at first might have been a Hunter, or was it a Mig 17? No, I eventually decided it was an F86 Sabre – I was fuming at missing this! We also saw a Chinook in the distance doing amazing things.

We eventually parked up and pitched camp. We watched the American display team in F16’s, the Thunderbirds. A lot fewer aircraft than the Red Arrows and a good display. I didn’t think it quite as good as the Red Arrows, but the impressive manouver they did was a formation ‘all-aircraft-as-one’ flick roll – wow, that was impressive!

We wandered around the static park. Martin of course noticed an unusual RCAF aircraft and wandered over to speak to the guys. This was ¼ of the total strength of the RCAF navigation training wing who had flown in from Winnipeg. They were purely here for the airshow and were flying back at the end – seemed a bit mean to me – why not give them a few days in the UK to do some navigation training in Europe and to see some sights?

Loads of Hercules around, but the winner had to be the Greek Air Force Hercules, complete with appropriate tail art. I think the Greek writing translates roughly as ‘big plane – small willy!’.



Saw the F117 and some lovely vintage aircraft, including a Chance Vought F8 Crusader, various C47 Dakotas, Mustangs and the lovely F86 Sabre.





The weather improved to be about the best day for 7 or 8 weeks as the Red Arrows managed their ‘full height’ display – probably for the first time this year. They really are excellent, with a lot going on.



The four ship Spitfire flight was great and even better was the formation flypast of the Red Arrows with three spitfires.

The B1B and F15 shook the ground by liberal use of afterburners.

Personally, I think the best individual display should go to the beautifully painted F16 of the Belgian Air Force – that silver, black and gold scheme is a real head-turner.

We left just gone 16:00 to beat the traffic. A really good day and got my ‘spotter’ fix for the next year or so. I also got the required ‘airshow sunburn’ on my face and now look like a Racoon!

Wye Valley and the Flyer Summer Bash

With the Flyer Summer Bash being held this year at my home airfield, Gloucester, I could hardly fly in. So rather than feel a fraud, I decided the least I could do was to go for a local flight in the morning – that and the fact that the weather has stopped me flying anywhere near as much as I would like to.

I wandered down to the airfield early, about 08:50 to find the terminal closed, so I used the side gate. Opened up the hangar and pulled the plane out. I gave her a decent walkaround check and prepared her for flight. I saw that my fellow groupie had taken her to Dinard during the week and she had plenty enough fuel for a local.

I spot a lovely De Havilland Dove aircraft parked outside one of the hangars and cannot resist having a look and taking some photos – God! Am I turning into a spotter??!!

I wandered back to the terminal to book out only to find it brimming with people (looks like a charter for the KingAir on stand 1). The very harassed receptionist takes my details and back I trek.

She starts up easily, I take the ATIS and taxi to A2 for 27. Quite a few aircraft are on the move now and I am No 2. After power checks, I get clearance and take-off on 27 with a 10 degree right noise abatement turn.

The weather is very good. Scattered cumulus with bottoms at 2500’ and tops at 4500’. The visibility is superb. All of the terrible recent weather has cleared the air and visibility is about as unlimited as it gets in the UK.

I climb to 2400’ and head SW along the Severn and along the ‘bends in the river’. The river is at low tide, exposing large mud flats. I decide to check out Upfield Farm near Newport, so head to the Severn bridges. Past that and I spot the cream coloured concrete runway from distance away. I will land there one day, it is plenty long enough, just a bit narrow for me personally to try it in anything other than conditions of light wind.

I spot what looks like a biplane landing underneath me as I give the airfield one orbit before tracking back to Chepstow for a trip along the Wye Valley.

The Wye Valley looks lovely and I am seized with a desire to descend and fly along it at 500’ with the valley side towering above me. But I resist and wimp along at 2400’ instead!



I follow the river as it twists and turns, craning in steep-ish turns just for the sheer joy of it. I start to fantasize about doing a slow roll – but as neither I nor the aircraft is cleared for aerobatics, perhaps not! I am not sure how much longer I can resist the lure of doing a basic aerobatics rating.

I head up to Hereford, taking care to avoid the restricted areas to the north west – certain gentlemen in barracks there might not like it – and I wouldn’t want to p*ss them off!

I head on over to the Malvern ridge aiming for North Camp on the northern tip of the ridge. For the fun of it, I fly down the western edge of the ridge at 2000’ for Midsummer Hill near the southern end, then for the joy of it, I crank in a steep turn over the iron-age hill fort there.

I do another circuit of the Malverns then dial in the Gloucester ATIS and call for a rejoin.



I am given a standard overhead join for 27 as they are busy. Descending deadside, I spot an aircraft rolling for take-off and keep a good eye on him to make sure I avoid him on the crosswind. I call mid-downwind and am told I am No 4! I spot the diminutive Robin ATL in front, but quickly lose him again while I am doing the downwind checks.

I try to spot him but fail, so turn base and call for a traffic update. He must have cut a much closer base leg than me as he is now on 1 mile final. I turn final and bring the plane under control for height and airspeed.

Reasonable approach, with minimal wind and no crosswind. I flare a try to hold off for as long as I can. I am surprised at how slow it seems to fly when the stall warner chirps and we touch. I manage to brake sensibly and again the plane is well under control by the first intersection. For a plane that runs the approach at 80 kts, it is surprising how short you can land it when you want to (I wasn’t particularly trying, but it beats the TB10 and the Arrow).

I taxi in and shut down. The chief mechanic at Aeros is kind enough to help me put her back in the hangar – she is a heavier aircraft than the TB10 and the Arrow and does tend to leave me puffing!

It was such a lovely day and I felt so good and carefree about flying that even something as tame as a local along the Wye Valley made me feel quite uplifted and satisfied.

I mooch along to Transair and pick up the two maps I am missing for my Europe trip at the end of the month.

I spot some of the crowd I went to Italy with last year coming out of the terminal for the Flyer Bash and say hello. I was planning on staying around the airfield and taxi people to the hotel for the Flyer bash, but I see that the Flyer people have laid on a mini-bus, so I head home instead.

The rest of the afternoon is still spent on aviation related activities though! I put my unexpected free time to good use by detailed planning, plate printing and map marking for the trip at the end of July with Canada Dan. The trip is:

GLOSTER – KOBLENZ – LAUSANNE – BLOIS – ABBEVILLE – GLOSTER.

We will see my erstwhile next door neighbour in Lausanne (he lives there as he works for the Olympic committee). The timing is good as 1st August is Swiss national day and there will be some great fireworks over Lake Geneva.

So a great trip in the offing – if only the weather will play ball!

The Flyer Bash in the evening went well as I met a number of people I flew out to Italy with as well as some new faces (but familiar forum names). Always nice to put faces to the names!

Manuel Querioz was the guest speaker. This guy flew around the world in an RV7 from Gloucester trying for the world record for that class of aircraft. He didn’t managed to break the record, held by very poor weather in Hawaii.

Having seen both Polly Vacher recently and now listened to Manuel, I am stuck by the fact that the most amazing thing about them both is that there is nothing amazing about them! I know they would agree. They are just ordinary pilots who started the same way as the rest of us, and certainly for Manuel, has the same ratings as many of us. But they are extraordinary in that they were driven to do something quite amazing.

We could all do what they did. I don’t mean in any way to detract from their achievements, quite the contrary, because in reality very few will ever do anything remotely close to their achievements. But you know what? That’s OK if it’s OK with you. The crime would be to look back and say ‘you know, I wanted to fly around the world but…..’. As Manuel so aptly said – ‘life is not a rehearsal!’.

Personally, I don’t yearn to fly around the world. My flying dreams are limited to far more mundane activities - learning aeros and doing solo aerobatics and flying floatplanes in Canada (no – not doing both at the same time!) and the way I see it, I am well on my way.