Pleasant evening bimble

On checking the bookings for the plane, it seems that June is pretty popular, with a booking for every weekend now. So I thought I would get in early for July as I am planning on a couple of trips to France. Even so, a couple of weekends in July had already ‘gone’, so I booked two that were left, one for a Caen trip with my neighbour and another for a trip to Honfleur with the wife.

The Caen trip is on the same weekend as the huge RIAT Airshow at Fairford. That’s a pain because they will create a bloody great big RAT (Restricted Airspace) in a huge upside-down layer-cake arrangement directly between Gloucester and the south coast (where I need to head). No matter - a quick look at the charts and I will head south towards the ‘gap’ between Bristol and Lyneham, then coast out at Portland (if the Danger Areas are closed) routing to Cherbourg, then along the east coast of the Cotentin peninsula overflying the invasion beaches headed for Caen – should work nicely.

With the June weekends being heavily booked and things at work being very busy (with a one week business trip to India in early June), I decided to keep my newly-minted taildragger skills up to date with a quick local of an evening after work (blessed be the long summer evenings!).

The weather on Wednesday was pretty good – a bit like to opening sequence of the Simpsons – odd puffy clouds and light winds. Despite the forecast for rain by late afternoon, this had not happened by 15:00, so I checked the on-line booking and booked the plane for the evening. A quick trip back home to see if anyone wanted to come with me as self-loading ballast and my daughter’s boyfriend volunteered.

Drove the 20 minutes to the airfield and parked up. Quick check of the NOTAMS (can’t be too careful, even on a local, especially in the summer – I would hate to blunder into a Red Arrows display).

I booked out and checked the plane out. Amazingly, it had nearly full tanks – great, no trip to the pumps. The plane was in good order and I noted that the brakes had been serviced from the tech log.

Pulled the plane out and got in. Gave Rob another safety brief (he had one last time, but I wanted to go through the key safety points again, especially the seat belts and canopy opening / jettison). Started up and lit up the panel. The ATIS said basically that all runways except 27 were closed due to grass cutting and that the winds were 220 / 10 knots. OK, could be a crosswind here, but I am happy with 10 knots, so we set off.

The brakes were noticeable ‘rumbly’, but we had be warned that this might be so, so no drama.

Power checks OK and I was cleared for take off on 27. The windsock showed very little wind, so the wind had dropped since the ATIS, but be aware of a possible crosswind from the left, so a bit of left aileron and read with right rudder during the take off run. In the event, I didn’t seem to need any more than normal. The tail came up quickly and the RV started hopping merrily down the runway like an excited toddler heading towards the beach. I let her climb gently away which she did with the usual aplomb.

We turned on track to the north west and continued the climb to 3200’ (I always like to avoid round 1000’s and 500’s) and levelled out there. Top of climb checks and lean the mixture. Before I knew it, we were over the Malverns. Time for a few normal and steep turns! The RV handles steep turns really well and is a pleasure to fly.

I let Rob try a ‘normal’ angle of bank turn for a full 360 degrees. He is a keen Flight Simulator ‘pilot’ and it showed! He had his eyes glued to the instruments, especially the altimeter most of the time. I explained visual reference flying to him. I made a similar mistake when I was learning and was ‘rewarded’ by my instructor sticking a piece of paper over all the instruments and making me do a couple of manoeuvres purely visually, only to be rewarded by the ‘reveal’ when he took the paper away to see that I had only lost 100’ – so it can be done!

The visibility was much better than last time and Rob got some much better photographs.

Despite Gloucester being very quiet, I was spotting several aircraft in flight. None close enough to worry, but then if you can see them at all, it is a worry!

Over to Bredon Hill to check it is still there and I played ‘spot Croft Farm’ from a safe 4200’. We spotted it and heard at least two aircraft heading in to Croft Farm. While orbiting Croft Farm, we spotted to twin about 500’ above heading in a Brize Norton direction.

Over to my home village to ‘buzz the town’ (of course from the correct legal altitude – besides the village is so small, I have to turn around the outside). More pictures as I set course to the North East and climbed while getting the latest Gloucester ATIS. Winds had dropped and were minimal and variable (that’s what I like to hear).

Suitably organised, I headed back to base and called for rejoin over Gretton. The airfield had not combined TWR and APP frequencies and were very quiet (apart from turning around the scheduled Dornier commercial flight from the Isle of Man). I was given a direct long final join for 27.

I misjudged the height a bit and was too high and too fast over the racecourse – the RV is very slippery. So I pulled to power and held altitude to slow the plane. Once closed, I put some power in and started a sideslip. Managed to get to a sensible height over the distinctive ‘doughnut’ shaped office building (about 2 mile final). Called final and cleared to land. Speed slowed to flap limiting speed and dropped the flaps. Got 80kts and decayed this to the desired 70kts. I ran through the landing in my mind.

Good approach path, good speed, windsock hanging with the odd flicker at the bottom to show it was still alive – but barely – my kind of wind! Cleared to land and backtrack (they really ARE quiet). Over the hedge for 27, past the displaced threshold. Power off, fly level. Edge back on the stick, tiny movements as the elevators are powerful and sensitive. No balloon, back more, a bit more, stall warner starting to chirp, back more, more, wheels touch – bit of a small hop, back more, touch again and we stay down, stick fully back to anchor the tailwheel. We are down – good landing – pleased with that.

Carefully slowed the aircraft, gentle braking. Now going very slowly, carefully turn the plane around for the backtrack. I am possibly being too careful about this, but rather that than an embarrassing pirouette! Taxied back and shut down.

Lovely flight in good weather. I can’t wait to go touring now. I have two weekends booked in July, both for trips to France (weather permitting of course).

And no Manuel – I didn’t grease the fuel caps!