I had planned on a landaway on Sunday, but the pressure of personal commitments meant that I could only spare the time for a local. The week leading up to Sunday had been truly horrible, with very high winds and lashing rain, but oddly, Sunday was pretty good. A few scattered low clouds that were probably going to lift and a light wind meant the plane would at least get an airing.
I decided to head west to see either the Welsh hills or at least Ross on Wye and Hereford for the likely flooding from the recent rains.
When I saw the RV in the hangar, my heart sank – it has a yellow high-vis vest on the propellor and a large wheely bin in front of the wing blocking it being pulled out unless I moved the bin. All of this smacked of someone else in the group spotting a technical problem with the plane and marking it as unserviceable, which was strange as I had no emails from anyone to that effect. I pulled out the tech log where we all record comments on snags with the plane and there was nothing relevant in it. I pulled the vest off the prop and moved the bin and gave the RV6 a careful A-check, but could spot nothing wrong. I know the vest that was normally stored in the plane went ‘walkies’ some time ago, so maybe the mystery ‘borrower’ had returned it – if so, it must have been someone outside the group?
Well anyway, the plane was fine as I pulled it out into the sunshine and wandered off to book out. It was low and a trip to the pumps was in order to rectify this. I was cleared to taxi to E1 for runway 22. Power checks complete I lined up after a departing Firefly for a right turnout to the West. As there was only me in the plane and much less than full fuel, the plane soon had it’s tail up and was hopping eagerly down the runway, I relented and she shot skywards, soon out-climbing and overtaking the Firefly which was also headed to the West.
I was presented with a thin bank of cloud pretty much exactly at the 2500’ I was maintaining. So a decision – under or over? Under looked like scud running at about 1800’ over the higher ground in the Forest of Dean. Over looked about 3500’ with a clear ‘between layers’ going up to, I would estimate, 7000’ – so over it was. The cloud below of course looked solid edge on, but once above it was clearly broken, so I was still ‘in sight of ground’. Once past the Forest, the undercast broke even more and I got clear views of some of the inevitable flooding on the Wye at Ross on Wye. I was headed towards the two prohibited areas for the SAS around Hereford, but the cloud looked worse around the Welsh hills, so I turned North East before the prohibited areas and tracked towards Ledbury. For the hell of it I cranked a few steep turns and felt a small amount of ‘G’ as I pulled back to maintain level – nothing like one would feel in aerobatics, but amusing nonetheless.
I popped a few photographs, including a ‘blind shot’ straight into the glaring sun, which actually came out rather well! I am playing with the new camera my buddy bought me after he (Zoltan the destroyer of cameras!) busted my previous cherished Panasonic Lumix – we all know who you are Dan – don’t lend this man your camera!!
I did an orbit of Tewkesbury, but amazingly no flooding. Then headed off the Bredon Hill and over to Bishops Cleeve to orbit my Mother’s house – she always thinks any small plane over her house is me, I thought for once it would make that true! I called for a rejoin and was given the usual standard overhead join. I could have asked for a direct, but it is sometime fun to practice one of these unique (find anyone outside the UK that does this join!) joins. The circuit was quiet as I did a nice overhead join, carefully watching for traffic. The approach was good, if a little fast. I bled that off over the hedge and came in to land. I didn’t hold off for long enough and we touched before I heard the stall warner. Well, I knew what this was going to be and sure enough, I was punished for my sloppiness by the RV as she indignantly bounced me back into the air as if to say ‘you know better than that – now do it again – and properly this time!’. Well, I rode the bounce (not much of a bounce actually) and landed properly this time. I could almost hear her say ‘that’s better, now don’t do it again!’. Perhaps I am ascribing too much to mere metal!
I put the plane away carefully between the tape marks in the hangar and wondered if anyone else had her booked today in what looked like the only decent flying day of the week.
Must do a landaway next time and maybe take a friend or family up with me.
Thinking about my ‘flying trip’ next year and I am trying to talk the wife into going on the Flyer Forum trip to Italy. It was great last time. Probably one week in early June, I think she will reluctantly go for it – she likes the being there, just not the uncertainty of delays due to the weather and doesn’t enjoy ‘scud-running’ and certainly does not enjoy IMC (not that I can fly in that in this aircraft anyway). If she doesn’t go, my daughter or her boyfriend would kill to go, so maybe I will do it, just not sure of the passenger, other than that they will be much lighter than me!
