While I was at it, I also booked last Saturday morning for a simple bimble. The day dawned and the weather was truly horrible, very low cloud, a good breeze and raining, so even circuits were out. So I changed the booking for the afternoon, when the weather was forecast to improve. Indeed it did, so I made my way to the airfield at 14:00 and met up with my daughter’s boyfriend.
The weather wasn’t great, but the lower cloud layer looked around 1200’ and had firmed up, it wasn’t raining and the wind was modest. So I decided that a local would be fine and if worst came to worst, I could easily scuttle back to the airfield at 1000’. I checked the plane out and gave the canopy a good polish. It was OK-ish for fuel, but very lopsided, with far more in one tank than the other, so I pulled the plane out and taxied over to the pumps to put a few litres in to balance it back up.
Rob clambered in and we buttoned up and taxied over to E1 for runway 22. As I was doing so, the wind seemed to be blowing some rain our way and the clouds being pushed over the airfield looked very misty and drizzly. But in most other directions, the weather looked do-able, so I decided to take-off and stay tight to the airfield to see what it was like. Once airborne, we climbed and at 1000’ I was level with a thin scattered layer. Above that and the next layer looked like it cut in at about 3500’, so I wandered out west a bit where the clouds looked thinnest and with large areas of the ground visible beneath the scattered lower clouds. I levelled out at 1500’ to the west of Gloucester and did a few turns, climbs and descents just for the fun of it.
I tried to decide where to go, but the clouds didn’t seem to open up in any particular direction. I could still see the airfield. Well, we clearly weren’t going anywhere, so I admitted defeat after fifteen minutes and called for a rejoin from a grand distance of five miles from the airfield. I was given a direct join at whatever altitude I could manage to maintain VMC.
It wasn’t anywhere near as dramatic as it may sound, as I was still between layers and could easily see the ground through the scattered lower layer. In any event, at 3 miles to run, I descended to below the lowest scattered layer and managed 800’ as I scuttled back in for a right downwind join for runway 22.
There was a flying school Cessna in the circuit doing circuits, and I tucked in behind them. Th approach and landing were fine as I taxied back after a very short 15 minute flight. Needless to say, the weather on the next day (Sunday) was glorious, such is the luck of the draw in the UK!
