Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Gander, Newfoundland

I suppose like most pilots, when going on holiday, I always try to sneak in a flight. Well my holiday in Newfoundland was no different. I assumed there would be a flying school at St John’s, but no. Fortunately, we also planned several days in Gros Morne National Park, so Gander was also a possibility. Well there is a substantial flying school there, Gander Flight Training, who seem to do mainly contract type training for commercial pilots, but were very happy to accommodate my request for a quick local.

I do have a full Canadian licence and medical, but of course they aren’t just going to toss the keys over without at least a checkride, and we didn’t have time for that, so I settled for a flight with an instructor, where I would fly P U/T and log the time etc.

We found the place after a bit of looking around as it wasn’t brilliantly signposted. It was a Sunday and nearly deserted, but we found the side entrance and managed to find someone that could help. I did ‘book’ all of this well in advance and confirmed it with a telephone call with a couple of weeks to go.

An instructor appeared who it turned out had considerably less time flying than I did and looked about 22, but to be fair, he had done a lot of things I haven’t so no problem. I was happy to ask him to do the radio work as it gave him something to do so he would leave the flying to me. We checked out a ‘flying school condition’ Cessna 172 and climbed in with my buddy, Dan in the back on photographic duty.

C-FFUD, the Cessna 172
C-FFUD

Gander had HUGE runways but was very, very quiet so we were cleared as soon as we wanted for take off on runway 13. I powered up and we trundled along until the rotate speed and were soon airborne. I did notice that the airspeed indicator was annoyingly one of those with statute miles per hour on the outer scale and knots on the near useless inner scale, which of course can be a real ‘gotcha’ if you are not conscious of it.

Take off from runway 13 at Gander
Take off from runway 13

I set course for Glovertown where Dan’s in-laws lived to show off a bit flying around their house. It was on a bearing of about 150, so only a slight change from the runway heading. There is very little in the way of man-made features in Newfoundland and navigation was a very simple matter of following the only real road in the area (the Trans-Canada Highway).

Flying IFR - 'I Follow Roads' - the Trans Canada Highway, the only place to go if the engine quits!
TCH

Towns are small and very few and far between, so no chance of mistaking towns!

The town of Gambo, near Glovertown
Gambo

We came up on Glovertown and my cautious instructor would not let me descend below 1300’ (personally, I would have gone for the legal 1000’ minimum). We pulled a few tight turns over the in-laws house while Dan happily snapped away. After this, we decided to navigate to the small and very quaint fishing town of Salvage that we had seen on the ground the previous day. This too was scenic as we made a low orbit.

Small fishing town of Salvage
Salvage

I was surprised to find that we have already spent an hour out flying, so we set course back for Gander homing in on the VOR and ignoring the Trans-Canada Highway. You really don’t have any choice of where to land if the engine fails, it is either the trees or some water, there is no cleared land and certainly no fields – I think I would go for a ditching close to shore myself!

Gander hove into view in the distance and as the wind was only of minimal advantage to runway 13, my instructor suggested we went for a small tailwind on 31. Sure, fine by me. So I came in direct to final for 31 with a 3 kt tailwind.

Gander heading for runway 31
Runway 31

I noticed I was a bit high and rather than spook the instructor, I commented on this and said if it was my Cessna, that I would sideslip this off. He seemed happy with this (there are a few fairy tales about side-slipping in a Cessna). So I wound on the sideslip and we sank at 1000 fpm for a while until I was happy with the picture, then unwound for a normal short final approach.

A bit of side-slip to burn off the excess altitude!
Sideslipping

I chopped the power but noticed that the idle on the engine on this particular plane was pretty high, at about 1000 rpm, so instead we floated for longer than I expected as I held off and off for a smooth, but longer than planned landing. I commented on the idle speed and he confirmed my view (thanks for the warning bud, but maybe he was trying to cut me down to size a bit – who knows).

Gander Airport
Gander Airport

A switch to ground to get taxi instructions (this is a big international airport, although very, very quiet) and we trundled back to GFT. Shut down and back to pay the bill. I logged some 1.3 hours at a not altogether pleasant cost of $CAN 280. But it is a really good way to get a perspective on the beautiful Newfoundland landscape.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Local on a lovely evening!

Went for a local on the 8th after work, just to keep my hand in. It was a lovely evening, perfect for flying in an otherwise terrible month of weather we have been having since late July - very changeable with just about everything thrown in!

Booked out and Manuel helped me out with the plane. About 54 litres of fuel on board, plenty for a local, but I had to bear in mind I would be very light as it was just me as well, so get ready for a good long hold off (oeeerrr missus!).

River Severn downstream of Gloucester
River Severn

In the end, I didn't go far, just a bimble around the 'bends in the river' on the River Severn, then back through the Gloucester overhead at 2500' so I could get a decent photo.

Gloucestershire Airport from 2500'
Gloucestershire Airport

Then on to Bishops Cleeve to pick up the ATIS and call for a rejoin. There was pretty much nil wind, so I was given a direct to final on runway 22. Brought it in with a nice approach and held off well with a bit of a hop, then settled her down on the runway.

The peace and quiet on the warm summer evening after shutting her down was priceless. If only I could just leave her out, like that, lock the canopy and walk away with a loving backward glance. But of course I had to haul her back into the hangar and do the paperwork.

Hmmmm.... now where are those classified ads in Flyer?