Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Swanwick UK ATC Centre

I had an email from the flying club a while ago, asking if anyone wanted to visit the UK air traffic control centre in Swanwick (near Southampton). I immediately replied yes and was allocated a space. Ten of us made that visit yesterday and very worthwhile it was too. I would recommend every pilot to make this trip. We were not allowed to take in or use cameras, so any photos here are ‘stock’ photos from the internet.

Swanwick general
The centre itself is really tucked away near Hamble Point Marina. You think you must be lost as you are in a small, quiet village, then you turn down a lane and spot a sign. Then you come upon the security gate, with the main building hidden in a dip in the ground. They are very hot on security and must see government issued photo id and check your car before allowing you through. Once through the building itself is quite splendid. Very modern and feels like a ‘no expenses spared’ typical government project (although NATS are now a limited company, HMG still hold 48% of the shares, but apparently may be selling those soon).

The building feels deserted and walking through it we bumped into very few people walking the corridors. Many of the rooms were either empty or partially used. I believe that they are anticipating moving some more functions down from other parts of the country and of course ramping up for the Olympics, so that may account for some of the space. I know my company would not settle for such low occupancy.

Swanwick
The very swanky Swanwick building near Southampton

But a really nice building in extensive, landscaped surrounds, apparently built on the site of an on brickworks.

Flight plans
First we had a presentation from the chap that runs the team that passes flight plans to the appropriate units. It was useful understanding how it works. It is clearly a legacy of yesteryear where direct copper connections and telex protocols ruled the world. I guess that it could easily be replaced by TCP/IP and the current internet protocols and XML standards, but as that required world-wide agreement and re-equipping and changing airfields as remotes as secondary airfields in Africa, it will be some time before this happens.

He was keen to demonstrate AFPx, the internet flight plan submission and messaging program that NATS make available free of charge. There are 5500 UK accounts active (probably mainly private pilots). He explained the early problems with addressing flight plans for landing in France and that they used a non-ICAO approach to addressing, so NATS have ‘fixed’ the problem by creating a single ‘group email’ type address that automatically send the flight plan to pretty much every French region. Apart from that, the dreaded ‘addressing’ seemed to be automatic. It seems a good system and I would use it myself, except that I tried it once. I went through the trouble of registering for an account and getting my ‘one time only’ password, I tried to sort out my account. The problem I had is that their password standards are insanely tight, far tighter than even my on-line banking. They insist on all sorts of weird and random combinations of upper and lower case, numbers and special symbols. No problem, I can manage that – oh, and they have a huge database of ‘banned combinations’ so you can’t use any vaguely recognisable English word. I tried for ten minutes to find a password that it would accept and one that I had a chance or remembering and failed. I realised that the password was so secure that I would be forced to write it down, which kinda defeats the object – so I gave up in disgust.

Not a bad system at all guys and I would use it except for your crazy password requirements, fix that and I would use it. In the meantime, I use the far friendlier and easier Olivia for flight plans to and from France and either local facilities or Sky Demon for flight plans for all other European countries.

Sector Control
We then had a presentation of how the UK controlled airspace was divided up, what was controlled from Swanwick and what was controlled fro Prestwick. He explained how the desks were arranged and the staff structure for each sector. We were then shown from a sort of glazed viewing gallery, the floor where all the sector control takes place. It was a very large room with a high arched ceiling that looked a bit like the inside of a huge nissen hut. It is completely windowless and the lighting seems to be the same as in the main gaming floors of Las Vegas clubs – subdued. Of course they operate 24 hours a day, but the really busy times are early morning to 10:00 then mid-afternoon to early evening.

Swanwick sector control
The main room for sector control

It was a fair bit more ‘high-tech’ than I envisaged (but then we are used to those old films with their round, green radar display screens!). I noted that they still use paper flight strips. We were told that they will be doing away with those and going completely electronic sometime later this year.

London Information
After lunch, we were split into two groups. The group I was in was taken first to London Information. These are the guys that I have often spoken to where I cannot get a sensible service from a nearby airfield and when coasting out and back in from the continent. They are base in a corner of the main sector control hall. They have two frequencies to use, on for flights to the west and other for flights to the east. There really are only two people actually manning each frequency as I had pictured, so they can be easily overwhelmed by calls (which I have heard myself on busy weekends – standby you are number 6!). As the name suggests, they do have a lot of information easily available to them, like TAFs and METARs, regional QNH’s, airfield frequencies etc.

They do have a SSR radar display for the whole of the UK, but they are not allowed to use it as such and only really use it occasionally for situational awareness. It is on a single relatively small screen that shows the whole of the UK and is set off to one side of the operators, so if you think that just because you have been given a squawk, they are really seeing you on an SSR radar display and are giving you traffic services in all but name, you will be sadly disappointed! The only traffic picture that they have is the one they have built up in their heads – see it really is you job to ‘see and avoid’.

They were a good bunch of people and very friendly. I can no just picture them on a busy weekend – I certainly wouldn’t like to do that job!

Distress and Diversion
The UK is apparently virtually unique in the world in offering a dedicated D&D unit. Most other countries integrate this into their sector controls. The D&D unit are located in their own room. The facilities are paid for by NATS, but the unit is manned by the RAF and they provide D&D to both civilians on 121.5 and the military on a separate UHF frequency. When we visited they were manned by a Flight Lt (OIC), a Flight Sergeant and two Corporal controllers.

London D & D
A mixture of high and low tech at London D & D

The unit is a curious mixture of relatively low-tech (whiteboards and airfield manuals) and high-tech (awesome automatic triangulation kit). The impressive facility that they have is that on one screen they will get automatic triangulation lines appear everytime someone transmits on 121.5, and as long as they can the person isn’t flying too low (3000’ and above ideal), then they can get a pretty good immediately location fix. They can then zoom in on the location and return with increasing levels of detailed maps, including the OS maps. That is how they can be so helpful in telling a lost pilot what features to look for and ‘steering’ the pilots verbally. Believe me that if you are ‘uncertain of position’ and at a sensible height, they can help you and are very pleased to be able to do so. Do not hesitate to give them a call before the situation gets really serious.

They emphasised that they are very happy with training calls and practice pans. Just listen out first and if nothing is going on, either ask or just go into it. They said to ignore any caustic comments you may get from airliners (e.g. get off the guard frequency), unlike other countries, it is perfectly OK to use 121.5 for training calls to D&D as there is no separate training frequency.

The whiteboard displays the main RAF airfields and their current weather status expressed in the usual military colour-coded terms. They have a huge amount of information at their fingertips. They did say that probably 90% of their calls came from General Aviation pilots. It is good to know these guys are there if you need them. I now know that if I really did get into a Mayday situation and managed to get as far as a radio call (priorities being aviate, navigate, communicate), that I needn’t get too distracted with a detailed position report.

A really good day. Highly recommended.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Wickenby

The weather forecast for the weekend was excellent and I was astonished to find that again the group booking system was completely clear all weekend. I wasn’t planning of flying, but with the wife away ‘do-gooding’ for her Charity on Sunday, it was a choice between helping her ‘do-good’, some industrial-duty gardening or flying somewhere – now lemme think….. that’s long enough, flying it is!

I called by daughters ex-boyfriend and he was at a loose end so we met up early on Sunday morning at the airfield. The weather was warm and sunny with no clouds, blue skies and virtually no wind. A non-pilot would think it was perfect flying weather, but looking at the lateral visibility showed haze and much reduced lateral visibility, certainly less than 10km. So my view was that it should be OK and I might be able to get on top of the inversion layer, but in any event, I was OK with it, even though it would give ‘goldfish bowl’ type visibility.

I did check the NOTAM’s courtesy of SykDemon Light and checked the TAF’s and METARs for airfields en-route. They seemed to be saying that it was CAVOK out east, so perhaps it was better on that side of the country. I quickly planned a route to Wickenby (North East of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, North of the Wash) for the simple fact that running the engine hard as I have to (still running the new cylinder in) and for ideally at least bone hour legs, meant I needed somewhere far enough away at the 160 – 170kts the plane was flying at 75% power, and Wickenby fitted the bill. I have also never been there and it has a couple of shorter runways (around 500m or tarmac), so a bit of added spice for interest.

We topped up with fuel and I made a point of putting the fuel caps on my seat so I wouldn’t forget to put them back on – worked a treat! I lined up on 27 and applied power and we were off. A clean take-off and hold her down to pick up speed, then cruise climb at 110 – 120kts for better cooling. Climbing to 5000’ showed me that the visibility was indeed not good at all. I was finding my heading drifting as I didn’t have a horizon at all and fell for some of the conflicting visual queues and put the plane in a slight bank. I rebuked myself as I should know better and instead started checking the Attitude Indicator and Direction Indicator carefully a lot more frequently, in effect, dusting down my lapsed IMC rating skills, but hey – fun for that!

I settled in at 5000’ and headed for DTY. My forward visibility was pretty horrible, I wasn’t at all sure that this ‘see and avoid’ thing was going to be of any real use to me, so I was relying on ‘big sky’ theory as much as anything! I contacted Coventry Approach who were as helpful and professional as ever. Approaching DTY they warned me about the 4500’ ceiling for controlled airspace. Damn, I did plan the route and looked carefully at the various bit of controlled airspace and for the life of me I spotted the 5500’ bit but not the 4500’ bit. Had it not been for me squawking Mode S (i.e. passing my altitude), and Coventry warning me, I would have busted the airspace – thank you Coventry. In the blink of an eye (but without negative G!), I descended to 4400’ and held it there until they confirmed I was clear, when I climbed again to 5000’.

I changed to Waddington LARS to help me over the mess of military airfields in the area (courtesy of WW2 when this part of the country was ‘bombing central’). I was way over their airspace anyway, but it’s good to talk. Near Waddington I advised them that I wanted a gradual cruise descent to 2000’ into Wickenby and they were fine with that. I tried Wickenby a couple of time for airfield information on the standby box, but got no reply. I know they are a ‘Radio’ and just assumed that they were either unmanned or more likely on a weak, handheld Icom, so I couldn’t hear them.

At ten mile to run, I switched from Waddington to Wickenby and got the airfield information. They were using runway 32, so I would be OK for a left base direct join. There was no one else on frequency, so I wasn’t worried about barging into a busy circuit. I announced my intentions, as I scanned hard for the airfield. For the life of me I couldn’t see it. I knew exactly where it should be and was looking there. Then it dawned on me that the disused WW2 triangular-type airfield that I was looking at WAS Wickenby, but that the two short ‘X’ configured runways were the small remnant of the much larger disused set of runways I was looking at – DOH! I realised I was too high to loose the height to get in direct so flew along the runway at 2000’ and joined the left hand circuit descending on the crosswind.

Wickenby EGNW
Wickenby EGNW

This was going well. I called final as I set up for what looked like a really short runway (well, compared with Gloucester’s 1000m runways, it was short, one gets spoiled at Gloucester). I got the speed nailed, but was a bit high. A little sideslip sorted that out. Ooops, a bit low now, add some power – better, back on, power down and hold that approach. Over the public road, good job there were no triple decker buses going past at the time. Drag her in over the displaced threshold and flare and hold off. Past the numbers and still holding off, stall warner squealing (good). WE touch softly (maybe slightly tailwheel first), I dip the wing a bit, but bring it back, we stay touched and I let her roll to a taxi speed about 70-100m past the intersection – so landed on a 500m hard runway with 250m to spare on my first try – happy with that! Backtrack and look for the exit near the intersection of the runways. I ask on the radio for help and just then spot the grass taxiway. We taxi in to the parking spot indicated and park up. I shut down and pop the canopy as quickly as I can as the heat really builds up fast in this bubble canopy.

Wickenby Tower
Wickenby tower and cafe

With the engine stopped and the canopy open we are greeted by – nothing at all – no sound, just sweet, warm air and gratifying silence! Wonderful!

We pop out and I pay the fee at the portacabin next to the tower. The guy on the radio if the only guy there that day so he is on the Icom and not on the more powerful radio in the tower as he is also doing the fuel and everything else. We pay the entirely reasonable £10 fee and head to the café on the ground floor of the old WW2 tower. The guys in the café are very friendly and welcoming and whistle up a bacon bap and tea in short order. I have a chat with the guy in the café and he tells me that there is an amazing Sbach extreme aerobatics plane around the corner, so we head off to have a look. A real beauty she was too!

We wander to the main gate to see the WW2 memorial. On the way a couple of guys are pulling out some WW2 Austers in full military marking – lovely, I want one (actually I probably want a J3 Cub in USAAC markings, but maybe some day!)! Walking back to the tower, we see the Sbach take off and pull some low level aerobatics as it headed south, and why not?

Wickenby WW2 Memorial
Wickenby WW2 memorial

Back in the tower, we wander up to the first floor where there is a nice little WW2 museum with all sort of memorabilia.

Wickenby Museum
Wickenby museum

I check the map and looking carefully, I can now see the small 4500’ bit of airspace the guy in Coventry was referring to, damn that’s a tricky one to see! I don’t want to make a full day of this, so after just over one hour on the ground we mount up again and take off. I climb again to 5000’ but find that some very scattered cumulus has now developed, so after going through a few of these on instruments, I decide to drop to 4500’ which I will have to at Daventry anyway. The visibility hasn’t improved and I am partially on instruments due to the goldfish bowl visibility.

Cloudscape
Cloudscape at 4500'

Past DTY now and both Rob and I spot a black speck at the same altitude at my 1 o’clock. I quickly put the plane into a left turn in time to see a large black bird whizz past on our right, that wouldn’t have helped the canopy! We spot a glider below and I again alter course. I pick up Gloucester ATIS who are giving runway 09 in nil wind. I ask for an am given a direct downwind join. I come in behind another aircraft, but find I am gaining too quickly on it. I am about to ask for an orbit for spacing when Gloucester call up and ask if I need a orbit (well spotted guys). One orbit later I continue, but find that the aircraft in front went wide and is still on one mile final. I am forced out wider that I would normally to maintain spacing. I call final and get the expected ‘Continue approach’. He is down on the runway as I am approaching short final. I concentrate on my approach and resolve to land long as I need to get to the far end of the runway to turn off and I don’t want to force anyone behind me to go around while I trundle along the runway having landed near the numbers.

I get a ‘land-after’, then the guy on the runway asks for a backtrack – isn’t he listening to the RT? Doesn’t he have any situational awareness? The tower decline the request and point out that I am right on his tail. I land long as I wanted and make a decent landing. We trundle into parking as I do the post-landings off the runway and loosen the straps so I can see over the nose (I can do this if I crane my neck, so I don’t really need to weave). We park up and shut down. Rob knows the score and quickly gets the hangar doors open while I faff about. We push her back in and I do the post-flight paperwork.

A reasonable flight, but somewhat marred by the poor visibility. Wickenby is a really nice and friendly airfield and I was pleased to have gone there.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Perranporth in CAVOK

I had planned on a quick local on Sunday, but the weather was so good, I extended my booking slot and decided on a more distant landaway to somewhere I had not been to yet. The plane is still in the running in period for the new cylinder, so we have to fly it at high power settings for ideally legs of an hour or more, this means burning a lot of fuel and flying at 160 – 170kts, so I needed to find somewhere about one hour away at those sort of speeds. I settled on Perranporth. A clifftop ex-WW2 airfield on the north coast of Cornwall.

I turned up at the airfield early at 09:00, as I wanted to be back by 13:00. So I carefully gave the plane a leisurely A-check. As I would be flying by myself, I decided to fly with nearly full tanks, so off to the pumps to add about 90 litres of fuel. I climbed back in the plane and started up when I glanced at the wings – aaarrgh! I had forgotten to put the fuel caps back on as I got distracted by manually rewinding the hose. I would not have taken off without the caps on as I have an item in the checklist for my power checks to visually check for the fuel caps, but nevertheless that was careless. I have now resolved to put the fuel caps on my seat while I next fuel the plane. That way, I will always notice when I sit back down!

Then I realised that I had taxied across and refuelled but I had not ‘booked-out’ with the tower. I called on the radio and asked if he wanted me to taxi to the stand to book out but fortunately he took my details on the radio. OK, that’s two mistakes so far, NO MORE! When I was learning and early post-PPL, when I made a silly mistake, I would dwell on it and get myself flustered, leading to more mistakes and creating a vicious circle, but in recent years, I have been able to break such circles and stop them developing, well that was going to happen here and now.

I carried out the power checks, making sure to keep the engine high power check as short as possible to ensure that the engine did not exceed the maximum 224 degrees set for the running in period – high power plus low (in this case no) airspeed equals high engine temperatures. Power checks were fine and as I taxi forward to the hold, the tower anticipates my next call and kindly offers me an immediate if I am ready. I accept and line up on 27 and apply full power. The plane leaps forward, tail up shortly and keep a very close eye on the distant centreline ready with the pedals to keep her straight. There is virtually no wind. She starts hopping and we are up. I hold the nose low for a very slow climb so that the airspeed builds to aid engine cooling. I continue the cruise climb, looking for 110 – 120kts. Ten degree right noise abatement turn at the end of the runway and I set track for a straight line between Gloucester and Perranporth. This will take me straight through Cardiff category D airspace, so I have to get clearance.

I climb to 5000’ where I am on top of the inversion layer. Although the sky is clear, it is a high pressure type day and so hazy below the inversion layer and not-great lateral visibility. I call Cardiff and they are OK with a zone transit at 5000’. They ask me to fly closer to the Welsh coast to avoid Bristol airspace (Cardiff and Bristol controlled airspace runs pretty much mid-Bristol channel). I am happy to do this as all I have is a lifejacket and at 5000’, if the engine failed it would be touch and go if I could glide to either shore from mid-channel. Cardiff call me and ask me where I intend to cross the English coast, I am confused for a few seconds thinking ‘but I am not flying in from France, what do they mean ‘English coast’ – then it dawns on me, this whole ‘Wales / England’ thing! I didn’t have anywhere picked out so I grab the map and see where the line crosses the coast. He repeats his request and without thinking I revert to military radio procedure and reply ‘Wait – Out’. He responds with a quizzical ‘Brighthouse???’. Then I recall the correct aviation phrase and say the magic word – ‘Standby’. OK, I will cross at Minehead. Shortly after Minehead on the Somerset coast, Cardiff dispense with me. Initially, I maintain a listening watch on London Information, but they are busy and constant chatter is distracting, so I switch to Newquay Approach who are much quieter. I enjoy the relative silence sitting up here at 5000’ above the inversion watching the changing landscape slip by below.

I monitor the engine readings carefully. The engine temperature is steady at between 191 – 194 degrees. RPM is 2520 and manifold pressure is 23.1. So I am at 75% power. Fuel consumption is (for me) an alarming, but expected 37 litres an hour and indicated airspeed is 165 – 170 kts.

First the beige and brown uplands of Exmoor in Somerset, then the green fields of Devon, then the deserted ex-RAF airfield of Davidstow Moor.

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North Devon coast from 5000'

I make contact with Newquay and tell them that I intend to route through their overhead at 3000’ en-route to Perranporth. As they only have a normal ATZ, which tops out at 2000’ AAL, it is of course nothing to do with them, but it is sensible to talk to an airfield if you intend to wander above their airspace. I started a slow cruise descent with a slight reduction in engine power, but still at 65 – 70%. The airspeed is still blazing away at 170 kts. I hurtle through the Newquay overhead and look carefully for Perranporth. Damned if I can see it yet. I switch to Perranporth Radio and gather that they are using runway 23 with right hand circuits, but no mention of the wind. Call them for a wind check, it is 260 at 06 kts – the expected effects of a sea breeze. I wonder why they are not using 27, but I am happy with 23 as it isn’t much of a crosswind.

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G-GDRV on the ground at Perranporth

I spot the airfield and listen for other traffic in the pattern. I figure that I am OK to join right base for 23 and advise him of my intentions. I now have to pull the power and work hard to get the aircraft to slow down. I do manage it, but predictably leave myself high on final, so I side-slip that off and unwind on short final with a good picture and a good airspeed. I come in to flare, I hear an aircraft behind me calling a go-around (I hope I didn’t cut him up, I thought he was quite a bit further behind me), I hold off, no stall warner yet (bad sign), so I hold off and off and off and it starts to ring (phew!). We touch and stay touched, oh, hey, not bad that one! I trundle to a taxi and have to taxi a fair way to the turnoff of the grass taxiway. The tower are happy for me to park anywhere, so I oblige, park up on the grass and shut down.

I pop the canopy and am greeted by…….silence. Slight onshore breeze and beautiful warm sunshine – wow, what a day! I make my way to the tower, they ask if I need fuel. Need? No probably not, but I could use the weight. They suggest I leave the landing fee until I have refuelled then pay one bill. I head down to the basic but entirely adequate café in the ground floor of the tower. Very friendly guys there and they promptly rustle up the mandatory cup of tea and bacon bap – and yes, they were nice baps!

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Simple but moving RAF memorial at Perranporth

I walk around outside and chat to go guy at one of the picnic tables. He lives locally and has just started his flying lessons (looks like a mid-life crisis decision like mine!). I spot a Cessna that has just landed, it must have landed long as I can see it still going a fair speed along the runway past the turnoff for parking. I note that his wings seem to be tilting from side to side and I thought it strange as the wind wasn’t that strong. I don’t think anymore of it and turn away. Then I hear the fire land rover starting up and heading out to the plane. It seems to have stopped near the end of the runway, but that’s it. I ask later in the tower and apparently he had made a hard (and fast) landing and seems to have pulled it off the runway to one side (I think it might have been a student).

There is a nice little RAF memorial by the tower to all of the various squadrons that flew from the airfield in WW2. It really is a lovely, basic but very friendly airfield. A bit flat and exposed here on top of the cliffs at 330’. I fill up on Avgas from the pumps. They are near the tower and in an ex-shipping contained located by some ex-WW2 blast bunkers.

I pay up. The fuel is a pricey £1.94 a litre but the landing fee is something like £12 (I can’t remember other than thinking it was what I expected). I mount up and call for airfield information. The wind has freshened slightly to 270 / 10. As I mount up, I see G-BKCC land and park up, a fellow aircraft from Gloucester, but I don’t have time for a chat. I start up and I am about to say that I will take off from the shorter runway 27 (plenty of room at 750m) when they say they are switching to 27 anyway. On the taxi around, I taxi past what must be a locally based RV7 and get a comradely wave from the owner. Brief power checks complete, I line up and power down 27. We are up quite soon and I am rewarded by flying straight over the cliff (only about 200m past the end of 27) for the land to fall away to the beach below.

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Cornish coast

I start a gentle right hand turn and climb and call Newquay. I am passing 4500’ by the time I get to the Newquay overhead and continue the climb back up to 5000’ for the return flight, following the same route as I did coming out. The plane settles down to the same numbers and I am sat again on top of the inversion layer. Minimal wind according to the groundspeed readout on the GPS.

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Looking into the sun at the inversion layer

I get a transit of Cardiff after a couple of ‘standby’ – he was pretty busy. At the Severn River crossings Cardiff let me go and I pick up the ATIS for Gloucester and start a very gentle cruise descent. I ask for and am given a direct to final join for runway 04 – the wind is something like 010/02 – minimal. I call at five miles and am given number 2. I slow the plane up now and by the time I am on 2 mile final, I spot the aircraft that I am meant to be No 2 to at the same time as he sees me. He is a twin and must have been flying a wide circuit as it is a toss-up who would be best placed to go to final otherwise. I call for one orbit for spacing and the tower are happy. I start my approach at the end of the orbit. Altitude good, airspeed a bit high. Keep it going. Airspeed still a little high, but hey, I’ve got lot’s of runway to use before I turnoff so I may as well land long. I hold off and bleed the speed off in the flare. Good stall warner and we touch and stay touched. Hmmm… two decent landings in a row, but the I know better than to start getting blasé with the RV6, because it will bite you if you start to get sloppy.

I taxi back to the stand and the sun beats down and without airflow from the vents, we heat up quickly. I am relieved to pop the canopy. As I get ready to put the plane away, a guy pops out from Aeros and asks if this is the plane that went around the world (Manuel has left a large ‘Chasing the Morning Sun’ decal on the fin). I say that the plane has (been around the world) but I haven’t. I explain that Manuel started the group and is still in it. This guy is taking lessons at Aeros and plans to build an RV10. I show him around the plane and point out the ‘nothing special’ nature of the engine and avionics fit (other than of course all the extra tanks and HF radio that were required for the trip). We discuss the merits of the various canopy opening methods and I add my personal preference for a sliding canopy.

I put the plane away. It is 13:00 – Cornwall and back by 13:00 with a leisurely stay on the ground – not bad, but I still can’t wait to get this running-in stuff over with so I can get back to my preferred, leisurely ‘economy cruise’ of 125 – 130kts which sips fuel at 21 litres an hour.

Anyway, a really great and relaxing flight, you really can cover a lot of ground at 170kts!