Steve H Flying Diary

The joy of flying

2011-08-16T16:52:00.000+01:00

Well I have been flying since my trip to Scandinavia – honest! I have done three flights since, two of them on a Friday late afternoon / evening after work.

And what a great time to fly, as long as you are not stressed out or tired.

The joy of turning up in the relative still of the late afternoon on a weekday when the airfield is quieter than at weekends. Taking your time doing the walkaround and an unhurried trundle to the fuel pumps. A quiet circuit if you fancy a few touch and go’s. Even the chance of coming across a hot air balloon serenely drifting in the evening still, and of course captive to your evil intentions to do an orbit around the balloon, just for fun. Oh look, they are waving at us! Oh, perhaps they aren’t! Those gestures seem to be saying something else! A high level orbit of a grass airstrip just watching for traffic. Climb to 5000’ just for the fun of being above the scattered cumulus. A low level run along the Cotswold ridge near the racecourse. Taking someone up for a flight who has never flown in a light aircraft before. Doing a few circuits not because you have to but because you want to. The joy of nailing the subsequent landings (after your first landing showed you what need improvement of course). The sound of silence as you taxi back to the hangar and switch the engine off and just sit there for a few minutes drinking it in (with the students looking out from next door wondering if you are nuts). Sitting in the clubhouse sipping a fresh brewed coffee and a Mars bar to wind down before setting off home.

My wife and family are laughing at me at the moment as I am finally learning for my motorbike licence. So this is your latest fad? What will it be after that? Yes, my previous ‘fad’ of flying has been going for over ten years, so I am going to give it up when I get my motorbike? No chance!

And I do all this, because………

……well, because I can!

If you have to explain it to non-pilots, they just won’t understand! It is special isn’t it?

VFR Tour 2011: Goteborg local flight

2011-07-05T17:09:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 28th June 2011

Tuesday was our non-flying day set aside to do sightseeing around Goteborg. As this is a flying diary, I won’t say too much about it other than that it is a really nice and scenic city, probably especially presentable in the hot, sunny weather we enjoyed during our stay.

My contact in Goteborg, Peter Andersson was keen to take us on an evening sightseeing flight over the city and the archipelago after he finished work that day, and to take advantage of the long hours of daylight at these high latitudes (about the same latitude north as the very northernmost tip of mainland Scotland or Juneau in Alaska).

Peter picked us up at our hotel / hostel and drove us back to Goteborg Save airport. Peter is the Chairman of Aeroklubben I Goteborg, a large and successful flying club based at the airport. It is one of the oldest flying clubs in Europe, founded in 1918. The evening flight was a bit touch and go for a while there as the club had recently ‘lost’ two of it’s six aircraft to prop strikes in the last couple of weeks, but he managed to book a late slot in a PA28 from a pilot who was due to land at 20:00 local.

We had a look around the aeroclub. Reasonable sized clubroom, but with all the necessary facilities and a fun-looking booking system that displays bookings on a screen that make it look like commercial departures. We also had a look around their hangar, which was beautifully organised. It was arranged ‘end on’ with hangar doors on both sides, so that planes are parked ‘head to tail’ in their own specific spots each with their own ‘care station’ (bucket, sponge, desk, locker etc.).

While we were waiting for the PA28 to turn up, we showed Peter around our RV6, which he tried on for size. The PA28 we were hoping to use pulled in to the pumps at about 20:00 and Peter took possession. Peter gave the plane a check while I was filled with nostalgia as I trained on PA28’s and flew an Arrow for a couple of years, it was all coming back to me. We loaded into the PA28 in the required sequence through the single door on the right of the plane, so rear passenger first, pilot second and front seat passenger (i.e. me) last. The evening was warm with clear skies and very calm with little if any wind. The colour of the light from the sun which was lazily wending it’s way obliquely to the horizon was wonderful, I love that evening light!

Peter Andersson and the club PA28

Peter was ‘cheating’ and giving all the calls in Swedish, but hey, why not, it’s his country! We were soon airborne and climbing towards the city centre and the normal cleared altitude for the ‘city tour’ of 2000’ – enough to glide clear in the event of engine failure (which would involve a swim in the river / estuary!). The views were great, especially in the evening sun and hovering there in the still of the evening.

Goteborg city centre from 2000'

Then Peter set course for the archipelago of islands that shelter Goteborg and the mainland Swedish coast from the Kattegat, generally heading west and north. We descended to 1500’ as requested by the Tower (Goteborg Save control up to 1500’ in their zone, above that it is Goteborg Landvetter).

The numerous islands near Goteborg

Peter points out the islands that are only accessible by boat and those that ban all cars etc. The islands and the coast are obviously THE place to be for trendy and wealthy citizens of Goteborg. Some of the islands were sparsely populated while one we saw had houses on virtually every habitable square foot – strange.

Our tour came to an end and Peter rejoined for Goteborg Save. He flew a slightly strange base leg (seeming to fly diagonally away from the airport) but assured us that this was the local noise abatement procedure (ooops – I guess we blew it then on our approach!). We landed probably about 20:50 local with plenty of sun left yet. It was a lovely flight and well worth doing – thank you Peter!

VFR Tour 2011: Hoganas to Gloucester via Odense and Texel

2011-07-03T15:25:00.011+01:00

Friday 1st July 2011

Hoganas to Odense
Route: ESMH COAST TNO DCT HAVNEMARK DCT LUMBY DCT EKOD
Capacity: SNY (Self-loading freight)

Thursday morning in Hoganas was fabulous, CAVOK and warm, clear skies. But the front that threatened to come through from the west was slow moving and appeared to be over mid-Denmark. The METARs from the airfield near our planned destination of Samso island were not good, but it was not clear how much of the low cloud was due to early morning for burning off (the temperature and dewpoint were very close) and how much may be due to the front.

As the morning wore on the METARs improved, but only slightly. We may have been able to get through or certainly to divert to one of the many airfields en-route in Denmark, but should we? It wasn’t my leg to fly and we eventually settled on leaving it for today for the front to pass through where we were in Hoganas overnight. Instead it was take to the bikes and pedal along a coastal cycle path (converted railway) from Hoganas to the village of Molle near the tip of the peninsula some 11km away.

It was glorious sunshine until mid / late afternoon when the front finally came in and clouded over as the temperature cooled noticeably (fine by me, I don’t like it too hot) and the wind picked up. So far this entire trip, I had only worn polo-shirts, I didn’t need the fleece I brought with me.

The final planned day of our tour of Friday dawned with a modest wind and broken cloud at about 2000’. The front had passed and we were seeing the back end of it. We checked the weather and synoptics which confirmed this, but they also showed a ‘trough’ hanging around over northern Germany, but clearing nicely to the west of there. We decided to try to make it back to the UK in three or four hops, depending on the weather and ceiling in the North Sea. First leg was to fly to Odense to get a decent fuel load, then Odense to Texel, then if the North Sea was OK for weather and ceiling, direct across the North Sea to Gloucester, or if not route via Calais, then back to Gloucester.

The METAR’s indicated a ceiling of about 1000’ at Odense with a fair old wind, but good lateral visibility. We took off and flew this leg. The cloud was broken and thin and we could have got between layers, but carried on at 1500 – 1000’. We crossed to Fyn Island and picked up the airfield information. The wind was running at 280 / 18, nicely bisecting both the main hard runway and the secondary grass runway, so we would have a crosswind whatever we did. We made a nice crosswind landing on the main runway and parked up and refuelled. Odense is yet another huge regional airport that is practically deserted.

Odense to Texel
Route: EKOD DCT EDXF DCT EDXJ DCT EDXM DCT BEDERKESA DCT LANGWARDEN DCT VOSLAPP DCT SPIEKEROOG DCT FRISIAN ISLANDS DCT EHTX
Capacity: P1 (Pilot)
Logged time: 2.6 hours

Route from Odense (Denmark) to Texel (Holland)

The next leg was mine and we planned to fly from Odense to Texel, which once past Flensburg, was virtually retracing our steps on the flight coming out. I did some more flight planning using the internet PC at Odense. The wind seemed to moderate a bit at Texel and was positively calm in the UK. It seemed the further west we went, the more the weather improved, so it was looking OK for a possible North Sea crossing. The METAR’s and TAFs were hedging their bets as usual in the trough around Northern Germany and talking about TEMPO CB etc. In my judgement, it was well worth a look as there were plenty of airfields to divert to en-route. I filed a flight plan and we loaded up again.

The wind was pretty much the same, not so much gusty as fairly steady at 280 / 18, so a 15kt crosswind component take off whichever runway I chose, I could see that it favoured 31 slightly, but I decided to stay with the hard runway on 24. Power checks complete, we lined up and were cleared for take off. I powered the engine up and held what I judged to be the correct amount of into wind aileron and danced on the rudder bars to stay pointed down the end of the runway and counteract the crosswind from the right. The tail came up quickly as I focused on a point at the end of the runway to keep the nose pointed at using the rudder.

Whether it was me or the wind (probably both) the nose swung a bit first one way then the other (possibly as I over-corrected), but it was OK, if not elegant. The plane started to hop quite early, so I started to ease her off, but I was premature and all she did was sit tail-down for a few seconds. Then bless her, just as I was about to level out again, she hopped into ground effect, so I held her there and was pleased that at least I got the aileron right as there was no wing dip or lift. She settled and I eased her into the climb, pretty glad to be away from the runway. Not one of my better take-offs, but we were away. The cloud was higher and we easily climbed to 1500’ for an orbit of the airfield for a few photographs.

Odense airfield

I set course for roughly Flensburg and spoke to Skrydstrup Approach. I managed a climb to 2000’ and again held that for pretty much the rest of the trip. At some stages I could have gone higher, but at others I had to dip lower under small showers, so 2000’ was fine.

Denmark around Als Fjord near Sonderborg

Around the border between Denmark and Germany at Flensburg, I tried to contact Bremen Information, but no joy. It took three attempts over ten minutes to raisde them, not that I was worried at all, just keen to try to speak to someone during a border crossing.

I set course pretty much directly from Flensburg to St Michaelisdonn airfield just north of the Elbe estuary. From there I hopped across to Bederkesa Lake, then across the Weser estuary near Bremerhaven to Wilhelmshaven, then north west to pick up the Frisian islands.

Bremerhaven

We followed the line of the Frisian islands, occasionally ducking to 1200' to get under a small shower cloud, other than that it was fine at 2000'

Frisian islands

It took a fair while and several attempts to get through to Dutch Military, I suspect that their reception at low level along the easternmost Frisian Islands is poor. They eventually cleared me through danger area R4A and on to Texel island.

Just coming on to Texel island, I spotted something that looked like a Fournier motor glider climbing up towards me. I took immediately evasive action, although it was not what I would call an airprox, but it would have been if I hadn't have moved and maybe worse. Another remonder if I needed one (which I don't) that visual flying means getting your head out of the cockpit!

I picked up the weather actuals and runway at Texel. They were using the shorter grass runway, 31 (630m so still plenty) and the wind - 310 / 18 - ouch! Thank heavens it was straight down the runway!

I joined base for runway 31 and managed to land first time and trundle to the end to park up at the pumps to fuel for the next leg. A rather nice 2.6 hour leg in reasonable weather. Enjoyed that!

A fair old wind a Texel

Texel to Gloucester
Route: EHTX DCT RAVLO DCT NORWICH DCT DTY DCT EGBJ
Capacity: SNY (Self-loading freight)

This was the last leg of the tour and my group colleague was flying this one. It was pretty much a backtrack of our original route out as the weather over the North Sea looked fine enough to get a decent amount of height.

In the end, he went for FL45. We took off as soon as the planning, final met checks and flight plan were completed. We climbed en-route and leaned out for FL45 and the return via RAVLO, Norwich and Daventry.

The interesting part was some of the vertically developed cumulus clouds, so we avoided the taller ones, which were pretty well scattered anyway.

We'll be keeping clear of those then!

The wind had died down a lot over the UK, but then lateral visibility started to clag up a bit, still fine, but not gin-clear. We dropped to 3000' or so for the remainder of the track back into Gloucester.

On arrival at Gloucester at about 17:30 local, it was out with the water and sponges to get half the world's popultation of flies off of the leading edges of the plane and canopy.

The end of the 2011 Scandanavia Tour!

VFR Tour 2011: Goteborg to Hoganas

2011-07-03T15:08:00.005+01:00

Wednesday 29th June 2011

Goteborg to Hoganas
Route: ESGP COAST BAK COAST ESMT DCT ESMH
Capacity: P1 (Pilot)
Logged time: 1.3 hours

Route from Goteborg to Hoganas

Well, we were back on the original plan now and today headed out of Goteborg with a flight virtually due south to a small grass airfield in Sweden called Hoganas. Hoganas is located on the west coast of Sweden, about 10 miles north of Helsingborg on the Oresund, the narrow stretch of water that separates mainland Sweden from the Danish island of Sjaelland (the big island with Copenhagen on it). From Hoganas, the Danish coast is a only 7nm away, but from Helsingborg, it is a mere 3nm. Hoganas is well known in aviation circles and a lively GA airfield with many European events, including the European RV Rally. As an airfield, it punches well above it’s weight and we were strongly advised to visit this airfield on our trip.

Rather than make taxi drivers rich (and us poor by a similar amount), we decided to get the excellent public transport busses to the airport. However, this involved going in to Goteborg city centre first, then getting an airport bus back out to Save. We arrived at Save at about 11:00 and presented ourselves to the security gate we came out from. They asked for our pilots licences and photo id, then put us and our stuff through the security scanners. It was all very relaxed and good natured and didn’t feel terribly officious.

Once airside we asked about refuelling. We were advised simply to pull the plane across to the pumps and someone would come out and fuel for us. This is indeed what happened. A very cheerful and inquisitive pompier came out and filled the tanks to our specification, as it was only going to be a short run of just over one hour. We checked the plane out and loaded up and while I wandered over to the flying club to get weather actuals from the internet (there being no internet in the pilot reporting room), my fellow group member wandered off to pay the fuel bill. I filed a formal flight plan, as I don’t fancy flying over those forests and coast without some ‘insurance’.

Airborne out of Goteborg at 1500'

I got the METARs for all relevant airfields and alternates from the clubhouse using the Orbifly website (an excellent site). Happy days, CAVOK all the way! Back at the plane, my fellow group member told me that there was no landing or parking to pay and that all we paid for was the fuel. Now I cannot believe that Goteborg Save thought that these heroic aviators who flew from Britain should be rewarded with such financial largesse, and I suspect that Peter Andersson had something to do with this!!! Anyway, thanks again Peter, a book by one of our other group member about his around the world flight in our plane will be on it’s way to you shortly!

We clambered in as I ran through the checklist, leaving the buttoning of the canopy until the last moment as we would cook! Sure enough we did as we trundled to an intermediate holding point for runway 19 (still stacks of runway left for the RV6). The wind was modest, with a slight crosswind component from the left IIRC. We were quickly cleared for take off and we powered down the runway, with the RV soon hopping about excitedly like a kid waiting for his turn on the roller-coaster! We climbed to the 1500’ we were cleared to by Goteborg Tower and were advised to remain west of the city for transit heading south just inland from the coast, initially for Varberg, then Falkenberg, then Halmstad, then across the Skalderviken to Hoganas.

We held at 1500’ until I was clear of the Goteborg Save zone. They advised us to contact Sweden Control, which we did. I requested a climb to 2000’ where we sat for the rest of the trip, there really being no need to climb any higher, and hey, the view and scenery were great.

The countryside was far more cleared and farmed than I had expected, with plenty of places for a forced landing if it came to it (yes, that is what private pilots think about a fair bit as they fly along, also always trying to keep track of the wind so they know what direction the land into). We kinda flew slightly inland and parallel to the coast until I realised that I was flying generally to the right of the main road that seems to change from the E6 to the E20 and back again as it heads south to Malmo, then across the bridge into and across all of Denmark to Esbjerg. So I basically flew between the coast and this main road.

We contacted Halmstad Tower to get clearance to fly through their zone, which they were fine about. WE could clearly see the huge runway of what looks like yet another deserted regional airport. We flew across the bay at Halmstad rather than route around the coast, then contact Angelholm Tower to get clearance to go through their zone. They were also quite happy and we routed across the Skalderviken bay on track to Hoganas.

Hoganas sort of sits at the south western base of a peninsula with a prominent range of hills at the tip of the peninsula, called the Kullabergs Naturreservat. It is quite unmistakeable as there ain’t many hills in these here parts stranger!!

Hoganas Airfield

As we got within glide range of the land again, I switched from Angelholm to Hoganas Radio. I listened in for a bit to build up a picture as we approached, but it was silent. OK, so I called them – nothing. In line with the convention, I called them a total of three times, each time with no response. OK, check the frequency, no it is definitely correct. As it is only a ‘Radio’ service, they may well not be manning it. OK, no bother. I sort of know the wind as I have been tracking it during the flight and it is coming from the south or the south west. I start giving ‘blind calls’ for my position to ‘Hoganas Traffic’ and drop to 1500’ as we approach the town of Hoganas.

Then it is the ever popular game of ‘spot the airfield’, made all the more entertaining when it is a grass airfield. We know pretty much where it must be, it is just a case of actually seeing it. It is made harder here as many of the farmers fields are ‘strip-shaped’ – i.e. long and thin, unlike British fields. They don’t like overhead joins, so I start to set up for a wide orbit at above circuit height, then I spot it. We both look hard for a windsock, but can we see it? Can we buffalo! I am pretty confident about the wind which seems to favour runway 14, the longer of the two runways (runways 14 / 32 is 800m and runway 06 / 24 is 560m).

Hoganas clubhouse

I decide to do a left base join for 14 and start a descent to 1000’. This puts us out over the town of Hoganas and takes us a little out to sea before I turn final for 14. I try to feel for the wind, but there is very little crosswind, so I line up on 14. I am high, so I side-slip some of this off. I take a bit too much off and end up putting some power back in. Approach now good and airspeed OK, if a bit fast. Over the threshold, height good, power off and flare and hold off and off. She touches before I want her to so we hop a bit (not much) and she lands off the second touch. The runway is smooth and I let her run to slow to a taxi speed by herself, plenty of runway left. We slow to taxi speed by the runway intersection (about halfway along) and turn into runway 06 to trundle straight to the fuel pumps.

Hoganas clubhouse

We are greeted by Lasse, the airfields only employee who does everything. We load with a modest amount of fuel, as out next planned trip is a relatively short hop of about one hour to Samso island in Denmark. He is a very helpful guy and speaks reasonable English. There is no landing fee and bikes are provided free, but donations are accepted. So I pay up for the fuel. We are met briefly by the airfield owner, Olle (who is also an RV6 owner). He has to head off but may see us tomorrow.

We advise Lasse that we want to stay the night in one of the clubhouse bunkrooms, so after we park up and ties down, he shows us around the clubhouse. What a great clubhouse! It is a converted accommodation prefab they got from one of the local companies ten years ago, so it came with loads of bedrooms each with an en-suite toilet and sink and communal shower room. They took some of the room partitions down to create the club lounge, kitchen and flight planning room. They still have six bedroom available to rent for a modest GBP20 pppn. Many of the rooms have bunkbeds and you can rent sheets etc. It is nothing fancy, but is a huge step up from camping (which they are also quite happy for you to do by your aircraft.

The clubhouse operates an ‘honesty box’ and has a soda / beer fridge and an ice cream freezer that you can serve yourself from. The flight planning room has all the facilities you need, including an internet PC and a non-password WiFi that you can get from anywhere in the clubhouse.

He sorted us out two bikes and gave us a map of the town. It is about 2 miles so maybe a bit far to walk so we were happy with the bikes. The town isn’t up to much though, there is a beach and a marina, but very little in the way of bars or restaurants. But the airfield is fantastic, this is probably the best, most welcoming and relaxed airfield I have ever been to – a bit like the Carlbergs adverts – ‘If Carlsberg made airfields……’ – well, this is pretty close to what a Carlsberg airport would be!

G-GDRV tucked up for the night at Hoganas

A really nice flight to an excellent airfield. However, we watched the slow progress of a weather front on the synoptics. It was due to pass slowly through maybe midday tomorrow coming from the west, so there might be time to get to Samso if we got up early enough – this being the only fly in the ointment.

VFR Tour 2011: Flensburg to Goteborg via Stauning

2011-07-03T14:28:00.007+01:00

Monday 27th June 2011

Flensburg (Germany) to Stauning (Denmark)
Route: EDXF DCT EKEB DTC EKVJ
Capacity: P1 (Pilot)
Logged time: 0.9 hours

The route from Flensburg to Stauning

We woke early to be greeted by ‘Severe CAVOK’ and sunshine, at least in Flensburg, so it was off to the airfield. The METARS for Stauning were not encouraging, with OVC at 300’ and 3000m visibility, but a quick look at the temperature and dewpoint showed these to be damned nearly the same, so it was pretty clearly early morning coastal fog / mist that would lift and break up as the temperature rose.

We refuelled, at first struggling with a card at the pumps with instructions in German, until one of us had the inspiration to turn to card over and hey presto – instructions in English (DOH!). We got fuelled.

Note to self: refuel when you arrive, not when you want to depart, I did know this, but one gets lazy after a while).

The idea today was to change the original plan and bypass Aalborg as an overnight stop (which was only really a whim anyway), but to stop and Stauning for lunch and a mooch around the Danish Air Museum, then a single leg south of Aalborg, out to Goteborg in Sweden via the Danish island of Laeso to shorten the time over water out of glide to the land. I was to fly the first leg and the other group member was to fly the Stauning to Aalborg leg.

We filed out flight plan with the helpful guy on reception at Flensburg and the route was very simple. A check complete, we loaded up, buttoned up and trundled off as quickly as possible as it was already getting hot under the bubble canopy.

It was only a relatively short one hour or so hop to Stauning, routing via the airfield at Esjberg on the west coast of the Danish mainland, about ‘halfway up’. I climbed to around 2000’ which was fine for this hop and kept me below some airspace. We trundled along in wonderful clear weather in glorious sunshine. There was a slight breeze from the south, but nothing much to speak of. Well, Denmark certainly is flat and intensively cultivated. They too are fond of wind farms, which are useful when you are flying to get a gauge if the wind direction and strength.

Initially we spoke to Skrydstrup Approach for the border crossing from Germany to Denmark and for clearance through their airspace. Then we switched to Billund Approach then to Esbjerg Tower as we would be routing through their overhead. As it turned out they were spectacularly un-busy with only one other aircraft in the area.

The coast itself looked interesting, sandy with a shallow sea and lots of sand spits and bars.

Esbjerg town (western Denmark)from the air

On approach to Stauning, we spoke to the tower and did an orbit of the airfield for photographs, then joined left crosswind for runway 27. We got a wind check and they reported it as 200/17! Well this shook me a bit but he cleared said ‘one – seven’ for the wind strength. I expected a slight crosswind based on my GPS groundspeed and the laconic spin of the wind turbines, but 17? We both heard him say this, but I asked again for a wind check and he said the same thing. Even the windsock didn’t seem too bothered, but maybe it was a 35kt windsock or something? OK - this could be an entertaining crosswind landing then. I decided to approach a bit faster than normal and set up for 80 kts, as the runway was plenty long enough and it would give me time to bleed the speed off in the flare and get properly set up for the crosswind or to abort if I really didn’t like it. On final, we didn’t seem to be getting pushed anywhere near as much as I expected.

Stauning airfield - Denmark EKVJ

I rounded out and flared faster than normal and felt for the strong crosswind, but again, it just didn’t seem to be there. I was bleeding the speed off riding the rudder bars with into wind aileron, when we touched before the stall warner was solid, so of course I was ‘rewarded’ with a bounce, nothing major, just annoying. Held it off more and we touched and stayed touched. I taxied in and asked for fuel. This was at the pumps just past the tower. We filled up for the next leg and parked up just outside the tower.

G-GDRV at Stauning Airfield (Denmark)

We checked the breeze on the ground and it was nothing like 17kts – 7 kts maybe, but 17 kts? No. I suspect there was some sort of English problem in the tower, as we both very clearly heard him say ‘one-seven’ twice (he then said the same thing again on take-off, I wonder if the only English number he knows is ‘one-seven’!).

The place was again deserted, although there were a couple of touch and go’s while we were there, but hardly anything moved on the apron. The airport staff were very helpful as usual. We made our way through the passenger terminal and walked the 400m or so down the road to the Danish Air Museum.

Danish Flight Museum at Stauning Airfield

This was a beautiful, modern and very well laid out building, but if they had more than 5 visitors when we were ther, I would be surprised. Admission was a modest GBP4.00 per person or thereabouts. A number of the exhibits must have been in flying condition as they had drip trays under the engines, but then they were in perfect condition, so I suspect that if they do fly, it isn’t very often at all and we couldn’t spot the route they would take out of the museum to the airfield. Some good stuff anyway, my favourite being the F104 Starfighter and the Saab Drakken. Unlike many museums, they were quite happy for visitors to touch the exhibits, just not clamber all over them that’s all.

A very nice Saab Drakken at the flight museum

Our visit didn’t take too long and we made our way back to the airport to saddle up for the run to Goteborg in Sweden. I sent a text message to my contact in Goteborg who said he might be able to meet us, but would certainly want to hook up for the evening and promised us a local flight in return for the flight I gave him when he was visiting the UK.

Stauning (Denmark) to Goteborg (Sweden)
Route: EKVJ DCT LINDTORP DCT HALS DCT LYNGSA DCT LAESO DT RAVEN DCT ESGP
Capacity: SNY (Self loading freight)

The airport has free WiFi and free use of an Internet PC, so we checked the METARs. It was CAVOK, so we filed the flight plan and saddled up.

Danish west coast near Stauning

This was my turn as the passenger. We routed at around 2000’ south of Aalborg. We spotted what must be the only hills in Denmark, a small wooded spine of undulating ground (hills is too strong a description) that seems to run North / South for much of the mainland. At the east Danish coast we got approval from Aalborg Approach to climb to FL50 for the sea crossing from the Danish mainland to Goteborg across the Kattegat via the Danish island of Laeso.

Danish countryside south of Aalborg

Danish island of Laeso

Copenhagen Information took over for the over-water part. They caused us a bit of concern when they asked if we had filed a flight plan. We confirmed we had and they seemed happy, presumably they found a copy of their advice. Copenhagen Information handed us over to Sweden Control (we were expecting to go straight to Goteborg, but we assumed that Copenhagen Information knew what they were doing).

Numerous coastal islands around Goteborg in Sweden

Sweden control then advised us that Goteborg wanted us at no higher than 1500’ by their reporting point RAVEN. So we started a cruise descent. At RAVEN, Goteborg took over and advised us to approach the field due east and join right base for runway 19. The wind was minimal and what there was of it was straight down the runway.

Goteborg Save airport

We spotted the airport in good time and landed on 19. We were transferred to a ground frequency who advised us to park on the grass to the north of the fuel ‘island’ which was pretty easy to see. We parked up as quickly as possible as it was getting hot with the canopy buttoned up and tied down. I sent a text to our Swedish contact who couldn’t meet us then, but would meet us at the hotel that evening to show us around the town.

G-GDRV on the ground at Goteborg Save airport

We sorted ourselves out and reported where indicated. They weren’t interested until we wanted to leave so we took a cab to the accommodation we had pre-booked. Although it wasn’t far (probably no more than 5 miles) it cost around GBP 37 – ouch! IT also turned out that we were still quite a way out from the town centre, so taxi’s would be a bad idea.

VFR Tour 2011: Gloucester to Flensburg via Texel

2011-07-03T12:05:00.004+01:00

Sunday 26th June 2011

Gloucester to Texel
Route: EGBJ DCT DTY DCT NORWICH DCT RAVLO DCT EHTX
Capacity: P1 (Pilot)
Logged time: 2.3 hours

The route from Gloucester to Texel

As forecast, the weather was much better on the Sunday than the Saturday. METAR's were good for Texel and the cumulus was scattered at 4500' over the land and almost certainly minimal over the sea (as it tends to be on days like this), pretty severe CAVOK, but starting to get hot already. The plane was still prepped from yesterday, so it was a case of changing the GAR form at Gloucester, re-do the A-check, file the flight plan and away.

Gloucester weather on Sunday morning

So we saddled up and were away as quickly as we could be as with the bubble canopy of the RV and the bright sun leads to it getting pretty hot real quick until you get some airflow going through the blowers, and the only way to do that is to get airborne.

We climbed en-route to DTY VOR up to 4000', to stay below the tricky 4500' but of category A airspace around the VOR itself, it is very easy to miss this on the chart and we wouldn;'t want to get a nasty letter from the CAA now would we?

It was all pretty scenic then setting track to the overhead of Norwich airport, so we spoke to them out of courtesy and routed through their overhead at 4000'. Once past them, we climbed to FL55 for the North Sea crossing of some 130nm and coasted out and switched to Anglia Radar on 125.275 who gave us a transponder squawk.

We would obviously be well out of glide to land range in the event of engine failure, but at that height we would have plenty of time to get organised and get a good Mayday off if it came to it. We were of course suitably equipped, wearing lifejackets, I had a seat belt cutter and the PLB secured to my belt. There was a liferaft in the back that the passenger would reach and hold etc.

Coasting out over the North Sea near Norwich

The sea crossing was uneventful as we approached the FIR boundary at RAVLO. Anglia Radar gave us a handover to Amsterdam Information, who gave us a new squawk for the transponder. Amsterdam confirmed that the military danger areas we would be passing alongside were all 'cold' and we started a cruise descent to get in below the cumulus that hugged the land from about 15 miles out.

I switched to Texel Radio at 10nm out and built a picture of what was going on there in my head. The main grass runway of over 1000m was in use in direction of 22. The wind was giving a bit of a crosswind from the right, but nothing much to worry about.

We coasted in over the island and set about trying to spot the airfield. It is always a bit of a challenge to spot grass airfields and this was made a little more difficult as they definitely did NOT want you anywhere near the overhead as they had a lot of parachuting taking place. I did spot it and set myself up for a left crosswind join for 22.

Texel Airfield (not obvious)

I tucked in behind another aircraft in the downwind and turned base and started slowing the plane down to deploy flaps. All going well and descent started, nicely spaced from the aircraft in front now on short final. Lined up on final with two stages of flap and speed where it should be. Then a PA28 at the hold lines up on the runway just as the plane I was following flares, then because the plane landing took a while to trundle off the runway, the aircraft sat on the runway to take off was blocking me and forced me to go around - thanks buddy - you knew I was there, what were you thinking!

OK, go around and this time I am following a motor glider (oh great), well I just couldn't stop from gaining on him, so again on final, even thoughb he was doing a touch and go, I decide to go around again rather than orbit in the circuit or try a land-after.

Texel Radio are by now feeling sorry for me and suggest a 'short circuit' to cut in front of the motor glider. I need no more encouragement, so pull around into a tight racetrack type circuit at probably 600' and position on final for the third time.

This time I get a clear run and flare and touch nicely for my first landing in both Holland and Texel! We trundle clear and ask for fuel. We are directed straight to the fuel pumps in front of the tower. I shutdown as quickly as I can as we are really cooking in the cockpit now, and I gratefully pop the canopy.

Refuelling is easy enough and we are soon joined by a few other RV owners who want to have a look and a chat. I go through the usual slightly embarassing explanations. No I didn't build it, it was originally built in Canada. No, I didn't fly it around the world, that was one of the other group members, Manuel, who now has a book out about it. etc.

Other RV owners descend on us at Texel

We park up and head for some much needed refreshment at the airport cafe, which is buzzing, but service is surprisingly prompt and the food good.

The busy but efficient airport cafe

I make my way to the tower and receive a very friendly greeting. The guys there can't do enough and they even apologise for the number of go-arounds I had to make. They said that the PA28 captain was a vastly experienced instructor and he was mortified at making us go around, he just diodn't think the landing aircraft would take as long as it did to vacate!

They have both an internet PC and WiFi in the tower for planning, so we check the weather for the next leg to Flensburg. Texel looks like a really nice place to stay and they offer us all sorts of help in the tower, from finding suitably priced accommodation to bicycle hire. They are excellent ambassadors for the island and I must come back here to stay for a few days sometime.

Texel to Flensburg
Route: EHTX COAST ISLANDS DCT WILHELMSHAVEN BEDERKESA DCT EDXM DCT EDXF
Capacity: SNY (Self-loading freight!)

This route was flown by the other group member, basically along the line of the very scenic Frisian islands, then cutting across the narrow bits of the Weser and Elbe estuaries in Germany. All of this was flown at around 2000'.

Hopping along the many Frisian Islands

I have to say that this part of Germany is definitely 'wind turbine central' with loads of them either in place of being built.

Northern Germany - wind turbine central!

We approached Flensburg at around 17:00 local and the airfield was pretty easy to spot. Again they do parachuting, so don't try any overhead stuff.

Flensburg airfield in Germany - EDXF

The airfield was very quiet, but friendly. We bumped into some locals who had just got back to Flensburg from a tour of their own to Denmark and picked up a few tips, like if there is no one on the published frequency or it is after hours, just land, they are quite happy (unlike both Germany and the UK!). They also gave us a lift to our cheap out-of-town Etap hotel.

We got freshened up and took a taxi into town. Flensburg is a small city / town. the most scenic bit is along the harbour and there is an excellent micro brewery there (Hansens) which also serves really good food, that certainly sorted ot our personal refuelling needs.

Flensburg at the harbour front

Well, we were off on the tour good and proper now, albeit one day behind schedule. As we had accommodation already booked and too late to cancel in Goteborg, we decided to skip Aalborg tomorrow and do two legs to get to Goteborg and back on the planned schedule.

Note to self: Don't book things that can't be cancelled same day, just take a chance and ask at the airport on arrival, they can usually sort you out.

VFR Tour 2011: The day that didn't happen

2011-07-03T11:59:00.002+01:00

Saturday 25th June 2011

The forecast wasn't good, but it seemed that the weather would clear by midday and we may still be able to get to Texel, but probably only via Calais.

There was initially quite low cloud (1000' max) and fairly high winds. So we packed the plane and prepped it and waiting for the weather to improve.

Improve it did at Gloucester as the sunshine broke through, but still with pretty high winds. But continued looks at the METARs (weather actuals) for various channel and French airfields was far from encouraging as the low cloud seemed to cling to the channel coast.

So by mid-afternoon, we reluctantly called it a day, as the forecast for tomorrow was really very good, and at this stage the best we could hope for was a hop to Calais. I am sure we would have made it, but to what purpose?

Not a great start!

VFR Tour 2011: The Plan

2011-07-03T11:45:00.004+01:00

Well the plan was simple. Myself and another pilot from the aircraft group were to fly from Gloucestershire airport in the UK and tour a few destinations in Denmark and south-western Sweden then return home in a week.

As we were going to tour VFR (Visual Flight Rules), we needed weather the was good enough for us to see where we were going, to be able to always see the ground and sensible winds as strong winds and flying a taildragger is not a good combination.

Of course there was slack and spare time planned in and corners we could cut, you simply cannot be rigid with VFR flying as you may well get ‘weathered in’ or have to divert in-flight, but that is all part if the game.

The plan was:

Saturday 25th June 2011
This was to be the main ‘get somewhere’ day, with two legs planned.

Gloucestershire Airport to Texel (Holland) via a 130nm crossing of the North sea if the weather was good enough to allow us 5000’ for the crossing, or the alternate was to fly to Calais, clear customs, then on to Texel, then continue as planned, so a three leg day instead of two.

Texel (Holland) to Flensburg (Germany) which is a couple of miles from the Danish mainland. Stay in Flensburg overnight.

Sunday 26th June 2011
Another two leg day, but shorter legs this time.

Flenburg to Stauning (about halfway up the Danish mainland on the west coast), stop for lunch and peruse the Danish Flight Museum at Stauning.

Stauning to Aalborg, the northern-most major city in Denmark, for an overnight stay and a poke around the city. We had deliberately decided to avoid Copenhagen as a destination as we had both been or were about to go there.

Monday 27th June 2011
One leg, this time from Aalborg in Denmark to Goteborg on the west coast of Sweden, crossing the Kattegat, the stretch of water that separates Denmark from Sweden, about a 35nm sea crossing.

Tuesday 28th June 2011
Non-flying day. Stay around Goteborg and have a look around the city. Hopefully meet uop with a Flyer Forum contact who is also a pilot and we may be able to get an evening sightseeing flight around the city.

Wednesday 29th June 2011
Flying along the western Swedish coast from Goteborg to Hoganas. Hoganas is opposite the narrowest bit of sea that separates Sweden from Denmark.

Thursday 30th June 2011
Hoganas in Sweden to the small island of Samso in Denmark for an overnight stay if we could find accommodation, or if not a second flight to the city of Odense in Denmark on the large island of Fyn.

Friday 1st July 2011
Our return home day with two legs if the weather was good or three if not.

Samso in Denmark to Texel in Holland.

Texel in Holland back to Gloucestershire in the UK.

The alternate was again to route instead from Texel to Calais, then from Calais home.

Saturday 2nd July 2011
Contingency day if required.

Sunday 3rd July 2011
Super contingency day (plane not actually booked and would cause problems with other bookings, but if worst came to worst….

The planned route

Well that was the plan, but then the course of VFR touring in Europe, especially northern Europe rarely runs smoothly does it?

Throckmorton and 'Help for Heroes'

2011-06-13T17:05:00.002+01:00

An ex-member of our aircraft group unexpectedly got in touch with me three months ago and asked if I would be interested in flying in to the disused Throckmorton airfield near Pershore for a Help for Heroes day. Well I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to go to an airfield that I hadn’t been to, especially one where you are not normally allowed to land, so of course I said yes. The day of the show arrived on Saturday and I invited Neil along as we need to get used to flying together for our coming big trip to Denmark and Sweden.

I checked the plane out nice and early at Gloucester. I find it relaxing to be able to do this in a leisurely fashion as you don’t miss anything and it helps to set the tone for the coming flight, especially if you do not feel rushed or pressured. The plane was in good shape and the paintwork felt good, it had obviously been properly polished (we pay for this to be done once a month or so). Neil helped as we wheeled the plane out of the hangar, then I booked out with Gloucester as usual.

A trip to the pumps was necessary, so I took advantage of this and made sure that we had the sort of overall load we will be using in our touring at the end of June, just to get used to the weight and handling of the plane at these weights. The weather was excellent, scattered cumulus with minimal wind, but the forecast was for the Cu to build and to have scattered showers from midday onwards, with the sort of gusts associated with showery Cu’s.

Suitably refuelled, we carried out power checks and called ready for departure. The circuit was quiet and we were cleared for a right turnout after noise abatement on 27, then en-route to the north north east to Throckmorton, a mere 20 miles of so distant – by the time I levelled out in the cruise, it would be time to start the descent! Lined up and power up and we trundle away. I get the tail up and ‘feel’ for the direction with the rudder bars. I hold her down as she starts hopping on the runway, then ease off and she pretty much flies herself off, no positive ‘rotate’ action as such really. I wait until the end of the runway, then put in the required ten degree noise abatement turn and start a moderate climbing turn onto track.

I get up to 2000’ and start to establish the plane in the cruise, remembering that we are still running it at a fairly high power of 65% as we are still running in one of the cylinders. By the time we finish changing frequencies and getting settled in the cruise, we can see past Bredon Hill and can definitely see Defford disused airfield. From that landmark, at about 2 o’clock we can make out what must be Pershore, then from there, we look again at 2 o’clock and see what I am pretty sure must be Throckmorton. I keep my eye on that as I change frequency and try the special frequency allocated for the day with the call-sign Pershore Radio (although why we think in the UK that we must have a frequency and speak to someone at an airfield eludes me, the US system of self-announcing on a UNICOMM of MULTICOMM, then each pilot sorting themselves out vis-à-vis each other just works and works really well, we would do well to emulate this!).

I get no response to my initial three calls, but they may be on a low powered Icom, so we continue. I hear another plane coming in from Wellesborne direction also calling Defford on the same frequency, but he seems to be speaking instead to another ground station who was clearly annoyed that someone was using ‘his’ frequency (I rest my case!). As we close in to the overhead, I hear no other traffic and the Wellesborne one is still several miles out. I can see the airfield clearly now, it is the classic three triangular runway wartime type configuration. Two of the runways are being used for the show and only a small part of runway 08 / 26 is being used (pretty much the bit between where the two other runways intersect) giving about 550m of runway, short by some standards, but plenty long enough for the RV, even if heavily laden.

Throckmorton airfield, runway at the bottom between the intersection of the other two

I try the radio again and this time get a response. I am given the runway in use (26 as I expected) and the QFE. I decide to join high along the runway at 1500’, then descend onto left crosswind etc. This will allow me to see a bit of the runway, only part of which is in use. I fly along and note what Lyndon had said, that one of the biggest landfill sites in the area is located to the south, with an attendant massive bird strike hazard. As this is in the direction of the circuit, I make a point of flying quite a wide circuit so I can get well outside the dump. I give position calls on every leg and turn base. Power down a lot and bleed the speed off to the flap limiting speed. Click on two stages of flaps and stabilise the speed and descent.

G-GDRV on the ground at Throckmorton

Turning final for 26 now and the picture is good. I note a few cones on the runway (it is technically a disused airfield after all, although local rumour has it that there are strange Hercules night flights there from time to time) which mark the rough ‘displaced threshold’ area. Do I am aiming for a small part of the runway a good one-third into the actual runway concrete. Speed good, picture good. Keep it coming down. OK, chop the power and round out. Hold her off, stall warner starting to pip. Hold her off more, settling a bit, off a bit more. Stall warner constant now. She touches, slightly tailwheel first. Mains down, feeling a little light, not a bounce, not even a hop really, just floating slightly, hold off more and we are definitely down for what in the RV must qualify as a smooth landing – I am tickled with that!

A Tornado flyby - noisy!

We are marshalled (as expected) very professionally to the static display line of aircraft. We are only the second to arrive. We trundle in and shutdown where indicated. A very short flight, but lots of fun as you are obviously kept very busy and there is the fun of a ‘new’ airfield, especially one with a limited runway length.

SE5 replica

The show was very well attended with an eclectic mix of displays. Quite a few interesting visiting and displaying aircraft, including two scaled SE5 biplanes, a Stearman, an RAF ‘Huey’, two Belgian Air Force Augusta’s, a couple of Chippes, etc. There were also static displays from a Triumph TR car club, loads of gleaming HGV’s, Fire engines and police static displays (Throckmorton is some sort of police centre), vintage and current military vehicles and battle tanks etc. There was of course an air display, with the SE5’s, Brendan O’Brien and his crazy antics in the Cub, a Cap 10 doing aerobatics, a paid of Twisters doing synchronised aerobatics etc. We had a flyby by two Tornados, a Spitfire and a Seafire.

Seafire flyby

All in all a really nice day, with a weird mix of things going on. We both contributed generously to Help for Heroes, I can at least spare the sort of landing fee I would otherwise pay! There were two convincing showers, and we chose to huddle in the RV with the canopy down.

Armageddon is on it's way!

Neil flew back once we were cleared to leave after the final display at 16:30. All the departing planes sorted themselves out and we chose to leave pretty much last. As a backtrack was involved, we intelligently backtracked three aircraft at a time, then lined up as each departed in turn. It is amazing what pilots can do without being ‘told’ to by someone on the radio you know!

Shobdon

2011-05-15T12:18:00.004+01:00

I had tried twice since my last flight to go flying at the weekends, only to be frustrated by the weather. Both times it was cloudy and threatening rain with very high winds. I booked the Saturday as a joint flight with one of the other group members, hoping for good weather and maybe a longer run to say Plymouth, where he would fly pone leg and I would fly the other.

Well, the weather still didn’t want to play ball. We turned up and if was broken cumulus with maybe the odd small gap in the cloud, but quite windy. The forecast wasn’t great and the wind was from the west or slightly to the north west. That ruled out a few of the airfields we looked at as they were single runway and generally oriented to the south west. I didn’t fancy taking on 10-15 kt crosswinds if I could avoid it, se we decided to stay closer to home and go to good old Shobdon again.

Final on 27 at Shobdon

I checked the plane while Neil got the now essential PPR after Shobdon got a b*ll*cking from the CAA for being ‘overloaded’, especially with the helicopter training now taking place at the airfield. Neil flew the leg going out and I flew coming back. The wind at Gloucester on take off was being given as 310 / 10, but it seemed stronger than that. At Shobdon, we indulged in lunch and had a chat with a few of the members of the G-EGBS RV12 group, as they spotted us landing in our ‘world famous’ RV6 (nowt to do with me, all down to Manuel who flew around the world in it).

They have a very interesting aircraft in that it is equipped with a Wilksch 3 cylinder 2 stroke engine that runs on Jet A1. In truth it is underpowered for the RV and gives a mere 110 kts in the cruise. But it does run on far cheaper fuel and even then barely sips that. They do have problems with the pre-combustion chambers and have to replace these every 50 hours, although this problem has now been fixed in the latest version of the engine (which also delivers more horse power, now up to a really useful 140 hp!). They also showed us there rather nice home made control lock, something we could definitely use on the RV6 (such are the exciting topics of conversation once pilots really start letting their hair down – boy, we really know how to party!). I can’t help but think that AVTUR engines are the way forward as AVGAS get more expensive and harder to come by at any price, but that time is not yet here. We will know that AVTUR engines have arrived when the notoriously conservative (and probably rightly so) flying schools start to switch over. I would guess this will be in 5 years time or so.

The Wilksch powered RV, a face that only a mother could love!

We also went into one of the hangars to have a look at the restoration work taking place on the Swallow – a very old and early monoplane with huge wings, exposed cockpits and an exposed radial engine.

We clambered in for my flight back. The wind seemed fairly stiff now, but it was at least straight down runway 27. Power checks complete, we waited for the glider tug to tow a glider aloft and for another glider to land on the grass runway. I trundled across to the hard runway, lined up and we were away. Neil used to fly out of Shobdon, so was very familiar with the airfield and helped me on the local noise abatement and to avoid the noise sensitive areas.

Busy with glider tow launches that day

I set course for Gloucester at around 2800’ as it wasn’t worth climbing to go ‘over’ the clouds for such a short hop. We are still running in the new cylinder, so we are flying the engine fairly hard, at least 65% power, but this is a bit more comfortable than the 75% power we were using for the first 25 hours at least! I diverted a little to the Malverns to have a quick play with them. I called up Gloucester, got the ATIS and was given the standard overhead for 27.

The plane was handling fine and I was feeling quite comfortable, despite not having flown for nearly a month. At three miles we were cleared to the downwind and warned of traffic also joining overhead. Neil and I both spotted the traffic and Neil kept an eye on it as I descended on the deadside (it is very easy to lose sight of the traffic as it appears below the horizon and is easily lost in the ‘ground’. We seemed to be spaced OK. I turned downwind as he was well downwind and tried to slow the RV up some more.

I turned base as he was on final and followed him around slightly further out than I would have flown myself. Power to nearly idle to bleed the airspeed off to the flap limiting speed. Flaps out and turn onto final and settle the airspeed down. The windsock seemed to show the wind only slightly off the centreline. Gloucester were giving 280 / 10, but I swear it seemed to be blowing more than that. I was settled on final as the traffic in front crossed the threshold so I called final. After a pause, I was cleared to ‘land-after’ as it was clear the traffic in front had missed the early turnoff and would roll to the end. I was quite happy to take a land-after as there is stacks of length on 27.

Over the displaced threshold, airspeed a bit above the normal 70kts IAS (the indicator over-reads slightly), so I knew I was in for a fair old hold off. Down and flare and hold off, and off and off. Stall warner starting, don’t let it land yet, make it holler (getting the usual conflicting visual clues from the strong wind where we seem to be crawling along the ground, but of course it is airspeed that matters!). Then we touch and stay touched – OK, pleased with that! I just miss the early turnoff as I don’t want to hammer the brakes and call for a short backtrack which is granted.

We trundle back to the ramp and park up, taking care on taxi doe to the winds. It ain’t over with a taildragger until it’s locked up in the hangar or chocked and tied down (preferably both!).

Nice flight, but a short one. Still it will do for now. Next definite booking is 11th June to Pershore.

Neil and I went into a huddle in Cotswold Aero club planning the route of our joint tour around Denmark and Sweden at the end of June. We got the legs finalised and agreed who would fly what leg and who would plan what leg. We bought all but one of the required Jeppesen charts and Neil will have first go with them and the planning. At home that evening, I finally purchased the full version of Sky Demon and effortlessly planned all of the legs just for fun – boy this program really makes it easy! Looking forward to it already – pray for the weather (as usual)!

Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle Airport

2011-05-06T17:29:00.005+01:00

I had a road trip planned to Edinburgh for a long weekend with the wife, as she has never been to that lovely city. On the way back, we decided to visit a section of Hadrian’s Wall near Carlisle. On the way to this, I saw signposts to Carlisle Airport. As we came to the turnoff, the car unaccountably turned off the main road and headed towards the airfield – I got a severe ‘rolling of the eyes’ together with a theatrical ‘looking at the watch’ from the war department for that!

The mighty Avro Vulcan

It was a lovely sunny day, but very windy, not a great day for flying a taildragger with anything other than an into-wind runway, so in some ways, I was pleased that I hadn’t flown in as I would be worrying about the plane being tied down and any later take-off I would have to make (shades of the very sporting wind that I came across in Avignon – aaargh!).

McDonnell Douglas Phantom

As we approached I saw the distinctive outline of an Avro Vulcan bomber and signs to the Solway Aviation Museum - this just gets better and better! I had a quick poke around the entrance to the airfield, then drove to the Vulcan bomber. It was open and encouraged you to climb up inside and sit in the cockpit, but only if you paid at the museum first. So we drove around the corner to the museum and paid a modest £4.50 per person for admission. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time, so I had to dash around the static exhibition, which I am sure would have warranted at least an hour slowly reading my way around, but I just didn’t have the time. So out into the yard to have a look at the static aircraft on display.

Jet engine

And quite a collection they have too. I had to climb into and sit in the cockpit of the Canberra bomber, the first time I have been so close to this classic jet bomber. The a quick walkaround and photos of the Hawker Hunter, the McDonnell Douglas Phantom (ex-British Navy carrier specimen as indicated by the arrestor hook), the English Electric Lightning, the Vampire, a rather modified and ugly Meteor and a few other bits besides.

Jet engine

English Electric Lightning

I really wasn’t aware that Carlisle airport had a museum and such a good one at that. I would say it was well worth a proper, leisurely visit sometime.

Hadrian’s Wall? Edinburgh? Yeah, they were OK I guess!

Swanwick UK ATC Centre

2011-04-19T18:02:00.004+01:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wickenby

2011-04-17T15:03:00.003+01:00

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

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 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

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

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 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.

Perranporth in CAVOK

2011-04-10T18:40:00.005+01:00

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

Running in

2011-03-21T16:53:00.000Z

We had a minor issue with cylinder #4 on our recent annual service. It turned out to be nothing more that carbon build up that prevented the valves working properly, but for our sins, we were given new piston rings etc. which basically means that we must ‘run the cylinder in’ pretty much as thought it was a new engine.

What this means is running the engine for the next 50 hours or so:

- At high power settings for longer periods (75% with a bit of 65%)
- Keeping the CHT’s reasonably cool, below 224 degrees
- With the mixture pretty much fully rich
- Below 5000’ (or we won’t develop the necessary 75% power)
- Using straight 80 oil
- Keeping a careful record of oil consumption
- Being very careful to avoid rapid cooling
- Using gradual power reductions
- Without varying the power hugely over short periods

What this really means is we will be belting along at 2400 rpm and 165 – 170 kts – into the yellow band of airspeed, so smooth air operation only. It also means a fuel consumption of 37 litres an hour as compared to our more normal average of 29 litres an hour. It also means certainly NO circuits as the constant cycle of full power to idle and back again repeatedly over a short period of time is most definitely NOT what the engine needs! It also means careful planning and cruise descents into airfield circuits, which at these sort of speeds and only using slight reductions in power for cruise descents, means starting the descent some 40 nautical miles out – now I know how an airline pilot feels!

As for slowing the plane up from 170kts to the flap limiting speed of some 100 kts while trying not to shock cool the engine – well, it is interesting to say the least. To try to play my part, I am also asking for direct joins where possible, to cut the amount of time I have the engine running close to idle. It can all be done of course, but it is a far cry from my preferred method of flying the RV, which is at ‘economy cruise’ of probably 50% power (2000 rpm and leaned back to 21 litres and hour fuel burn) which gives a stately, but still respectable 125 kts – fine for me and great for touring.

Oh well. I will be doing my part to get the plane past it’s 50 hours, and therefore into normal engine operation before my planned touring in Denmark and Sweden in late-June.

Haverfordwest for lunch

2011-03-14T17:51:00.002Z

Finally, the plane is out on annual service. We had a bit of a scare as compressions on cylinder four were way down with valve problems, but on review, it turned out to be carbon build up on the valve seating. This was fixed, but the bad news was that we had all new cylinder rings, so we have to go through a ‘running in’ process of tearing around the sky at 75% power for the next fifty or so hours. That means a whopping fuel consumption of about 35 litres an hour and an airspeed into the amber range of 165 – 170 kts. It also means not allowing the CHT’s to go above 224 and not to shock cool, so cruise climbs and very gentle slowing down and descents that we pretty much have to plan from 30 – 40 miles out! A bit of a change from my personally preferred ‘economy cruise’ of around 50% power which gives a modest 125 – 130 kts, but a pleasing leaned-out 20-22 litres per hour fuel burn.

Me and another group member agreed to fly together as we plan to go touring in late June, so sensible if we get used to flying with each other first. The weather on Sunday started gloomy and it had rained the previous night, but by the time I got to the airfield, the promised good weather was arriving from the west and the cloud was already scattered and ‘fair weather cumulus’ that just begged to be flown ‘on top’. We carefully checked the plane out as this was it’s first flight after the test flights associated with the annual. I had vaguely planned to fly to Leicester, but as the best weather was coming in from the west, we hastily re-planned for a flight to Haverfordwest on the western tip of Wales. I was happy to fly the leg out and Neil would fly the leg back. We put some more fuel on board to take it up to MAUW (as we will have to get used to flying like that while touring) as I exchanged pleasantries with a pilot I recognised refuelling his PA46 mini-airliner at the pumps.

Carefully ran through the power checks as I haven’t flown for just over five weeks. There was a bit of congestion at the hold and I kept a very careful eye on the CHT’s which kept nicely below the magic 224 degrees. The log jam cleared quickly and I lined up on 27, the wind was a pleasing 300 / 03. I progressively applied full power and got the tail up. The RV was very quickly hopping along on the two main wheels in the usual distance and I eased her into the air. Keep her down a bit and let the speed build to aid cooling as I was going for a cruise climb. At the end of 27, put in the 10 degrees noise abatement turn and come onto track for the BCN VOR. I kept her climbing to FL50 and put her into level cruise at 75% power. Basically, that means leave it fully rich, pull the throttle only very slightly to about 2450 and check manifold pressure at about 23.5”. The airspeed was a frantic (well for me anyway) 170 kts, albeit with a modest 10-15 kt headwind, so reducing groundspeed a bit. I did notice a tendency to roll slightly to the right (which we were warned about by Manuel), so I compensated with some aileron trim, set considerably further to the left than normal for me (it is usually just off to the right).

The Welsh Hills from FL50 near BCN VOR

I spoke to Cardiff Zone and got a squawk and a basic service and settled into the high-speed cruise above the Welsh Hills at FL50. The weather was glorious, only a slight wind, scattered fair weather cumulus and us barrelling along up to in glorious sunshine with gin-clear lateral visibility. Before I knew it, we were released by Cardiff and headed north of Swansea. I decided not to talk to Swansea and to tune unto Haverfordwest radio on listening watch. I heard some of their calls and they were giving runway 27 with minimal crosswinds. Before I knew it, I was having to think about a gentle cruise descent from 35 miles out! I pulled the power slightly so we were around 65% power and started losing about 2-300 fpm, but still with some blistering speed! To try to be kind to the engine, I was aiming at a direct join onto long final for 27. I called them up and they were happy with this and there didn’t appear to be too much traffic about.

Seven miles to run and airfield in sight. Altitude good, but way too fast. No choice but to pull the power to a much lower setting (but no idle) and bleed the speed off. Eventually, I managed to get it back into flap limiting range and dropped the flaps. By this time I was on one mile final and way too high. So I made the decision to side-slip the height off rather than fart around in the circuit playing around at low power settings. The sideslip worked nicely and I unwound on short final for 27. Still a bit fast, but into the flare and bleed it off in the hold-off. Little bit of and over-correction, but eased her down into the hold off again. Ease back a bit more, stall warner going now, ease back some more, a bit of sink, ease back more. We touch, only a small hop, hold off and touch again and stay touched as there is no more energy left in the wings. OK, not bad for my first after a near six week lay off, though I say it myself.

I taxi in, park up and shut down. We are glad to pop the hatch as it is starting to warm up under the sun. It took us about 45 minutes airtime heading into a modest headwind. What lovely weather, a really warm spring day! On the way to the reporting point, we bump into a gaggle of pilots who are all RV pilots. So we chew the fat for a while. One of the planes is a very nice looking nosewheel RV10 (my idea of an ideal tourer), I now kick myself for not asking to have a look.

A local TV report about a disabled guy having a flight in a Bulldog

We treat ourselves to some lunch and a sit out on the picnic tables watching the planes come and go. Neil plans a more circuitous return route as we would be back in no time at all at those speeds and with a slight tailwind. So we plan to route up to the Aberdovey estuary, then across the Welsh Hills pretty much along the A44 / A470 to Hay on Wye, then direct past Hereford into Gloucester. Neil was flying the return leg and it felt strange to be in the right hand seat.

Aberdovey Estuary

I did get some excellent photos of the Aberdovey estuary. Why can’t the weather be like this all the time? The flight went really well as we kept to power up and went tearing around the turbulence-free Welsh Hills. Just past Hereford, Neil starts the descent as we call up Gloucester. We are offered and accept with pleasure a direct downwind join for 27. Neil handles the power setting carefully and make a very nice landing on 27.

Gloucester from right downwind for runway 27

We put the plane away carefully past the Cessna Citation parked right at the front of the hangar. This involves some careful handling (preferably two person) as the starboard wing of the RV must go underneath the port wing of the Citation, and there isn’t much clearance.

Neil and I wander into the clubhouse at Cotswold Aero Club and as agreed, spread maps out and start some vague planning for a one week trip at the end of June to Denmark and Sweden. We come up with some likely destinations (courtesy of some feedback from some pilot contacts I know over there) and a rough idea of direction. We will meet up a few more times to go flying like this and firm up the plans and hotels etc.

Well a nice flight to start the ‘2011 flying season’ and we have to make many more like it, tearing around at high speed. So we will probably take in some of the slightly more distant airfields I have not been to yet. It will be important to get past the 50 hours running in period before the touring trip I think.

Bristol ATC

2011-02-21T18:07:00.001Z

My local flying club issued an email invitation on a first come first served basis for anyone wanting to visit the Air Traffic Control tower at Bristol Airport. As I have my personal email plumbed through to my BlackBerry, of course I got the email immediately and accepted at once.

The downside, was that it was 19:30 on a Friday at Bristol Airport, so I may have to fight my way through M4 Friday night rush hour traffic in Bristol. They wanted to keep the people attending to eight maximum and the number of cars going to two, as we would be parking in the NATS secure airside parking. Well, I offered my services as a cost-share taxi and quickly had two passengers that I would pick up from the aero club at Gloucester, then trek the 60-odd miles down the M5 to Bristol Airport, carefully sited the far side of Bristol well away from any main roads.

I picked up my guys at 17:15 as I wanted to allow plenty of time to get through the traffic. Well of course having made such generous contingency allowances, there was no traffic and we sailed through, so we stopped for a prolonged coffee break at some services before hitting the airport at around 19:10.

Lesson #1: If you allow contingency you won’t need it (but of course if you don’t allow contingency, there will be serious delays!)

I followed the map instructions and reported at a security barrier near the tower. I walked in and announced myself, who we were here to see and that I was 20 minutes early. The security staff were very uninterested and regarded me with some disdain. They made a cursory glance at two sheets of paper and announced: ‘Nope, you’re not on the list’ and seemed to want to go back to their sports pages of the newspaper. I produced a printout of the email with our contacts name and suggested they get in touch with him.

Lesson #2: No matter how well it has been organised, there will be problems

They asked me to call him instead. When I pointed out that the email did not include his number and perhaps they would know it, they simply said ‘He’s NATS’ as if that explained everything. Well I won’t drag it out, but you get the idea. I managed to get them to call this guy and we were asked to park temporarily outside the security gates until our contact came to the gate in 10 minutes or so.

Lesson #3: Keep your cool and remain polite but assertive (not at all easy for me as anyone that knows me can tell you!)

By this time, the second car had turned up and to save him going through the same rigmarole, I suggested he parked up near me and waited for our contact. Our contact arrived and he ushered the other car into the security barrier so the passengers could be checked for the required ID and the car checked. I waited for some time, then was asked to join them. The problem seemed to be that despite the email from Cotswolds clearly stating what ID was required (photo driving licence with counterpart or valid passport), only one of the three people in the other car had this, and only two in my car did! After some discussion, I agreed to give the only guy in the other car with valid ID a lift back to Bristol to let the two in the other car go home, while the passenger in my car without ID would have to make his way to the terminal and have coffee while three of us had the tour. Sorry, no photos as I didn’t think they would allow any, I will check next time as I have a visit to Swanwick arranged for May.

Lesson #4: RTFE – Read The Flippin Email!

We parked up and signed into the tower with our guide, who was the head of that particular ATC shift of NATS at Bristol Airport Tower. He was an excellent guide and apologised for not being able to allow our colleagues in. We had a very informative slide presentation where he talked us through various things ATC. I was particularly interested that Bristol had a Cat 3 ILS facility on one of the runways. This is the true ‘blind landing’ facility whereby IF both the pilots and the aircraft were also suitably equipped, they could make a fully automated approach and landing in zero cloudbase and zero visibility (i.e. fog). Many airports have Cat 2 capability, which needs something like (figures probably wrong, but illustrates the point) 150’ cloudbase and 400m forward visibility etc. He also explained how the airways system worked vis-à-vis Bristol and how and where their approach control took over from London Information in Swanwick. It was helpful when he explained how they catered for a slot in people like us, asking for VFR transits. He also answered a question I had which was why when flying in the USA, they were very happy for VFR traffic to transit through the overhead at right angles to the active runway at 1500’ when in the UK, we never seemed to do that? He said that wasn’t true and that they would quite happily allow such transits at Bristol at 2000’ if it made sense for the route we wanted. He also explained about aircraft slot times and said that it wasn’t just a slot to take off from the airport, but that they would plan ‘all the way back’ for the riute you needed to make sure that when you took off, that you could fit in with all sectors of your trip without hold (i.e. making sure all of the traffic lights for the route were ready to go to green as you got there), it was not necessarily about congestion at the airport.

After this, we had a trip to the tower itself. Well, they were not at all busy, but there were one or two flights so we could see what was going on. I was surprised to see that they still used paper flight strips that are printed when a plane is within 30 minutes of their airspace. These are placed into a plastic holder, the colour of which denotes whether it is an arrival, departure or in the circuit. They use a very clear screen which displays both primary and secondary radar displays. They can use filters on the primary radar to filter out clutter of radar returns from surrounding hills and radar returns from rain and weather fronts. The aircraft were very easy to see as they had their secondary radar data blocks clearly displayed, showing altitude (FL), Callsign and an indicator to show whether climbing or descending.

In the tower, the radar display was oriented ‘track up’ so that it matched what they saw out of the window (the tower is on the northside, looking south across the main East / West runway, so the display was pretty much ‘south up’ – which threw me for a while as I always use ‘north-up’). We could see the progress of an inbound flight as it came in left downwind for 09 and could make sense of the radio calls etc. Our guide explained how they always updated the master arrivals board and allocated stands etc. as this ‘drove’ pretty much everything at the airport, the arrivals boards, the baggage handlers knowing which flight was getting in next and where to be to unload it, the aircraft marshallers etc.

After the tower, we were taken down one floor to approach / departures. This was a windowless room (as they really didn’t need to look out to see anything as it would all be too far away). They had the same type of display as the tower, but set to a larger scale and oriented north up. There was only one guy in the room, but two stations. They weren’t busy. But our guide talked us through showing us the aircraft inbound from the east that he was talking to and another arriving from the north who would be transferred to Bristol shortly. Sure enough, the strip started to print for the northerly arrival and this was taken, mounted and put in the arrivals rack. They still note everything they say to the arcraft on the flight strip by hand, in case anyone has to take over, there is a complete record of comms with the aircraft (well, that and the recordings that is!).

He explained that aircraft do not ‘have’ to make instrument approaches, they can call visual with the airfield and if traffic allows, make a normal visual approach. Our guide recounted an incident a couple of years ago then a KLM arrival from the east called ‘visual’ and said he could clearly see the airfield off to his right. ATC challenged as said ‘surely you mean to your left’, no he was adamant that he really meant to the right. It dawned on them that despite the pilot’s own map, GPS, radio beacons and a plethora of other navaids, that he had mistaken Bristol Filton to the north for Bristol Lulsgate to the south! I have done something similar where I was convinced that I was lined up for 09 and became so convinced that I disregarded everything that told me otherwise, until ATC calmly suggested that I extended my ‘ahem’ base leg to line up for final on 09 as I was on 04 at the moment! There have been many incidents of commercial jets landing at the wrong airport (Northholt mistaken for Heathrow was a good one, but my personal favourite was a B52 doing a low level beat-up of Blackbushe airfield, skittling planes out of the circuit having mistaken it for Farnborough Air Show) – human factors eh? Gotta love em!

Well it was an excellent trip and we very much enjoyed it. I picked up our non-ID carrying passenger and drove back through the rain via Bristol back to Cheltenham, getting home at 23:10, tired, but well worth it. Next trip is to the UK ATC centre at Swanwick, near Southampton.

Wellesborne Mountford

2011-01-29T20:09:00.004Z

After two weather cancellations, I finally got to fly today. The weather was not perfect, but do-able. It was one of those murky, high-pressure, very cold, little wind type deals we see in the UK. I planned to fly Rob to Wellesborne Mountford, a very short flight from Gloucestershire, to see the ‘fast-taxi capable’ Vulcan bomber based there.

I checked the weather there on their excellent website as they only have one runway in use at weekends, and I wanted to know what crosswind I would be facing, if any. Turned out to be 030/07, so it would be 36 with a slight crosswind component from the right. I called them for PPR as per the plates, but they seemed to just want my details in advance.

I bumped into a few fellow Flyer Forumites in Cotswold Aero Club, Hogster, Johnm and Timmy P. It is one of those surreal moment when you meet people you have been ‘talking to’ via a bulletin board only – ‘Hello, I am Karg the destroyer of worlds, you must be Mekon emperor of the seventh quadrant!’ – well not quite, at least we have semi-sensible forum names – I am Steve H – original huh? Anyway, I was put to shame as one was going to Calais and the other two were going to Gamston. Here’s me only scuttling along 20 minutes to Wellesborne, oh well, plan the flight and fly the plan!

I checked the plane out and Rob helped me pull it out of the hangar past the Citation jets. I tried the normal startup routine, and again and again and again. It was very cold and had been for the previous few days and no one had flown her for a week, so she was very cold and ratty! I primed and tried again, a splutter then dead. I carefully primed some more. By now I was worried in case I had flooded the engine, but no smell of fuel, so more priming. Eventually she caught and the battery seemed none the worse for the experience. Taxi to the pumps to put some fuel in, called for clearance and we had the ‘long march of death’ around to C1 for 09 – oh well, I needed a little while to get the oil up to temperature anyway!

After power checks I was cleared for take off for the short flight to Wellesborne. I climbed to 2100’ and it started to get very murky, at 2200’ I was almost in poorly defined murky clouds, so I dropped to 2000’ and dinked left to swing north around the Cotswold ridge rather than head straight over it. Yes, it was murky up there, although lateral visibility was OK, they were saying 10km or more on the ATIS, but I can only assume they had not been flying as it seemed a little less than that. In no time at all, I was switching from Gloster to Wellesborne and calling for airfield information (it is only a 20 minute run). As expected, they were giving 36 with left had circuits and the wind was as expected.

I carried out a standard overhead join, slotted into the traffic already in the circuit and swung her onto final. As usual, I left myself a bit high, a bit of sideslip took care of that. A bit fast, but then I do want to land a bit long, so I’ll bleed that off with a longer flare. Over the numbers and rounding out, hold off and off and off and off. We are heavy, but this is taking a while. Little bit of crosswind, dab of rudder to straighten and we touch – and stay touched. A little into wind aileron, dance on the peddles until she is down to taxi speed, yes, there we go. Well false modesty aside, that was about as good a landing as you can do in the RV – very smooth (I was of course to pay for this hubris later!).

G-GDRV parked up at Wellesborne

We parked up and dutifully trotted into the tower to pay. £15 landing fee and a friendly welcome. I asked about getting to the intact Vulcan bomber on the north west perimeter. They said if I had a hi-vis vest, we could walk along the taxiway. It was a good half mile and the wind (such as it was) made the sub-zero temperature feel a lot worse.

The mighty Avro Vulcan

We were happy to be in the lee of the mighty Vulcan. Sure enough, there were many volunteers at the Vulcan. They had one of the engine out for overhaul. They were very friendly and welcomed us in and chatted about the plane. I knew something about Vulcans, but of course not as much as them. I was surprised to learn that the engine did not have after-burners and that this was the later and more powerful Olympus 301 engined version.

One of the working Olympus 301 engines being serviced

We had a wander around and had a close up of one of the partially stripped engines. It is a real treat to see a real, running engine being overhauled, not some dead, lifeless hulk that has been dissected in a museum somewhere. I was surprised at how small it seemed.

Lovely clean turbine blades

I was grateful for the tour and offered a donation to a lady in one of the portakabins. She immediately offered us a trip into the crew compartment. That too was a treat. I was amazed at how cramped it was and what a truly lousy view the pilots had. It was the usual chaos of black panels and switches and dials scattered around seemingly at random – no digital stuff here, oh no! I thought the two London Underground tube train flexible hanging handles in the ceiling of the crew compartment said it all – period British pragmatism, hey if they work, stick them in there!

Possibly the most cluttered and worst designed panel ever

We made our way back, now quite cold, to the ‘new’ café. Well, it looks very much like to old café to me! Having said that, it is perfectly fine. There are normally a lot of locals that turn up with families for a fried breakfast and to watch the planes, which I think is an excellent thing. There is a great deck looking onto the airfield with tables etc., but no takers on a cold day like this. It would be a nice spot in the summer though.

The 'new' cafe - different from the 'old' cafe....err....how?

We didn’t hang around and soon mounted up for the return trip. The plane started first time as we taxied for the hold for 36. The tower again confirmed the noise abatement procedures as I lined up, applied power and started hopping eagerly along 36 (the plane was moving down the runway too!). Up we went and I turned onto 030 and glimpsed the green roofed building we were aiming for. Nicely on track. At 1200’ I turned left onto direct track back to Gloucester. I could still only manage 2100’, but that was fine.

Picked up the ATIS and called for rejoin. Got the expected standard overhead for 09 although the wind was a mild 030/05. I wasn’t sure why they hadn’t switched to runway 04, but I was OK with that wind. The circuit was quiet with only one other in as I called final. OK, a bit high and a bit fast. Slipped some of it off, but still a bit fast. Over the threshold aiming to land long, flared, a bit high though, felt her down, no real stall warner, we touched and I guess I knew what was going to happen. Now after my last landing which was really good, you would have thought the plane would say ‘Y’know Steve, that last one you did was really good, so I’ll let you off this one’ – but no. The RV has no such memory. I was punished with a bounce. As we were heading back up it is amazing how quickly you think. By the time we got to the top of the bounce and were about to come down a second time, I weighed up the pro’s and cons and thought that yes, I could control this mext one and land, but it would be messy and anyway, what is the hurry, so I pushed in the power and the engine and aircraft responded beautifully into a go around, as if to say to me ‘good decision, coz I was going to kick your ass if you tried anything else!’.

This was the first go around I have done for a few years, so probably long overdue anyway. I explained to Rob who was (or at least seemed to be) unconcerned. The second approach was better and my second landing was almost as good as the one at Wellesborne, certainly the plane seemed happy with it. What was it my PPL instructor used to say? ‘A good landing comes from a good approach’ – how true.

Taxied in and shut down. Rob help me put the plane away and we got it precisely into it’s tight slot first time with very few instructions.

Well all in all, poor weather but a really nice flight. It would be nice if the heater could be a little more efficient though. Loved seeing the Vulcan, well worth it for that alone.

Goddam weather!

2011-01-26T17:02:00.001Z

For the second time in as many weeks, I tried for even a measly local or even circuits, but no dice!

The first Saturday, I called off a local due to high and gusty winds. Just not worth chancing it in a taildragger.

Last weekend was cold and certainly a very ‘high pressure murk’, but I figured I could at least managed some circuits. I got to the airfield and the weather was considerably worse than where I live, with an indeterminate cloud base (it was that murky), probably 3k visibility and light drizzle / rain. That and the temperature on the ground was only just above freezing, even 2000’ altitude (if you could get it without going IMC which was doubtful) the temperature would be sub-zero, add to that visible moisture and you have all the recipe for airframe icing. So I alreadt made the call to myself that I was not flying, even

I decided to at least call into the local flying club to console myself with a coffee before heading back home. As if to confirm my appraisal, I heard the CFI come into the next room after having been out with a student. He was talking to someone in the next room and said ‘take a look at the icing on the plane (he just flew in on)’.

No contest, I am out of here, even for circuits. On my way out, I passed another pilot cheerfully coming in with full kit. I asked in jest if he was flying anywhere. He looked surprised and said ‘Yes, why not?’. I just replied ‘I hope you like icing’ and walked on. I know different people have different attitudes to risk, but icing? That is one thing I would NOT mess with! While I know he has a lightweight instrument rating, I also know his aircraft does not have any de-icing equipment. I am sure he came to the right decision.

So I shall be trying for a third time for quick flight next weekend. Such are the joys of flying in the UK in the winter!

AVGAS and Lyconosaurus

2011-01-14T19:22:00.003Z

I’m not a whiner, BUT!

In the UK, the price of normal petrol / gasoline has risen swiftly and inexorably like a flood tide from an eye-watering £0.85 pence a litre (yes, litre not gallon!) as recently as January 2009 to an unbelievable £1.30 now (January 2011) and a predicted £1.50 a litre by this summer. All of this is incredibly bad news for anyone that drives a car or rides a motorbike, but these prices seem like a bargain when comparing them to AVGAS fuel prices for light aircraft.

UK Gasoline Prices - per litre

Light aircraft can use a variety of different fuels, depending on the engine(s) being used.

AVGAS

The vast majority of light aircraft are still powered by legacy air-cooled petrol engine made mainly by either Lycoming or Continental (there are a few smaller suppliers). These are amazing beasts in this day and age and the technology used amazes non-aviation aware people, especially those who know a bit about cars. They are literally built using 1930’s technology that has remained completely unchanged to the present day. The engine in my own aircraft is typical. It is a Lycoming 0-320 that delivers a peak of 160 horse power.

The ‘320’ signifies the ‘swept volume’ of the four gigantic cylinders as expressed in cubic inches. Yes, you got that right, four cylinders and a swept volume of 320 cubic inches. For those more familiar with engine capacity expressed in litres, that’s 5.2 litres. Yes, a four cylinder 5.2 LITRE engine that delivers a whopping 160 horse power (not!)! Each cylinder normally has a mere two spark plugs per cylinder with the spark being created by two sets of magnetos – yes, magnetos! One set of mags drive one of the plugs in each cylinder and the second drives the second etc. Actually not such a silly arrangement as it means that if the battery dies, the engine doesn’t care and carries on as happy as Larry. If one set of mags fails, there is a second which continues to run the engine, albeit usually at a slightly lower power level.

What these engine deliver is a very slow revving engine that directly drives the propeller rpm (let’s ignore VP props for now), normally in the cruise of between 2000 – 2400 rpm with a maximum of 2600 rpm. If it turned a normal prop any faster, the tips of the propeller would break the sound barrier and make an incredible noise but more importantly create a lot of supersonic and transonic turbulence which would seriously impact the lift or ‘bite’ of the propeller and therefore it’s ability to pull / push the plane along. An engine revving at these speeds means that you don’t need the added mechanical complexity (the more stuff you have the more points of failure there are) and as important the added weight of an rpm reduction gearbox.

As it is old (for that, read ‘ancient’) technology, these engines must use a high octane leaded gasoline, also called AVGAS. This is 100 octane (also referred to as 100LL for ‘low lead’ to keep the green campaigners happy). This is the sort of fuel that we used to see at the pumps for cars before unleaded fuel became all the rage, albeit for a much higher octane. Now the problem with this is that apart from the miniscule demands of the classic and vintage car market, there is no other commercial demand for high octane leaded fuel than to fuel these antique engines used mainly by private flyers for light aircraft (OK, and of course heavy WW2 warbirds that are still flying). So the market for AVGAS is tiny and producing it is an irritation for oil companies, so by the law of supply and demand, availability of AVGAS in Europe is not good (many French GA airfields run out every summer) and it is very expensive. We have just been hit with a huge hike and pump prices at my airfield are now £1.74 a litre. Given that we get through 25 – 30 litres an hour flying that hurts a lot! The smart money is on AVGAS in the UK being more than £2.00 a litre by the summer.

UK AVGAS Prices - PER LITRE!

By way of comparison with the vibrant US General Aviation industry, they too will tell you that they are staggering around under the burden of an AVGAS price of an eye-watering $5.00 a US Gallon. Now in case you aren’t good at doing conversions that is an exorbitant £0.83 a litre – wait a minute….. £0.83 pence a litre, ARE YOU KIDDING! That’s under half the UK price!!!! Small wonder there is little appetite in the US engine running on MOGAS or AVTUR!

MOGAS

This is just a clever-dicky name for the petrol / gasoline you put into your car. Now I know that it is really hard for a motorist to think that £1.30 for a litre of 95 octane unleaded is a bargain, but imagine if you had a car-type engine in your light aircraft. The fuel burn would be considerably less for about the same horse power (usually 15-20 litres an hour vs 25-30 litres an hour using AVGAS engines) and of course the price per litre would be one-third cheaper litre for litre and a whopping half to two-third cheaper when you also take into account the lower fuel burn for the same power!

The downside? Well, you basically have a modern car engine revving at 4500 rpm for peak efficiency, so you need a reduction gearbox and of course car engines don’t use magnetos, so you are tied to a battery, the battery dies, your engine stops – not nice if you are in the air at the time. Having said that, the engine itself is much smaller and lighter, reduction gearboxes are very reliable as are modern batteries, and you can carry two anyway. The other advantage is that they are water-cooled. So while that adds further addition weight, it means that you really don’t have to worry about engine over-heating at high power setting and low airspeeds (in the climb after take-off) or possible shock-cooling associated with low power settings and normal or high airspeeds (in the descent).

The good news is that there are such engines available in the GA world, they are called ‘Rotax’ engines. The downside is that they are relatively small engines aiming at the very light aircraft end of the market. The largets such engine is the Rotax 914 which can only pump out 115 horse power – so no good for our RV6 which really does need 160 horses. But then they are a measly 1.2 litre engine. Why or why can’t Rotax develop a similar 1.6 or even 2.0 litre engine, God knows there are plenty driving cars around!

Many people (including me) are looking at MOGAS Rotax type engine and the new VLA or ‘Light Sport’ type aircraft now emerging as a longer term and economically viable alternative to AVGAS Lyconosuarus engines.

AVTUR

This is the fuel used worldwide to power the jet and turbine engines you find in commercial aircraft all the way from a modest King Air to the awesome Airbus A380. It is basically a ‘diesel’ type fuel, also very similar / identical to kerosene / paraffin etc. The majority of military jet aircraft also use a kerosene type fuel, either JP5 or JP8. The major difference is that the military fuel types are more fire resistant that regular AVTUR (and unlike what you see in the movies, AVTUR is much less flammable than AVGAS or MOGAS).

GA AVTUR engines are basically nowhere in the USA, and after all, it is the USA who are still the main driver for the General Aviation industry. However, there are a few AVTUR engines around, makers like Thielert, Wilksch etc. Unfortunately, Thielert started with a converted 1.8 litre Mercedes diesel engine which only managed a measly 120hp. They were not a very well managed company and went into administration (from which they are now emerging). But quite a few people were ‘bitten’ by paying for expensive conversions to existing aircraft or buying expensive new Austrian Diamond aircraft (who had a ties up with Thielert) only to find parts impossible and warranties no-existant. But one bad experience should not surely sink what must be the true way forward for light piston engines? Any commercial airfield will have AVTUR and by worldwide convention, AVTUR is sold around the world tax and duty free and runs out at around £0.60 per litre.

Having said that, the UK have cottoned onto that and now have a tax on AVTUR if you use it for non-commercial flying. A tax of £0.54 a litre is mentioned, taking the price up to, but still short of MOGAS prices.

However, the fuel burn is very modest (about the same as a Rotax) and the fuel itself is less flammable. It is very widely available at virtually every airport. This has to be the future, certainly in Europe and it probably won’t be long before the US wake up and have to see that too, how much longer will oil companies continue to produce this hobby fuel of AVGAS?

So bottom line? I can’t wait to see the back of AVGAS and will be looking to switch ideally to an AVTUR single engine piston – now all I need is an established, reliable and proven AVTUR piston engine manufacturer!

Welsh Hills

2011-01-02T13:02:00.004Z

First flight of the new year was early for me, on Sunday the 2nd. The weather was OK, overcast, but thin and high enough, probably 5000’nil wind and cold, probably around freezing.

I checked the plane out and pulled it carefully out of the hangar past the Citation jet, which was far enough back that I didn’t have to try to get under part of it’s wing. I decided to put a squirt of fuel in to be kind to the next person to fly as I was solo and so pretty light. At the pumps I bumped into another Flyer Forum member who I had ‘spoken’ to on the forum but not yet met – good to see you Hogster!

Power checks complete, I let the engine drone on to get the oil temperature up to the magic 40 degrees before I called ready for departure. It has been about 35 days since I last flew and I went through the motions and readouts I expected for both take-off and landing in my head, then I lined up. Power smoothly on and hold it straight down the runway. Tail up as the speed builds and hold her down as she hops about impatient for her natural element. I let her climb away after a gratifyingly short ground run. At the end of the runway, I put in the 10 degree right noise abatement turn and climb straight ahead as I plan to check out the Welsh Hill and Pen-y-Fan in the distance to the west.

I climb to 4500’ and level out. Top of climb checks and lean the engine to my preferred ‘economy cruise’ of around 2050 rpm and 20 litres an hour which gives 120 – 125kts. I navigate carefully between the two prohibited zones at Credenhill and Madley, near Hereford (both of which are SAS training areas that they are understandably protective of) using both GPS and the prominent ground feature of the disused airfield at Madley.

The Welsh Hills are still somewhat snow-covered, unlike the rest of the countryside where it melted a few days ago. It looks like the snow (or deep frost) is carefully following the 1500’ contour line. I close in on Hay on Wye and head towards the peak of Pen-y-Fan (much beloved of Paratroopers and SAS wannabes). It looks beautiful in the heavy frosting and I am amazed at the number of hikers up on the hills today. I have a quick look for G-TOMS, a PA38 that made a forced landing near Pen-y-Fan a couple of weeks ago, but cannot spot it, although I am sure it is still there (and is I understand, a real ‘attraction’ for hill walkers and mountain-bikers). I play around the outside of the peak in this nil wind condition, confident that I won’t pick up any nasty gusts. For the hell of it, I throw in a few steep turns then waggle my wings at the hikers and head back towards Gloucester. While I was over Pen-y-Fan, I had switched onto 121.5 just in case. I heard London Centre calling for a plane that was squawking 7700 near Winchester. He clearly wasn’t on frequency despite a few calls by London Centre. I wonder what happened there?

I call Gloster Approach with 20 miles to run for a direct join and they give me direct to 09, which I am pretty much in a straight line final for anyway. I hear another forumite on frequency as he flies from Shoreham to Shobdon. I call again as requested at 5 miles and I am given clear to land. I do my pre-landing checks and get the airspeed under control by pulling the throttle to idle and holding altitude for what seems like ages as the plane slowly loses speed to allow me to pull on some flaps. Some power back in as I get the speed back to 80 kts. At 1 mile final, I bleed it back to 70 kts and hold it there. Good approach, good airspeed. I go through the landing in my head and try to land long so as not to tie the runway up while I trundle to the end. Over the hedge and get ready…. flare…..NOW. I hold off remembering that I am light so it will take a while for the stall warner to blare. I touch very lightly before I want to and hop slightly (not a bounce, just a gentle hop), I curse a bit then as she settles again, I make a determined effort to hold off and make the stall warner holler. I succeed and when we touch again, there is no more flying left in the wing and she settles nicely. Despite all of this, I still have a fair way to taxi to A2.

Back to the hangar and I put the plane away just in time to see a note on the hangar from another group member saying that he is in the clubhouse and I can leave the plane out – DOH! Too late! Never mind, good practice. I complete the paperwork and update the other group member on the plane (not much to say). I sort out the end of month / start of month paperwork as I need to sort out the December accounts (I run the books and billings for the group).

A lovely flight to start 2011 – thoroughly enjoyed that! For 2011 I am vaguely planning on a tour of Denmark and Sweden in the summer – fingers crossed!

Local on a cold day

2010-11-28T18:11:00.005Z

I had booked to fly on Saturday, but the weather was very cold, a bit breezy and murky visibility. I was still up for a trip to the airfield, but as I was scraping the ice off the car, it started to snow so that was it, way too many risk factors, so scrap that. Sunday was a beautiful, if very cold day. No wind and a little cold mist, but likely to disappear as the day wore on. I checked the booking system and to my surprise, there were no booking for the plane today, so I took two hours until lunchtime and headed off for the 20 minute drive to the airfield.

I was out to the hangar and carried out the A-check in freezing conditions, literally -4 degrees, it would remain sub-zero all day. By the end of the check, my fingers had ceased to work, but I carried on and opened the hangar doors and carefully edged the plane out past the Cessna Citation jet parked where it makes the move the most difficult. It took me five attempts to get it past the jet so that the wingtip cleared the hangar door frame on one side and cleared under the wing of the jet on the other. So it was back into the clubhouse for a coffee and book out and give my fingers time to come back to life!

I climbed in and buttoned up. Fortunately, although it was so cold, the canopy didn’t mist up with my breath. The engine eventually caught at the fourth attempt and much priming. The ATIS was giving runway 09, the one furthest away. Having said that, probably not a bad idea as the taxi around would give the oil enough time to come up to the 40 degrees minimum we need for take off.

At the hold for C1 at 09 where I turned for my run up checks, I noticed two deeply gouged furrows in the turf to the right of the runway that went on for many metres and wondered what had made them, surely not an aircraft? The power checks were fine but the oil had still not come up to temperature. I pulled up to the hold and watched the oil temperature count off until it was right, then called ready for departure. The tower asked if I was ready for an immediate departure. I replied with a crisp ‘affirm’ and was given immediate clearance while another aircraft turned final.

Malvern Ridge from 4000' on a cold but very clear day - and no - none of these photographs are in any way photoshopped or 'improved', it really was that clear!

I was hopping along the runway in very short order, the aircraft performance even more sparking given the relatively light fuel load, only me on board and the very cold and therefore dense air. I climbed and made a left turnout heading for the Malverns. I levelled out at just over 4000’ and marvelled at the near unlimited visibility up here. Once I was past 2500’ I was out of the low murk, almost like getting n top of an inversion layer, once on top the vis was awesome. I could easily see the Welsh Hill in the distance with a dusting of snow on them.

Bredon Hill on a lovely cold day

Basically, I just poodled about, cranked in a few steep turns for the hell of it and took several photographs, trying for various different effects. I also discovered that the heater is pretty ineffective, to the point that I tried switching it off thinking it might be warmer without the draft, I was wrong, but only just - the heating effect was marginal. I think my farts were heating the air inside the plane every bit as effectively! The Malverns looked lovely close up, then I set course to Bredon Hill and the Cotswolds around Winchcombe. I picked up the ATIS and headed back to Bredon Hill for my run back to the airport. I had heard a few aircraft calling for joining at Gloucester and formed a mental picture in my mind of where they were and roughly when they would arrive at the airport and delayed my call so that I would not add to a sudden knot of aircraft all arriving at once.

Looking south towards Gloucestershire on a very cold, clear day

I called and as usual was set for a standard overhead join for 09 and to report at three miles. I ran in to Gloucester and did my approach checks and descended to 2000’ on the QFE. At three miles I was told to report downwind. I dropped from 2000’ to 1000’ on the deadside descent and crossed the upwind numbers at 1000’ as normal. By the time I got my call in, it was late downwind and I could see the traffic I was following had just turned a long-ish final as I turned base. I was a bit high, so power off and let the airspeed bleed back to flap limiting speed, then crank on both stages of flap. I turned final with the traffic in front now on short-ish final. I was still high, so side-slipped some of that off. When I unwound from the side-slip, I called final, noting that the training aircraft in front was about to land pretty much on the numbers and would therefore not technically be clear at the far end of the runway by the time I wanted to touch down myself. I was relieved when the tower gave me a ‘land-after’ which I was happy to accept.

I rounded out probably a bit high, but no matter, I ‘felt’ the aircraft down to a sensible hold-off height and started to hold off. I don’t recall hearing the stall warner (although it was working fine on the pre-flight check), but then I knew I was light and the air was thick, so probably I was still flying, so I held off more. The wheels touched very lightly before I wanted them to, so held off some more. Before I knew it, I was down and on the wheels (wow, that was gentle!), and pulling the stick progressively all the way back to make sure the tailwheel was anchored onto the runway. Not that I needed to worry too much as there wasn’t the slightest breath of wind, but it is all good handling.

I didn’t think I landed that short, but it was a fair old trundle to the end of the runway for the exit at A2 and I was hoping that I wasn’t holding anyone up behind me.

I taxied in and shut down. As I jumped out to get the towbar, Steve Noudjiam trundled up in his world record breaking RV7 and gave me some sign language. I thought he was asking me to leave my plane where it was as he was behind me in the hangar. Strange, I thought he vacated that hangar a month ago. I wasn’t sure so indicated that I didn’t understand. He popped the canopy and said he was in the hangar for another month and it was OK, he would put my plane away after his as he wanted to run his engine for while as it hadn’t been used for over a month.

I was fine with that. I wandered into the hangar and did the paper work and shut the plane down properly. By the time I had finished flapping around and was headed back to the clubhouse, I heard Steve chop the power to his RV7, so I walked back as two of us putting the planes away past the Citation still making it tough was a good idea.

No sooner had we put his away and nearly put mine away, then the new member of our group appeared wanting to take the plane out. No problem, so we wheeled it out for him. When I booked, I was the only booking that day, but apparently he had seen my booking and thought he would take a slot right after me – good thinking, the engine is nice and warm and the A-check is done – why hadn’t I thought of that?

I stopped in the clubhouse for a coffee and a warm up. In conversation with a few people there, I discovered the secret of the deep ruts near runway 09. It turns out that they were made by G-EWHT, the ‘nice’ Cotswold Robin that I have flown aerobatics in. It turns out that it made a ‘heavy’ night landing off the runway, then banged up over the runway lip onto the runway and the pilot taxied it back in. By ‘heavy’, because the plane is aerobatic, it is equipped with a ‘G’ meter, the meter read -3 and +9! Given that it is maximum rated to +6, that was one hell of a heavy landing. I was surprised the wheels and legs were still on and not through the wings. However, all is not well as apparently there was creasing to the aircraft skin and it turns out that there is twisting to a couple of the ribs and the firewall. I wasn’t so much a heavy landing as a crash where the wheels and legs stayed on!

What a shame. The plane is due for an insurance company inspection on Monday but it wasn’t looking promising, get ready for an insurance write off of the nicest plane in the Cotswold fleet.

On the way home, I was thinking about the various aircraft I have flown and realised that five of the aircraft that I had now flown had been involved in various accident, two of them (if this one is) having to be written off. I hasten to add that I was present at only one of the accidents, where I was in the right hand seat as the non-handling pilot – so as Bart Simpson would say ‘It wasn’t me – you can’t prove it!’.

Brecon beacons

2010-11-13T13:29:00.004Z

I am just on my winter flying schedule now, mainly locals to keep my hand in with the odd nearby landaway if the weather looks really good. Well the weather was really lousy in the week leading up to Saturday, high winds and rain, but Saturday was virtually perfect, slight wind (straight down the runway), virtually clear and sunny sky and unlimited visibility.

I decided on a local, but to fly around the nearby Welsh Hill and Brecon Beacons just for the hell of it, especially as the wind was light, so there shouldn’t be much chop or rotor on the leeside of the hills. We took off from runway 22 with the wind 230 / 07. Climbed to 4500’ and headed west.

Herefordshire from 4000' on a lovely day

I threaded my way carefully through the two prohibited zones that the SAS use. I tightened my harness just in case of turbulence and headed down the Wye valley to Hay-on-Wye and into Wales proper. I was down to about 3500’ by now and dodging the odd small cumulus cloud, or maybe going through it. We cut across and carried on the Brecon and moved into the hills to the south of Brecon for a low level plan along the highlands and crests. There were loads of mountain bikers enjoying themselves on the rough tracks. I was really enjoying myself, just poling around low-ish level doing nothing in particular and enjoying the view.

Brecon beacons

We did this for a few minutes, then headed out and back towards base via Abergavenny. I picked up the ATIS and listened in to Gloucester who now seemed pretty busy. I called for rejoin and was asked to report at three miles. As I was about to call 3 miles, I heard two others also call at three miles, albeit joining from different directions. Instead I called and told Gloucester where I was and that I would do an orbit or two to let the others get well ahead and space myself out a bit.

Orbits complete, I joined for a standard overhead join. The circuit was busy alright as we passed overhead on the crosswind a plane taking off underneath us. There was no contention as I kept it very tight to the upwind end of the runway. I called downwind and could see two ahead, one ahead of me downwind and another well outside, possibly on a downwind, but one that was outside the zone, so could be another ‘bomber circuit’. The guy outside called orbiting at the end of the downwind for spacing, so I slotted in as number two behind the guy in front who was now on base. I turned base and tried to slow down a bit so I was properly spaced to the guy in front.

I managed it, although I didn’t get a ‘land after’ until I was pretty much over the hedge, but at least the tower did warn me to expect a late clearance. I flared slightly high, but no matter as the plane eased down, stall warner now blaring. I held her off and off until she finally gave up flying and settled into a nice, fully stalled landing. I kept the speed up to vacate as normal, but I think the guy behind me had gotten too close and had to go around.

Taxiing in there was a lovely Stearman warming the engine – wow, he was going to be cold today in that open cockpit! A very pleasant flight on a lovely flying day – can’t beat it!

Lovely Stearman at Gloucester

Halfpenny Green

2010-11-01T16:55:00.003Z

I booked the plane for Saturday morning, hoping for good weather and vaguely planning a brief landaway. The days leading up to Saturday were far from promising, with high winds, low cloud and occasional rain, but Saturday turned out almost perfect, light wind, clear skies with maybe a few very scattered flat cumulus clouds starting to form.

I met up with Rob (my daughter’s boyfriend) at the airport and I had already checked the plane out. He helped me pull it out of the hangar and I started up and taxied over to the pumps as there was barely enough fuel for a couple of circuits, with one tank virtually dry. I called for taxi clearance after I had put some 70 litres in and was told that I hadn’t booked out – ah! I thought it was all going a bit too smoothly, UI had forgotten. The guy in ATC relented as he wasn’t too busy and took my details over the radio. I taxied to the hold for 22 and did the power checks carefully, as the previous pilot had reported engine rough running while on the right tank, from the description, almost certainly carb icing, but can’t be too careful. The engine and tank were fine.

Line up, power up, dance on the peddles to keep her straight down the runway, tail up and keep her down. She starts to skip, hold her down a bit more, still only looking down the runway and judging the airspeed by sight and the engine by sound. I daren’t take my eyes off the end of the runway for a second for fear of the plane starting to weathercock in that moment – I think most taildragger pilots would say the same thing, maybe I should ask them? Anyway, we are easily up and climbing to the right heading north as I have decided to pop into Wolverhampton / Halfpenny Green airport, as I haven’t been there since I was training in 2001.

We climb to 4500’ and I let Rob have a play with the controls. He isn’t bad at all, but betrays that he is a ‘Flight Simulator Pilot’ by the way he only ever looks at the instruments and does not fly by visual reference. I give him the usual patter about how to fly visually. It is only a short run to Wolverhampton and I take care to avoid flying anywhere near the Birmingham control zone. I call up Wolverhampton and see that they are operating on runway 16. I ask about the wind and they say it is 150/08 – OK fine, just different from Gloucester who were giving 200/08. By the time I spot the airfield, we are virtually on top of it and still at 4000’. So I opt for a standard overhead join which goes pretty well. They are very quiet and there is only one other aircraft moving down there. On base I hear someone calling ready for departure and on final I see him lining up. No bother as In continue my approach. I get the expected ‘lad at your discretion’ (this is an INFO tower, not a controlled airport). The guy on the end of the runway starts moving, so I continue. He is well clear and airborne as I come in for the landing. Approach has been good, bit fast, but I hold off well. The stall warner is screaming, hold off some more and when we touch it is barely a touch and we stay down and solid and roll slowly to the end of the runway (as that is the quickest taxi to parking). Well that was about as close to a ‘greaser’ as you can probably get in an RV6 (certainly as close as I ever get!).

Rob and G-GDRV at Halfpenny Green Airport

The INFO guys are very helpful and talk me around the route to parking, not that I needed it, but a nice touch, but then they weren’t busy. We park up on hard standing by the tower and shut down. It is a beautiful day as I head to the tower to pay the landing fee, while Rob explores the delights of the café, in the tower building, but one floor below. The guys in the tower are very friendly and seem keen to encourage return visits. I explain that I haven’t been here for eight years or so and quickly explain that it is only because it is so close to Gloucester that it is a bit embarrassing, a bit like a trip to Kemble, a mere ten minutes away – some intrepid aviator! They mention my plane and say that Manuel had it based at Wolverhampton while he was preparing it for his round-the-world flight.

The airport café is basic but very nice. Good choice of food as I opt for the mandatory toasted bacon sandwich and coffee (I have never quite got the hang of tea, despite living in the UK most of my life). Rob pays for the meals as he has a burger and fries brunch. We chat away watching the very odd aircraft come and go, it is pretty quiet here.

I know that I only have the plane booked until midday but I don’t know if anyone has booked it after me. But as a good group member, I won’t push it and assume I can simply roll up late, so I call time as we saddle up for the return trip. We trundle around the taxiway behind a Cabair PA28 (presumably on a training flight), so I give him lots of space in case he stops suddenly or does something unexpected. I complete my power checks sat behind the PA28 and call ‘ready for departure in turn’. I could taxi past the PA28 on part of the taxiway that looks a lot less used, but I am not stressed about it. The instructor in the PA28 twigs and radios that he will pull forward so I can get past – how nice!

I line up, apply power and I am away on runway 16. I modest right turn puts us on track for Gloucester and well clear of Birmingham zone. Up to 4500’ again as we trundle over the Malverns for a quick look. I get the ATIS and call Gloucester for a rejoin. There are a couple of aircraft calling for a join at the same time and I note in particular a PA28 joining the overhead from the opposite direction a little closer than me. I call as instructed at three miles and hear the PA28 call three miles a few seconds before me. OK, I don’t like this and tell / offer APP that I will do one orbit at three miles to let the PA28 get well into the overhead before we potentially jostle for position. Orbit complete, I join and call for deadside descent, which I am given. Gloucester do seem to like to police the circuit and they ask where I am when I am in the crosswind. I can see the other aircraft and we seem to be pretty well sorted out. I call downwind and complete the pre-landing checks. On base Rob notices the PA28 so far out that at first I assume he isn’t in the circuit. It dawns on me that he is and I take my base wide to try to get behind him. I do get behind but I am closer than I would like. It turns out he is doing a T&G, so it will probably be OK. TWR tell me to expect a late clearance as I bring the speed back as much as I dare.

Worcestershire from 4500' on a beautiful flying day!

On very short final I am cleared to land. I flare and set up for the hold off with the power off. Looking good, stall warner starts with a chirrup, but we touch very gently before I would like. We hop slightly, more chirruping and we touch again, but a bit harder – OK this is a bounce now. In probably no more than three seconds I weigh up my options as I don’t like this, it feels like one where the bounces will get bigger and bigger. So do I carry on and try to control the bounces, apply power and go around or apply a shot of power and try the hold off again. I opt for the third option and smooth out the bounce and re-flare (this is what I did at Avignon fighting a nasty gusting crosswind) as I have plenty of runway on 22 and it is not problem to turn off at the end anyway. This works pretty well and my ‘second landing’ from the same approach works well. Oh well, good practice I guess.

We taxi in and shutdown only a few minutes past midday on a perfect flying day. Do we wheel it back into the hangar and put the plane back to bed. As it turns out later, no one else had it booked, which I found surprising on such a great day. I really should have checked this and I wouldn’t have minded a detour to fly around the Welsh Hills on the way back and see if we could spot the SAS troopers sweating their cods off on Pen-y-Fan, but maybe another day.

Bump and grind

2010-10-19T16:49:00.000+01:00

In the group, we have a ‘group currency rule’ which states that you need to go for a checkride if you have not flown the RV6 for 30 days. I can see the sense in this if you have little or low hour experience in the RV6 as handling and particularly landing and take-off skills can deteriorate quite quickly when flying this very, very sensitive little plane, but I also think (from personal experience) that as you get a few hours under your belt (say at least 50), that this time period could easily and safely be stretched to 45 or even 60 days. This is something that I will raise at the next group meeting, as it is amazingly easy to just slip outside 30 days, especially if the plane is in the middle of a service and with most of us being weekend only flyers and the sort of weather we normally get at a weekend. All of that is by-the-by, but interesting to air in a blog like this and see what others have by the way of ‘group rules’ that are well over and above EASA rules.

I have also read a discussion thread on Flyer Forum recently with pilots wailing about the massive cost increases they have suffered recently with the C of A Part M nonsense recently put in place by EASA – annuals for C of A aircraft of £5000 upwards do not seem at all uncommon. Holy cr*p Batman! Boy, am I ever glad that I am in a ‘permit’ group where we have a group member who is an aircraft engineer and other group member regularly help to do the maintenance (yes, I must roll my sleeves up at some stage too). We charge ‘ourselves’ £12 per hour for our own maintenance, so the members that do the maintenance are paid by the group and so reduce the cost of their own flying. Unfortunately (but in my view quite rightly) this payment regime doesn’t apply to the time and mileage I spend every month looking after the group accounts! Perhaps one day after my youngest ‘child’ has finished university, I may buy my own aircraft outright. When I do, I know for certain that it will be a PFA ‘permit’ type and that I will be learning how to do my own maintenance real fast!

What with a recent holiday in Newfoundland, weather and life in general getting in the way, I was well outside of the groups 30 day rule. So I put my name down with the CFI at Cotswolds for some circuits in the RV. Phil Mathews isn’t a small chap, but then neither am I, so I had to make sure that we were light on fuel to stay on the right side of the weight and balance envelope (mainly weight!). Having said that, I do far prefer the handling of the RV with a decent bit of weight on board, it really does handle quite differently when flying solo with a light fuel load.

So we set off to do the mandatory ‘three good ones’ – three decent landings that is. I am quite happy with general handling and I don’t feel the personal need, nor do I have the legal requirement for my ‘one hour of instruction’ as I have the best part of two years until my revalidation. I did however make the point of getting to the airfield early to carry out a leisurely check of the plane and sit quietly in the plane by myself running through where everything was, muttering to myself and touching each control or switch in turn. I must have made an entertaining sight to the students in Aeros next door looking out of their full length windows at this fruitcake sat in a ‘toy plane’ doing a ‘Rainman’ impersonation!

I rounded Phil up, booked out and we took it in turns to get in and strap into the RV. You don’t so much get in the RV6, as ‘put it on’! It is very snug for two and fairly inelegant to get into. You have to climb up onto the wing (avoiding putting you foot on the flaps which should be down anyway to make sure this can’t happen), step over the lip without grabbing the canopy (which is hinged to lift up from the front), put both feet on the seat, then slip both feet off the seat forward into the footwell, while stopping yourself collapsing by putting both hands behind you, one to grab the lip and the other the back of the seat to ease your weight down onto the seat. Then put on and thread together the five point harness, then invite the other person in the plane to have their turn. Pulling on flaps with both Phil and I in the RV is a real test of friendship, as I have to try to avoid elbowing Phil in the face and work the flap lever up past his and my bulging thighs, complete with wallets / keys unwisely left in trouser pockets.

The weather was lovely and clear as a bell, with some cloud, but with a light and variable wind. Sometime it was 030/07 and a few minutes later 360/06. Gloucester were giving runway 04, but as we approached the hold for 36, Phil checked the windsock and requested we use 36 as the wind was pretty much now straight down 36. Well this started a trend and Gloucester switched to 36. Power checks complete, I lined up, carefully and slowly applied power and held the nose straight with footwork, looking at the end of the runway to pick up and wobbles early. Tail up and hold her down. I never have the time or courage to glance at the airspeed, thus taking my eyes off the picture, as by the time I have done that, the plane could easily veer off the centreline, so I feel for flying speed by visual clues and the feel of ‘floatiness’ of the plane. As it turned out, I got it right on all occasions on this particular outing, I was pleased with my take-offs.

The use of runway 18/36 is pretty rare at Gloucester. This is the shortest, narrowest and least used of all the runways – don’t get me wrong, it is plenty long and wide enough, it’s just different from the other two runways that’s all. So it was nice for a change to be on runway 36. The circuits are right hand with a noise abatement to turn either before or after Staverton Village as there is an avid noise complainer who lives there and sits out in the backyard with a pair of binos writing down the registrations of offending aircraft and filing bulk complaints several times a year (no I am not kidding – despite the fact that the airfield has been here since the late 1920’s and the Staverton resident has probably only lived in Staverton for 10 years or so!).

The downwind leg is easy as you route outside and parallel to the M5 motorway, then turn base and head straight towards Chosen Hill until you turn onto final. On my first circuit, I got distracted in the base turn and ended up 200’ above circuit height (did I mention that the RV is VERY sensitive in pitch!). I was therefore too high on final, so had to sideslip this off for a better picture. Even so and with full flaps, I was too fats on my approach. The wind was great, straight down the runway, but I crossed the threshold knowing I was too fast and knowing I was in store for a long hold off to bleed the speed off – you simply cannot touch the RV with excess energy or you will be punished severely with a bounce. Well, I did hold it off properly and we touched and stayed touched, albeit further down the runway than I would like. Carb heat off, flaps down, power up and away again, still plenty of runway.

Next circuit better, but still got 100’ extra height and still another sideslip to lose it. This time speed control was much better, but actually on short final starting to get a bit too low, so some more power in to get it back to 70kts indicated. Just on the numbers and flare and hold off, nowhere near as long this time and we touch shortly afterwards and stay down.

Another T&G for the third circuit. Phil says that he is happy if I am and that we can land off this one if I want. I decide to tempt fate and land from this. Circuit height much better this time around and no need for sideslip to lose excess height. Approach is the best of the three and I vow to make this a good one without trying too hard. Having said that, it is now clear from the windsock that the wind has changed and is now 030/08, so Gloucester change to runway 04 while I am on final for 36. I know that Phil is probably looking at me wondering what I am going to do. If I was by myself I would have requested a go-around and reposition for 04 – no point in a crosswind landing in a taildragger if you don’t have to do one. But on the other hand, I thought it would be good practice and what better time that when I have an instructor with me. I tell Phil that I will continue with a crosswind landing. It turns out to be a good one and I don’t have to do too much in the way of crosswind handling, either that or I am doing it without thinking too much about it. Not showing off, just stating a fact. The landing isn’t over until the plane is shutdown in the hangar and I carefully bring it to a taxi speed by letting it roll, I find I rarely use the brakes on the landing roll. Carefully bring it around keeping the stick in the correct position while taxiing. Shut down and complete the paperwork and put the plane away.

I take a few moment in the quiet of the hangar to think through the session and internalise my flying. I am happy with it and do not feel particularly rusty despite not flying the RV for 75 days with my last flight (in a hired C172) being 50 days ago. I feel a quiet sense of satisfaction and a feeling of ‘damn – it’s great to be back in the air’. I must book the RV for a landaway somewhere in the next fortnight. I won’t be doing any touring over the winter or spring, so I am now into locals and simple landaways to keep my hours up while thinking about what I am going to try for in 2011.

Thoughts for 2011

2010-10-12T18:51:00.003+01:00

I like to do at least one major flying trip / tour / event a year and I am already thinking forward to 2011 and what I can do. I can spare one week and sufficient funds to cover the costs.

One of my early musings was a possible solo trip on a mini-flyout to Iceland (solo in that I would be solo in the RV6, but would fly at the same time as perhaps a couple of other intrepid aviators). This is possible without an instrument rating, but you would have to fly at below FL55 and of course take a huge number of safety precautions. It would certainly be a challenge, not so much in terms of the actual flying, just the risks associated with what happens if the engine stops. But of course flying there would need very good VFR weather both to get there and back. I think I have now ruled this trip out on the basis that I can only spare one week and I don’t want to spend it sat at Lewis or Wick airport waiting for the weather forecast to be right. If I was a gentleman of leisure and had the time to wait for the right weather, then I might just go for it, but not now.

There are of course large parts of France that I have not explored either by aircraft or any other means of conveyance. This might be good for a semi-planned freewheel trip and this type of trip is a possibility, but I have been to a number of places in France and I want to fly to places and more especially countries I haven’t been to yet.

Another option that I really do fancy is to do the AOPA Aerobatics certificate training at Ultimate High in Kemble. It would cost a fair bit and takes one week, but it would probably work out the same as a one week touring trip. I do enjoy aerobatics (I have about 11 hours on aerobatic training) and it would give me the opportunity to fly another aircraft type, the Extra 300 (deep pockets required and I have flown one already), the Bulldog or the Chipmunk. I fancy the Chipmunk as it is a taildragger and I have heard so many people speak so highly of it. This is one of the front-runner’s. It would of course be particularly easy for me as I only live in Cheltenham, so Kemble is just down the road near Cirencester.

The other front-runner is a trip, maybe in company with other aircraft if I can find anyone similarly interested, to Denmark and maybe Sweden, up through Belgium, Netherlands and northern Germany. Plan a couple of locations and be flexible to cope with the weather. I do fancy Denmark and Sweden, purely because I haven’t been there before and I think it would be fund to fly around there.

Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

Annual medical chore!

2010-10-12T18:50:00.000+01:00

I had my annual JAA / EASA (or whatever it now is) aviation medical the other day. I was also due for my two-yearly FAA examination, but by no coincidence, the AME I use is licenced for both authorities, so I get one medical examination and two certificates, of course he makes an extra administration charge for the paperwork, but that’s fine by me. The examination was the usual non-event, for which I am very pleased and grateful. Due to my age (54 / 55) I also have an annual ECG. We also played the usual ‘running gag’ with my eye test – ‘So, taking your glasses off, tell me what letters you can read on the chart’ – ‘what chart?’ – ‘Yes, very good, heard that one before, now what letters can you read on the chart’ – ‘no, seriously, I can’t see what I would call an eye-test chart, let alone any lettering’ – ‘AH! I see, err, well that’s OK as you can see well enough with glasses’ (so why try to test me without glasses??).

The cost was a total of £175 for both the JAA and FAA certificates. The Doctor was wrestling more with the on-line input that each authority now require and for his trouble and my investment, I got two pretty basic, locally printed certificates.

What I don’t get at all is why each licensing authority (JAA, Transport Canada, FAA etc.) all have their own and quite different medical requirements, validity periods, forms etc. Why the hell can’t there be a single medical standard accepted by all authorities (I gave up ranting about a single licencing authority that would apply worldwide a long time ago – it is so obvious we should simply adopt the FAA approach!)? But then I guess that would involve civil servants working together, and we couldn’t have that could we, hell, what would we do without all this national job creation after all!

Gander, Newfoundland

2010-08-31T17:52:00.003+01:00

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

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

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!

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

The town of Gambo, near Glovertown

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

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

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!

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

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.

Local on a lovely evening!

2010-08-10T19:41:00.003+01:00

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

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'

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?

Crosswind local

2010-07-26T20:04:00.001+01:00

I decided to go for a local after work to keep my hand in as it has been nearly three weeks since my last flight. I guess ‘life’ just kinda gets in the way!

The weather wasn’t ideal, changeable weather, generally overcast cumulus with some dark ones, but nearly broken in places. The wind was my concern, that and on checking the NOTAMs (some people do you know!), I saw that Gloucester had two of the three runways closed for work. On calling them they confirmed that they would remain closed throughout the evening and only 09 / 27 was in use. The wind at midday was given as 340 / 10 – oh great!

On checking when I left work, they were giving 320/10, a fair old crosswind in my light taildragger, but worth a trip to see if it settles as the evening wears on.

I checked out the plane and noted that it hasn’t been flown very much at all in July, just 5 hours or so by two of us, unlike the frenetic June. I noted the shiny new lockable filler caps, not that we have any problems with fuel theft, it’s just that the old ones were hard to get off and had widened the filler neck and were loose and letting in water on one side. The new ones are ace!!

I pulled the plane out and put some fuel in her, not much, just enough to balance her off and add a bit more weight as I was flying solo. They were giving the wind as 300/09, 30 degrees off runway heading, so take half as the crosswind, so a 5 knot crosswind component on the take-off, should be fine.

I called ready after power checks, lined up and applied full power with some into wind aileron and very ready on the rudder pedals. The tail came up, OK all so good, then a small gust must have hit me as we started to wobble. I caught it easily enough with rudder, giving all my attention to a fixed point at the end of the runway to spot left / right wobble as soon as it starts. In fact, I really cannot and do not glance at the airspeed or engine readings as I really can’t afford to take my eye off the external view for even one second. So as usual, I judge take off speed visually and by feel – the RV usually lets you know when she is ready to fly anyway, by hopping up and down like an excited toddler asking if she can go on a ride at the funfair!

Up we went and I levelled out and throttled back at 2600’ heading first to the south west to the bends in the river Severn, then north to Ledbury and the Malverns, thowing in the odd steep turn here and there simply because I can. The lateral visibility is extremely good, I can see clearly into the distant Welsh Hills.

I hear the scheduled flight coming in from the Isle of Man, with the pilot’s German accent. When he on final, I pick up the ATIS and call for a rejoin from Tewkesbury. While I am at it I get a wind check, hmmmm….. 300/11.

Standard overhead join and call downwind. I slow down on base and crank on the flaps once inside flap limiting speed, which take a while to bleed back to. I call final and get the wind again, ahhh…. 290/10, that’s better. So get ready for a little crosswind from the right.

PAPI’s are out, but I find them distracting anyway, so I am pleased about that. Good approach, bit fast, no worry. Over the road and into the displaced threshold. Chop the power and roundout and hold off. Feel for the wind, don’t feel any, mainly headwind. I am light and it takes a while holding off to hear the stall warner at what seems like a ludicrously slow groundspeed. Hold off some more, she touches and I gingerly pull slowly back to lock the tailwheel on the ground all the time ready for any change of crosswind. Gingerly let her roll to a slow walking pace. Well that was one of my better landings though I say it myself!

The Tower advise me to backtrack to A2 when ready and I manage this before the intersection with runway 18/36. It seems all of the taxiways are close for sweeping as well.

Into the ramp and I shutdown at Cotswolds. It is very hot with the canopy closed and I gratefully pop the canopy and for once in the flight, I am grateful for the relatively cool breeze.

Well that cleared the cobwebs, although it was only a short half hour flight. Good bit of gentle crosswind practice.

I must work up to another cross-channel foray, probably in early September, as August is going to be pretty busy, what with a long weekend in Poland at the start of the month and ten days in Newfoundland towards the end of the month with my buddy Dan – better lay off the alcohol from the start of August to get my liver in training!

100 airfields and counting

2010-07-08T19:58:00.004+01:00

I had the plane booked for a quick flight in the evening after work. I had planned for a quick local, but checked my logbook and saw that I had logged a take off or landing at 99 different airports to date, so why not make it a nice, round 100? There are a few grass airfields in the local area that I have always flown over but never actually landed at, so I decided that as I was solo (and therefore light) I would go to Croft Farm / Defford near Bredon Hill, a mere 10-15 minute flight from Gloucester.

I read the website for the airfield. One grass runway oriented 09 / 27 and 570m long, so plenty enough, but not generous. There was a particular approach for noise abatement, especially on 27. I called the airfield owner as advised on the website and asked for permission, he was fine and just wanted to know the aircraft type (presumably to make sure it was suitable for the runway size – you would be amazed what people try to land on short runways) and my approximate time of arrival.

I turned up at the airfield just after 17:00 and checked the plane carefully. The port tank was virtually dry and the starboard tank had 30 litres. I think the person flying it before me need to learn to change tanks in flight before the engine starts to cough!

The evening was fine, certainly CAVOK and quite warm. There was little wind, generally 280 / 04, so fine for Croft Farm too. I booked out and called for taxi to the pumps as even for this short flight, I wasn’t going to go anywhere with 35 litres of fuel. I balanced the tanks and topped it up to some 80 litres, good for at least three hours, so the 15 minute flight would probably be OK!

Gloucester were short-handed (as they have been for a while now) and only had one frequency manned as I called for clearance. I lined up on 27 and was airborne before the piano keys – this plane really handles quite differently when it is light as compared to the MAUW I was operating it under on the recent flying trip to Italy (I know all aircraft handle differently in such circumstances, I just find it very pronounced in the RV6).

Tewkesbury Abbey

I set course for Croft Farm, basically a right turnout and head to the left of Bredon Hill. By the time I had finished climbing to 2500’ and settled out in the cruise, it was time to say goodbye to Gloucester and start giving blind calls on the Croft Farm frequency of 122.25. The airfield itself is easy to find as it is just on the southern edge of the old, disused but still distinctive Defford ex-military airfield, with its typical wartime triangle shape of three runways.

Croft Farm / Defford Airfield

I called overhead and got a good look at the windsock, yes, very slight but definitely favours 27, got to be careful as there may be local wind effects, especially in the shadow of Bredon Hill. I descended on the runway heading and turned left crosswind. Down to 1000’ and downwind to the south of Eckington as indicated on the noise abatement chart. Then onto a base leg that angled into very short final to try to avoid Defford. I was a bit high, but had full flaps, so a quick sideslip on a diagonal approach to short final. Airspeed good and approach angle good, now on very short final and very keen to put her down shortly after crossing the threshold, which I manage. Smooth landing as I let her roll out, smooth roll then approaching mid-point it really gets a little bumpy, we roll to a stop, but not before these bumpy bits. I don’t do may grass runways, but this was the bumpiest since I did Compton Abbas a few years ago, maybe I have just been spoiled with the grass strips I have used recently.

The airfield was deserted (as I expected). I reported to the ‘Yellow C’ which was a large caravan with the door secured open. It worked on a ‘trust’ basis, so I paid the advised donation to a flying charity in Africa and signed in where indicated. I did have a quick look around the open hangars at the types there. The airfield has no fuel, but is quite charming and blissfully quiet, what a nice place.

Open door policy at Croft Farm

I take a few photos then decide to head back, so after a mere 10 minutes, I am back in the plane trundling to the threshold for 27 to do power checks and line up. I apply full power and the initial ground run is good and smooth, then I hit the bumpy bit and have to work to keep the plane down as it isn’t yet at flying speed. But I do hit a decent size bump which pushes me into the air whether I am ready or not, I decide to try for ground effect rather than bump down again, the plane protests with a squeal of stall warner as I drop the tail to try to climb. She thinks about it for a bit, squeals a bit then climbs a bit and chirps at me. I hold here there then resume a modest climb as the airspeed builds. Not the prettiest or smoothest of take-off’s, but adequate.

I route back to Gloucester and pick up the ATIS to hear that the commercial flight is getting ready for take-off while the controller puts aircraft in the circuit into holds. I decide now is not the best time to call her and head back, so I stooge around about 8 miles out waiting for her to get the commercial away. I call over Bishops Cleeve and am given a standard overhead join for 27. I decide to take this and not ask for a direct as there are a couple of aircraft in the circuit.

I join as normal and descend deadside. I can see one of the aircraft in the circuit taking off and climbing out as I start to come crosswind. As I cross the upwind end, I can still see him now just starting to turn crosswind a fair way to my left. I am well inside him so figure I will slot ahead of him in the downwind. Just as I am about to call, the controller advises the other aircraft that I am inside him. He has also seen me, so he follows. I call downwind and am told I am number 2 to a Seneca on right base. I see him when I am about to turn right base, he is a lot wider than I would be, but he doesn’t force me out too wide.

I turn well inside GCHQ and call final. The Seneca is going to do a go-around, so I will be fine as I follow him in. I am nicely set up and cleared to land on 27. Good approach and good airspeed. I flare on the displaced threshold and float and float and float. I begin to wonder whether the stall warner has malfunctioned, but remember that I am light, so hold off more. She touches and stays touched as I let her roll to a taxi pace with little braking as I comfortably make the left turnoff onto runway 18 and taxi in.

A nice flight to my 100th airfield on a still, quiet (though very warm) evening.

Project Propellor 2010

2010-06-26T18:45:00.004+01:00

Although I have already done a lot of flying hours in June, I just HAD to volunteer for Project Propellor, also in June.

Project Propellor is an annual get together where private pilots volunteer to fly WW and Cold War aircrew veterans free of charge to a get together at an airfield in the UK, usually an airfield with historic connections. They all meet up for a light lunch and a chin-wag with other veterans, while the younger (generally!) private pilots either chat to each other or keep ‘their veterans’ company and listen to the stories of the all-too-modest veterans.

I have volunteered for this event several times now with a couple of them completely ‘weathered out’. Project Propellor 2010 was to be held at East Kirkby, a WW2 bomber airfield in Lincolnshire, just to the north of the wash and not far from the sea, actually right bang on the Greenwich Meridian. It has a very active museum and aviation archaeology group, together with a ‘fast taxi’ capable Lancaster and a flying C47. The runways themselves are disused and not part of the site, but they did have a large flat field about 550m long with a smooth transition to a concrete apron about 250m long, so they drew a line and hey presto, a composite runway some 800m long oriented 06/24. It sounded like a really interesting venue, so I was keen to attend.

I was not immediately offered a veteran. I had an email asking if I would be happy to fly to Swansea to pick up a veteran. I am keen, but Swansea is just under one hour in precisely the wrong direction, so no. I then went on my flying holiday in early June around France and Italy and took my netbook to get the aviation weather a NOTAM’s etc. (and of course to keep an eye on my emails). While I was on tour, I was offered another veteran, this time at Shobdon, a bit out of my way, but I had a think about it and by the time I logged back in to accept, I had a further email offering me a veteran from my home airfield who had been ‘orphaned’ as his pilot had pulled out, so I accepted him immediately, the proviso being that he was fit enough to clamber into the RV6 and light enough not to bust my weight and balance calculations. He fulfilled both criteria so when I got back from my tour, I called him and arranged to meet at 09:30 at the main terminal in Gloucester on Saturday June 26th.

We met up and the Project Propellor guys are easy to spot due to their age and of course their blazers and RAF ties. I wandered over and introduced myself. A couple of the guys were a little concerned that they hadn’t seen ‘their pilot’ yet, but I found ‘my veteran’, a chap called Nick Shelley. He told me he was a Navigator and had served towards the end of WW2, but mainly in the ten years after the war on all sorts of aircraft, including Canberras and at the very end of his time in service, in the C130 Hercules.

I had already been at the airport for some time and had carefully checked the plane over, pulled it out and refuelled. So a quick chat about the plane and the route and a safety brief and I got Nick strapped in by 09:45. WE had a slot time of 11:15 – 11:30 for East Kirkby and we would easily make that, if not be early. I started up as Nick watched everything I was doing like a hawk as I methodically worked my way through the checklist. He was good enough and knowledgeable enough not to interrupt as it is easy for a pilot to get distracted and miss a vital check.

The day was perfect, very scattered ‘fair weather cumulus’ and CAVOK, but it would get very hot and under the bubble canopy of the RV6, you really don’t want to hang around on the ground for long at all. So of course in a virtually nil wind, we were given taxi to C1 for runway 09 – the longest taxi run at Gloucester – oh good, the ‘long march of death’ under the sun! Around we went and heard Gloucester talking to aircraft behind us saying that once we had gone, they were going to change runway direction to 27 or 22 – thanks guys!

Power checks complete, we were cleared for departure and away we went with a slight left turn direct onto track for the DTY VOR as I climbed to 5000’ to keep clear of gliders and BBMF flights NOTAM’d to be close to my planned route. I said goodbye to Gloucester then went ‘Non-radio’ as I fancied the quiet and a chat with my veteran. It was actually a bit murky up at 5000’ with no real horizon. I tuned to Conningsby MATZ just for fun and was surprised to pick up radio calls at this distance. It was clear from the calls that Coningsby was closed, which was good as East Kirkby was located under one of the MATZ arms. From the other aircraft calls, I gathered that runway 06 with right hand circuits was in use at East Kirkby. For fun, I started to reply to aircraft coming on the Conningsby frequency telling them they were closed and advising them to make blind calls position calls as Conningsby Traffic – loads of people were headed through them to East Kirkby.

Nick was happy as Larry once I handed him the map as he traced our route by reference to ground features (while I of course struggled by with the GPS!). I did show him the ‘secrets’ of the GPS, what was what and what it was telling me. He listened intently then went happily back to the 1-500,000 map! You could tell he was ‘old school’ as he always went for either major lakes or rivers or reliable linear features, like train lines.

I turned at DTY on track to Peterborough Sibson airfield, deliberately making a slight southerly dog-leg to avoid various NOTAM’d events. Then I turned direct to East Kirkby and started a leisurely cruise descent with 30 miles to run. I changed to East Kirkby to listen in and get the latest airfield information. QHN 1018, 06 right hand circuits and a ‘fair easterly wind’, so a slight crosswind. I got close and down to 2700’ and started to hear other aircraft behind me and spot some others in front, this could be a bit of a scrum! I tried hard and spotted what I thought was East Kirkby, indeed it was, but it was the disused runways not now part of the sight. I had an aerial photo of the temporary runway, but couldn’t spot it. I had made the schoolboy error of flying straight there so it was initially obscured by the nose, then of course we were precisely overhead.

Small part of the line up of the 80-90 aircraft that made it

I didn’t want to hang around in the overhead, so a steep turn and I spotted the runway and oriented myself. I descended deadside and slotted in visually with three in front and one behind me onto the right downwind. The spacing with the guy immediately in front was as good as I was going to get and I called downwind and then final. I was following the guy in front and judged him far enough in front to continue. On very short final, he was about to turn off, so that would do me, I didn’t fancy another try in this crowded circuit. I was abit fast, but this bled off and we made a good landing on the grass runway and rolled to a stop. It wasn’t ‘billiard-table smooth’, but to be fair it wasn’t at all bad. I was marshalled in, parked up, closed down and popped the canopy as quickly as I could as we were already starting to bake!

Getting 'my' veteran signed in

We both went off to the main hangar which housed the Lancaster and the finds of the aviation archaeology society where tables and lunch had been set up. We registered with the organisers. Nick wanted to go off for a comfort break and I asked if he wanted me to wait, he seemed happy to find his chums. You have to find out if the veterans know anyone else as some of them don’t and wind up being quite lonely if you don’t stay and keep them company and prise their stories out of them. However, Nick seemed fine, so I went off for a look around and a chat with other pilots, some of which I knew from Flyer Forum.

A Lancaster they hope to get flyable again

The weather had attracted a full turnout and rumour has it that there were some 86 aircraft in the end, I can well believe it looking at the aircraft parking. East Kirkby was a really great little place, a proper museum, not just for aircraft, but the buildings are converted into exhibits and there was an excellent souvenir store and restaurant. I really didn’t know this place was here at all.

Lovely sight, a C47 with a drip tray - yes it's a flyer!

I listened to a talk by a Battle of Britain veteran who flew Hurricanes initially, then he was shipped out to Darwin and flew Spitfires against the Japanese. He was selling his book, so of course I had to have a signed copy didn’t I. Then of course I had to have one of the East Kirkby souvenir golf-shirts – my wife would kill me ‘Oh goody, another golf-shirt to go with your 25 other golf-shirts!’ (no – I don’t play golf!).

Not too tough to find then!

They had arranged for a BBMF Spitfire to do a few low passes of the airfield at 15:30. I was out by my plane early at 15:15 and heard that distinctive sound that could only be a Rolls Royce Merlin engine as the Spitfire arrived early and duly beat the airfield up. It was all to brief, but I managed a decent zoomed video clip, somewhat marred by my own excited voice encouraging the pilot! I met up with Nick and he asked when I wanted to go. I said I was perfectly fine to stay as long as he wanted and I had already set the day aside for this. He had seen and done all he wanted, so we agreed to leave once the Spitfire departed. Well, quite a few other had the same idea and we formed an orderly queue at the hold for 06. I did my power checks and departed with a slight crosswind take-off following the line of earlier departures to the south. It is amazing how quickly so many aircraft can disperse as I climbed to 3500’ in weather that we murkier than where we arrived, but still fine, just no real horizon.

I retraced my route up. I handed Nick the controls and while it was clear that he wasn’t a pilot, he did pretty well, especially as the RV is so responsive, it is very easy to get a 500 fpm climb going on without immediately realising it! We spotted a glider tug with glider in tow and avoided him, but I generally work on the principle that ‘if you can see them, we are already too close’. So I decided to get out of that area quickly as where there is one glider, there are generally several. We didn’t spot any others as I headed into Gloucester and picked up the ATIS. Gloucester have an ATCO shortage and there was only one guy on a combined Tower and Approach frequency. I was given a direct approach into runway 22 with minimal wind. The approach was good and the landing was smooth. We were down at about 16:50. I taxied in and we gratefully popped the canopy.

Nick was keen to have a cuppa and a chat and I was directing him to the aeroclub as I had to clean the plane and put it away, but he insisted on helping. We got the plane sorted out and had a cuppa in the Cotswold Aero Club and a chat. He really enjoyed himself and was keenly looking forward to next year. I confirmed that I would again be volunteering and perhaps we would get paired up again.

This was the best weather and consequently the best attended Project Propellor I have been on. But these guys aren’t getting any younger and I wonder how many more they can hold that are still attended by WW2 veterans.

PS: I later heard on Flyer Forum that one intrepid pilot landed at RAF Coningsby by mistake instead of East Kirkby. If this is true, I despair! I know East Kirkby is close to RAF Coningsby, but that is the sole similarity! The organisers sent us all out an aerial photo of East Kirkby that clearly showed a short ‘composite’ and somewhat ad-hoc runway of 500m of grass and 300m of concrete. How anyone can mistake this for a fast-jet (Typhoons and the BBMF actually) runway of 2700m of pristine tarmac for East Kirkby beggars belief!

Raduno 2010: Reprise

2010-06-15T17:01:00.009+01:00

Well that was my big trip for 2010. The facts and figures were:

Facts and figures:
- Estimated distance flown: 2105 nautical miles
- Flying hours logged: 21.1
- Fuel burned: 464 litres
- Number of legs flown: 9
- Longest leg: 3.4 hours (Troyes to Avignon in headwind)
- Shortest leg: 1.4 hours (Vichy to Troyes)
- Cost: No, I am not going there!

Highlights:
- Troyes town centre, very picturesque
- Landing safely at Avignon in horrible winds
- Avignon town centre, ditto
- The wonderful VFR low-level coastal route around the French Mediterranean
- Making it to the toilet on landing in Tuscany!
- Great countryside and weather in Tuscany
- Wonderful meal at the agro-tourismo in Tuscany
- Vineyard tour and lunch at Carpintero vineyard in Tuscany
- Cannes airport – it is just so plush and classy!
- A forced divert inland and making my route up on the fly
- Vichy town centre

Lowlights:
- Getting stuck in Troyes for two days and missing out on Cannes
- Spending a fortune in taxis in Troyes
- Learning that another forumites had made it through Troyes on the day I cancelled
- Battling high winds in the Rhone valley
- The reported and actual winds on landing at Avignon
- Getting hot and bothered in the plane then throwing up and stomach cramps
- The airstrip at the agro-tourismo not being 200m longer
- Grosseto Approach, a radio service run by the Marx Brothers!
- Intensive gliding at Lasham – bloody sky rats!
- Cleaning the plane at the end of the trip
- Getting a puncture at Gloucester

What did I learn:
- The plane and I can handle crosswinds better than I thought
- The RV can be used for touring, but it really isn’t ideal for it
- My wife would sooner be driving with me than flying!
- Maybe all towns in France are really nice to visit
- Many French speak no English at all and maybe my French isn’t as bad as I thought!

I will be doing other day trips of course and maybe even an overnighter to near France later in the summer, but that is the big one.

Now, what’s the plan for the 2011 big trip. I think Iceland may be out if the rule regarding an instrument rating is true. If so, maybe Denmark and Sweden?

Raduno 2010: Sunday 13th June

2010-06-15T17:01:00.008+01:00

Up early in the morning as I was thinking about getting home today. The words of the old French guy at the aero club yesterday were still haunting me, as between his gestures and my poor French I understood him to say that tomorrow, thunderstorms are expected and I had better tie my plane down securely. This didn’t gel with the forecasts I had seen, but it got me worried anyway. The planned route today was for two legs, one shorter hop from Vichy to Troyes to clear customs and refuel and the next straight home from Troyes. So the route for the first leg was:

LFLV DCT MOU DCT LFQB

Indeed, from the hotel window the weather looked bad. Overcast with low-ish cloud and it had obviously been raining. So I went downstairs to pick up the WiFi on my netbook and check the forecasts and TAFs etc. I have to say I was very disappointed with my Skybook subscription as it seemed to only have the TAF’s and METARs for the same overseas airfields as the UK Met Office. So I won’t renew with them, instead I’ll switch to AvBrief as I was far more impressed with the facilities that Derek was showing me on that service in Cannes. But from what I could determine, the weather was going to be fine in Dijon and Troyes and north, just dodgy here. So if I could get out and scud-run the 130 odd miles to Troyes, I should be OK.

We eat breakfast at the Ibis Hotel and got a taxi to the airport. My plane was the only one still out, the others from last night must all be in the hangars. I prepped the plane and eyed the weather. It wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed in town now I had the horizons in sight. Lateral visibility was good and I thought the low stuff was few or scattered and thinnish, so maybe I could get on top. I didn’t refuel here as I didn’t need to, but wouldn’t be able to go too much past Troyes. I started up and called the tower and was not surprised to get no response. So I gave blind calls in French as I carried out power checks at the intersection for runway 01, which is what the windsock indicated. Vichy really was a very nice airfield. Huge runway (2200m) and a huge terminal and a thriving aeroclub, but absolutely nothing happening. If you go there, get AVGAS as soon as you can if you need it and be prepared to speak and understand French. They are very relaxed and happy for you to land. It almost reminds me of those deserted airfields in the US where you self-announce.

I lined up and was away. I levelled off initially at 1500’ (bearing in mind that Vichy was already at 800’ elevation. I quickly came to the conclusion that although I ‘could’ scud run safely enough to the north (but no other direction due to ridges and hills that surround Vichy in a sort of U shape), that I could also easily get on-top, so I climbed to 3500’ where I was clear of the cloud and in sight of the ground. I contacted Clermont Information and got the usual flight information service with no one else apparently on frequency.

VMC on top near Vichy

We trundled along towards the MOU VOR and I could see some big ‘vertical development’ in cloud in the distance over where I would guess Dijon would be – glad I wasn’t near that! I turned slightly at MOU on track for Troyes. With about 40 miles still left to go, the cloud was gradually rising and getting thicker so I would either have to climb a fair bit or dip below. Well, I had to go down in 30 miles or so so I may as well do so now. Well, the visibility below wasn’t good at all and I had to get down to 1200’ before I could see sensibly – oh well! So I scud ran the last 40 miles into Troyes.

I called up Troyes with 10 miles to run and they were their usual relaxed selves and asked me to report field in sight for a downwind join for runway 17. I saw it in the soup at 4 miles and carried out the join. Came in for probably the best landing of the trip and made it for the intersection to turn off. Straight to the pumps and this time I managed to get the self service working with my credit card and filled her up for the long last leg home.

Parked up and out into reception for a drink and the final bit if flight planning. Made A trip to the on airfield Meteo service and he gave me the good news, no problems on the flight back!!

So that's what Troyes looks like in the sunshine!

This was my last leg of the trip back to Gloucester from Troyes. The route was simple enough.

LFQB DCT CTL DCT LFAT DCT ALESO DCT SFD DCT GWC DCT EGBJ

I cleared customs out at Troyes (in reality no one there and probably never is, but there is a sign and desk for where they would sit!). I had already filled up at the automated AVGAS pump (which accepts UK credit cards) for what would be about a three hour leg. There was a minimal crosswind from the left, little more than a breath or air as I called ready for departure on runway 17. He asked me to line up and declare when ready for take-off (which they seem to do in France). I did and was immediately cleared for take-off. The take off and climb out was good as I carried out a climbing turn onto track in a NNW direction to the CTL VOR.

The cloud had thinned and risen a bit since landing but UI stayed under it at 2000’ for a few miles, then realised how scattered and thin it was and climbed to FL4500’ where I sat happy as Larry until the GWC VOR. Contacted the appropriate French ‘Information’ channels on the radio and given the usual squawk and occasional traffic information. This really is a good service and very quiet compared to the frenetic London Information or Farnborough Radar. Having said that, when I transferred to Lille Information, they sounded like they were talking down a drainpipe and were quite hard to pick out. There was another UK aircraft having trouble understanding them as well, but no big deal.

Typical French countryside

CTL came up soon enough and I noticed that the airspeed was pretty much the same as the reported groundspeed on the GPS. I also noticed smoke going nearly straight up, so no wind to speak of. I committed this to memory so in case of say engine failure and a forced landing, I wouldn’t have to worry about finding a field into wind, one less thing to worry about. These are the sort of thoughts that go through your head flying single engine aircraft!

Approaching Le Touquet I tried for some higher altitude photos of the airfield just for fun as I coasted out in a straight line to the SFD VOR passing the ALESO reporting point on the way. I said goodbye to Lille (and their drainpipe) and managed to get a word in edgeways to London Information. I trundled along over the channel where the sky was clear, but there was no horizon at all, just the usual thick band of grey. I had to fly partly by instruments as the visual clues were wrong and making me turn. We called coasting in over SFD then went on listening watch to a busy Farnborough Radar as we flew along past Brighton at 4000’.

Just past GWC VOR at 4000’ we started to pick up some scattered cumulus above us. We could maintain this altitude generally apart from a few dodges around some of the lower bits. We called Farnborough Radar and got a basic service. We were warned about intensive gliding around Lasham (as usual). This is a pain as there is a narrow airspace constriction between Lasham to the east and Southampton CTR to the west. Gliders and very hard to spot and are always twisting and turning (which I suppose should make them easier to spot, but it doesn’t seem to as they are such ‘skinny’ sods!). My wife is good at spotting these and got most of them before I did.

It could only be England

Around Membury we switched to Brize Radar who didn’t seem busy and warned us about parachuting at South Cerney (as usual), so I said I would route well clear over Fairford (as usual). We were still at 4000’ as I picked up the Gloucester ATIS. Wind 210 / 06 and runway in use 27 – damn, still not using 04 / 22, I wonder why this is closed. Never mind, hardly a crosswind at all given what we have been through on this trip, but don’t under estimate it either!

We switched to the combined Gloucester frequency and were given a straight in approach to left base for 27. Back in familiar territory now. Final looked good and a nice landing for my last landing of the trip. Asked for and given a backtrack to A2. Trundled in and parked up outside the hangar and shut down – silence – wow! My wife got out and I followed as she started to unload the plane while I hit the hangar for buckets, plane shampoo and sponges. We both gave the plane a quick wash paying particular attention to the fly-splat areas and getting all of this off.

We had just finished the washing when I noticed that the plane just didn’t look right. Then it dawned that it was lower on the right than the left…….. YOU ARE KIDDING! There was a cartoon style pancake flat tyre poking out from under the starboard spat! AAARRRGH! Well, I guess if it had to happen, my home base would be the best place. Manuel did explain how to get the spats off and how to fit the jacking plate, but I didn’t have any suitable tools, so started scuttling around the airfield to find tools to help me. I managed to get all of the spat screws off except two on the underside that I couldn’t get to as they were virtually on the ground. So I had to jack the plane. Out to the car to get my own car jack and some help from Steve Noujam who was in the hangar to show me how to fit the jacking plate (I had forgotten). I jacked it and got the final few screws off (please don’t ask me how many screws hold the spat together, it was too many to count!). OK, now the spat is off, how the hell do I get it into the hangar without damaging the wheel. So I went in and asked Phil Matthews the CFI at Cotswold Aero Club if he had any bright ideas. Between him and Steve Noujam, we used a compressor to re-inflate the tyre while Phil lifted the starboard wing, hoping it would stay inflated long enough for us to wheel it back into the hangar. It did but was flat again within 5 minutes. No obvious tyre damage and now sound or feel of air escaping.

I cleaned the Perspex and tidied the plane up and packed the seat covers that needed a wash after my episode near Pisa. I tried to ring Manuel, our aircraft maintenance member, but no answer on his mobile, so when we got home, I emailed all in the group about the flat tyre and that there was now about 1.6 tacho hours until the 25 hour check was due, hardly surprising as it was a planned 20 hour or so trip anyway.

Raduno 2010: Saturday 12th June

2010-06-15T17:00:00.012+01:00

Well today was the day for me to start the journey back home. Two of us from the UK were headed home and two were going on to Venice lido. I did really fancy going to Venice, but I could not spare another days holiday and a trip back from Venice to the UK in one day would have been too much like hard work to me.

I woke early. The weather in Cortona was perfect, clear skies, still wind, great visibility. I tried not to disturb the wife as I dressed and took my netbook downstairs to reception so I could access the free hotel WiFi to get the en-route weather and file a flight plan etc. This was all going rather well, I got connected and the en-route weather was fine, much better than it had been. I filed a flight plan with Olivia and made sure to note down the number and French agency it was filed with just in case. By this time, others were stirring so I went back and roused the wife for breakfast.

We were packed and driven to the airfield by 09:30. I checked the plane carefully and loaded up. A short taxi to the fuel pumps and I was number two for fuel. Well this was the most expensive fuel on the trip, at EUR 2.40 – ouch! Fortunately, I didn’t need a huge amount, just enough to get to Cannes, my chosen refuelling stop. MY first leg for the day would be a re-trace of my route out.

MONTECCHIO DCT CASTIGNLIONCELLO COAST PISA COAST LASPEZIEA COAST GENOA COAST MONACO COAST LFMD

The UK contingent at Montecchio

I backtracked on the 800m grass runway with nil wind and carried out my power checks, then applied full power and skittered off down the runway. At about the halfway point I was airborne and did a single circuit of the airfield so I could take some photos.

Well there's a first on the trip!

A waggle of the wings as a goodbye and away we went headed for the coast south of Pisa.

Montecchio airfield from the air

I didn’t immediately speak to anyone on the radio as I was enjoying the moment. The approaching Siena I thought I should speak to Pisa, but they insisted I was outside their zone and that I should speak to Grosseto Approach – Oh boy was THAT a mistake! I contacted Grosseto and had to try a few times to raise them. When I did they were fairly hard to hear and had a very heavy Italian accent (fair enough, it is Italy after all!). Well I had to repeat everything three times and even then he would keep coming back asking the same question. They really didn’t understand that I came from Montecchio and that it didn’t have a formal ‘LI’ ICAO code. Here is an example:

GROSS: ‘Wherea you comma from’ GGDRV: ‘Departure airfield is Montecchio Podere, a private airfield near Siena’ …LONG PAUSE… GROSS: ‘You comma from Siena, ees correct?’ GGDRV: ‘NEGATIVE, depart from Montecchio Podere, I say again Montecchio Podere’ GROSS: ‘What is airfield code?’ GGDRV: ‘There IS no airfield code, it is a private airfield, I say again a private airfield’.

It went on in this vein with pretty much every single thing I said. Then of course they claimed that Rome said I didn’t have a flight plan, so I read the receipt number and originating agency on the radio. I know that one of the forumites was on frequency at the time and was doubtless crapping himself laughing, while I was literally at screaming pitch in the cockpit – ask my wife! Well I should have given up after five minutes and simply said ‘Going non-radio’ and switched the bloody thing off, but I didn’t did I?

I HAVE to relate another conversation I had with the, it’s a gem (but I didn’t think so at the time). GROSS: ‘Wherea you goto?’ GGDRV: ‘Destination Cannes in France, Lima Foxtrot Mike Delta’ GROSS: ‘OK, wherea you cross da FIR?’ – Now in the context of the previous question and reply, this isn’t too strange a question, he would be asking where I was planning to cross the FIR boundary between Italy and France, although having told him I was routing along the coast, it seemed a redundant question, but maybe he was just working through the list. So I said GGDRV: ‘Crossing FIR at Monaco’ (Yes, the one with Prince Ranier, loads of millionaires, a world famous formula 1 grand prix etc. GROSS: ‘We donna know Monaco, can you spell’ so I spelt it phonetically and they STILL did not know what I was talking about – AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!

Bottom line is that they decided I was out of their area (not to mention planet) when I was well inside the Pisa zone and by the time I contacted Pisa they wanted me to descend immediately to 1000’ along the coast etc. I had to put that incident behind me as we slipped along the Italian coast at 1000’.

Rosignano Marittimo in Italy

The weather on the coast was low, ill-defined clouds. I am sure I could have got on top at 3000’, but I was stuck at 1000’ occasionally going through low cloud. Pisa were in contrast excellent. I contacted Genoa for a 1000’ routing along the coast and specifically asked for a transit of La Spezia as if I had to route inland I would have to get VMC on top. They came back and agreed a transit without hesitation, perhaps like all military stuff it was closed on the weekend.

The headland at La Spezia

Well what a nice town it looked from the air, must be well worth a visit sometime. I carried on along the coast and contacted Albenga who asked me to report as usual at their three VRP’s, then they suggested I contact Nice (you simply cannot get Milano in this area at a low altitude).

Nice were OK except that they insisted that I must route inland as the coastal VFR route was not available for to the Nice runway in use, oh and by the way I must be at least 5000’ above and well clear of Monaco. I glanced at the low and dense looking clouds above me and extending inland, well no way! I replied that I was unable to do this in VMC. He called me back and gave me special permission for the VFR low level coastal route at 500’. Well the water was a lot calmer than last time and there were numerous expensive speedboats cutting dramatic large white wakes as they tore around the Med. They handed me over to Cannes who confirmed the QNH and that runway 17 was in use with a wind of 170 / 10 and I could join and report left downwind. I don’t believe it – no crosswind, how would I manage? I did my pre-landing checks and joined left downwind. I turned base and chopped the power to bring the airspeed back and dropped the flaps. 75kts coming in nicely and a good approach. Over the numbers, chop the power and let the speed bleed off. Hold off and off for what was the best landing of the trip, not quite a ‘greaser’ but not far off. Now why can’t I do those all the time? I recall the sage word of my first instructor like the disembodies voice of Obeywan in Start Wars ‘A good landing comes from a good approach’ – yes master!

G-GDRV at Cannes

We taxi in and when clear of the runway are told to contact ground. I ask ground for the AVGAS pumps and although they are broken, I am told to taxi there as the fuel truck is parked there. As I taxi in I see Derek and Tammy in their Cherokee six fuelling up that they flew direct IFR straight across the sea. Given that they took off before me, we must have made really good time to be that close behind them.

We will up as far as I dare for weight and balance as the next trip may be a long leg then call for short term parking. They ground guy is extremely helpful as we taxi past lines of top of the line business jets. We park up and wander into the extremely plush, air-conditioned terminal, staffed seemingly exclusively by female models working at the airport in their spare time – did I die somewhere along the route and this is heaven? No, if it was, I would be Richard Gere dressed in cool crisp linen and a pressed white cotton shirt with a jacket tossed in a studied casual over my shoulder. As it is, I am in ‘zipped-off’ hiking trousers with a smelly ‘Air Combat USA’ golf shirt and an ‘I am Canadian’ baseball hat and a camera and ELT hanging from my belt. I get glanced at like I just crawled out from under a rock (no change there then!).

Yep - that's Cannes airport alright!

I want a quick turnaround, so we gently re-hydrate in the bar (soft drinks only of course) while I recheck the weather for the last leg to Vichy. The weather is fine and we pay the modest landing and handling fees and the fuel of course (actually a good prices, about EUR 1:80) and back to the plane to mount up. We take off from 17 as I resume my march along the VFR coastal route.

My route was planned to be:

LFMD COAST MARSEILLE DCT CM DCT MTL DCT VNE DCT ROU DCT LFLV

At St Tropez I contact XXXXXXXXXXXXX Information and they tell me that the coastal route is close as there is an event at Toulon (now why didn’t I spot that in the NOTAMs?). Bugger! He helpfully suggests I divert inland, say from STP to LUC VOR. I flap around with the map while my wife holds the plane. OK, I see what he is getting at. At LUC I wonder where the hell to go next and how to avoid the mess of airspace at the bottom of the coast around Marseille. I decide to follow the large highway below me, the A8 and fly to the various marked VRP’s to the West and North West and pick my way along those to Avignon. I am advised to stay above 3000’ to avoid Aix airspace and the clouds are plenty high enough to allow me to do this. Provence Information are really helpful warning me about traffic and airspace as I announce various VRP’s. I pick my way through to Avignon and now I am back on familiar territory and breath a sigh of relief.

I start to position myself for the low level route around Orange to the west and tell Provence that I am doing this when they tell me Orange is closed (of course, it is military and it is the weekend!) and I can go across at any altitude. I opt for FL45 and sit up there making my stately way up the valley like royalty. I can hear traffic behind me following the same route. The weather is still good with a high and thin overcast and pretty much nil wind (makes a nice change!). At VNE south of Lyon I route direct to MOU to the north west and inform Lyon. I am soon told to contact Clermont Information. The ground below has changed and is now quite hilly and generally ‘corrugated’. I am sure FL45 is enough to clear these ridges, but it certainly isn’t generous.

We reach Roanne and then set direct track to Vichy airfield, LFLV. At 15 miles out, I ask to change to Vichy tower. Clermont ask me to stay on frequency and I hear them call some other traffic apparently near Vichy and tell them that I am inbound. Seems strange? I am asked to contact Vichy Tower. I give them the usual call and ask for airfield information and joining instructions. I get a brief three word reply in French. This puzzles me, so I call again and again the same reply. Eventually between myself and my wife it dawns on us that he is saying something like ‘Report Final’ in French. Not quite what I was expecting, so I check my printed plate and I see that it says when the tower is closed it is a radio service in French only. Then I clicks. I dig out my French airfield call card and start giving blind calls in my best French hoping to God that they don’t reply in a torrent of French that I am not expecting. I gather from another aircraft landing that it is runway 01 in use, which surprises me as what little wind there is was I though from the south, but then I could see that in nil wind, 01 would be best as it is closest to the terminal and aero club. I mean this was one very big runway at 2200m!

I was high on approach and had to side-slip fairly hard to get down and hold airspeed. I was still fast, but chopped the power and gently held off and off while we floated in a stately manner well past the convenient turnoff. Well, no hurry and no other traffic. The stall warner blared as we touched nicely and I trundled on rather than backtrack for the next exit. I taxied in to where there were about half a dozen light aircraft parked up, which was past the main (and deserted looking) terminal to outside a busy Aeroclub. Lots of people around as I taxied in and parked next to an aircraft at the end of the row. We were drawing quite an audience and I was hoping that the ‘Chasing the Morning Sun’ decal on the fin wasn’t making them think that I was the ‘Earthrounder’ (that was of course Manuel, the founding member of our group as he flew this plane around the world when he owned it outright).

Vichy airport

I parked up and shutdown. I clambered out and wandered over to someone at the aeroclub to ask if I was OK to park there for the night in my very halting French. He immediately pointed me at someone else who understood me and from his French reply, I gathered that there may be thunderstorms tonight and would I like to park over some tie downs – well you bet. He lead me out to the apron and showed me the tie down points and I moved the aircraft to park there and tied it down securely. The time was about 16:30 local.

Nice place, Vichy

We unpacked and I asked if anyone knew how I could get a taxi. A very kind soul said in English that it was OK, he was headed back to town anyway and would give us a lift. We got dropped off at the town centre Ibis hotel that I already had booked and got freshened up. We were out quite quickly as we wanted to explore the town. It is very much a real, working town, but also still very much a spa town. It had a fairly ‘upmarket’ feel about with some great and unusual household furnishing and lighting stores. It is a nice place and would be well worth a full days stay and poke around. We found a nice looking Moroccan restaurant and I treated us to a decent bottle of Sancerre and a Tagine meal and very good it was too. Great start to a great days flying in really good weather. Now if only the weather would hold into tomorrow for us to make it back to base in the UK. Could that old French guy be right? Thunderstorms tomorrow? I had not seen it on the forecasts. I slept well but that ‘thunderstorms’ thing was at the back of my mind…..

Raduno 2010: Friday 11th June

2010-06-15T17:00:00.009+01:00

This was a non-flying day and we were in the proven and capable hands of Riccardo for the days entertainment.

The numbers were much down on what was anticipated. The UK contingent had been around a dozen aircraft, but we were now down to three and a total of five UK occupants. The weather was the enemy and it was this that ‘did’ for most of them, being particularly bad to the west of France where most of them were coming from after an earlier meet up. There was an Italian contingent who had flown up from Latina with Riccardo in a couple of planes with about the same number of people. Unfortunately, other than Riccardo, only one of the other Italians spoke English well enough to attempt to converse (of course none of the UK contingent could speak Italian). So conversation tended to be in these two separate groups.

Well I was feeling much better after my ‘gastric episode’ and ready for the day. The weather could not have been better, sunny and warm and little wind. We had a mini-bus and driver for the stay and after breakfast at the converted Convent, we piled in the minibus for a drive to Pienza, the highest town in Tuscany and as it happened the birthplace of Pope Pius the second. Well the Pope was keen to leave his mark by making a few civic improvements to his birthplace so he virtually rebuilt the town in very grand architecture and put an enormous church in the centre. It is a very picturesque town and well worth a visit.

The church in Pienza

Stunning views from Pienza

We didn’t have long, so after an authentic cappuccino we were back on the bus for a drive to the Carpineto vineyard. One of the Italian guys on our tour was very much involved in brand management and the wine business and he apparently talked a contact in to giving us a vineyard tour and lunch. This was a fair sized commercial vineyard and they had three or four more vineyards and production centres around Tuscany, so although it was a family business, it was a very sizeable and professionally run business.

Roses in the vineyard, there for a reason!

We were met by the owner and his son who walked us around the vineyard explaining how things worked as we went. We saw the vines, the roses at the end of each row of vines (apparently they are more susceptible to pests and mildew so they get it two or three days before the vines, allowing the grower to treat the vines). We saw the vast warehouse of ageing barrels and the stainless steel fermentation tanks.

Derek and Tammy figuring they could get a barrel back in the Cherokee 6!

Stainless steel fermentation tanks

After this we wandered around and saw the ancient olive oil trees and back to the main house for a simple but truly excellent lunch, with of course lots of wine sampling! We were joined by the owner wife and his sons wife and had a truly excellent lunch. They bade us farewell with more take home samples – great, that’s two litres less of fuel then (for weight and balance), but in a good cause!

Lunch at the Carpineto vineyard

You can just imagine Russell Crowe as Gladiator walking up the road!

One the way back, Riccardo got the news that another forumites and his lady were on their way from the party in the west of France and had flown through some very interesting weather to get here. We immediately agreed to divert to the airfield to pick him up.

Skydriller with his well deserved Raduno plaque

Back to the hotel for an evening meal as a group at the hotel, which I suppose after what we had experienced so far was always going to suffer in comparison. After the meal, we all wandered the 1k or so up hill into the town of Cortona by night. I think the main group went for an ice cream and grappa, while my wife and I split off to explore the town. It is a lovely and very interesting town with loads of narrow passages and quite hilly and well worth a more detailed explore.

Although I was feeling fine, I wasn’t up for any late night drinking, not with flying the next day, so we both slipped away to bed at a sensible hour.

Raduno 2010: Thursday 10th June

2010-06-15T16:59:00.013+01:00

Woke up early and looked out the hotel window at the weather. Overcast, but cloud didn’t look low, but oh cr*p…..the wind! It was very gusty in the town centre where I was, God knows what it would be like at the exposed airfield, but then all I had to do was take-off??

We popped out for a breakfast and I had a ‘full English’. Caught the taxi to Avignon airport and yes, it was still windy with even stronger gusts to boot! My instant reaction was that I could not take off in this, but I went into the terminal to get some weather anyway. The weather was saying basically that there would be a strong wind and I would again be beating into a headwind all the way to Genoa, but that it would smooth out and it was actually quite calm and CAVOK at my destination in the heart of Tuscany.

I went out to the plane and loaded it up and carried out a thorough A-check. While I was out there, it was clear that although the wind was solid with some heavy gusts, the solid wind was only slightly off the runway heading and the gusts weren’t that frequent – yes, I was starting to talk myself into giving it a try! I wandered back to arrivals and announced to Mazzie that we would give it a try and that if we could get airborne, we could certainly make it to our destination – maybe I need to sell the message better, what do you think?

Parked up at Avignon in a nasty breeze

However one thing was for sure, I had no intention of trying my planned inland straight line route from Avignon to St Tropez across some of the lower foothills in this wind, the chop would probably throw us around all over the place. So I was faced with an equally daunting prospect, that of trying to find a route through the tangle of controlled airspace and prohibited zones that clog the bottom of the Rhone valley as it enters the Mediterranean at Marseilles – oh for a 1-250,000 map! So I asked at reception if I could speak to the guy in the tower at Avignon. Well from the look on the lady’s face you would have thought I asked to speak to President Sarkozy of France! She said she was sure she could help me, so I said OK, tell me how I get through this mess to the low level VFR coastal route as I waved the map under her face. She blanched and said ‘I contact de tower!’ (yeah – thought you might!).

The guy in the tower was of course brilliant. I explained my problem and the impenetrability of getting through from here to south of Marseille and he chuckled and said ‘Yes, it does not look good, but ees not bad really’. He then explained that I would be routed via various published and marked VRP. First I would have to go to Avignon VPR SE (basically the Durance River) at 1500’ then contact Salon Approach on 135.15. They would route me via ME and LB VRP's again at 1500’ then pass me on to Marseille Tower for a transit of the Marseille / Provence International Airport at 1500’ across the runway centreline to the VRP S, where I would contact Provence Information who would then feed me along the various VRP’s that comprise the low level coastal route all the way to the Italian border. Well all that sounded pretty busy at low altitude (one of the ridges I would have to cross peaked at over 1500’) with a few frequency changes, but I knew once I was on the coast I was home and dry. I had done that route a few times and was quite comfortable with it.

So we bought a bottle of water for what would be a hot and long trip, put our lifejackets on and clambered in. I had already seen two other aircraft take off before me (albeit they were both nosewheel aircraft) and they both looked OK, so let’s give it a try. I started up, taxied to the hold for runway 17 at an intersection, as I most certainly did not need the full runway length in this wind, probably the same as yesterday, although this time only 20 degrees off to the left. Power checks complete, I buttoned up and taxied onto the runway. I carefully turned the aircraft onto the runway heading, applied into wind aileron and applied power, eyes fixed firmly on a point at the end of the runway and feet ready to dance on the peddles. We were up and away – PHEW! I climbed to 1500’, levelled off and went into economy cruise (for me that is about 2050 RPM, lean it back and I get about 125kts for 18 – 20 Litre per hour fuel burn. I certainly don’t want to go any faster on this trick low level navigation leg. The GPS had most of the VRP’s already in the database and I zoomed the moving map in to a scale of 3 nautical miles so I could see each of the closely bunched VRP’s clearly.

1500' max out of Avignon for a low level transit to the coastal VFR route

I made the first VRP, that of Avignon SE easily. This was easy to spot as it was simply fly SE to the edge of the Avignon zone to the River Durance. I then called Salon Approach on 135.15. I had trouble understanding him with his strong accent, he was clearly giving me a VRP, but I couldn’t quite make it out. After a few ‘say agains’, he eventually tumbled and said ‘eeet eees ze pointe to follow ze Durance reever’ aaahhhhh! Now I see it, it is Salon VRP ME. I find it on the map and the GPS, now we are in business. I report when I have arrived and he directs me onto VRP LB, still at 1500’ max. Ah! I can see this point on the map and GPS and there is a ridge directly in the way that I have to cross. I can see that we will make it over through a saddle in the ridge but the wife asks if I am sure we will cross at this altitude. Ridges look like that from aircraft, you are sure you are too low, but in reality you cross with a few hundred feet to spare. I assure her that we are fine and we clear the ridge by probably 200’.

The route through the mess of airspace at Marseille

I reach the VRP, which seems to be a small town. Salon Approach then tell me to contact Marseille Tower on 118.37 for transit. Great, I am left here, so I orbit while I change frequencies and put in a full call to Marseille. They are of course fine and tell me to head for Marseille VRP AN which will be followed by AW. It takes me minute or so to find it on the map and GPS, while still orbiting low-ish level – no pressure eh? I spot the VRP’s and head towards them I report at each. Then at AW he asked me to contact Marseille Tower on a different frequency. I do so and they explain that I am clear to transit at 1500’ and that basically they want me to go straight across the main runway at 90 degrees and right overhead the tower at 1500’ – OK this is familiar, it is unheard of in the UK, but very common in the US and when you think about it, it is pretty much the safest place to be at a busy international airport – oh this is cooooollll!

Transit approved - across Marseille Provence airport centreline

I cross the runway and head toward SA VRP. Well I obviously strayed as the Tower comes on and says that SA is virtually due south and I am headed SW. I correct and head for SA. Nearly there, one more VRP and I am on the coastal VFR route. I make SA then head for S. The Tower ask me to contact Provence Information – yippee, now I am on the coastal VFR route. I breathe an audible sigh of relief, that was hard work, but now I have done it and know what to expect, I would be quite happy to do it again. I stay at 1500’ and start the slow march from one VRP to another as I report reaching each and progressively change from one Information service to another. I am beating into quite a headwind of about 25 – 30 kts. The sea below is a bit sporty and white-capped. Having said that, at least the flying is smooth enough, no real turbulence. I don’t want to think too much what would happen if the engine quit!

Stunning coastal scenery from 1500' on the coastal VFR transit route

The VRP’s come and go, at least until I start to reach Nice, where they want me to descend to 500’ around Nice airport and keep a very close eye on my track and altitude to keep me from setting off TCAS on commercial traffic landing at Nice. If the engine failed now, I would probably only be able to get off a very quick ‘Oh crap’ on the radio before we ditched, best not to think about it eh? We start to get traffic warnings about opposite direction traffic at 12 o’clock, that’ll be the helicopters that ply their trade between Monaco and Nice then! I turn on all my lights and weave a bit left to right, both so that I can see them, but also so that they can see me. Mazzie is eagle eyed and usually spots them before I do, strong instinct for self-preservation I guess.

Lovely coastal scenery

We pass Nice and they relax the 500’ so I climb back to a dizzying 1500’ as we pass in front of the high rise and crowded Monaco. We cross the border and I switch to Milano Information and call them. No reply to several calls, but then I expected that as I didn’t get any response from them last time I was this way. So I stay on listening watch and consider my options. I am getting quite hot and although sipping water, I clearly didn’t bring enough and am starting to feel thirsty (dehydrated). My time planning is shot to pieces by this headwind which doesn’t look like letting up until we are well inland and near our destination. All things considered, a single long leg to Montecchio does not now seem like a good idea. I check Albenga (which I had nominated as an alternate on the flight plan anyway). I call them and check the wind, they are giving runway in use as 09 with the wind as 090/17 – phew, tough wind, but at least straight down the runway. That’s my mind made up, we divert into Albenga for a break, refuel, rehydrate etc.

I call Albenga and he is great, but he does struggle with my callsign of G-GDRV. I had to repeat it five times, eventually spelling it out like ‘First letter: Golf, second letter: Golf, third letter: Delta’ etc. I think he was struggling with the two ‘G’s’ at the start of the callsign, maybe he thought I had a stutter or something! Albenga is very easy to find as it sits in a valley about 4 miles inland. However, the final approach for 09 is interesting as it sits in a small and narrow valley, so as I am asked to join right downwind for 09, I decide to fly into the valley next door and cross the ridge between the two to position for final for 09. This of course leaves me high, so I side-slip a lot of this off and come in for a landing. Well the approach wasn’t good and I am a bit long and a bit fast and I am of course punished by this a gusting wind with good bounce, then another, well that was it, power on and go around, no sense in fooling around, let’s try that one again. As there is no traffic at the airfield, I fly a tight downwind and fly into the airfield valley and have to pull off a base turn that is so small that I am virtually doing a 180 turn on final. Approach much better this time and I am rewarded with a good landing. I have to backtrack as there is only one exit from the runway and that is at the threshold of 09. I ask the guy in the tower if he can close our flight plan and he is happy to do so.

Albenga airfield

We are really cooking in the sun under the bubble canopy as I trundle in to the AVGAS pumps, shut down and pop the hatch like a deep see free-diver coming up for air! The pompier does his thing under my close supervision. A chap who was sat under the tied down wing of what looks like a very nice N registration PA18 taildragger saunters over and we have a chat. He is an American touring Europe and is waiting for the winds to subside so he can get into Cannes. I give him the bad news that the winds I head Cannes giving were something like 100 / 25G35, he is philosophical and says he thought he would have to wait for early evening anyway. Turns out he knows Cheltenham very well and often stays in ‘The House in the Tree’ about two miles from Gloucestershire airport. Well that makes him either a ‘spy’ working at GCHQ or more likely someone working for one of the American aerospace outfits in the locale – small world!

Parked up at Albenga while I over-rehydrated!

I park up and head eagerly into the air-conditioned terminal feeling very hot, somewhat bothered and with my tongue literally sticking to my mouth! I fo straight over to the small café counter and down a Gatorade in one before I have paid for it. I buy another while I am at it. Of course the wife tells me to sip it slowly bless her. The next one goes down in five minutes and I grab a third, that lasts about 15 minutes while I check the internet for weather.

I spot the reception desk and realise I haven’t paid so wander over. Well what a world class performance this was. I was asked a huge battery of question by the lady at the desk, many of which seemed entirely pointless. She bashes away at the computer for at least 10 – 15 minutes then prints a multi-page bill which itemises pretty much everything with a small charge for each. They didn’t record my use of the toilet for a pee, but I think that was an error on their part! I have never seen such a performance or such an itemised by for a ‘slash and dash’ – the entertainment value made it all worthwhile.

I felt a lot better now, I had gotten pretty hot and bothered and dehydrated. I cooled down a bit more in the terminal then dragged the wife away from her cappuccino and loaded back into the plane for a one and a half hour flight along the coast to just south of Pisa, then head inland to Montecchio. The route was plan:

LIMG COAST GENOA COAST LA SPEZIA COAST PISA COAST CASTIGLIONCELLO DCT MONTECCHIO

I climbed to 1500’ and reported out of Albenga via the VRP’s then switched to Genoa for a transit along the coast. They gave me this at 1500’. Once passed their airport, I asked for a transit of La Spezia danger zone and was told that was not possible in no uncertain terms (what the hell have they got in there anyway?). The weather was clear so it was no problem to climb to 4000’ and route inland to the east. The sun and heat were starting to bother me again. I had been wearing a light coloured baseball hat to keep the sun off my head and the glare away, but I was hot alright. The just past the prominent marble quarry in the hillside and descending back towards the coast at Viareggio I felt very odd indeed. I ask Mazzie for a bag of some sort, ANY SORT. I just managed to get a sick bag before I threw up energetically twice. Most of it made it into the bag, some settled nicely on my T-shirt and trousers. OK, this was not good. I felt a bit woozy for a few seconds then sorted myself out. I was also starting to feel stomach cramps. This was not a good way to fly, but I didn’t judge it to be an emergency either. I could have called a PAN and diverted into Pisa or maybe back to Genoa, but that would have been an over-reaction. OK, I felt like crap and it wasn’t pleasant for my wife, but I carried on, knowing that there were a few airfields I could go into south and inland of Pisa if I felt I had to.

I was flying OK and speaking on the radio, but very keen to get to the airfield. The stomach cramps were coming every 15 minutes or so, but I could hold them for a while. I turned inland at Castiglioncello as planned and climbed to about 4000’. I willed the GPS to move faster as closed in on Montecchio. I eyed Siena airfield carefully, it would be an easy divert, but I know I could hold out until Montecchio and I didn’t come this far to be beaten by a bit of puke on my T-shirt (it was my stomach cramps that worried me more!). I heard another forumites on the same frequency who was ahead of me, but I was closing fast. Eventually I switched to Montecchio and advised them that there was a serious pilot urgency for a toilet immediately on arrival. Riccardo replied thinking I was hamming it up, but I assured him that I was quite serious. I spotted G-AXTA landing as I was approaching. I did a semi-overhead join and made a bit of a hash of the approach being too high and too fast. Side-slipping helped, but I was too fast so did a go-around. My next circuit could be described as ‘low level’ as I hauled her around at a modest altitude and back onto final, chopped the power, pulled on the flaps and came in and landed this time. Not an elegant landing, but it did the job and in the circumstances I was pretty pleased. Montecchio airfield is a private grass strip about 800m long, but with a pretty active flying community based there (No Dan, this is not where we went last time, this is different part of Italy well to the north of Rome)

I turned around and taxied to the hangar and parked where Riccardo indicated, popped the hatch and dashed for the toilet inside at the back of the hangar. I made it OK and suffered what you could call ‘explosive decompression’. I sorted myself out and noticed that they had a shower – fantastic. I stripped off and had a cold / lukewarm shower which cooled me down and cleaned me up a bit. The T-shirt was for the bin and the trousers were for a plastic bag. Mazzie dropped some spare clothes in and I donned swimming trunks and a T-shirt and made my formal appearance to my fellow forumites and apologised for my brief but dramatic entrance. Mazzie had been busy cleaning up any spots that got onto the aircraft interior and took out the removable seat cushions for a wash at the hotel. I do NOT get any form of motion sickness and I never have, it was not that. I can only assume it was a combination of a lot of things, but maybe mainly a bit of over-heating and over-energetic rehydration at Albenga! Riccardo did ask me if I was alright and I said I would be sure I was alright when I could fart without worrying about it!

Down safely at Montecchio airstrip, I must be OK as I am taking photos again!

I was in no condition to take advantage of the wine and olives on offer and sipped what water I could scrounge and I was now dehydrated again. I moved the plane to a proper parking position and we loaded up after a while and headed for our converted convent hotel just outside Cortona. We got into the room and I got myself properly cleaned up and helped cleaning the aircraft upholstery. We didn’t actually have much time as we were going out to the big meal of the trip at Residence Serristori, a fantastic agro-tourismo near Castiglion Fiorentino. I washed my only set of trousers and realised I would just have to wear them wet, either than or swimming trunks! Fortunately, they were proper hiking trousers, so would dry quick enough, it also helped to keep me cool, that’s for sure!

Fantastic meal at the agro-tourismo

This particular agro-tourismo is quite a complex. It has it’s own airfield, with a hard and soft runway (unfortunately the runways are only 550m long and a bit too challenging for the some of the aircraft), it’s own hotel type room, a great pool and a huge agro-tourismo type eatery. The meal turned out to be by far the best of the entire trip. The pasta was exquisite and the steaks probably the second best I have ever had. I was taking it very, very easy though and sipping water with a glass or two of wine and very modest amounts of food. It is a shame as I was so looking forward to really letting rip! We all agreed that my friend Dan who was at the last Raduno would have really appreciated the evening. All for the very modest cost of EUR 35 per head – all the food, wine and grappa you could drink!

Now THAT's a steak!!!

Raduno 2010: Wednesday 9th June

2010-06-15T16:59:00.010+01:00

OK, now we are into Plan B type stuff. Having failed to get away from Troyes yesterday for a single log hop to Cannes, the plan was not to try this again today. The planned route was:

LFQB DCT ATN DCT VNE DCT MTL DCT CM DCT LFMD

So off to the airfield in unpromising weather. Low cloud and occasional light rain, but it looked to me like there was a brighter and higher overcast, maybe the low stuff was scattered and I could get 'on top'. First thing was to check with the Meteo guy on the airfield. He showed me the radar and TAFS and METARS en-route and they didn't look too bad and seemed to confirm that there was some low stuff but the solid overcast was quite high. So I decided to go for it and see how far we got, hoping of course for really good weather down south so we could cut across the low foothills of the Alps to Cannes.

Packed up and careful A-Check as the plane had been out in the rain all night. There was some water contamination in the first two samples from the port tank, so I wobbled the plane a lot to shake any more water out, but nothing more. mental note to take off drawing from the starboard tank!

The weather and rain at Troyes airfield in the morning

I carried out the power checks with only to controller in the tower for company at the airfield and on the airwaves. Lined up and off on runway 17. I climbed to 1500' and saw that the low grey stuff was indeed well scattered and carried right on up to an easy 4500' sort of 'between layers' but with plenty of view of the ground.

That's not so bad! Getting between layers at Troyes

Contacts Seine Information on 120.32 who handed me over to Paris Information on 126.10. Paris warned me about some military area if I continued up to 5000' (it certainly wasn't there on my map), so I climbed to FL55 abnd everyone was happy.

The airspeed and groundspeed readout on the GPS was telling me something pretty scary. I was getting my usual economy cruise 125kts indicated, but only 85kts groundspeed - holy high winds Batman, we got ourselves a real headwind here!

About 30 miles NNW of Lyon is a range of hills, with peaks at 3000'. They didn't look too scary from FL55, but they sure were kicking up some turbulence which knocked us about for 20 minutes or so as we battled away with the headwinds and now turbulence.

Lyon Information were very happy for me to transit on a direct track to VNE at FL55.

Lyon from the air at FL55

We ploughed on past Lyon on direct track for MTL and past Valence. I was starting to get worried about making it to Cannes in one long hop with the wind and the time it was taking (and of course the impact on fuel). A few calculations and I figured if the weather for Cannes was fine and if the weather was good enough to get over the lowe bits of the hills between Avignon and St Tropez, that I would still go for it.

I called Marseille information and got the actuals for Cannes. They gave me 4000m visibility and winds of 140 / 25 - AAAHHH! Plan C, divert to Avignon, one of the alternates I had already planned for.

I called orange Tower for a zone transit of their military class D airspace as they sit astride the whole damn valley. They were most certainly active. I had trouble making out the accent of the French controller who first told me to report at Valreas, then I was sure he said report '3 miles West of Caritat' (Caritat being the name for Orange airbase). So I complied only to be ticked off with a 'Why have you gone to the west, I told you three mile EAST'. I was given two orbits west abeam the airfield as he got a flight of what looked like Mirages off then authorised me to continue to the Avignon NW VRP and call Avignon.

Avignon Tower were fantastic, although I was alarmed when they gave me the airfield information. Runway in use, 17 with winds 140 / 17G37kts - yikes! That is some crosswind component in this little twitchy taildragger!

I decided to give it a couple ot tries anyway. the tower were great and routed me over the runway at 2000' while traffic behind lined up for a practice instrument approach. I went around left downwind for my first attempt at a landing. I vowed to be instantly ready for a go around and rehearsed the crosswind landing in my head then turned base and final. he did offer me 17 grass (me being a taildragger and all), but I decided on the hard runway as I didn't know how smooth the grass was.

The approach was OK and I could certainly feel the gusts. I eased her down and carefully felt for the ground as I chopped the power, held off and kicked her straight at the same time applying into wind aileron, then kept on holding off and off. Stall warner pretty constant and we touched but didn't stay down for long as a gust caught and put us back into the air for what was in effect a high bounce, I applied a squirt of power to stabalise things and though about a go around for an instant, but decided to try again, I wasn't going to run out of runway anytime soon! It seemed like a good decision because the second attempt was much better and managed to stay put as I danced on the peddles to control the plane while we rolled to a taxi pace. PHEW! That was without doubt the worst set of conditions I have landed the RV in. I wasn't smug yet though coz it ain't over until it is successfully tied down!

I even got a compliment from the tower, perhaps he was just relieved not to have to clear wreckage away!

We taxied in and I fuelled up and tied the plane down very securely facing into wind.

Avignon airport tower, too busy with approach and landing for any airborne photos!

We got a taxi into town at the terminal and he took us to the Best Western Bristol hotel in the town centre. Pricey and basic, but clean and fine for me. What a really nice tyown Avignon is by the way. A very old walled town with the walls still 100% intact and it was the seat of the Catholic Papacy before the Vatican (I didn't know that).

Yep, that's a walled city alright!

So we had a very good explore and a very good meal. It would be well worth visiting Avignon and environs properly for a few days some time.

The famous 'Pont sur Avignon' - I wouldn't mind, but it doesn't even go across the river!

Raduno 2010: Tuesday 8th June

2010-06-14T19:08:00.002+01:00

Plan was for Troyes direct to Cannes.

The weather when we woke up looked OK out of the window, not windy and overcast but with what looked like quite high cloud, so still do-able. We packed and checked out and got a taxi to the airport. I prepped and packed the plane then wandered over to the Meteo building next to the tower for a weather brief. I told him in broken French of my intentions and I got a simple ‘C’est non possible pour le VFR!!’. I looked surprised as it didn’t seem that bad, but then he showed me the rainfall radar, with really nasty stuff with what he said was embedded CB’s being blown directly across my proposed route from the south west to the north east most of the day until maybe mid-afternoon. There was already a nasty patch over Dijon to the south as I did even consider a ‘dash’ to Dijon, a mere 70 miles or so south.

So I decided to abandon the attempt until the afternoon and go back to town for lunch, as the airfield café looked excellent but was never open once when I was there. So back into town for lunch. Sure enough the wind picked up and it was indeed raining.

Sheltering from the rain

About 14:00 I thought I could see it becoming brighter rainy weather, so another taxi fare back to the airfield and a trip to la Meteo. But the rainfall radar showed a nasty trailing part of the clag still due to go over between Troyes and Dijon until at least 18:00. With heavy heart and a lighter wallet I decided to quit for today. I then recalled someone said if you go to the Hotel Relais St Jean in the town centre, the owner who is also a pilot would pick you up and drop you off. So I asked at reception and this is what happened. It really is an excellent hotel, but at EUR 100 a night not hugely cheap, but beautifully done in a very old building with bags of character.

Excellent room at the very 'pilot friendly' Relais St Jean Hotel in the town centre

We met up with some American freighter pilots also staying in the hotel in the bar (where else) who had been in Troye for three days waiting for their DC8 freighter to arrive at the huge runway at Chalon Vatry. We swapped stories for a bit, before going our separate ways for the evening meal. Troyes is still a very nice town, but when you are a pilot that couldn’t fly that day, it can be pretty frustrating, but such is VRFR touring in Europe!

Rather nice restaurant

I was not made any happier by learning on the Flyer Forum internet that another Raduno attendee had flown into Troyes around lunchtime on the same day, refuelled and pressed on and made it to Avignon, although they did have the grace to say that there was some pretty 'interesting' weather along the way!

Raduno 2010: Monday 7th June

2010-06-14T18:42:00.003+01:00

The plan was to fly two legs today, the first from Gloucester to LeTouquet (to clear customs), then from Le Touquet to Troyes, to stay overnight in Troyes. The route for the first leg was very simple.

EGBJ DCT GWC DCT SFD DCT LFAT

Well that is exactly what happened.

Loaded up at Gloucester, filed a flight plan and had previously filed the GAR. Filled the plane to the correct fuel level for our weight and balance and took off in OK weather. Climbed to 2000’ and plodded the familiar route direct from EGBJ to the GWC VOR at Goodwood airfield. Called Brize Radar for basic service and went overhead Fairford (inactive as usual). Transferred to Farnboro Radar at Membury and stayed with them until passed GWC.

2000' scraping my head on the clouds in the UK

Managed 2000’ close to base of clouds all the way. Along the coast the clouds disappeared and I climbed to 4500’ going along passed Brighton towards SFD VOR for the channel crossing. Blue skies all over the channel and a very good horizon for a change.

Unusual 'severe VFR' in the channel!

Crossing was easy and picked up first Lille Information, then of course Le Touquet Tower.

There was some quite low cloud / lifted fog literally along the coast at Le Touquet and the wind was a perfect crosswind at 250 / 10kts. They were not at all busy on a Monday and said that although the ATIS runway in use was 32, I could use 14 as the headwind component was much the same on either. So got a long direct into runway 14. I had to descend to below 700’ before I got below this low cloud, the scuttled into final for 14. I could feel the crosswind and held approach track, at least it wasn’t gusting. I was ready for the crosswind landing and did a reasonable job of it and parked up. Clocked up a logged 1.7 hours flying on this leg.

Mazzie at Le Touquet airfield

Off with the cross-channel gear and popped into the very good airfield restaurant for a coffee and a croissant. Refuelled, paid the bill, and turned around in about 1:15. Fuel was a not unreasonable EUR 1.85 a litre. Given that we are paying GBP 1.78 a litre at Gloucester.....

Le Touquet airfield from the air

The last leg for the day was again simple and to make it to Troyes.

LFAT DCT CTL DCT LFQB

The low cloud bothered me a bit, but I got the METAR’s and TAF’s for Troyes and they were much more encouraging. The cloud at L2K seemed to have lifted a bit as well and of course the coast is normally worse that either out to sea or inland, so decided to fly as it would also be easy to get VFR above the cloud in sight of ground.

We took off and climbed initially to 2000’, then later to 3000’ and stayed there just below scattered 'fair weather' CU all the way. A nice easy run to Troyes, talking to various French ‘Information’ radio centres for flight information service along then way. Always given a squawk and occasional traffic reports. Flying in France is very easy like this compared to the UK.

The scenery on the ground is very much a patchwork of forests and strip type farming field layouts that make for an interesting patchwork as they slide by beneath you.

French strip type fields

Spotted Troyes and contacted the Tower there. There were very happy for me to join as I wished, although I mistakenly joined for a left downwind join for runway 17 rather than the published right hand circuit.

Troyes airfield from the air

They were not at all bothered though. Wind was given as 240/05, so no real crosswind to worry about and made an easy landing. Asked for a granted a backtrack and I was happily trundling back along the runway to the taxiway for the terminal when I spotted a crank-wing Robin on very short final heading towards me. I did not hear any earlier call to clear him to land, either in English or French (which I have a vague understanding of aviation terms). I called out on the radio in English that I was on the runway and that he must go around immediately – it was my life here and the Controller didn’t seem to be doing much! The plane went around to my relief. Yet another example I guess of the consequences of using mixed languages at an airfield giving rise to a lack of situational awareness.

Refuelled immediately for a quicker getaway. I struggled badly with the automated refuelling pumps and credit card machine and the reception guys took pity and announced over an intercom that I could pay later and turned the pumps on for me.

Troyes airfield

I fuelled up then moved the plan to parking where they told me. They assured me there were tie downs. I parked up and shut down, but for the life of me I couldn’t find the ties downs they referred to, all I could see were a few obvious drain-hole inspection covers. Someone obviously spotted my strange behaviour and came out and lifted one of the ‘drain covers’ to reveal a hollow where chains and rope are stored and anchored for tie downs – DOH! Well, I can’t say I have seen it done like that before. I secured the plane as we unpacked and headed to reception.

Reception was excellent. Very new, very well organised and even though the guy there genuinely spoke almost no English, we managed with my appalling French to tell him what we were doing and order a taxi. I had previously booked a cheap Etap Hotel in Troyes town centre as I find the Accor Hotel chain excellent for internet booking AND you can cancel same day – vital for a VFR pilot (as it turned out).

The quite lovely town centre in Troyes

Troyes as a town is really lovely. It is the French equivalent to loads of Tudor timbered buildings in an old walled town. Only a couple of the gates still stand of the walls, but most of the building survive with narrow streets and extensive pedestrian streets. It really is a great place to stay, even if just for one night. Really, do NOT make the mistake of booking into the Novotel that you can walk to from the airport. Stump up the EUR 20 taxi fare and make it into this lovely town!

Raduno 2010: The Plan!

2010-06-14T18:25:00.002+01:00

This was my ‘big trip’ for 2010. Members of the Flyer Forum had organised a trip to meet up in Cortona, Tuiscany, Italy for two days of merriment via a couple of stops in France to a grass airfield.

I decided to 'do my own thing' with the wife on the way down and back and to use the Raduno as the focus of our tour. The weather reports leading up to it of course were not fabulous, with poor weather forecast for the Rhone / Saone valley, it might be interesting as that we exactly where I wanted to route!

The PLAN, at least for me was:

Monday 7th June
Gloucester to LeTouquet (clear customs), then LeTouquet to Troyes, stay overnight in Troyes

Tuesday 8th June
Troyes to Cannes direct. Stay two nights in a posh hotel in the sun.

Thursday 10th June
Cannes to Montecchio direct. The official ‘Raduno 2010’ part of the trip where many other Flyer Forum pilots would gather and socialise.

Saturday 12th June
Montecchio to Albenga to refuel, then Albenga to Vichy. Overnight in Vichy.

Sunday 13th June
Vichy to Le Touquet to clear customs, then Le Touquet to Gloucester.

Well, that was the plan, but of course things do not always go to plan do they?

I'm a swinger now!

2010-05-29T18:23:00.002+01:00

Well I have finally done it. After years of reading about and seeing a lot of it on the internet and discussing it on specialist forums on the internet, I have finally done it – yes I am a swinger!

Today I had my first experience of swinging.

Yes, I agreed to go to the airfield to get a few tips and hints from Manuel that might help out on my upcoming trip to Italy. One of the things I particularly wanted to learn was how to ‘hand-start’ the engine if, say the starter motor packer up or if the battery was flat (as has occurred a couple of times in the last few months), this process is also known as ‘hand-swinging’ the propeller.

Well, actually I learned quite a lot more beside. Useful stuff like how to fit the cowling (far from straightforward), how to jack the plane up to change a tire etc. So as Manuel finished the 50 hour service, we pulle3d the plane out to give it a ground run. But first, I had a lot of rehearsal in the hangar on how to hand swing the prop, precisely where the magneto would spark, the commands with the person in the aircraft and most important, how to swing the prop without losing your fingers with kick-back or decapitating yourself by inadvertently leaving sundry parts of your body in the arc of the propeller.

So first off, Manuel did the swinging with me in the cockpit and it fired after about three swings. Then we traded places and I had my turn. I got the sequence and stance right and tried once, nothing, not a sausage. I tried again, nothing. Third time lucky? Nope! Fourth time and by now I realise what hard work this is and wonder if I am doing it right. I do precisely the same thing again and the engine roars obligingly into life. I am of course still moving swiftly away from the propeller due to the swing technique Manuel showed me. Wow! That is so cool! This stuff really works!

OK, so now I know how to do it, of course I hope I never have to, but it is a really useful ‘get you somewhere’ trick if it is needed.

So that’s it – I am now a fully paid up member of the swingers club!

.......What, WHAT – well what did you think I was talking about?

Local

2010-05-11T18:26:00.000+01:00

Went for a local to keep my hand in over the weekend. I had planned a couple of landings at local grass airstrips, but put that on hold due to the recent heavy rains and my concerns that the strips may be a bit muddy. The panel-mounted GPS was out getting a new battery fitted, but no matter, I can certainly navigate without a GPS.

The weather was fine for a change, albeit with a slight wind at 040/10, but straight down the 04 runway. In the end I ploughed a familiar route first down the Severn to Chepstow, then up the Wye Valley to Ross, then on up to the Malverns, across to Bredon Hill, south to Bishops Cleeve for a play along the ridge line, then pull up over the ridge for the AYIOS and back to the airfield.

I was mainly concerned with just double checking the metrics and fuel consumption for the power setting I normally use, so that my planning for the upcoming trip to Italy is accurate. If anything (as usual) I have erred on the safe side and assumed a lower airspeed and a higher fuel consumption than I was actually experiencing in flight – this really is quite a fast and slippery airplane! I did notice what another member of the group was reporting, which is that the fuel flow indication on the engine monitoring system we have was occasionally erratic, it was generally showing the usual fuel flow for the engine setting and leaning that I use, but occasionally, it would get erratic and indicate a fuel flow 10-20% higher than usual. This seemed to be cleared by putting the fuel pump on for a few seconds. Manuel, our resident aircraft engineer, says it is a glitch in the read-out and not a ‘real’ event. Worth knowing and I will continue to use for fuel reserves, my normal combination of fuel remaining on the EFIS and the good old-fashioned time flown vs dipped fuel on board at start of flight method.

The flight was good fun, just myself. The plane handles very noticeably different on landing with just one person on board with a much longer float before the stall warner starts to holler. Not something I will have to remember on my tour in Europe as we will be close to MAUW for most of the take-off’s on the trip.

Landaway to Goodwood

2010-04-24T16:48:00.006+01:00

Well this is the year that I score a few numerical aviation milestones. OK, not much at all really, but I will be breaking the 500 hours total time mark and I aim to break the 100 airfields in my logbook. Currently I am on 483 hours and 92 airfields.

What is it with guys, the urge to collect, record and catalogue?
Anyway, as part of this effort, I have decided to ‘fill in’ on airfields that are relatively close and in many cases that I fly over heading to more distant destinations, but for some reason have never visited before. So this time it was Goodwood / Chichester. I always fly direct from Gloucester to GWC VOR on my way to France, so why no drop in there.

I was a little concerned to establish the state of the grass runways, but a few enquiries and a telephone call reassured me that it wasn’t boggy and it was really very smooth. The problem with the RV6 is that the spats are pretty tightly cowled and there is not a lot of clearance with the ground, so it wouldn’t take much to crunch them up and possibly at worst tip the machine onto it’s nose. The clincher was when they said they had a couple of RV’s based there and they were flying quite happily with spats on.

Saturday looked on the face of it to be an ideal day. I had checked the NOTAM’s of course and the weather was forecast to be sunny with minimal wind. So it was, but it was a sort of ‘high-pressure’ murky. I couldn’t see the Malverns from the end of my road (my personal ‘Malverns Test’), but the vis was OK, I could see that I was going to get a ‘goldfish bowl’ type view downwards until and unless I got on top of the haze layer.

Rob joined me for the trip and we pulled the plane out carefully past the Citation parked in the middle of the hangar, carefully getting the RV wing under the higher wing on the Citation.

We departed on runway 27 with a bit of a crosswind, then turned left onto track climbing to 3800’ as we crossed the Cotswold ridge. I contacted Brize Zone for a basic service as I was above their zone, but thought I had better speak to them anyway. Fairford was ‘cold’ (I already knew that) and South Cerney and Redlands Farm were meatbombing (as usual). So I routed close to Fairford overhead to avoid the parachuting. I was vaguely hoping for some sudden engine rough-running as it would be a hoot to do a PFL at Fairford, but no, not today!

It was murky alright. Certainly VFR, just claggy. It would have been clear of the haze layer at probably 5500’ or so, but there was no point in that as I would start to hit Category A airspace and upset people, so I carried on at 3800’ for the 45 minute trip to Goodwood.

I do find grass airfields hard to spot, but as I have been over Goodwood so many time, I know where it is, even then, I was only certain I had it with 4 miles to run. I did a standard overhead join for the main runway, 14. There was only one other aircraft in the circuit as I lined up on final.

I deliberately wanted to land long partly to avoid any ruts just past the numbers where most aircraft would normally land and partly to avoid a long taxi on the runway to the clubhouse and parking at the far end of 14. I managed this and pulled off a nice landing (grass is flattering anyway of course). I trundled slowly to line 2 as requested and parked up.

It was warm, the sun was shining and there is nothing quite like a grass airfield on a day like this. A member of Flyer Forum suggested I dropped in on him in Hangar 8 and checked out the interesting aircraft. So I had a chat with someone in the hangar and looked over a lovely Harvard and a black Stearman.

We wandered into the Aero Club and paid the somewhat hefty £17.50 landing fee. There is an excellent cafe and we ordered a couple of baguettes and drinks out on the patio overlooking the airfield watching interesting aircraft come and go in the sun – what a wonderful way of passing an hour or so as a Harvard, a Chipmunk and a Wilga all made their way skyward.

Of course, Goodwood isn’t just an airfield, it is also a motor racing circuit, using the old peri-track around the airfield, so after we spotted a few cars bombing around the circuit, time for a look. On the way out of the aero club, we spotted a statue of one of the original characters of the airfield, none other than Douglas Bader, who took off from this airfield on his last mission of the war as he was shot down over France.

There was a fabulous line up of Ferrari’s as a string of Lotus 7’s came in from their timed lap. Just to wander around the Ferrari’s and hear them as they started up waqs such a treat. We wandered over to the stands and watched as Ferrari’s and Lotus 7’s set off one at a time for a timed lap, the noise was joyous!

This really is a ‘happening’ airfield with loads to see and do and I was starting to feel a little more charitable about the landing fee. But time to head back. A quick check of the plane as I watched another aircraft taxi out to the hold, it was not obvious where I was going to taxi, so I was relieved at watching a local do it and noting his track. I checked the airport charts as I know they have some interesting noise abatement procedures and I was keen to follow them so as not to upset the locals.

Start up and a slow taxi out to the hold for 14 and power checks. They were fine and I powered up with one stage of flaps trying to get off the ground as soon as practical to minimise any bumps or lumps I might encounter. We were up and once established in the climb, I pulled the first turn to the left to avoid Westhamphnett, then another to avoid another town as we climbed through the downwind, keeping a wary eye on another aircraft joining downwind, we were well ahead of him and climbed up past him keeping him off to the right.

I changed to Farnboro Radar and managed to get a word in edgeways, just. It was still hazy and to help with visibility, I continued my series of occasional but regular weaves to the left and right so I could get a good look forward for other aircraft and hopefully, they would spot my movement if coming straight for me.

Closing in on Popham, I just spotted a high wind aircraft passing probably 100’ below and maybe 200’ to my left, no need for avoiding action, but a bit close for comfort. At the same time, Farnboro called me a quickly reeled off a traffic warning – good job I wasn’t relying on Farnboro alone. I gave Farnboro a quick ‘Visual – Clear’ reply. I am certain the other aircraft didn’t spot me at all. He certainly wasn’t talking to Farnboro either.

We carried on and made contact with Brize as I approached the M4. Did my usual route close to Fairford and just over the Brize zone until past Cirencester, then picked up the Gloster ATIS. I said goodbye to Brize who were overloaded and contacted Gloster Approach. Approach and Tower were combined on one frequency, so he was really busy and earning his money. I got my call in and was offered a direct approach to runway 18. I accepted this and called at 5 miles, the again when established on left base. I called final and was cleared to land.

The approach was good, I was aiming to land long-ish again to minimise the time trundling to the end of the runway. There was some crosswind from the right, so I concentrated on right aileron and left rudder in the roundout, what I did do though was a novice error as 18 is so much narrower than the main runways, that the picture fooled me into thinking I was higher than I was and I touched long before I was expecting to. It was gentle stuff fortunately, and it wasn’t so much a bounce as the runway gently and paternally whispering to ‘Now I know you didn’t mean to touch then, do have another try, there’s a good fellow’ – so I did and made the stall warner holler before we touched properly in the correct attitude.

I taxied back and shut down and gently manoeuvred the plane past the Citation into it’s allotted space in the hangar, crouching in the corner like a poor relative at a society wedding with the swanky Citations and other rich boys toyz lording it over us.

Well, it was a really nice day and an excellent airfield, well worth a look and a return visit. Better visibility would have been nice and I can live without the occasional ‘close encounter’, but that’s flying I guess.

Next, who know, let’s try for another ‘first’ airfield – maybe Southampton, Bournemouth, Dunkerswell, Perranporth, Fowlmere etc.

AVGAS Prices? JTFC!!!

2010-04-08T18:07:00.002+01:00

Our aircraft runs on AVGAS like the vast majority of light aircraft around the world – OK there are a few AVTUR piston engines around and yes, I know about Rotax running on MOGAS, so you lot can suspend your smugness for a moment.

Gas prices go up and down right? Well, at least they have during the recent recession. Eighteen months ago, the price of oil peaked at a staggering $150 a barrel, so of course you'd expect the price of AVGAS to be hit to reflect this. Well, we are now told that oil is back up the dizzying heights of – wait for it - $85 a barrel, so of course the price of AVGAS is…….yes, higher than it was when oil was at $150 a barrel!!! Now I am no financial guru (although I do work in Financial services), but how the f*** do you square those numbers?

The current price of AVGAS at our home airfield of Gloucestershire (EGBJ) is now a gut-wrenching:

£1.72 a litre (including VAT). Holy f****** high AVGAS prices Batman!

Check this graph out!

Gloucester have historically been one of the ‘good guys’, consistently in the cheapest third of airfields on the mainland UK. I don’t know if they still are, but it is hard to believe.

The oil companies have of course wittered on about ‘ah yes, but UK government duty has gone up by 6p a litre’ and ‘ah yes, but we have to buy oil in US Dollars and the Pounds is weak against the Dollar’, sure, but not by anywhere near that much – do the math!

So, what are we going to do about it in the UK? Precisely nothing! We’ll whinge and bitch about it, then shrug our collective shoulders and say ‘oh well’. Of course the UK version of AOPA is the same organisation as the US AOPA in name only and does little to nothing to lobby effectively, they merely take annual subscriptions. And of course politicians will gabble on about it being a ‘green tax’ – how much of the duty is spent on green issues? Nothing at all, the UK government just goes around buying new nuclear weapons systems at a time when the super-powers are reducing their arsenals and fighting overseas wars that have nothing to do with the UK.

OK a vaguely incoherent rant I know. It is really hard for me as a motorist to think that £1.20p a litre for MOGAS is a bargain, but compared to £1.72p a litre for AVGAS???

OK, you guys grinning like Cheshire cats running on AVTUR conversions or Rotax engines can now say ‘I told you so’. Now, where is that brochure on Rotax powered VLA’s and ‘experimentals’.

Oh, and the ‘JTFC’ reference? Well if you have watched the excellent satire film ‘Team America’ you will know what it means, it is a extremely rude and blasphemous exclaimation!

Two year revalidation

2010-04-04T18:59:00.007+01:00

JAA European licences are only valid for five years at a time. But within that, you also have to have to revakidate every two years, either by a full proficiency test or by flying at least twelve hours in the 12 months before the end of the two years, plus a further hours flight training with a JAA instructor.

I am due for my two years in mid-June this year, so thought I would get the hours flight with an instructor out of the way now. Well, I have a couple of hours with instructors already, but the key is that they were not JAA instructors (they were FAA), so I booked an hour with Phil Mathews, the CFI at my local Cotswold Aero Club.

Phil is a vastly experienced instructor although I think taciturn rather than garralous would be a better description of him. He doesn't say much, but when he does you had better listen, because it is worth hearing! He does not try to 'over-control' and is quite happy for you to make and then correct your own mistakes, but very little escapes his eagle eye! As such, I am very happy with this style of instruction.

While I was at the clubhouse waiting for the plane to return from an earlier sortie, Steve Noujaim walked in with his wife and was going to do a sortie in the lovely RV7 he will be using for the Cape Challenge, to try to beat Alex Henshaw's long standing round trip record to Cape Town and back in a small light aircraft.

The plane itself has an avionics fit that would put a modern 737 to shame, large 'glass cockpit' monitors pretty much everywhere! Hen is due to try his record run in just under a month.

Well the plane had returned and Phil was ready so I gave the plane a quick check and we saddled up ready for my 'hour with an instructor'. I did the usual start-up and taxi checks and power check at the hold for runway 27. I was finished before the plane in front of me and called 'Ready for departure'. The tower checked with the aircraft in front who was still a couple of minutes from being ready, so we were cleared to taxi around them from behind and line up for departure on 27.

I lined up and was cleared for take-off. I checked the windsock, slightly coming in from the right, then applied power smoothly and kept the plane firmly on the centreline with the usual deft footwork and slight into-wind aileron. The tail came up as I held her down to pick up speed, as despite the lioght fuel load, we were still heavy and at MAUW as neither of us are slender guys.

I climbed out to the west and levelled off at 2500'. Around May Hill, Phil asked me to do 360 degree steep turns to both the left and right, maintaining altitude. This I did as I really enjoy steep turns in the RV, it is such a joy!

This was followed by slow flight, maintain 80kts straight and level, then complete 360 degree turns in both directions maintaining altitude. I managed this but lost about 100' over both turns, a bit sloppy.

Then Phil pulled the power back, but not to idle and said that the throttle had become jammed in that position and that I could not alter the power, what would I do? This was a new one on me, but a good one. I experimented with the aircraft and realised that I could maintain altitude at a much reduced airspeed, so I said that I would make a precautionary forced landing and would try for Gloucester (as it was only some 20 miles away) keeping a wary eye on large fields en-route in case the engine decided to quit.

He then asked how I would land it given that I couldn't change the throttle. Clearly this was going to be a question of getting into the appropriate position near the airfield, then shut the engine down and do a glide landing. Yes, but how would I kill then eb=ngine he asked. I thought about it and said I would pull the mixture. This was obviously the correct answer rather than kill the mags as there was a better chance of restarting wth mixture if I found I needed a blip of power.

That over, we did a fly-past at Eastbach Farm strip in honour of a member who died in a recent microlight crash. Then onto another farm strip in the Forest of Dean which has a couple of short grass runways, far too short to safely land, but Phil was happy to pull the power and ask me to do a low approach and go-around on the 350m grass runway. I pulled a 'cloerleaf' turn and lined up on final. The altitude was good as I pulled on some flaps and got a nice glide approach angle and a good approach speed. At about 100', I carried out a go-around and climbed back to the west.

We headed back to Gloucester and I called over Cinderford after picking up the ATIS. Gloucester was very quiet and Phil wanted me to do a standard overhead join, so I asked for that. Back in the circuit, I was keen to make it a textbook approach and landing. The wind was veering a bit, generally down runway 27 though.

I flew a tigher base than usual to account for the 10-15kt wind. The approach was good until late final when I caught some chop and sink. I applied power to get the profile back and the had to quickly reduce it again as I came over the displaced threshold. I chopped the power and glided the roundout. Held off, and off, stall warner squealing, make it holler, pull back and back and touch - and stay touched, continuing to pull the stick until it was fully back. A bit of brake and yes, we make the first turnoff without a backtrack. We trundle in as I crane to see over the front (I can just about manage decent forward vision without having to weave).

Well, that;s the hour over as I put the plane away and go back to Cotswolds to do the paperwork with Phil.

A very nice flight and I particularly enjoyed the two PFL's, always good fun to see if you will get in. I just hope that if it does ever happen for real that I can remain as calm and do what I have been trained to do, I don't suppose you ever really know until it happens to you, I am of course blissfully happy never to actually find out!

Back to claggy old Blighty!

2010-03-20T16:40:00.005Z

As the RV6 is now back on-line after a protracted annual, I did my group rules flight with an instructor the weekend before last. I did want to do the full hour’s workout so that it would cover my rating renewal due in June, but due to mis-communication, the instructor thought this was just a check on my landings, so didn’t have the necessary time. So I have booked the full hour for the Easter weekend.

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!

The trials and tribulations of licences!

2010-03-18T18:09:00.001Z

A slim brown envelope arrived for me the other day. With it’s distinctive shape and Canadian government markings, I knew it had to be about my standard Transport Canada private pilot’s licence. Sure enough it was. Turns out that Transport Canada is going to reissue every pilots licence in a new ‘booklet format’, which will amongst other things include, wait for it, a photograph of the pilot!

It seems amazing to me that the JAA / CAA licence is nothing more than a pile of A5 laser printed pages folded in half to make an A6 booklet, many pages of it I might add, and of course without any photograph, so it is stated as only being valid with separate government issued photo id. The FAA licence is much better, but still not perfect. The FAA licence is a plastic credit card type licence, but still lacking the obvious, a photograph! Now it seems that Transport Canada is going to do the sensible thing of including a photograph, but doing it in a very old fashioned ‘passport’ type booklet arrangement. One day, someone is going to put it all together and join the 21st Century and put it all on a plastic credit card with a photo and a chip containing all the information needed – but clearly not just yet!

So, I read the form letter. I have been selected….. (oh goody) ……..yabedi yah……..fill in a simple form available for download from a web address……..(fine)………it will be free of charge (first bit of good news)……oh and it must contain a Canadian style passport photograph and be witnessed by the same category of people listed for a passport application – there’s the kicker!!! Of course that last bit is at my expense. Why won’t they accept a photograph without authentication and simply compare it to your existing passport photograph that the government already has (I have a Canadian passport), well that would be far to simple!

OK, this is going to be a pain and if I don’t do this, the licence gets cancelled in June. So, off to a professional photographer for a Canadian passport photograph (no of course it isn’t the same as a British one!), then get the photographer to stamp, sign and date the back of it. Then take that with the application form to someone on the ‘passport approved’ list of people that can vouch that it is a true likeness of me. You know, people like Doctor, Dentist, Judge, MP, Queen, George Clooney….. Actually, you can also get it signed by Flying Instructors……but of course only those accredited by Transport Canada. If I lived in Canada this would be a breeze, but as I live in the UK, a lot of hurdles.

Only one on that list that has known me for the required two years is the medical examiner that does my pilot exams. So now I need to make a special trip to see him with the application form, approved photo and he has to sign both with a prescribed form of words. Of course I must also pay him. Oh yes, then I send the whole lot to Canada and wait eight weeks. None of this is the end of the world and I do value my Canadian licence enough to go through these hoops, but after this, can you please leave me alone for five minutes? I am sick and fed up with government bureaucracy in all it’s forms, whatever the government!

Here’s a really crazy idea – why don’t flying licences work the same way as driving licences, where most countries recognise other countries licences and simply hand over the keys without further verification. Better still, how about one licence for all countries - me? No hesitation, use the FAA lock, stock and barrel! Yes, I know I'm dreaming!

Just having a rant really. I’ll wander off now and sink a beer or six in front of the TV and fantasise about my trips to Italy and Newfoundland in August!

Flying in the Caribbean

2010-03-08T17:07:00.002Z

What with the RV6 still ‘out’ (since end of December) for it’s annual (final tweaking to leg struts and spats etc.), I was looking forward to sneaking in a flight with an instructor while I was on a cruise ship holiday in the Caribbean.

I asked for advice on the ever reliable Flyer Forum, and several contributors pointed me either at Barbados Flying Club, or a chap named David Hart who rented out his own plane on Antigua. After discussions with the wife, she agreed that Antigua would be best.

I called David about six weeks before the holiday and he just asked that I call him ‘when I was there’. So I called him again once I started the cruise. He put it on his calendar and just said to call again the day before.

So the day before I got in touch again and made arrangements. We were to meet at the stairs near departures by the toilets at VC Bird International Airport in Antigua at 10:00 on 4th March. Well we met up about 15 minutes after the appointed time by the usual but somewhat imprecise ‘are you David Hart?’ Q&A method for anyone that looked likely. I didn’t actually ask a very scruffy Rasta-type character with a stained T-shirt and flowing dreadlocks smoking something that smelled very suspicious who was actually sitting on the stairs, all the time thinking to myself ‘nah – surely not!’, but as the clock ticked to 10:10 I was starting to wonder!

He had previously asked me to bring my licence and when I offered it to him, he looked at the cover and said that was fine. I was kind of expecting a pre-flight brief with maps etc. but he casually asked what I wanted to do. Well, Monserrat would have been nice, but in the end I asked to do a leisurely around Antigua tour, which he said would take just over an hour anyway.

Well, no briefing as we passed through departures security (yes we were scanned, but that was all as David is well known at the airport and simply said we were going for a local) and walked straight out the plane near the end of runway 25.

VC Bird Airport is the only airport on Antigua (although I have heard there is another airstrip, but I can’t seem to find it). It is pretty small, but the runway is big enough for large jets flying direct from the UK, the likes of BA, Virgin etc. There is one runway of 2700m in length aligned 07 / 25. The apron is pretty small and David explained that it was chaos on two or three set days of the week, this not being one of them, so it was pretty empty and very quiet when I was there.

David did the pre-flight checks as I did a quick visual check of the plane myself. It looked in very good shape. It has recently been repainted and seemed well maintained albeit with a fairly dated, but IFR-compliant instrument fit.

I put my wife in the back, while I loaded up followed by David in the right-hand seat. I used an old checklist I used to use on PA28’s while training to do the pre-start checks and asked David about any differences he may operate for such hot weather use. It was a balmy 30 degrees centigrade and we get hot very quickly! Apart from that, the weather was scattered cumulus that hangs above pretty much every island, although is was a bit hazy that day, with no distinct horizon out to sea (fairly typical of the channel actually), but otherwise, visibility was fine, just not perfect for photographs.

I was happy to agree that David should handle the radio as the local accents were a bit hard on me, while I would fly the plane and David would let me do what I wanted when I wanted. On start up, there was a bit of a hiccough as the brakes on the passenger side weren’t working at all, despite a shutdown, some fiddling and pumping of the handbrake, David’s brakes were still not working. I commented that mine were fine and demonstrated. He decided that it must be just the passenger side and opted to continue, I was happy since I was used to using the brakes very rarely on the RV anyway.

We taxied out to 07 to do the power checks while the windsock said there was a ‘perfect’ crosswind (pretty much 90 degrees to the runway) from right to left with what I guessed would be 20kts – oh goody!

We were cleared for take off. David advised that I use two stages of flap (not something I would normally do) but yeah, fine. I positioned on the runway and applied full power with a lot of into wind aileron. We picked up speed slowly (compared to the RV6) but normally for a PA28 and I rotated smoothly at 60 kt IAS. We climbed away as I tweaked the rudder and ailerons to maintain centreline. I cleaned up during the climb as usual and we levelled out at 1500’.

The request to ATC was for a clockwise tour of the island, so I duly did a right turn and ran parallel to the coast. Unfortunately, this aircraft does not have intercom connections for the back seat, so my wife was sat in the back seat with headsets on acting purely as ear defenders.

Initially, I found that I was losing altitude, in part because David runs his engine at a touch under 2400 rpm and in part me being subconsciously used to the much lower ‘picture’ I was used to flying straight and level in the RV6. I soon got over that as we started a bimble.

David was pointing out the geographic features and the houses of the various stars, including Silvio Buslesconi, Elton John, Eric Clapton – each was of course buzzed dutifully in turn, but no one was in!

The marina at English Harbour looked particularly interesting, as did the nearly ‘Nelson’s Dockyard’. Mental note to visit there after the flight.

David called for clearance when crossing the extended centreline of the runway, but there was no traffic so no problem. The flying was easy, but we did pick up some chop at various points due to the local effect of some of the hills. A few steep turns for better camera angle and ‘one handed’ photographs by me made for some fun if unconventional flying. I was amazed at the colours of the sea, with the various shallow sandy bottom bits, coral reefs, deep water etc. Fantastic turquoise colours that the photographs struggle to do justice to.

We then came to the deep water harbour for Antigua at St Johns. There were four cruise ships at anchor, including of course the one that I was on, so a couple of orbits were in order for more photographs.

We then called for clearance to pass the upwind end of the runway for the final bit of the bimble, which we did an orbit for as a passenger jet was taking off and climbing out. When we saw it was clear we proceeded.

I did a bit more of the island coast and said I was happy that we had seen everything. David called for a rejoin and we were given a right base join for runway 07 with the wind at something like 140/20 – nice! So of course I left it a bit late to turn a long-ish final and like a novice wound up to the left of the centreline, but I put that right, dropped the power, put two stages of flaps on and we were well high for the piano keys, but as we wanted to be at the other end, I was aiming further down the runway anyway. David chipped in that I should avoid the piano keys and the first third of the runway anyway due to a hill on the right at that end of the runway, which with this wind would give some pretty interesting chop and sink!

Even with my aiming point, I was still high, so pulled on the drag flaps and pretty much chopped the power altogether and did in effect a glide landing, with the nose well off to the right to allow for the crosswind.

In the flare I kicked her straight and put in quite a bit of into wind aileron to hold the runway heading and we touched in a ‘firm but fair’ landing, which in the conditions, I was pretty happy about. David seemed pretty happy too - at least I think he was as he managed to prise his hands away from his eyes at this stage and started breathing again (only kidding – no, really!).

We parked up and packed up. In the end it was 1.3 hours logged start-up to shutdown. David escorted us through an empty arrivals and we were waved through. We were saying our goodbyes when I reminded him that he probably wanted paying for the flight. It came out to $US 220 – not fabulously cheap, but certainly value for money as far as I was concerned. A great flight with wonderful scenery.

Annual blues

2010-02-01T18:21:00.002Z

Yes, it’s that time of year that the aircraft goes into it’s annual service, inspection and permit reissue. We are fortunate in the group to have a licenced aircraft engineer as one of the members, so he, with the help of other group members, carries out most of the work and charges his time at an ‘at cost’ (actually probably below that) rate.

Of course the ‘quality’ of the service is excellent (given that he will be flying it I suppose). The downside is of course that it is only in his spare time and at weekends, which can lead to protracted downtime. Basically, the plane will have been out of commission for probably 6 weeks. Not a huge problem especially as it happens over the winter, but I find that if I don’t fly for two or three weeks, I start getting pretty ‘itchy’ to get into the air. So desperate in fact that I consider full rental through my local club – the Robin is at least a bit more interesting than yer run-of-the-mill spamcans normally used for flight training.

When the plane does come back on-line, I will line up the club instructor and do my ‘one hour training’ required for JAA at the same time. At this rate, probably after my big vacation for the year starting on 20th February for two weeks. A cruise in the Caribbean. During which, I will try for a ‘sneaky’ flight with a contact I have made in Antigua, which is one of the island stops.

So plans for 2010? Well, get the JAA licence signed off for another two years. A quick flight in the Caribbean. A couple of the usual cross-channel forays, maybe trying for some destinations I haven’t visited yet (Brittany).

But the ‘big trip’ for 2010 is planned to be a flyout with the Flyer Forum to Tuscany, in Italy, with the wife in early June. We will do our own thing getting down there, probably stopping for sightseeing and meals out etc. at airfields en-route in France as we make our way down the Saone valley. Tentative plans for stops include Troyes, Beaune and maybe Cannes en-route to Lucca in Italy. We would then most likely ‘blast back’ quite quickly with just one overnight stop.

Hope you don't mind the photo Manuel, and I of course forgot to mention that Lyndon helps a huge amount with the annual servicing in a very cold hangar - thanks guys!

The joys of a local on a frosty day

2009-12-23T17:28:00.003Z

The pictures tell it all - very enjoyable flight just poling around the local area.

Local around the flooded local area

2009-12-05T17:09:00.000Z

I had booked the plane for the Sunday, but the forecast was horrific and Saturday looked a better option, so I switched to Saturday morning. Turns out that was a good idea.

The weather was OK, some lower clouds, but scattered and easy to get above. The wind was modest, probably 230/10, given that Gloucester was using 22, I was hardly worried. BUT, I had planned a quick landaway, but my main concern was avoid anywhere with grass parking bearing in mind the soaking we have had in the last few weeks, it wouldn’t be funny getting the RV stuck in the mud, so in the end I settled for a local, much to the disappointment of my passenger, Rob.

We carefully pulled the RV out of the hangar, with the RV wing under the wing of the Citation also parked in the hangar, a bit of a delicate job and one you certainly don’t want to get wrong!

Of course I needed fuel, so a quick stop at the pumps, the we were off from 22. The airport seemed pretty busy, maybe because this was one of the few decent VFR days we have had for a few weeks. I had no particular aim, so bumbled over to Bredon Hill. First mistake was that I forgot my camera! Lots of flooding pretty much everywhere. The over the clouds to Evesham and the Cotswold ridge. We followed that to Bishops Cleeve then along to Cheltenham and behind Gloucester the the big bends in the River Severn.

I was below the clouds now at about 1800’ and it looked gloomier towards the south west. There was also a lot of traffic in the area, so I headed west and climbed through a gap in the clouds to 4500’ around Ross on Wye and did a few steep turns for the hell of it. Headed back to Ledbury, picked up the ATIS and headed back on in to Gloucester.

I got the usual standard overhead join for 22 with right hand circuits. The circuit had one in, one on the deadside and me joining overhead. I passed crosswind as another aircraft was taking off underneath and staying in the circuit.

I was visual with the PA28 ahead and followed him, trying to keep my distance. I was sure tjhat was the plane that ATC were talking about until he extended well downwind and flew such a wide base leg that I was sure he was leaving the circuit and wasn’t the guy I was number 2 to. But he was, he had to be on two mile final at least! I was forced out wide to stay behind and pulled on full flap and crawled along behind him.

I thought the spacing was OK and felt sorry for the guy behind me. I was given a ‘continue approach’, he had landed, but was taking his time getting to the turnoff, but ATC were sensible and offered me a ‘landafter’ which I was happy to accept – hell, I could probably land, stop and take off again before I came close to him!

The landing was a good one this time. Nailed the approach speed and made the stall warner holler long and hard before we finally touched and stayed touched!

The PA28 in front of me was taxying very slowly (OK probably the ‘correct’ fast walking speed, but…), so I had to slow to stay well behind. I noticed it was that PA28 with the snazzy paint job, I think from Wycombe, the one with a BEA colour scheme on one side and a BOAC scheme on the other – where the hell is my camera when I need it!

We parked up, shut down and put the plane carefully away. A nice flight even if it was a local. Probably one more just before Christmas, then that is my lot for the year.

Local after foul weather!

2009-11-15T15:01:00.004Z

Since I got back from Texas, I have flown two locals in the RV6 to keep my hand in. What with the weather (high winds and rain) and personal commitments I have been having a pretty thin time of flying in the UK recently.

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!

Texas Flying Trip: Reprise

2009-10-22T18:41:00.004+01:00

Flying

BFR: San Antonio International to Fredericksburg and return
Solid IMC all the way with descents to minimums
2.9 Hours total as P U/T (2.0 IMC)

Leg 1: San Antonio International to Galveston
KSAT DCT VCT DCT PSX DCT KGLS
VFR on top and below scattered to broken cloud deck at 3500’
Flying along the scenic Gulf coast
2.4 Hours total

Leg 2: Galveston to Corpus Christi International
KGLS DCT CRP DCT KCRP
Flying in ‘Severe VFR’ along the scenic Gulf coast at 3000’
2.3 Hours total

Leg 3: Corpus Christi International to San Antonio International
KCRP DCT CRP DCT THX DCT KSAT
Again, ‘Severe VFR’ to the north west at 4500’
1.8 Hours total

Total costs:
BFR aircraft hire and instructor sign off: $240
Aircraft hire (wet) for all three legs: $850

Highlights
Refreshing IMC skills
Lunch in the airport diner at Fredericksburg
Playing with the clouds around the gulf coast
Flying along the scenic gulf coast
The un-crowded skies

Lowlights
Waiting 40 minutes for IFR departure clearance at Fredericksburg
Any time spent in the plane while not flying (you cook very quickly!)
Dan busting my camera
Putting on weight
….errrr…..

What I like about flying in the USA
1-800-WX-BRIEF
Flight Following
Relaxed radio manner
Fantastic service from FBO’s
Vast array of information and services available on the radio

What I don’t like about flying in the USA
….errrrr……

Corpus Christi to San Antonio

2009-10-22T18:40:00.008+01:00

The Signature FBO premises at Corpus Christi were excellent and spacious. There was a plush reception and front desk, a separate snack and free coffee area, toilets and a shower and a flight planning room with lots of table space, not to mention a few meeting rooms. I asked about their handling charges and they were all free with the fuel upload that I had to take anyway – wow!

So Dan tore off in the courtesy car in search of Burger King, while I got on with route planning in the planning room. This would have been considerably easier if it were not for two ‘military types’ chewing the fat very loudly and relating tales of derring-do. I think I made my point by theatrically putting one finger in my free ear and looking at them while try to talk to the wonderful 1-800-WX BRIEF – guys, there is a whole empty reception and coffee room for lounging around in, why pick here!

The plan was easy as it turned out:

KCRP DCT CRP DCT THX DCT KSAT

So a short hop to the Corpus Christi VOR, then north west to the THX VOR then nearly due north to San Antonio International. I finished my planning, sorted the bill (none as it went on the school fuel card) and got myself together for a bit of a think before Dan reappeared with two ‘Whoppers’ for our grumbling bellies with some tale of extreme navigation without so much as a Tom Tom. We demolished these in short order and as per Homeland Security, had to show both a photo proof of id and my pilot licence before I would be admitted airside.

The plane was full to the brim (that’s the way I like it if I can fit within weight and balance), so a quick check of fuel and oil and we mounted up. Then the usual procedure of calling Clearance to get our taxi and likely routing after take off. We trundled off to the hold for runway 17 quickly getting very sweaty again in the very high heat and humidity. The airport was pretty quiet and we were quickly given clearance for take off by the Tower after our power checks. It was a climbing left turnout onto direct track for CRP VOR as we were switched to the Departure frequency. I turned on track to THX VOR some 51 miles distant as we reached our VFR cruising altitude of 4500’ in what can only be described as ‘severe VFR’ conditions – no clouds and unlimited visibility!

I was receiving the effortless ‘flight following’ when I was warned of traffic at 12 o’clock and 500’ below. We never did see him (not even dead-eye-Dan), but he clearly saw us and confirmed ‘no conflict’ – phew!

Not much to say really, we trundled along chatting happily away. Past THX VOR we were transferred to San Antonio approach, then with about 30 miles to run they started to give us vector to steer while maintaining 4500’. I have not been vectored before while flying VFR (I have been vectored before for an ILS intercept in IMC of course). I have to say it was quite novel and liberating. Dan compared it to being in a Star Trek style ‘tractor beam’ – errr… well, yes, but only if you actually steer accurately the headings given, actually a flattering analogy I suppose!

He kept us at 4500’ despite an approaching cloud layer over San Antonio at exactly this altitude, but then the controller seemed aware of that and promised to drop our altitude shortly. We were being vectored over the west of the city centre and descended first to 3000’ then to 2500’ on the QNH (San Antonio is about 800’ above sea level). Over the city centre it occurred to me that this would be a very bad place to have engine failure as there was nowhere to go that would make our survival a likely outcome!

He then gave me a heading of 030 and told me to report overhead ---MUFFLED---, I didn’t quite understand the name and as I now had the airfield off on my right-hand side with large jets landing, I told him that I was unfamiliar with the reporting point and requested further vectors. Another voice seemed to have taken over the Tower frequency and he explained what they wanted me to do, basically now I was right downwind to the main runway, they were asking me to turn right 90 degrees at 2500’ so that I would fly directly overhead the tower at right angles to the two main parallel runways, then to turn left onto a left downwind leg for runway 12L – what an excellent chap, I now fully understood what they were doing and had a picture. Of course to a UK pilot, the idea of flying over a busy International airport’s main runway at right angles at 1700’ QFE is mind-boggling (I don’t know of any airports in the UK that would do this), but it is quite common in the USA and when you think about it, it is pretty much the safest place to be. There was a really cool moment when I was flying over the main 12R runway and a very colourful South West Airline 737 was taking off underneath us – of course I would have got a photo of the had it not been for old ‘Zoltan the Destroyer of Cameras’ in the right hand seat!

So over the airliner active of 12R, out to a decent downwind position for 12L then turn left onto left downwind. The route for the base was obvious, just follow the freeway. I heard the tower talking to an airliner who was shooting the final onto 12R at the same time as I was on base for 12L warning him about me. I turned at the right point onto final for 12L and was (as usual on this trip) a little high, so full flaps and down to idle. That took care of it and we crossed the threshold at the right speed for a good touchdown. Off the active to the GA side of the airport now on my left and switched to the Ground frequency. Basically it was an easy task to taxi back to the Wright Flyers ramp for shutdown and tie-down.

We got out of the aircraft as quickly as possible as we were sweating profusely in the bright sunshine and humid conditions. An easy final leg to a truncated tour, but well worth it nevertheless. The forecast CB’s and other nasties associated with a front had not materialised at San Antonio, but suffice to say that two hours later at our hotel, some nasty looking clouds came over and created some pretty high and gusting winds, but little else.

Galveston to Corpus Christi

2009-10-22T18:40:00.007+01:00

After an evening of cocktails and finger food at the pool bar at the San Luis in Galveston, the plan was to use this, the last planned day of my truncated flying trip to see the gulf coast then head back to San Antonio. The problem was that I didn’t have the 1-50,000 sectional for Brownsville, so I couldn’t go any further south than I had come the day before. Wright Flyers didn’t have a map and Galveston didn’t either. Except that the guy who drove us to the hotel yesterday heard me talking about this and said that he could probably get me one if I needed it. I confirmed that I did and he said ‘no problem’.

What I didn’t realise is that he drove to mainland to another supplier that afternoon specially to get me one – these guys amaze me!

So I now had a Brownsville sectional and could see the lay of the land. I checked the weather and the wonderful 1-800-WX BRIEF told me that a front was moving in faster than they thought to San Antonio and may well start to make its presence felt by late afternoon. So I decided to do a ‘slash and dash’ to an airfield along the coast just to say I had been there, then head to San Antonio – pretty much two sides of a triangle. The wind was about 180/15, so I would be beating into the wind in a Cessna that does, say 105kts. I wanted to try for Brownsville on the Mexican border, but decided instead to go to Corpus Christi International – great name for a town, so might be worth a look. My ‘route’ such as it was:

KGLS DCT CRP DCT KCRP (Coastwise)

I planned my route, got the NOTAM’s (none) and filed a flight plan. I took advantage of local knowledge and asked the guy at the FBO about the route and in particular a warning area that involved low-level military jet training. He said it wasn’t a particular problem as long as I had flight following I would be fine. The way he described it made is sound like a UK the Brize area, so I decided to go through the area. I got the plates for Corpus Christi International and it was BIG. Depending on the runway, navigating the taxiways could be interesting, so I vowed to ask for progressive taxi instructions if I was at all uncertain. I tried to plan the route, but it was far too simple really – follow the coast, then when you see the urban build-up around Corpus Christi, track direct to the CRP VOR then head south over the estuary to the airport.

I asked the lady at the FBO for the bill for the handling fee. I had already given them the fuel card I got from Wright Flyers, so that was taken care of. She looked puzzled and said they had taped a copy of the bill to the plane already. I looked confused and said that surely I had to pay for handling, like landing fees, handling, etc. She said that no, there was nothing to pay and that they were happy to have my custom in buying the fuel. Well there is the difference between the USA and the UK right there. I couldn’t let it rest at that, so I paid $20 to their Christmas drinks fund.

We wandered out onto the sweltering ramp in about 95 degrees and 95% humidity, but at least with a fair old breeze coming from the south. Dan cleared all the tie downs and checked the fuel and oil as I started the walkaround. The plane was fine and I loaded up, leaving the actual climbing in as late as I could coz we would cook! The place was again deserted of airside movements as I called the tower for taxi. We were given runway 17. I did the run up checks and was immediately cleared for take off. Another plane called for landing and was given clearance to land, but told that I was lining up. This seems to be common practice in the USA, to clear two planes to either land or one to take off and one to land at the same time – well not actually the same time, but you get the point. So I called both lining up and rolling just to give the landing pilot the idea where I was.

Up we went as I set a climbing turn onto a coastwise heading of about 150. We climbed to 3000’ and held steady there as I contacted Houston Center for flight following, which we got, set the squawk and settled down to admire the view. The weather was ‘Severe VFR’ – not a cloud in the sky, other than a few as you looked inland. Well, I would love to have loads of excellent pictures of the fantastic landforms along the coast, but my buddy fumbled my camera (the truly excellent Panasonic Lumix compact) last night after he took a picture and it hit the concrete right on the corner of the lens which distorted the telescoping rings of the lens such that it would no longer open – so hey, no more photos this trip – I know he feels bad about it, but hell, it was my favourite camera of all time, and it's not so much the camera as the photos we didn't take – still there is a replacement on the way. Dan – you gotta get your own camera buddy (think ruggedised military model)!

We were taking a bit of a beating and the headwind was slowing our groundspeed down to 80kts, but no hurry in particular. We enjoyed the view as the landmarks came and went. A disused airfield here, an in use one there, a huge disused military airfield etc.

As I reached the turn point to head inland a bit, we were handed over to Corpus Christi Approach. They warned us of a T38 military trainer some five miles from us at 11 o’clock but at 2500’. I think he must have been in contact with said trainer as he suggested a new heading (which we quickly and eagerly accepted!) which would keep us away from the manoeuvring jet! We beat out way towards the CRP VOR over some very, very colourful tracts of water that look alternately like a dreadful biological experiment gone-wrong and the salt pans of Mediterranean France (no photos as no camera).

Once over CRP I headed directly for the airfield and we spotted it pretty quickly. I called airfield in sight and was transferred from Approach to Tower. They gave me an immediate ‘clear to land’ on runway 17, which I was pretty much on very extended final for already. I continued and start a cruise descent as I didn’t want to hang around on final for the active at an international airport for too long, despite the fact that there were evident not very busy.

Well I misjudged it a little and left myself high on final, so I dropped full flap and gave it a gentle side-slip. This did the trick as we cruised over the piano keys at 65kts. Flare, hold off and off and down we touch. Nice one. I have no idea where I should go and as if reading my thought they ask ‘where would you like to go’ I respond ‘unfamiliar with airport, can you suggest an FBO?’. I get ‘uhh yeah, probably Signature, whaddaya think?’. Well, I had heard of them from others who have flown in the USA, they are a GA flight handling service with bases at many US airport, so I said that would be fine and asked for progressive taxi instructions.

‘Yeah sure, turn left up ahead then hang a right towards the mess of buildings ahead’. OK, fine with that, then I got ‘Yah see that hangar up ahead with the funky roof?’ looking, oh yeah, so I reply in mock formal aviation parlance ‘Zero Sierra Alpha: affirm visual with funky roof’, ‘well, that’s signature, head on over there – now you have a great day!’ – America – God I love this place!

So I mosey on over to the funky rook and park up where it looks like I should, outside a building marked ‘Signature’. A refueller stops what he is doing and marshalls me in. I shut down and he immediately asks ‘How y’all doin fer gas?’ so I gave him the ‘top it off there buddy’ response with a jerk of my thumb toward said aircraft which appears to mean ‘full tanks both side if you would be so kind my man’ he seemed satisfied with my response and started to refuel pretty much as we headed for Signature!

More air-conditioned bliss, but this time, a much busier FBO, with several pilots in various states of preparedness and various garbs from T-shirt and shorts (me) to full pressed trousers, peaked cap and a full set of ‘wanker bars’ (warranted though as he seemed to be a commercial pilot flying a Citation).

Dan looked haggard and emaciated and immediately asked about food. The bad news was vending machines only, but hey, there was a Burger King on the highway. He asked how far to walk ‘Oh you kaint waaalk, but herezuh kees fer du car, yall can drive – sonly faave minuts’ (OK I’m exaggerating a bit, but not much!). Dan set about the foraging while I set about planning for the final leg back to San Antonio.

San Antonio to Galveston

2009-10-22T18:39:00.004+01:00

Of course the front didn’t clear did it!? So on our planned departure date of Tuesday (we had the plane booked for three days of touring) I checked the weather, looked out of the window and easily decided it was a no-go. It was raining with a cloudbase that you simply couldn’t see as it was that indistinct and low – that, coupled with a forecast of embedded CB’s, meant that the decision not to fly was a no-brainer. I called Wright Flyers and advised them that as I was VFR touring, I would cancel the plane for today, but would retain my booking for the following two days hoping that the weather would improve (as it was forecast to do). So instead, that day, we drove to Austin to see the city instead.

Wednesday morning dawned much brighter with some clear bits in Austin as the cloud broke and lifted. The forecast was good, so we headed back the 60 or so miles to San Antonio. When we got to Wright Flyers, I got a blank look from the lady on reception and she said that my booking for all the three days had been cancelled. I said that I specifically spoke to the lady on duty yesterday and that she assured me that she was only cancelling one day. Then of course the ‘do you remember who you spoke to’ bit – I thought ‘Oh God, here we go’. Then one of the Wright Flyers senior guys that I met yesterday came up and asked me if everything was OK. I explained the situation and he simply smiled and said ‘Hey, no problems, we can fix this’. I overheard him say to the lady on reception ‘Make it happen’ as she set about clearing the plane of bookings. Screw-ups do happen, but it is how they are dealt with that makes the difference and I have to say Wright Flyers did very well in that regard – thanks guys!

While she was clearing the plane, I set about deciding where we could go bearing in mind the weather and route planning. The weather was worse further north, so back to Plan A and head east to the gulf coast and Galveston, which seems to be a nice island which also has an aircraft museum on-airport. I decided on a route that would avoid the Houston Class B airspace and so would swing a little south and allow us to fly up the interesting looking coast and inter coastal waterways, which I was told was pretty scenic. So my route was:

KSAT DCT VCT DCT PSX DCT KGLS

I estimated it would be some 200 nautical miles and take about 2:20 hours. Of course I would make life easy on myself and hop from VOR to VOR, easy to plot on the GPS and easy to follow on the VOR in the plane as a check and if the GPS reception failed. I had brought my old hand-held Garmin GPS Pilot 3, with it’s tiny screen, but it is easy to use. Of course I didn’t have the US database, so had to hand-crank the airports and VOR locations, so careful and easy does it, don’t want to get a wrong lat/long! I got a full weather brief, NOTAM’s and filed a flight plan through the absolutely excellent 1-800-WX BRIEF phone service – WHAT A FANTASTIC SERVICE THIS IS! This, ‘Flight Following’ and fantastic and usually free handling from many FBO’s make flying in the USA a real joy (not to mention the scenery).

I had to complete a risk assessment sheet and a worksheet including weight and balance so that they could formally sign me out in the plane – very thorough of them. This I did as they escorted me out to the apron (I had no US FAA Id card, so an escort is mandatory now with the Homeland Security restrictions, especially as this was an international airport). The cloud was breaking nicely, with the cloudbase probably at about 2500’ and the tops at 4000’. Boy was it HOT though! The temperature was about 90 degrees and the humidity at least 95% - fairly normal for Texas I am told! I had the plane filled to the brim, which would take the overall weight nicely up to MAUW with myself and Dan (neither of us are particularly small or slight guys). I positioned everything and put the water in the ubiquitous cup holders then waited a few minutes for my flight plan departure time. We climbed in and closed the doors and opened the windows, but even so, we started to bake!

I called ‘Clearance’ as required and got taxi instructions for 12L as expected. I stayed with them until I completed the power checks and was ready to depart when they handed me off to the Tower. Mercifully, they quickly gave me a ‘clear for take-off’ as we were really sweating by now – I would not even like to think what an RV6 with it’s bubble canopy would be like over here! I powered up and took off. The tower started to vector me in the climb, then handed me over to ‘Departures’. I asked for and got the wonderfully ‘Flight Following’ service. For anyone who hasn’t flown in the UK, this is the sort of service you get from, say Farnborough Radar where they give you a squawk and provide traffic information when they can, but the real bonus is that they will automatically hand you over en-route, so all you have to do is change to the frequency they tell you, contact the new ‘Center’ giving them your callsign and that’s it! Often you keep the same squawk – wonderful!

I climbed to 2000’ as that was all I was going to get for now. I was tempted to climb up through the broken cloud as the tops were only at probably 3500’ (which is the altitude I wanted as in the USA when flying VFR, you should fly at ‘odd plus 500’ going east and ‘even plus 500’ going west), but I decided to hold off for now as I didn’t want to get ‘stuck’ on-top and shoot an unfamiliar approach. However, as we approached Victoria, the cloud broke even more and started to lift. So I climbed to 2500’ then decided to climb on-top, which I got to at 3500’. By now the clouds were starting to spread out even more and became ‘scattered’.

Flying overhead Victoria was a strange sensation. We were above their airspace so they weren’t worried about us, but what a huge airfield! We could see a Citation doing circuits, but that was about all. If someone had told me that was an international airport, I would have believed them!

Past the Victoria VOR, we set course for the PSX VOR which would take us to within sight of the coast. As we closed in on this, the clouds got thicker and went back to broken and got deeper, so I could either climb or go back underneath. I chose to go back down and was clear at 2500’. But then as we approached the coast, the base dropped even more and forced us down to 1800’, but I could see that over the actual coast is was ‘Sky Clear’ as is often the case, so I was hardly concerned. I avoided a prohibited area that stated it was for a static line holding a balloon up to 15000’ (yes – fifteen thousand feet), what kind of balloon was that!!!

I was called by Houston Center who were providing me with flight following asking what I was doing on altitude. I said I was dodging a few clouds to stay VFR, whereupon they said with poor radar coverage at the altitude I was on my own and should squawk 1200 – goodbye! No problem, not far to run, so I changed to listening watch on Galveston ASOS (automated weather broadcast). But all it said over and over again was ‘This is Galveston ASOS’. So I guess it wasn’t working properly, so I switched to Galveston Tower and listened in.

We hit the coast, which is not so much a coast as a mess of swamps, winding and tidal inter-coastal waterways and long, thin islands fronting the Gulf of Mexico. All of which made for some really great land and sea-scapes. We were completely clear of cloud, but as we didn’t have that far to run and were enjoying the view of the sea-scapes, I stayed at 2000’. The coast was devoid of any evidence of human habitation. This started to change as we got nearer to Galveston with the odd road, then some obviously planned developments with or without their own jetty onto a waterway.

Once onto the very long (maybe 30 miles long) but thin (maybe 3 miles wide) Galveston Island, there were far more and some very classy residential developments. With 30 miles to run, I contacted Galveston tower for airfield information and joining. They were using runway 17 with right hand circuits and reporting the winds as 180 / 10-15. I was to join on the downwind leg. They were very quiet and I only heard two other aircraft on frequency as we approached, one helicopter and some sort of navy aircraft.

We spotted the airfield fairly easily with about 8 miles to run. The biggest of the runways has obviously recently been resurfaced in a very black tarmac, which showed up really well compared with the other runway and taxiways all in concrete the same colour as the sand. I joined into an empty pattern and was immediately cleared to land. We went out wide into the water between the mainland and the island and over the main bridge to the island. I settled on a good looking approach to runway 17. Flaps down and speed under control at 70kts with the target of 65 over the fence. This I did and flared nicely. Bit of a stall warning as we touched and I dealt with what felt like gusty conditions. We turned off and easily taxied to the ramp as the taxiways were not complex. I was about to park up when a guy driving a golf buggy and wearing shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals marshalled us to a spot with tie downs – what a nice fellah!

We shutdown as quickly as we could and popped the doors and stumbled out, sweating profusely – all in the space of five minutes from touching down – damn it’s hot!

Well, it turns out that the airfield was badly flooded during Hurricane Ike in September 2008 which completely gutted the terminal and the aircraft museum. So the Galveston FBO were in some temporary huts. We were ushered in to air-conditioned bliss. Well, the FBO and the people here could not have been more friendly or helpful. They dished out bottled water, asked us what we wanted in fuel and within 5 minutes they were refuelling. They booked a hotel for us and later drove us both out there. This really is the best part of flying in the USA – wonderful!

But first we went to the Lone Star aircraft museum. This is on the edge of the airfield, but you have to go out of the gate to get there. We got ferried over in the golf cart of course. For a few dollars entrance fee, we saw the planes. The unique thing about them is that virtually every single one is in flying condition and is regularly flown giving people warbird experiences. The B17 was positively pristine as was the Corsair. There is a Liberator undergoing complete refurbishment. What a great museum, seeing aircraft that still fly. I couldn’t resist as bright aircraft themed Hawaiian shirt though.

A nice flight and well worth the effort. Lovely gulf coast scenery and a great airport.

Biannual Flight Review

2009-10-22T18:35:00.002+01:00

This was a ‘buddy roadtrip’ holiday to see my friend, Dan. We do these about twice a year for a week at a time to catch up and do stuff. I planned to visit San Antonio in Texas as my brother-in-law’s brother lives there. We met at the wedding and he is also a pilot and an FAA instructor who owns his own aircraft and rents it out through a local flying school. He made the mistake of inviting me out there for some flying so of course I took him up on it for this roadtrip.

My FAA BFR (Biannual Flight Review) was due in January 2010 anyway, so I decided to combine the checkride that the school would want anyway with a BFR. Martin is technically retired (from the USAF) but now works full time as a flight instructor at another school, so my original Monday date for a BFR was brought forward to Sunday, the day after I arrived in Texas from the UK. I knew I would be a bit ‘jet-lagged’ but I find it easier to cope with flying west than east, so thought I would be fine after a nights sleep.

Well, I was fine, but the weather wasn’t! I found it hard to believe that there could be anywhere on Earth that had lower cloudbases or crappier weather than the UK, but here it was! It was warm and humid, with very little wind and a cold front stalled right over Texas running west to east. There wasn’t so much a cloudbase, as there was visibility getting worse from about 2 miles on the ground to 1 mile at 200’ then into the soup at probably 600’ AGL. Martin asked how current I was on instruments. Well, I was IMC rated, but I let that lapse last year as I only fly a VFR capable aircraft, so I hadn’t flown on instruments for three years or so. I was happy that I still knew how but thought I would be a bit ‘rusty’. So my BFR was to be an IMC flight from San Antonio International to Fredericksburg to land and back again.

I had already done MY FAR revision on the flight over, so this was the flying bit.

Martin showed me around his plane. It is a ‘round dials’ Cessna 172S dating from about 2002 – so pretty recent and in good condition, despite it’s heavy use by a flying school. It was pretty straightforward.

Martin filed a flight plan for IFR via a website and we saddled up. As San Antonio is a full international airport, it has more frequencies than you can shake a stick at. We started with ‘Clearance’ from whom we got taxi clearance, then onto ‘Ground’ who controlled ground movements. We did the run up checks and noticed that the Attitude Indicator was looking a bit wonky and lazy – not good as this is the ‘master instrument’ for IMC flying and only an idiot would fly into real IMC without it (yes, you CAN use ‘partial panel’ and we all train for it, but you really don’t want to have to do it for real unless you have to). After a few turns on the ground and revving the engine, the AI seemed fine, so we decided to proceed.

Martin handled the take off with me flying in the right seat on the way out and we would swap on the way back. Once at the top of climb at 5000’, Martin handed over to me for the relatively simple task of straight and level in IMC. I have to say that it all came back to me very quickly. Trim, trim and trim again to get it perfect, then hold the yoke lightly and get the scan going. I was managing to hold heading and height pretty well though I say it myself, mind you I did notice that I didn’t have much mental capacity for anything else, I guess that is what really being current in IMC will give you – the spare capacity to be able to chew gum at the same time (not to mention reading approach plates etc.!).

We were going to shoot the GPS approach into Fredericksburg – another first as I haven’t flown a GPS approach yet. They are widespread in the USA, but rare in the UK. Well, I managed that being talked through by Martin and we descended to minimums – I could see out of the corner of my eye the cloud breaking with dark patches below, we held at minimum for probably another 15 seconds then just broke clear to be rewarded by the runway in front of us with probably 700’ of height left to lose before the threshold! I love it when this stuff works! Martin took this landing as he had reservations about me doing my first landing from the right-hand seat in a strange aircraft after having flown in IMC – probably pretty wise!

We landed and taxied in to a near deserted apron and shut down. We were only there for a ‘hundred dollar hamburger’, so the delights of Frederickburg (which is I am told a nice town with a museum devoted to Admiral Nimitz) would have to wait. But what a great airfield! There is a 1940’s style American Diner, complete with chrome stools and booths and the food was pretty good too – the vanilla shake was to die for! Then we walked next door to look at the ‘Hangar Hotel’.

For $99 a night you can stay in this hotel designed to look like a 1940’s USAF officers club, again, what a great place, definitely one to take the wife to to redeem her low opinion of private aviation! I strongly recommend Gillespie County / Fredericksburg airfield (T82) as an overnight destination.

After lunch, we saddled up again as Martin filed for IFR back to another airfield near San Antonio for a few low level circuits, but there was a major SNAFU. As we taxied out, another plane arrived, landed, shut down and the pilots wandered off, but they didn’t close their flight plan. So we couldn’t get clearance to take-off as the system was showing someone on the instrument approach (the guy that had landed). This was compounded by the fact that there was another plane stuck in the hold awaiting clearance to shoot the instrument approach. Well, cut a long story short, we sat at the hold for take off with the engine running for literally 40 minutes while Martin tried again and again over the phone to get someone to clear us for departure.

We eventually got away, but time was wearing on so we changed the plan once airborne for a direct back to San Antonio International via the ILS. I flew again on instruments while we were vectored in, then past while approach landed ‘heavy metal’ instead of us. As the cloudbase was so low, we couldn’t use the shorter GA runway (12L) so had to use the main runway, 12R. Eventually we were vectored back and Martin shot the approach itself. Again we popped out at about 600’ AGL as I took control from the left-hand seat for the landing. The landing was OK, if a bit fast, so I had to flare off the excess speed, but in doing so, allowed the crosswind to push me slightly off centreline, not a drama, but a bit amateur of me.

Still, Martin was happy enough to sign me off for my BFR and for renting the aircraft. Now all I had to do was hope that this stalled front would clear for our planned departure date of Tuesday, two days away.

Kemble

2009-09-26T18:03:00.005+01:00

I had a busy weekend coming up, but wanted a flight to keep my hand in with the RV, so I booked it for two hours on Saturday morning. I was planning a local, but then I thought why not do a brief landaway to a very nearby airfield instead, which I could still manage within two elapsed hours – so a monumental endurance flight from Gloucester to Kemble and back it was!

I asked my daughter’s boyfriend if he wanted to be ‘self-loading freight’ and he did. This would be his first trip with me that wasn’t a local (shame on me!).

I turned up early and checked the plane out. Low on fuel again, so a trip to the pumps would be in order. I man-handled it single handed out of the hangar and parked it up outside. One of the Citation jets was parked outside and blocking my way out, but they don’t leave them out for long so I figured he would be away soon.

After a trip to the ablutions, the jet still wasn’t moving, so a quick trip to the pumps before my passenger turned up was looking doubtful. I was parked a suitable distance away and to one side from the likely jet blast, but I wanted to be by my plane just in case. The pilot of the jet turned up and indicated he would be gone in five minutes. I waited while he went through his pre-flight checks just to make sure that as he turned at the end of the Cotswold ramp, that his jet blast didn’t bounce the RV around. I needn’t have worried, as although the jet blast was making the skin of the hangar door ripple like paper and making me smell like a baggage handler at Heathrow, it had no effect on the RV.

Rob turned up on time as usual (well, he is German!), grabbed my hi-vis vest and wandered over to the pumps where I would meet him. I dropped 30 litres into each side by which time a queue was starting to form at the pumps. I was at the front and the plane behind me was still fuelling, so I figured I had time to jump in, start up and taxi clear before the guy behind me was ready to do likewise. I was about one minute away from startup when the chap behind turned up at my 10 o’clock and indicated that he could pull me forward. Rather than pop the canopy and have a shouted conversation, I decided to accept his help and indicated for him to hold there, I cut the master switch, checked the magneto’s then indicate to him the all clear – he could touch the prop as it wasn’t ‘live’.

Once clear, I started up and taxied the enormous distance to A2 (15 metres) and completed power checks. We lined up and I was away for a left turnout from runway 27. We climbed to altitude quickly as I was crossing the ridge and calling for a frequency change to Kemble Information – although a short trip, it would be a busy one as you barely have time to climb to altitude before you are thinking of calling Kemble for airfield information.

I changed frequency and called Kemble. Runway 26 was in use in calm wind conditions. I spotted Kemble and started to position myself for a standard overhead join. Yep, there’s the main runway and the disused second runway at the appropriate angle. Yep, on the deadside already with about 3 miles to run, but I would plan to orbit the overhead to descend on the deadside. Hmmmm….. something odd about it…… Where are the big jets being scrapped? Where are the numerous blister hangars? Can’t see the runway numbers, they used to be very big, white and clear. Can’t see the dark black ‘high friction’ centre section on the main runway. Looks like gliders down there – GLIDERS! Arrgghhhh!!!! Idiot!!!! That’s bloody Aston Down! Well at least I hadn’t actually reached the overhead, so I could ‘pretend’ to anyone watching on the ground that I was merely taking a look. What a schoolboy error – but I consoled myself with the true story that some CAA inspectors had actually landed there thinking it was Kemble!

Of course I then spotted Kemble and routed for an overhead join there. I cut inside Kemble village on base / final (as per noise abatement) and settled on a very nice final. There was a plane just landed in front and one not far behind. It was clear from where the guy in front landed that he wasn’t going to make the turnoff before I landed so I called a ‘go around’.

Next approach was much clearer and I resolved to try not to land on the numbers to avoid a long trundle to the turnoff. I landed long, but of course not long enough, so I still had a fair old trundle to the turnoff.

I taxied onto the grass tower apron and was instructed to park beside the ‘tailwind’. OK, I know a few aircraft, but I didn’t know what a ‘tailwind’ was. So I called ‘unfamiliar with tailwind’. The guy in to tower helpfully said ‘it’s the black and green jobbie by the fence’. What a good description, but if he added ‘…..and it looks like a tent’ the description would have been perfect!

I shut down as we scrambled out. First call, pay the landing fee. So I wandered over to the tower and went into the door first left and asked to pay the fee (I always used to pay it here). They pointed out that this was the Ultimate High and that I should pay the fee upstairs – oh yeah, that would explain the logos everywhere! Doing well so far today!

As I was paying the fee upstairs, the guy on duty had a call from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – could they do a flyby of Kemble in 10 minutes or so? I mouthed to him to ‘SAY YES!’, which he did. Great, lets pay the fee and standby outside the AV* for the flypast.

We grabbed a latte and slice of cake from the still very nice and posh AV8, although they still seemed to have plumbing problems in the toilets (but then they always have had).

Well, we waited and waited and waited for the BBMF. The Ultimate High treated us to so aerobatics and a couple of ‘run and break’ joins. A BAE125 four-engined high-wing commuter jet joined and landed. No sign of the BBMF, so we wandered over to see some of the jets on static display, a Canberra, Buccaneer and some flying Hunters outside Delta Jets.

Still no BBMF and I was running out of time, so back to the plane and mount up. We had the long trundle to A1 for 26 where there was now a queue and loads of planes wanting to land. I completed power checks and noticed a Robin in front of me in the queue, but on one side still doing checks. I was ready for departure and he clearly wasn’t, so I taxied in front to the hold. Then he called ‘Ready for departure (cheeky as he wasn’t even near the hold)’, so I motioned to him to go around behind me to pull up to the hold in front of me and to my right while I pulled out of his way. My courtesy was acknowledged by a stoney stare as he moved imperiously off – well, it takes all sorts I guess!

Kemble Info lined us both up one behind the other on the runway as we took off in stream – very efficiently handled I thought.

I set track for Gloucester and changed frequency quickly to pick up the ATIS. The flight back was brief and busy. Standard overhead join for 27, then Gloucester seemed to get something stuck on their radio as it seemed to be on constant transmit, but with the controller sounding like he was talking from the other side of the room. I continued to give normal calls and the problem sorted itself out.

I was behind a Cessna and tried hard not to gain on him, but he made it hard by flying such a wide circuit – another ‘bomber’ circuit! I managed to keep a decent distance such that he was clear of the runway by the time I was on short final and cleared to land.

I was keen to be stopped by the intersection so as not to inconvenience the person behind me. Got the speed under control and flared and held off and off and off, then we touched. Nice one. Let it run then a dab of brakes and we were stopped in nil wind by the intersection, pleased with that!

To be fair, the Cessna wasn’t from a local school as I had thought, as he clearly didn’t know where to go and needed progressive taxi instructions. I know what it is like at a strange airfield, so I eased well back from him and felt a wave of sympathy.

We eventually parked up and shut down.

Well, that made for an interesting and busy trip, good fun though! An airfield recognition exercise, a go around, radio problems with the tower, a learner driver in front stopping all the time – very eventful!

Lydd to Southend and Home

2009-09-12T18:06:00.003+01:00

Mindful of the comments on the notes on AIS that Manston was STRICTLY PPR through TG Aviation, I called them first and gained my prior permission. So next stop Manston. TG Aviation did warn me about the crosswind from the north, but didn’t give me any values. I said I would give it a go.

The wind was still a bit fearsome as I started up the RV at Lydd, given as 060/17, which with the runway in use of 02, would make for a fun take-off. There were four RAF trainer Grob aircraft all doing power checks in unison in front of me, so I held off for a bit until they wandered off for take-off.

Power checks complete, Lydd Tower asked if I was OK to depart from the intersection – let’s think, that leave a mere 1000m or so of runway – ummm – yeah, should be able to squeak the RV out in that distance! (But nice of them to ask).

Ran through the wind and my crossed controls in my head, lined up, power up and rolling. Tail up and still OK on the runway, then the plane started to get ‘light’ on it’s feet and I felt it being pushed, countered and corrected, then time to ease off and up we went.

I asked for an orbit of the airfield so I could take a few photos of the airfield from various angles and Lydd were happy to comply. I got my photos, then headed off coastwise in search of Folkestone and the Battle of Britain memorial, on the cliffs just outside Folkestone to the north east.

I said goodbye to Lydd at Folkestone and changed to Manston Approach. I spotted the Battle of Britain memorial very easily.

It is in the form of a large three bladed propellor with a statue of an airman sat on the spinner in the middle, obviously designed to be viewed from the air, and what better way of seeing it! I did a couple of orbits at about 1500’. There didn’t seem to be many people there and I hope I didn’t disturb those who were there – but I am sure every pilot wants to pay his respects in kind. For no particular reason, and I know it sounds cheesy, I waggled my wings in salute to the memorial and headed along the coast to Manston.

I picked up the ATIS and it wasn’t good news. Runway 10 in use and the wind was given as 020/17 – a full 17 kt crosswind! The ATIS is of course recorded and may be up to one hour out of date. But if they gave the same wind, was I going to try for a landing? I thought about this, emboldened by my successful landing at Lydd. Then I thought – no, I won’t risk it, not worth it. I don’t HAVE to and this is supposed to be fun, not palm-sweating.

I called Manston Approach on their new frequency (always worth checking NOTAMs). I explained that I had the ATIS (they are VERY keen on you getting this first apparently) and was inbound to land and that I did have PPR, but wanted a spot windcheck first. He confirmed the bad news and it was unchanged. I said I was kind of hoping for better news and that I wasn’t going to try landing my RV6 taildragger in such a wind – maybe next time. He was fine about this as I asked if I could route along the coast then set course for Southend.

I was asked to report at various VRP’s, including Deal. Due to some scattered cloud, I was down to 2000’. I spotted Manston easily – it’s HUGE! I could probably have landed sideways on the 61m runway with that crosswind! I rounded the headland at Margate then at about Herne Bay, set track direct to Southend and across the Thames estuary.

I noted huge sandbars in the estuary – well if the engine quits, that’s where I’ll head! There was a huge offshore windfarm in the estuary – a sign of the times. About halfway across, I said goodbye to Manston and changed to Southend Radar, picking up the ATIS first.

They asked me to continue and report airfield in sight. I knew where it was of course from the map and the GPS and I could see where it should be, but given that I was approaching at right angles to the only runway, I couldn’t seem to spot it. Then at 5 miles, I definitely got it. It was what I had been looking at. I called visual and was given a downwind join for runway 06 with right-hand circuits, the wind was given as 060/09 – nice, no crosswind!

I turned left to get to the downwind and noted that the circuit took you over the town, with nowhere to go if the engine quit, so I stayed reasonably close. The circuit seemed quiet and I was given number one for final while I was on base. I wasn’t frantic about putting it down on the numbers as it was a fair way to the Taxiway Bravo and the GA parking area. I did a nice landing and controlled the roll out, again with no use of brakes. As expected, I was directed to turn off onto taxiway Bravo and park with the other GA aircraft between some BAE125’s and the tower.

I parked up and shutdown as I was again starting to cook under the bubble canopy in the bright sunshine. I gratefully popped the canopy, yes it was breezy, but nowhere near as bad as Lydd. I donned my high-vis jacket (much beloved of these ‘proper’ airports) as I looked around for the reporting point.

The reporting point was obvious as it had the biggest yellow square and black ‘C’ I have ever seen! This took me into the ‘Executive handling facility’. Very nice it was, with over-stuffed black leather chairs and a uniformed chap just waiting to take my landing fee. At £24.15 for a tiny RV6, I can now understand his enthusiasm – at that rate, it wouldn’t take long to re-float the economy of Zimbabwe! Ouch!

I asked after a café and was directed to turn right into the corridor. This took me into the commercial passenger terminal of the airport as Southend are trying very hard to become a ‘proper’ airport – and by the looks of the crowded passenger terminal, were succeeding!

I treated myself to a Panini and a latte and watched the world go by for a bit. I fancied a few hours at home in daylight, so didn’t linger and made my way back to the plane. The happy chappy in the executive terminal (by now planning his retirement on the strength of my £24.15) buzzed me out of the security doors as I walked back to the plane and gave it a quick check – just the usual, oil, fuel, prop still attached etc.

I climbed in and asked for engine start. I was given this and taxi instructions. As expected, this was along taxiway Charlie to Charlie 1 for 06. I did my power checks then sat there while two in front of me departed, then again for arriving aircraft. I was starting to cook as the sun beat down and I was eventually given clearance. I was up and away as soon as decently possible to get some airflow in the blowers!

I climbed away with a right turn departure which gave me a good opportunity to take some photos of the airfield. I set course for home at Gloucester via LAM and BNN – the dreaded ‘north London low-level route – constrained by Category A London airspace to the south and overhead from 2500’ and to the north by jealously guarded Category D airspace of Luton and Stansted – creating a 10-20nm wide corridor with an absolute altitude constraint of 2500’ and I hate it!

I climbed to 2300’, turned on most of my lights, got my eyes out on stalks and talked to the new Farnboro Radar, who gave me a specific squawk. It seemed quiet enough and I didn’t spot anyone, then came the dreaded call from Farnboro Radar – ‘multiple contacts in your 12 o’clock, no height, manoeuvring ‘. Well I spotted them as they were in the circuit at Stapleford and well below me, so that one was easy.

Then my personal favourite ‘Opposite direction traffic at 12 o’clock, 2 miles’ and either ‘no height information’ (bastard – use your bloody Mode C!) or in one case ‘indicating 2200’ (here’s me at 2300’, so waaaayyyy too close for comfort of worse comes to worse.

The only one I saw was a single engine high wing aircraft that passed to my left about half a mile away. I spotted him when he was at about 11 o’clock and waggled my wings to indicate that I had seen him.

I was then past BNN and coming up on the town of Thame when I knew I was clear of the 2500’ altitude constraint, so I announced my intention to climb to 3300’. I felt a lot better up there I can tell you. I noticed that I had been gripping the stick fairly tightly and wiped some seat from my hands – the opening scene from Top Gun sprang to mind where Goose said ‘take it easy Mav, I don’t like this sh*t’ as he flew a head to head with the enemy MIG’s – can’t think why!

I called Brize and asked for a zone transit so I could avoid various airfields and glider sites strung out across my path like a series of forts in the Maginot line. Brize were very helpful and gave me a transit at 3800’ with various warnings about gliding sites and the like.

I picked up the Gloucester ATIS who were giving minimal wind and runway 09 in use. I said goodbye to Brize and switched to Gloucester on a combined frequency of 128.55. I got a standard overhead join for 09 with three joining from different directions at about the same time – oh joy! I seemed to be ahead, so to make sure I stayed that way, I kept my approach speed up. Sure enough I made it first and was well into the deadside descent, when the next to join just reached the overhead and spotted me, so in the end we were all well spaced.

My circuit was good and I was cleared to land. I tried hard to land long on 09 as the turnoff is right at the end and I didn’t want to make anyone wait of go around behind me. Having said that, it is hard as you have a serious argument with your subconscious on final, with your own internal ‘autopilot’ telling you to land on the numbers, but your conscious mind aiming halfway down the runway with the two having a running battle all the way down on final.

I did land long, but not as long as I would have liked and had a reasonable ‘trundle’ along the active runway to the turnoff. Gloucester gave the aircraft behind me a ‘land after’ which they seemed to accept (I would have). I was just turning off the runway but still shy of the hold when the aircraft behind queried why they hadn’t been cleared to land. Gloucester explained that they had been given a ‘land after’ and that that was clearance if they accepted it – bottom line is that they didn’t seem to understand what a ‘land after’ was – worrying!

Down and safe, I shut down and popped the canopy as quickly as decently possible. The time, now 15:30, so not bad timing.

A good trip, first down to the south coast, then along the Kent coast to Essex, then along north of London headed west back to Gloucester. Took in two ‘new’ airfields for me and chickened out of the planned third – I’ll get Manston one day! Very pleasant flight and enjoyed fooling around by myself.

I’ll see if I can’t get another flight in picking up more ‘new’ airfields before my flying holiday in Texas in mid-October – fingers crossed for my annual medical at the start of October, but I don’t anticipate any problems.

Gloucester to Lydd

2009-09-12T18:03:00.004+01:00

I was planning to go to the Flyer Forum fly-in at Wellesborne, but with the day as excellent as it was promised, I switched to try form my much postponed trip to ‘pick up’ a few airfields in SE England that I had always flown past, but never landed at. Basically, I planned to drop down to the south coast and land at Lydd, then on to Manston, scross the Thames estuary to Southend then along the ‘north London low-level route’ back to Gloucester, all in one day.

When I woke early, the worst news possible, FOG! I mean bad stuff. So I cursed and planned to scrub the day. I did a dump run of DIY detritus and noticed on the way back that it was starting to break, so back to pick up my gear and head off to the airfield. Sure enough, it was starting to lift and break, with METARS on the south coast reporting CAVOK.

I checked the plane and filled her up to the gunnels (as I was alone, I was well within W&B). The weather was now pretty good with minimal wind. I was up and away by 10:30. The route? EGBJ DCT GWC DCT SFD DCT EGMD, so straight line to the Goodwood VOR first. Then the next decision – under or over the clouds?

I decided to go on top at about 4400’ – I had to stay below 4500’ as there was a small lump of Category A airspace nearer the south coast and I didn’t want to upset anyone. I could still see the ground through the odd breaks as I spoke to Brize then Farnboro. No one else up here, so I had a quiet run. About 30 miles from the south coast, some of the clouds welled up to well above 5000’, so I had to do a little ’dinking’ around clouds looking for ‘cloud valleys’ to get through. Of course I could always go down through a ‘hole’ but where’s the fun in that? I found my way through and turned to run coastwise as I switched to Shoreham Approach.

The clouds along the coast were a bit more problematic. The damned things were at 3000’. It was clearer out to sea, but as I didn’t pack a life jacket or life raft, I didn’t fancy that, so dropped and started dodging clouds. Approaching SFD VOR, I was down to 2300’ and still scraping my head on clouds.

I picked up the Lydd ATIS. Oh joy! Runway 03 in use, but the wind - -070 / 20kts! Oh crap! Quickm mental arithmetic, wind 50 degrees off, call it 45 degrees, so take 0.7 as the crosswind component, so a crosswind of, err, about 14kts. I would have laughed about that in any of the nosewheel aircraft I used to fly, but it was most certainly not a laughing matter in tailwheel aircraft, and a small and light one at that. This would be the most crosswind I had ever attempted in the RV, but I decided to give it a try and be ready to go around if there was anything I didn’t like.

I called for joining and was given a direct to 02 call at 5 miles. I did and continued to 2 miles, now down to 1500’ and sensibly slowed up. I pulled on the flaps at 1 mile and settled into the 70kt approach speed. Yes, the nose was nicely off to the right to track the extended centreline. I called for a spot wind, same as the ATIS.

I flared on the numbers and kicked it straight at the same time applying opposite aileron and holding both in while pulling back at the same time. Stall warner blaring, hold off, more, not drifting – good! We touch as I continue to pull back to anchor the tailwheel while still holding aileron and dancing on the rudder to keep her straight on the roll out. Nothing dramatic, but I did feel the tail twitch a couple of times and was straight on it with rudder. Really didn’t touch the brakes, just let her roll. She was down to normal taxi speed well in time for me to make the turnoff to the left onto the old disused cross-runway. I parked up near the tower on Charlie apron and ran through the shut down checklist as the temperature in the cockpit soared under the bubble canopy while I sweated. I finished the close down checks and eagerly popped the canopy. Bliss – but hey, what a wind! I shot a glance at the windsock – Holy moley, did I just land in THAT! I had mixed emotions, one was that I was impressed with myself (sorry but it’s true – not trying to be big-headed!) and the other was me asking the question ‘Would I do circuits on a day like this at Gloucester with that crosswind’ and coming back with the answer ‘No way!’.

Lydd calls itself ‘London Ashford’ – who are they kidding. The place was pretty empty. I had a friendly reception as I paid the modest £13.80 landing fee. I made my way to a huge café. A few people there but not many. Had a quick cuppa and a snickers and had a wander around. Nice viewing area outside and friendly invitations to drop into the Lydd Flying Club, which I didn’t have time for.

Good pilot briefing facilities. I noted a golf course within easy walk from the airfield, but from the air it really does seem miles from anywhere. It was certainly windblown as I contemplated a lovely crosswind take-off while finishing my tea.

Next leg - Lydd to Manston.....

No 'around SE England' today!

2009-09-06T16:26:00.004+01:00

I had an ‘around SE England’ trip planned for a couple of weeks now. The real aim of the trip is to visit a few airfields I have always flown past on the way to France, but never landed at – I am still chasing my 100 airfields!

The route would be from Gloucester to GWC at Goodwood, the along the south coast to Lydd as my first stop. Then from Lydd to Manston (taking in the RAF memorial along the coast) for the next stop. Then from Manston to Southend, then Southen back to Gloucester via the low level route north of London. This would be a series of quick stops, long enough to pay the landing fee then bash on. Considerations would be the wind as all of the mentioned airports have only one runway, are all coastal and so may suffer from significant crosswinds (not a favourite for taildraggers).

I had planned this for Sunday. I got a call from one of the group member on Saturday night who said that when he checked the plane on Saturday, another group member had shut down a few days ago and left the master switch and engine monitoring display on, so the battery was completely dead! He explained that he borrowed a charger and charged it enough that with hand-swinging he got the plane started and the alternator charging the battery, but he wasn’t sure if the battery was now ruined and whether it would hold the charge. Bottom line was that if the battery readout was less than 12.2v – don’t fly as we need to replace the battery. It transpired that the relatively new group member concerned didn’t use the checklist when shutting down.

I checked the UK Metoffice forecasts first thing on Sunday morning and it didn’t look good. A front was forecast to be in over Gloucester by early afternoon and raining, with significant winds of 240/25. It was already pretty gloomy and although it was perfectly flyable with clouds at about 2500’, by the sound of it, it was going to deteriorate. All of this persuaded me to abandon my long trip and settle for a local with a few circuits in the morning.

I checked the plane out and the battery reading was well above the suggested minimum, so it looks like the battery wasn’t trashed and hopefully won’t need replacing.

Next trick – to get the plane out of the hangar by myself. Wimp I hear you say? Not a bit of it, there was a bloody great big Citation jet in the way with barely enough room to squeeze our tiny aircraft past – even then, our wing would have to pass under the low wing of the Citation which if I got it precisely right, it would do so with about 6 inches of clearance, but if I got it wrong it could easily make contact – well, that simply wasn’t going to happen! I shuffled the plane by hand by myself, continually stopping and checking the left wingtip (could hit the fully open hangar door), the right wingtip (will it pass underneath the Citation’s wing) and the tail assembly (would it hit the back wall or the motor glider also parked nearby.

With two people that know what they are doing, it is delicate but you can do it in one, but with just me?? First attempt wasn’t good, so had to back the plane back into its parking slot and try again. Managed it on the second attempt though – phew!

Fuel required of course, so that done, I completed the power checks and got going. This time I decided to check out Stroud and the bits to the south. Did a few steep turns for the hell of it, then decided to check out the Forest of Dean. From there I could see the hills of Wales, so of course I had to check those out too and headed over to Abergavenny. I was just above the level of the hills and of course with the moderate wind, it was starting to get bumpy. It wasn’t a good idea to fly too deeply into the valleys as I would hit rotor of various strengths, so flew around a couple of the hills to the east of Abergavenny, then headed back to the airfield.

Called for a rejoin for some circuits. We were now on runway 22 and of course when I joined there was a sudden rush for circuits, with three or four aircraft in the circuit. Fortunately, all behaved themselves and spacing was good.

My first T&G was a little bouncy. On the second I flared a bit too high, but on the third and final made a very nice landing just past the numbers. Unfortunately that left me with a moderate taxy to the turnoff with someone else on final, so I tried to keep the speed up and managed to vacate without making the guy behind go around – should have landed longer you idiot!

I managed to put the plane away much more easily as the Citation was just starting to taxy clear as I approached!

A very enjoyable flight just bumbling around by myself.

I emailed the rest of the group advising them that the plane was now free for the rest of the day and that the battery seemed to be holding up.

I have the plane booked for next Saturday for a Flyer Forum fly-in. I have to say if the weather is good, I will try for my trip to a few airfields instead.

Taildragging in breezy conditions

2009-08-30T19:51:00.000+01:00

My daughter’s boyfriends parents were visiting from Germany, so of course I volunteered to take them for a quick trip around the locale as they were only staying two days before moving on.

The only time I could get the plane that suited us all was Friday late afternoon.

Of course the weather was determined not to play ball, and although the clouds were plenty high enough and broken, the wind was pretty blustery all day – not good in a light taildragger.

But I set off to the airfield, feeling it was marginal (according to my personal guidelines that is). The wind was changing all the time, but was generally 240 / 15. Given the runway in use of 27, there was some crosswind, but it wasn’t too bad. What wasn’t good was that as showers approached, the wind would change and hit 240 / 20G30 – ouch!

So for me marginal conditions, but I had a good think and decided that nothing ventured nothing gained and that I was not going to be a ‘scaredy squirrel’.

So I briefed my passengers, with the help of their son who translated some of the trickier bits, they did speak reasonable English, but I wanted to make certain they understood completely.

So it was going to be two quick locals, one for each of the parents, before the airfield closed as I didn’t fancy landing on indemnity in such blowy conditions.

As it turned out, it was windy, but I handled it OK. The take-offs were easy enough, just very careful and quick on the pedals to keep the nose straight with into wind aileron. The first landing was a bit of a bounce, but the second landing was much better.

We dodged the showers up there and had a quick look around the locale with two mandatory flypasts of my house (which the wife saw as she was walking the dog).

A good couple of flights and I felt much better for having made the decision to fly in such breezy conditions – no sweat at all in a nosewheel aircraft, but if you haven’t flown a light taildragger in such windy conditions and wonder what all the fuss is about, then either you are a much better pilot than me (entirely possible) or you haven’t tried it in a taildragger yet – give it a go!

Le Touquet

2009-08-24T21:41:00.003+01:00

I had to call my last planned trip to Le Touquet off due to really bad weather (very low cloud and strong winds), so I immediately re-booked the plane for the next available Sunday.

The day dawned with forecasts of a very heavy rain front waiting to sweep in, but being held out past Ireland by high pressure – would the high pressure hold for all day Sunday? Up at 0700 and the weather was ideal, clear skies virtually nil wind, so off to pick my daughter up from her apartment then onto the airfield.

I had of course completed all of the formalities the previous day, which consists of dropping the General Aviation Report (customs stuff) and a Flight Plan off at the reception desk at the airfield and they did the rest and emailing a request for customs to L2K.

I checked the plane out in the hangar then wheeled it out with my daughters somewhat inexpert help, but hey, we got there! I gave her a careful and full safety brief, especially about the belts and canopy opening and all the over-water gear and ELT beacon.

The plane was low on fuel to off to the pumps for me. After a jammed hose reel then my keys playing up, one of the fire crew sorted it all out and we were refuelled. We were given a taxi to the holding point for runway 18 – wow – it’s been a good couple of years since I last used this runway at Gloucester. It is the shortest (but still some 800m) and narrowest of the three runways and was closed for quite some time. But we were up and away in short order as I turned left on track for a direct line between Gloucester and the GWC VOR on Goodwood airfield on the south coast by Chichester. This routing neatly avoids all of the controlled airspace if you don’t go above 5000’ (4500’ in one small stretch).

There were scatter and thin cumulus at about 2500’ and I didn’t fancy scuttling under then, so carried on through to 4500’ to sit well on top with plenty of holes in the cloud and clear runs back down again. Brize were busy but helpful as always as I spoke to them once I cleared the Cotswold ridge.

After them I contacted Farnboro Radar who seemed remarkably quiet. But I was already hearing other aircraft also routing to L2K – I chuckled as I explained to my daughter that the world and his wife would probably be headed to L2K on a day like this. There was now a thin stratus layer barely below me which looked solid but thin and was now between me and the cumulus. But I could see further ahead to the coast, so I knew this layer would disappear soon. After about 20 miles it did drop away and by the time I got to the coast, the lower cumulus had gone as well.

We approached the south coast and I changed frequency to Shoreham as according to the NOTAMs they are due to have an airshow with a RAT all the way up to 5000’, with class A airspace starting above that at FL55. In theory, I could route through their overhead above 5000’ but below FL55. I spoke to them and the show hadn’t started, so they were happy for me to fly through their overhead at 4500’ anyway.

I routed along the coast following the VOR’s to LYD where I was careful to avoid the military danger area as I coasted out over Dungeness nuclear power station at 4500’ talking to a ‘not very busy’ London Information.

There was no horizon over the channel as usual, with the dark blue of the sea giving way to a thick grey band which eventually lead to the light blue of the clear skies above. I wasn’t flying on instrument, but I was keeping an eye on the artificial horizon and cross checking with my altitude (in the absence of a clear horizon).

But soon, we could make out the coast of France and I switched from London Information to Lille Approach. They pushed me off the L2K with about 10 miles to run and L2K gave me a straight in (direct to final) approach for runway 14 and to report at 5 miles. I started the descent and noted the wind he was giving others on final as 180 / 12 – aahhhh – a nice sporting crosswind – nothing in a nosewheel aircraft, but this was a light and relatively twitchy taildragger – this could be fun!

At five miles I as now down to 2000’ and was given number 1 at three miles. I had the airspeed under control, if a little fast. I noted the crosswind as I had to fly cocked into the wind to maintain the extended centreline.

Over the number and still a little fast although ground speed quite slow, so yes, quite a strong wind. I kicked the nose straight and compensated with opposite rudder as I concentrated on the flare and hold off. Stall warner sounding but she touched before I wanted and I was rewarded with small bounce – no fun when you are also compensating for a crosswind. I controlled that and held off and touched again and stayed touched. A gust hit the fin and the nose came right a bit to take me off the centreline, but I was back on the rudder and straightened her up again as she rolled out to taxi speed. Not great, but not bad for a crosswind landing.

I taxied in and had a hard look for parking space – with the majority of the ramp being occupied by G registration aircraft (as expected). I found a slot and parked up and as quickly as I could, popped the canopy as it was bright sunshine at L2K and without the airflow through the blowers, you cook very quickly under the bubble canopy of the RV! It had taken me about 1.5 hours from Gloucester to L2K.

We unpacked and set off towards the terminal. Of course no customs, just check in with the helpful staff. Tell them how much fuel you want and walk off and pay when you get back – no hassle at all!

We didn’t bother with bike hire, which with hindsight we should have. I have never been to Etaples on the other side of the river (and an easy walk from the airport), so we decided to go there and check it out. I was kind of hoping for a cute French fishing village, maybe a mini-Honfleur. I was disappointed. It is an OK town, we found to town square, but it was deserted with virtually everything shut (as France tends to be on Sunday). It would be an interesting place on market day. We eventually found one of the eight of so open restaurants with space. They specialised in ‘SLOW’. I have ‘Moule Frite’. The food was fine, but very ssllllloooooooowwwww! I paid up and we agreed on a quick trip to L2K itself. So walked back to the airfield and all the bikes had gone, so we got a taxi. 10 Euros later we were in ‘Centre Ville’.

L2K was bustling with virtually everything open – but then at the height of the French holiday season, not too surprising. I showed my daughter around the main sights and she decided we should walk back to the airport to admire the classy French ‘holiday homes’ for the rich Parisians between the town and the airport.

Back at the airport, I filed the flight plan for the return and paid the bills. They want you to pay separately for the fuel and the landing fees. Landing fee was a modest EUR12 for mu small RV6 and they had put 40 litres of fuel in as requested.

It was very warm now but the wind had died down to a modest 5-6 kts, but still favouring runway 14 – so a fair old taxi in store for me with the canopy buttoned up!

I checked the plane over and clambered in. I was sat there with the canopy buttoned up trying very hard to get a word in edgeways to request taxi clearance while slowly cooking to death! I managed eventually then had to wait in a three plane departure queue – still cooking!

Eventually we got airborne and got some blessed airflow on my face. As I turned on a climbing downwind for the channel and Lydd, my daughter tried to get some photos of the airport from the overhead. I frequent the Flyer Forum portal. They have a section there for airfields and I am amazed that no one has yet posted a decent photo of L2K from the overhead (something I find very useful for pilots who have not been to a particular airfield before). As it turns out, she didn’t really manage a decent photo showing the airfield and environs as she used the zoom – DOH! Does ANYONE have a decent photo of L2K? It seems as difficult as getting a photo of a vampire – hey! I wonder….. naaaah!

I climbed to 5000’ over the channel and reversed the route and the process on the way back. I did just manage to contact London Information, but it was a real feeding frenzy so I gave up and changed to Shoreham prematurely.

Shoreham were quiet, but then they did have the airshow on. I requested a routing through their overhead above 5000’ (the top of their RAT) but below FL55 (the start of controlled airspace above). Of course I could legally do it without even speaking to them, but lets be gentlemen here! They demurred and asked if I could route either 4 miles to the south or north. I opted for south out to sea and kept myself at about 5200’ just in case there was any silliness. As we approached Shoreham we could clearly see smoke tails all over the sky as someone was doing some serious aerobatics.

Past Shoreham, I dropped to 4500’ to avoid a small slug of controlled airspace and talked to Farnboro Radar. We routed near to GWC then set track for Gloucester. It was then that my daughter called ‘PLANE’ and pointed (as I had briefed her to do) at about 1 o’clock. I saw it a few seconds before it flashed under my starboard wing, probably 200’ below. Clearly neither of us had seen the other until the last moment. Had he been coming at the same height, I did would have had time for a fairly violent manoeuvre, but didn’t have to bother.

We pottered on as I switched to Brize as I listed to another aircraft call Brize three times with no response. So I stayed on listening watch and routed over Fairford at 4500’ picking up the Gloucester ATIS. Gloucester gave me a standard overhead join for 22.

As we crested the Cotswold ridge, the fine weather gave way to a near overcast, albeit fairly high cloud. I did a nice overhead join and set her down as nicely as you please on 22 (I can manage it sometime you know!). It was 1800 as I taxied into a very quiet and still airport. We put the plane away and I finished the paperwork and formalities.

A good day out and a chance to try my crosswind landings for real. The weather could not really have been better (for a change). I must get another cross-channel trip in, maybe to the Channel Islands and to Alderney, as I have not been there yet. Or maybe a ‘round London’ trip to pick up some airfields I have always flown past but never landed at yet, like Lydd, Manston and Southend?