Flyer Forum Safari - 25th May

Ajaccio (Corsica) to Carcassonne

Route: LFKJ – CV – LONSU – STP – TLN COAST FG – LFMK

Up and out to the airport reasonably early. I am beginning to think we may have tried for too many overnight stops, when it might have been better to go for fewer stays and two nights at each. Something to consider for future trips.

We check the met courtesy of various laptops, Avbrief and WiFi etc (I have got to get some of this stuff). Looks good to go. I am already fuelled up (rule no 1 – always fuel up on arrival and not on departure) and ready to go.

Dan loads up and checks the plane out while I file the flight plan. Timothy has to fuel up, so we start up and taxi out and are the first of the now reduced group to take-off. We are routed out via the VRP’s (they are very keen on these in Corsica) and head up the coast to Calvi. We climb to FL45 and are routed again via VRP’s at Calvi out to sea.


Blue sky and excellent visibility – I could get used to this Mediterranean flying lark you know!

We trundle along and are handed over to Nice Information. We coast in near STP and descend to 1000’ to follow the required altitude and trail of VRP’s that mark the low level VFR route around the south coast of France (again, clearly marked on the Jeppesen charts).


In short order we are handed over to Hyeres Tower, who release us to Marseilles Information. They advise us of opposite direction traffic also following the VFR route as a Cessna 210 at 1200’. We descend to 700’ and spot him shortly afterwards.

We are handed over to Montpelier Information and start to transit the Carmargue – a series of salt lakes and marshes long ago converted into salt drying pans for sea salt.


Just past Montpelier, I ask for and am granted a climb to 3000’ and direct track to Carcassonne. We try to raise Toulouse Approach as instructed on the Carcassonne plates, but even at 3000’ we are apparently out of line of sight. A helpful aircraft relays my message that I am changing to Carcassonne Tower and this is approved.

As we approach Carcassonne, I am struggling to make out the famous walled old town – and then I spot it – WOW!! I hope our hotel is near there.


I seem to be racing a German registered aircraft in (he is joining from the north) but I appear to have won as I get a right base join for runway 28 with a wind something like 260 / 20. I come in for a nice landing and can see what they mean about the wind.


We taxi over to the pumps and join a queue of about four planes in front of us – all German. I speak to one of the pilots and it is a club flyout to Spain. The fuelling takes some time and as I wait, Derek Fage and Paul Venton and wives land in their Cherokee 6 – they were behind us all the way but didn’t catch up – shame – I was hoping for some air-to-air pictures. This is one of the few airfields that take the BP Fuel Card I have and the pompier is delighted to see it. He tells Dan that it is so much quicker to process.

We are instructed to park on the hard apron to the east of the tower and they are disappointed when I tell them that we are down to some four aircraft.

Dan and I secure the plane and make for the terminal. We get a taxi just before a Ryanair comes in to land. Our hotel is right by the old city and only a 100m walk – and a nice modern and clean hotel to boot.

I have a quick shower and we meet up and head into the old walled city. It is a bank holiday in France and the place is crowded on such a nice sunny day. We beat our way though crowds to find a slightly more out of the way bar and grab a beer – EUR5 for a half a litre of beer!

Dan and I then go sightseeing around the old town and find a really nice looking restaurant for the evening – wood-smoke fire for cooking, live music – great! We bump into Derek and Tammy and they check out the restaurant and we book it for all of us for the evening.


We grab another beer in the main square – this time an even more outrageous EUR6 for half a litre!

We head back to the hotel, shower, changed and head into town as a group for the evening.

The restaurant does not disappoint (well, not me anyway – I had the casoulet). The live music is local folk played by a very enthusiastic and animated guy, but it certainly does not meet with approval from Timothy (who is more accustomed to opera and classical).

A good day, with a nice long trip (3.4 hour leg) from Corsica to Carcassonne along the French Riviera in glorious sunshine. This is the life!

Flyer Forum Safari - 24th May

Aprilia to Ajaccio (Corsica)

Route: APRILIA – TS LORENZO – WPT1 – WPT2 COAST LFKJ

Up early, breakfasted and paid up and off to the airfield. The chap who knew how to operate the fuel bowser wasn’t there yet, so I set Dan to packing and checking the aircraft while I did some flight planning revisions with Timothy and Derek. I had planned a northern loop around Elba, but they found a way to go direct over the sea with a dog-leg to avoid two danger areas, so of course I copied them!

The fuel guy turned up, but I was worried about the effect of the strip on the landing gear, so I only put 40l of fuel in so I was reasonably light.


We all walked the length of the runway to inspect for ruts, holes and debris. The wind (such as it was) favoured a 04 departure, but we noted that this was slightly uphill and of course you have to clear the cables at 30’ at the end of the runway, whereas 22 was slightly downhill, albeit with a tailwind and pylons about half a mile out. We all decided on a tailwind 22 departure.

Andy and Timothy were first up and attracted quite an audience, with curious motorists stopping on the road at the end of the runway to watch the spectacle. We paid particular attention of course! The take off run looked good and they were up about 2/3rds along the runway and clawing their way into the air. Timothy later tiold me that the stall warner was blaring for quite some time and he feels they staggered over the power lines.

Next up was Ben in his Piper Dakota, with it’s big and powerful engine. Then me. I held it on the brakes and let her run holding the nosewheel as light as I could. At nearly 60, I popped one stage of flap and the mainwheels were very light. I held her in ground effect for a moment, but probably got the rudder pressure wrong as she veered slightly to the left off the runway track. No drama as we were airborne and climbing, but a lesson for the future. We made it over the pylons, but failed to get a response from Pratica Approach so called Rome Information instead.

Rome cleared me to a heady 1000’ and asked us to report every 30 minutes. Rome seems to have an enormous zone of class A airspace that extends for miles out to sea from 1000’ up. We scuttled out for what seemed ages at 1000’ and could hear Timothy in front and Derek behind us. Eventually we cleared Rome airspace and I climbed to 3000’.

Rome handed us over to Olbia and this is where the fun started. The Olbia controller did not seem to be on the ball. By this time, we had passed Timothy heading for the first dog-leg waypoint on the GPS to keep us clear of Italian D017 and also clear of French R66.

I was about to call, when Timothy came on frequency and passed his message, including details of the route. Several parts of the message were repeated and I think the route was explained two or three time, with particular emphasis that we were aware of the danger areas and were taking this route to avoid them all. The controller eventually acknowledged and warned of the perils of D017 and that we must remain clear!

So I piped up immediately after and said basically, same as G-BRCD except that we are a P28R and current position is x etc.

At random intervals, this guy would call us up and warn us of D017. Timothy got fed up with this and blurted out in a posh English accent ‘are you sure that you understand our routing?’ and proceeded to explain again that we would dog-leg shortly to avoid his precious danger area. After Timothy had finished – you guessed it ‘Roger, avoid danger area 017 it is active’ – AAAARRRGGHH!


By now Derek had overtaken Timothy and Timothy was last. Needless to say Olbia then came on and asked Timothy to change to Figari (Corsica). I then requested frequency change Figari as I was first in the gaggle. I’m afraid I again held off on my call and sure enough, Timothy made the call and concluded by saying ‘I am the last of three aircraft on an identical routing and I have been handed over to you first – I don’t know why’ (exasperated). I then chimed in ‘same as G-BRCD except…’. Such fun!

Suffice to say the French controllers were a model of professionalism compared certainly to Olbia!

Land was looming and we could clearly see Sardinia on the left and Corsica on the right. Corsica is a beautiful island with lots of sandy beaches and turquoise seas. We saw a huge five masted sailing cruise ship – I thinjk it must have been the Club Med one.


We were routed by both Figari and Ajaccio via their VRP and these were obvious and easy to spot (thank heavens for Jeppesen maps).

As we approached Ajaccio, I was given a left downwind join for runway 20. Good landing then a long taxi to the pumps. Ajaccio is a large commercial airport with a lot of flights for the holiday trade, but it was very quiet. I was followed ten minutes later by Derek, then five minutes after that by Timothy, so we all arrived pretty much together.


The French pompier came and said it was French credit cards or cash. I pointed out that that was only true if we used the automated facility and that I am sure they would accept Visa – Dan did his French stuff and the guy said he would ask. That worked and we had to be ferried in the back of his van back to the office while he proceeded to try to get the van onto two wheels on every corner he could find.

We were then accosted by a second wave of ground staff who relieved us of EUR30 per aircraft for landing and handling. We were ferried to the police bit where they checked our passports and got us to fill in a form. They apologised and said they thought it was all pretty pointless as well.

Timothy got a message on his phone that we were being joined by Geoff Hill and Rob Winship who had set out on Saturday and got stuck at L2K and could only catch up with us here. We later found out that this was Geoff’s first trip out of the UK and that he had flown from Teeside. I have to say, we were all pretty impressed with an effort like that.

We checked in but the hotel was 25 minutes walk from town and needed Pete S ID and signature (as he did the booking) so they could get the funds from the agent. Could be a problem as he had to cancel and wasn’t there. Timothy got on the phone and got Pete to fax his passport and we signed pp.


We hoofed it into town and had a beer stop at the marina. Then on up the main street until we fetched up at the old harbour, which was lined with cafes etc. So of course we had to eat at a restaurant called ‘The Forum’.


Had a very nice meal of tuna steak with beer and wine. We wandered back to the marina for another beer while some got a taxi back to the hotel, while we walked to take in the air.

Flyer Forum Safari - 23rd May

Sightseeing around Latina and environs

No flying today, instead we have an excellent programme laid on by Riccardo. The weather was beautiful – sunny and warm (hot even). After a leisurely wake-up and breakfast, Riccardo started ferrying forumites out to a very eclectic museum called ‘Piana delle Orme’. This was a series of large hangar type sheds, each with a theme. One was a toy museum, one was the story of how the Pontine marshes were drained in the 1920’s (I found this fascinating I’m afraid), vintage tractors, then the story of WW2 with stacks of military vehicles of every shape and size.


We wandered around by ourselves here until 13:00, then Riccardo picked us up again and back to the hotel for a few beers and a HUGE lunch, again with many courses. If you think we spent vast amounts of time eating vast amounts of food – you would be right!


This kept us going until 15:30, then off in the coach to some lovely gardens at Ninfa. We had a guided tour of the gardens and had them completely to ourselves. They are set in a ruined town and are quite beautiful.


Following this, we were picked up again by the coach and taken to the old hilltop town of Simonetta. Basically we walked up to the main square and parked ourselves outside at a bar and had a few beers. Most of us then maode our way to the lookout point to watch sunset over the Pontine plain. Again it struck me how the whole area looked like a series of grass landing strips!


Back to the bar to pick up Dan and Ben who had meanwhile witnessed a fight between apparently rival youths of different family clans (shades of Romeo and Juliet).

We found a local pizza restaurant but with 13 or so of us, Riccardo wanted to make sure they could cope. The owner said he would just check to see if he had enough pizza bases first (shades of the Monty Pythons cheese shop sketch I thought!). In the event, they obviously didn’t have enough ovens either as we were served the pizzas three at a time. I am certainly not complaining, I just thought it quaint.


After this, we were ferried back to the hotel and I went straight to bed. I don’t know whether others stayed up at the bar, but not me with a long over-water leg tomorrow, not to mention a grass strip take-off.

Flyer Forum Safari - 22nd May

Cannes to Aprilia via Lucca

Routed:
Leg 1: LFMD – EW – NA – COAST ALB – COAST SES – COAST SESTRI LEVANTE – FOSDINOVO – VIAREGGIO – LIQL
Leg 2: LIQL – CASOLE D’ELSE – CINIGIANO – PASO CORESE – TORRENOVA – FRASCATI – CASTEL GANDOLFO – APRILIA

With a two-leg day to Aprilia, we wanted to get away as early as we could so we could go in to Lucca for lunch (as we had heard that this was a very scenic town).

We couldn’t repair my headset reliably and Ben was kind enough to offer me a loan of one of his DC’s.

Today was team T-shirt day and the big one – our arrival in Lucca. So I got the masterpiece out – a commercially printed high-vis yellow t-shirt each with ‘Pilot’ on the back of mine and ‘I’m with stupid’ and an arrow on the back of Dan’s.

The day was sunny with high cloud. We checked the weather and it was fine so we filed our flight plan for Lucca and out to the plane to load up. Dan loaded up while I did the checks.


We requested taxi by 09:30 and got airborne. We were routed a little inland to avoid the TRA around the film festival. Initially to Nice EW, then to Nice NA then E VRP’s at 2000’. We basically followed the motorway valley through to Monaco.

We crossed the FIR but couldn’t get any contact with Milan or Albegna, but we did get air to air contact with G-BRCD who were 15 nm in front and even they didn’t have contact. We continued coastwise as planned at 1500’ passing stunning scenery. Eventually we contacted Albegna and reported at their various VRP’s.


To the north of Albegna we came across some low cloud and were forced to 700’ to stay VMC – we entered some cloud for a few moment and Dan was disoriented by an island to the right and thought we were flying into the side of a mountain. I was hoping that this wasn’t the start of some nasty weather and was relieved when it lifted about 10 nm later – from then on it was sunshine and blue skies.

We contacted Genoa who gave us a transit out to sea at 500’ parallel with the airport and we had to push further out to avoid the track of their ILS while a 737 was using the approach. Past their area, we routed inland to avoid La Spezia danger area and had to climb to FL55 and even then were ‘brushing’ the impressive coastal mountains.


Once past La Speizia, we contacted Pisa Approach who routed us back to the coast at 1500’ to Viareggio VRP then to follow the road inland to Lucca.

Lucca looked lovely from the air. A real walled and fortified town with intact walls. The airfield was the far side of town and we spotted it easily. My first approach was too high so rather than pressure myself, I decided on a go-around. Next approach was better and we landed. I taxi’d in and was met by a formula one style refuelling set up as three people set about the aircraft falling over each other to get us re-fuelled. I had the not very pleasant task of telling them that the expected 15 aircraft had reduced to about 5 now.


We jumped in a very smart big black Mercedes taxi and were dropped in Lucca. The driver said not to bother paying as we could pay on the way back when she picked us up. We wandered around and had lunch in a square – EUR28 for 4 cokes and burger and a pizza slice!!

Many of the tourists seemed more interested in our T-shirts than the lovely middle ages architecture! Dan was of course taking great care to always stay on my right so the arrow pointed at me!


We were picked up and back to the airfield by 14:15 and paid for the fuel – at an eye watering EUR 2.20 per litre – no wonder they were pleased to see us!

We were airborne again by 14:35 and it was very hot and humid by then and I could start to feel it in the aircraft performance.

We went for the inland recommended VFR route with zone transits as marked on the Jeppesen maps. Initially we were at 2000’ then climbed to 3500’ or as required to clear hills (always a good idea). Radio contact was difficult due to the terrain, but we got some of Pisa, then Grosseto then Rome.

The scenery was sublime, with lovely hill-top tuscan villages passing underneath the wing as we passed low overhead.


Dan was helping with the flying but got a bit distracted in a descending turn that turned into the start of a spiral dive – a lesson well learned.

Closer to Rome we descended to 1500’ for the eastern VFR transit route. The bit where we headed to Frascati VRP was particularly interesting as Frascati is on the side of a hill and was basically level with our altitude of 1500’ as we headed straight for it. Needless to say, I didn’t exactly leave it until the last minute to turn south following the trail of VRP’s!


Castel Gandolfo is a huge lake and has the summer house of the Pope there. By now we were handed over to Pratica Information who asked us to call when visual with Aprilia. I broke out the aerial photos and plugged the GPS into the Aprilia co-ordinates I had entered back in the UK. We spotted the Bridgestone test track and tried to orient it to north to figure out where the airstrip was. My GPS was indicating that I was on top of it, but in that part of Italy, they farm in strips, so the whole bloody countryside looks like a series of grass strips! I figured we were on top of it so temporarily switched channels to 130.0 and Ben answered. He kindly vectored me until I was visual on the right downwind (despite other nasty forumites shouting at him to stop so they could enjoy the fun of my aimlessly wandering around at 1500’ looking for the strip – nice guys huh?


Unfortunately, the wind favoured 22, which involved PowerGen type pylons half a mile or so from the strip and telephone pole height power lines at the threshold – so a high and slow approach was called for. This I managed and chopped the power over the cables at the threshold, nosed down and flared on the stall warner to a good landing though I say it myself.

On taxi back up the strip, the aircraft was chased by a demented Alsatian dog! I was last in and Riccardo was mashalling me with beer bottles in hand – this guy clearly knows how to motivate! We stopped, switched off and Riccardo opended the door, shoved a beer in and said ‘Welcome to Aprilia’!


He had snacks laid on in the farmhouse and we pulled the aircraft in together to park and lock up. The farmer kindly looked after the aircraft and he had two guard dogs – we weren’t worried about theft!


Riccardo arranged a big coach to take us to our very posh hotel on the Appian Way. I had a fantastic room at the back by the BBQ area. Huge with aircon, a separate study area and a Jacuzzi bath.

I unpacked, had a bath and we met again at 20:00 to go to the Agro-Tourismo. Basically, these are farms with restaurants attached where only local produce is served and the menu is set. If you want a Coke – tough, they don’t grow it there. What a great idea.


We were joined by many members of the Latina Flying Club and had great discussions in broken English / Italian and universal gestures.

Ian Seager made the presentation of the signed print to Riccardo, and we also presented him with top quality English wine and some liquers. There were speeches and we were very surprised to be presented with a box of three local Italian bottles of wine and a lovely hand-made glass plaque for our visit. The number of courses and the amount of food and wine was astounding. The quality was excellent and all for…… EUR25 per person – no subsidy – that’s what it cost! Amazing!

Of course we had to toast with Grappa. Now this really makes me gag so Dan sneaked mine into a spare glass and poured water into mine – so I toasted with water (I was to pay for this indiscretion later when Riccardo found out).

We piled back to the hotel on the bus by 01:30. Dan and Riccardo and other foolish souls decided to go to the bar, but I was shattered and so toddled off to my bed. A great day indeed.

Flyer Forum Safari - 21st May

Dijon to Cannes

Routed:
LFSD – LTP – MTL – DGN – LFMD

For the trip, I figured it would get hot in the plane, so rather than get our normal shirts ‘sweated-up’, I thought I would make up some ‘G-GYMM Team T-Shirts’. We would wear these every flying day while part of the Flyer Safari. Today’s shirts are ones I did on the computer with special iron-on stickers – Dan is ‘The Beerhunter’ and I am ‘Grimace’ (the ‘handle’ they gave me at Air Combat when they saw me grimacing at 6G on the videos!).

The aim of today is to join what is left of the Flyer Forum Safari in Cannes. Yes, I know this coincides with the International Film Festival and the place will be packed!

As we pack the aircraft at Dijon for the trip, I press back on the front passenger seat and only when I get my headset from the back seat, do I notice that the wire from the headset to the battery box got trapped between the seat hinge and look crushed – oh crap! So I try it and of course no deal – the wires must be severed internally. I was thinking of bringing a spare, but of course I didn’t. So I tell Dan that I need to use his and he can sit in splendid silence. Dan is not feeling well and has a very raw throat but takes the news well and with my agreement, pulls out a Swiss Army knife and attacks the wire to see if he can splice them together.

We take off in scattered and high-looking cloud and easily get to our planned FL45 with very scattered fair weather cumulus below. My plan was to route through the overhead at Lyon, but this is refused and we are instead routed to LPT. I notice that this will take us through a ZIT that tops out at 4900’ so I climb to FL55 – forgetting that I am in controlled airspace! The controller asks if I am climbing and I confirm I am – I get a slap on the wrist and am cleared for FL55 – Ooops! After this the merciless Forumites refer to me a ‘Zonebuster’ to the strains of the famous ‘Ghostbuster’ tune.


After I get a call from Lyon, I get an ‘air-to-air’ call from Simon Holder in G-AXTA to say that both he and G-BRCD made it to Troyes and are behind me and will see me in Cannes. Good, that’s a couple more that made it out.


The French Alps look hugely impressive off to my left and once past Lyon, I climb to FL75 to route direct over the lower part of the Alps direct for Cannes. It is not very bumpy at all and the scenery is great, widely scattered cloud and blue skies.


I am still in the mountains with 30 nm to run to Cannes when the mountains drop away while I contact Cannes to be told to approach at 1500’ – FL75 to 1500’ without shock-cooling the engine? So I gave it a go with some orbits.


I was given a report overhead the field at 1500’, then given a left downwind join (out to sea) for runway 23 with the wind 230 / 10 – much better! I was high on final, so side-slipped this off but still landed a bit long.


Cannes was incredibly busy with the film festival and there are biz-jets parked all over the place. I taxi for fuel to find that the automatic machine will only accept French credit cards – so off Dan goes to do his French stuff and enlist the help of a pompier. Well, with full tanks (190l) at Dijon, we did a 2.5 hour run and only burned 76l of fuel – pleased with that!


We had a long wait after fuelling with the engine running for taxi clearance to parking and in the end we park at the far end with all the other cruddy little planes away from the nice shiny business jets. So we unpacked and walked to the terminal. We met a very nice lady (Stargate SG2) who announced ‘ah – G-GYMM, yes we have been expecting you’. I was flabbergasted, then I realised she was reading our ‘team T-shirts’!

Well, the weather was great – sunny and warm with a breeze, so we walked to our hotel (The Campanile) a mere 50 m from the main terminal. Nice rooms. We shower and Dan takes a nap. Eventually, I rouse him and we meet Ian Seager in reception. The original restaurant has been cancelled so we agree to meet up outside the main casino in town. So we dive into a taxi to see Cannes.

We wander around and see the bouncers in smarty suits and uniformed guards everywhere. We realise we have again missed out on lunch and can’t hold out until the evening meal, so we hit McDonalds. After this we sit in a street-side café with large beers and ‘people-watch’. We check out the old town and the view and spot loads of nice restaurants that will easily be able to seat us.

We meet up with the others as arranged at 20:00 and come up with a definitive list of people who made it. Rob P and Nigel Webb have gone to Albenga and will join us in Aprilia.

We had a nice meal in the old town, but at EUR46 a head. The taxi fares to and from the hotel varied between EUR14 and EUR32 – hmmm! The circus must be in town!

Flyer Forum Safari - 19th and 20th May

Gloucester to Dijon via Lille

Routed:
Leg 1 EGBJ - BNE - LAM - DVR – BNE - VIMY - LFQQ
Leg 2 LFQQ – CTL – TRO – LFSD

Poor weather forecast for most of the latter part of the week and the weekend. There might be a chance to run for it between fronts on the Friday (which is when we planned to go anyway). Looked out on Friday morning and looked bad – low clouds and high winds. Decided to go to the airport anyway and see how it panned out.

Two French pilots at Gloucester had just flown in from Paris and said it wasn’t good and exchanged worried glances when Dan told them we were going VFR – even the lady who took out flight plan thought we were nuts! Decided to at least get airborne and if we had to divert or return, we could do that. In the event, we got to 2000’ with a helpful and occasionally bumpy howling tailwind which gave us an airspeed of 125 kts and a groundspeed of 172 kts!

Barrelling along the low level north London ‘corridor’ and so far so good, still 2000’ and bumpy, let’s have a sniff at the channel. That looked OK and even got to 3000’ coasting out until forced down at mid-channel to 1200’ to stay VMC. I was sure I heard a fellow forumite speaking to Lille Info as it was a ‘N’ registered aircraft out of Elstree – it turned out later that this was Ben – at least someone else has made it.

Better over the French coast, but down again to 1200’ near Vimy Ridge. Canadian monument covered in scaffold and plastic to headed for Lille and managed to get back to 2000’. I was glad I chose Lille as it has two runways and was given 20 with wind as 220 25G37. Very nice landing with one stage of flaps and parked up. It didn’t occur to me how strong the wind was until Dan tried to open the door and couldn’t – we were parked into wind and the force was quite something!


We went through the most ludicrous customs / arrivals and departures process I have yet seen, even the lady who escorted us through the process said it was mad and had driven much of the GA traffic away. Got refuelled and away again on runway 20 with the wind as 220 25G42 – I was at 800’ by the time I crossed the end of the runway!

We shower dodged all the way to Dijon at 3000’ odd, worse in the north. Called Dijon approach and cleared to land direct onto my choice or runways. I opted for 20 but left the approach descent far too late and ‘stuka’d’ the initial descent for a long final approach to land. Wind a reasonable 240 / 12. Dijon were amazingly helpful. They are part civilian and part military, of course the military had packed up by the time we got there. We were marshalled to the pumps, filled up very quickly and pulled to parking – we could sort the paperwork out in the morning (nothing to do I suppose with the airfield staff wanting to knock-off early?). The Brietling L39 Albatross display aircraft were in one of the hangars, but this was locked before I could get photos.


A particularly lovely girl ordered us a taxi and asked us to follow her (we decided she was a Stargate SG1) – of course!!!!

We stayed in the City Loft hotel in the centre of Dijon. I called one of the forumites to say we had gotten out of the UK and were on our way only to be told that he and many others had called it off. I was surprised as the weather wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but I guess every pilots has to make their own decisions based on their comfort levels.

By now we were both starving having missed lunch, so we showered and changed and hit a bar for four beers each in rapid succession. We then went to a posh restaurant feeling very under-dressed and had an excellent meal with a nice bottle of the local stuff. Followed by more beers and a sleep of the righteous.


Next day was simply sightseeing for the two of us. We had opted to do the first bit by ourselves a bit further south than Troyes where the rest were meant to be meeting.


Well, we were out of blighty and a fair way south – we knew Saturday was forecast to be poor with a front going through and so it proved to be – with light rain all morning, but starting to break-up by mid-afternoon. Our hopes were high for Sunday and the flight down the Rhone valley and across the lower Alps to Cannes.

Circuits

Well, the Flyer Forum trip to Aprillia (south of Rome) draws near. I am due off on Friday 19th May, but most are setting out on Saturday - so of course the long-range weather forecasts are grim. But one thing you learn in the UK is not to pay much attention until one or two days beforehand and even then, have a look first thing in the mnorning on the actual day! Pray to the weather gods!

So I decided to give the plane a good and very thorough check and stow most of the stuff I will need so that I won't need to do much on Friday, since I don't think anyone in the group will take it out in the next two days.

Just to brush off the cobwebs, I thought I would throw in a few circuits to see how the aircraft felt. There was only one other aircraft in the circuit, but this was a student with an instructor who seemed determined to fly virtually outside the ATZ. I took off behind the small Cessna and tried hard not to 'chew it up' all the way around, but my approach speed is faster and I ended up pretty close with a late clearance to land. Gloucester Tower suggested I ran my second circuit tight and cut inside the Cessna, which I was about to request - thanks lads!

Once clear of the Cessna I flew my normal circuits, but by the fourth circuit, there I was back up with the Cessna again! On my last landing I was given a land-after and was happy to accept this. The last landing was the best, quite good though I say so myself. We were all students once but I do wonder when instructors allow students to fly circuits in an otherwise empty pattern up to 2 n. miles from the airfield - when I was a student (not so long ago) my instructors always taught me to try to fly circuits within glide landing distance of the airfield and certainly never outside the ATZ. I understand the circuit expanding with four or five in, but when there are only two??

Well, both myself and the plane are ready for the 'big trip' now, just a 'wait and see' if the weather plays ball.

Kemble on a sunny afternoon

Well by 11:45, the weather was far too nice to be cooped up in the office. That, combined with ‘not a lot on my plate’ work-wise had me checking the internet booking system to see if anyone else in the group had the plane. No, they didn’t, so I booked it for the afternoon and called Dan at the office to see if he wanted to come out and play. There must be a psychic connection as he was half expecting such a call and immediately agreed to meet at the airfield at 13:30.

So I drove home, changed and collected my gear, then off to the airfield. Lovely, mine is the only aircraft left in the hangar, so I don’t have to play ‘aircraft shuffle’. I pull it out and give it the normal A-check. Damn! Low on fuel. I make my way back to the terminal to book out – but where? Well, I fancy sitting out somewhere nice for lunch and a long cold drink watching the planes. Hmmm… not much of a flight, but Shobdon or Kemble would be nice. So I decide on the attractions of the AV8 café with the off chance of seeing some of the ex-military jets flying that are common in Kemble.

I check the NOTAMS and see that one of the Kemble runways has been displaced even further, now a crazy 340 metres or so – all because of that stupid access road. I am a bit early so I wait around for Dan. By 13:40 he hasn’t shown, so I may as well fill up with fuel to give him another 10 minutes. Boy, is the airfield busy – I manage to get a call in for taxi to pumps and fill up with AVGAS. I am just unhooking the earth wire when Dan strolls across. I explain the plan to him and he is very happy – such a short flight, but such a nice venue.

There is hardly any wind, so it is runway 27. Power checks complete, we call ‘ready for departure’ and are given clearance for take-off. Taxi onto the runway and immediately power up while still rolling. A glance at the engine readings confirms normal MP and RPM at full power, airspeed is picking up, 65kts, rotate gently and we are unstuck. Right noise abatement turn, dab the brakes and gear up, transit light on, wait, out – gear up. MP and RPM back to 25/25 for a normal climb and we follow a climbing circuit to set track for Kemble. I climb to a modest 2700’ for this short hop.

No sooner had we cleared the ridge, than I call for frequency change and contact Kemble. OK, they are on 08 with left hand circuits. I opt for a standard overhead join. Downwind now, gear down – three greens (always a bonus)! On final and nicely lined up, interesting ‘bow-shape’ to the runway gives the threshold an uphill appearance, must allow for that. Remember the displaced threshold – but only NOTAM’d – no actual markings on the runway – how the hell do I estimate 340 metres from the air? So I hold off nicely and land long. I ask for help with taxi and they ask if I am familiar with the NOTAM on the displaced threshold. I tell them I am (I read them at Gloucester and the printout is in my pocket). They think I landed 50 metres short – hmmm….. I guess they work here and know pretty well where it is, so I apologise profusely and park up on the grass outside the AV8.


Dan pays the landing fee – hmmm…. £14 –oh well! We wander to the AV8 and order a pint of orange juice and a Cajun Chicken baguette for me and a pizza for Dan. This is delivered by a good-looking but fairly humourless eastern European girl / woman, nicely presented though and very satisfying (the meal not the woman!).

We watch the planes come and go, some of which land past where I now suppose the displaced threshold is and some land before it – what you need here guys is paint on the runway! There is a lovely biplane in what looks like Spanish military livery doing circuits on the grass. Dan is amazed by the Europa mono-wheel pottering about. Our patience is rewarded as the fire crew mobilise and lo and behold, the yellow Folland Gnat (Dave Gilmour’s old plane IIRC – you know, the lead guitarist for Pink Floyd) is wheeled out and starts its take off run. We really are in for a treat as the pilot is clearly rehearsing his routine for the Kemble Air Day. For the next twenty minutes we are treated to our own personal air display, with loops, rolls, inverted passes and a high speed low level pass.


We relax on the sun-drenched deck and shoot the breeze, watching the planes come and go. After a couple of hours of this, we decide to head off. But first, Dan sticks his head around the door of ‘Ultimate High’ where I bought him a voucher for half-hour aeros in a Bulldog. He is now so booked up leading up to his return to Canada that he is keen to book the date now and hope for the weather. So he books Thursday 1st June in the morning. I agree to fly him over for that, then afterwards, we can both fly on to Shoreham so I can do my half-hour in the Harvard. Pray again to the weather gods!

We mount up, taxi out and take-off. I hear over the radio that the plane after us is headed for Hawarden. Kemble kindly tell him the weather there – thunderstorms, TCU’s and rain in 4000m visibility – poor chap! Well it is clear here, but with one or two clouds on the horizon with vertical development. The visibility is not great as we head past the ‘bends in the river’ at 3000’ to see if the Malverns are still there. Dan takes control and we bimble about a bit. I pick up Gloucester ATIS and we head back. Gloucester is a bit quieter now and we get a standard overhead join for 27.

Usual stuff really. Downwind checks complete and gear down with three greens. Plane is slower now, so pull on two stages of flap on base and power back to start the descent. Ease the blue VP lever fully forward so the prop is now fully fine – OK, Red-Green-Blue check – RED = mixture lever fully forward (full rich), GREEN = Three green lights on the landing gear, BLUE = VP lever fully forward so prop is fully fine.

Nice approach if a bit high, soon lose that though. No wind to speak of at all. Over the hedge, round out, flare and hold off, try hard not to land, wheels touch, yes, nice one. I am just a bit too fast to make the first turn-off (no point in stomping on the brakes just to save a minute or two taxi time) so I trundle to the end and take the ‘long march of death’ taxiways back to parking. Park up and who do I see, but Mark, one of the other group members obviously wanting the plane. I shut down and we chat. He had the same idea, but I beat him to the booking by 10 minutes! Anyway, there is plenty of fuel and the plane is good to go – apart from numerous fly-splats on the windscreen. Mark cleans this off and disappears quickly into the gathering early evening still – what a great evening for it – no sign of the threatened thunderstorms.

An excellent afternoon for such a short flight. I always somehow feel a ‘fraud’ flying in to Kemble because it is so close. But that’s pretty silly, it is such a nice airfield that not to go there because it is local would be even more stupid.

Roll on lazy summer days and pray for good weather for the weekend after this when we are going on our ‘Europe Trip’ with the Flyer Forum guys.

Local and big trip planning

When I looked at the booking schedule, it was pretty congested for the weekend, so I booked the Saturday morning slot. The wife was away working for her charity all day, so basically, all of Saturday was mine.

I saw a posting on Flyer Forum asking if anyone had done the route planning for the upcoming trip to Southern Italy. I responded to Mike and suggested we could compare notes on Saturday afternoon. Mike flies out of Upfield Farm near Cardiff. We agreed to a meet at 13:30 at Gloucester. That didn’t give me enough time to do the landaway I fancied AND ferry the neighbours son home for me to get back to the airfield by 13:30, so I settled for a local.

Before start start-up, I tried to put some of the 25 waypoints I need for the coming trip in to the GNS 430 and struggled. I couldn’t quite remember how to do it, so conscious that the battery was draining, I decided to leave it until later.

It was one of those days where the weather is overcast with some low cloud, but you can just tell that it will break up by the afternoon (and so it did). So I scuttled around in moderate visibility with a 2500’ cloudbase. Wandered over to the Malverns, then eastwards to near Wellesbourne, then headed back. Did a few steep turns for the benefit of my passenger. It is quite gratifying to hold a 60o AOB and hold it level. Then buzzed my local village at about 1200’ QFE.


The wind was very light and the runway had changed from 04 for take-off to 36 for landing. ATC were trying to juggle me and an approaching Falcon business jet (no prizes for guessing who had priority). As I was about to commence the deadside descent, ATC called and asked my position. They warned me of the Falcon approaching 09. I spotted it and I was obviously going to cross their path (albeit a fair way above), which is why ATC were asking. So I called visual and delayed my descent until I saw the biz-jet appear past my starboard wing as it crossed the numbers for 09.

Good landing and taxi back. Tried the waypoints again and managed to remember how to do it and got 5 of them in. 5 down 20 to go! Shut down and tidied up for the next member. I ferried Matthew home and went back to the airfield for a bacon baguette and a cuppa. The airfield café now seem to be making more of an effort – still not up to AV8 standards at Kemble, but not as dire and unwelcoming as it once was.

I saw Mike taxi land in his Pioneer 300 – nice homebuilt with a good turn of speed. we met up and wandered over to Aeros to use their nice facilities and planning table.

Mike and I compared note. He is going to Troyes with the main body, whereas I am going to Dijon and will join them in Cannes, so our first legs were different, but close. He was planning pretty much the same route across the southern alps to Cannes as I was, but had a nice ‘lower route’ pegged out that I can copy. That was as far as he had got, so talked through my routes down to Aprilia. Rome presents an interesting and meandering inland VFR route that I will go for – but I will have to keep my wits about me (not to mention the GPS!).

With that, we said our goodbyes and ‘see you in Cannes’! The trip for me is now due to start on Friday 19th May – time flies! I am pretty much finished all of the preparations and ready to go. I will squeeze one more flight in before then, but the bookings are now pretty busy – maybe a weekday evening to do some circuits.

Gear down - three greens....err, make that two!

Following a tip from a ‘Flyer Forumite’, I had planned to go to Plymouth on Easter Monday, but the weather was forecast to be pretty changeable, so opted for a ‘new’ but closer airfield – Old Sarum.

This was my friend, Dan’s first flight with me for some time. We rocked up and pulled the plane out, low on fuel so I had to refuel. Without ado, we were off on runway 27, then after noise abatement, heading south for a transit of Lyneham. Lyneham advised me that D125 was active, so I would have to go around the danger areas blocking a direct route (and also unfortunately blocking an orbit of Stonehenge).

Routed across the western edge of Lyneham and just clear of Colerne to Warminster. Then left turn to track the main road east to an inactive Boscombe Down. We did spot Stonehenge and got some photos – small isn’t it? Joined Old Sarum overhead for 24 with right hand circuits. Did a decent landing with plenty or runway left and parked up.


We ordered food and of course didn’t get what we ordered – you know how you get the feeling that no matter how often you repeat yourself and a person acknowledges, they will still get it wrong? Well, it was one of those. At least the airfield café was doing a healthy trade with a big party having a nice large lunch with wine – almost like France this.

Nice airfield (for grass) and bust too! Lovely old hangars and a really eclectic mix of aircraft.


Time was pressing so we saddled up and took off. Bit of a crosswind for runway 24 (300 / 10kts) and it was a bit bumpy in the take-off run. So I got the wheels off the ground and held in ground effect while we reached climb speed, then off we went towards Compton Abbas. At 2400’ with nine miles to run, we had a ‘spot Compton Abbas’ competition (while of course keeping a lookout for other traffic). Blow me if Dan didn’t get it first – it can be a swine to spot from certain angles.

Then we set course direct for Gloucester with a transit of Lyneham. Just passed Kemble, we spotted a ‘line’ of gliders, close, but not so close that avoiding action was required – just a waggle of the wings and a careful eye on them. And for good measure, one orbiting the ridge at Cheltenham – so advised Glos Approach of the glider traffic for the benefit of other aircraft.

Got a direct left hand base join got 27 – nice people at Gloucester. I was descending to circuit height in an extended left base, go the speed down, then down with the gear. Gear in transit light, delay, delay, one green, two now, and……nothing! Oh Sh*t! Recycle gear – one, two,…..nothing! I am on long final now so advise Gloucester that I am having trouble with my gear indications and would like to break off approach to try a few things. They helpfully suggest a low fly-past so they can ‘eyeball’ the gear – fine. While I am closing in, I ask my passenger to dislodge and swap the gear bulbs (fairly easy in an Arrow – sometime it is a bulb that has gone and this would show that). He does this and still no dice – left main gear shows no indication! So I fly past the tower and ‘go-around’. They say all the gear looks down. I cycle the gear up for the go-around and climb back to circuit height.

Downwind, I recycle the gear again with the same result – negative on the left main gear. But I am sure I saw a ‘flash’ on the left gear indicator light. I turn the plane and ask the Tower to see what the gear looks like with the binos – again, they advise that it looks normal. At this stage I am pretty sure it is a faulty switch or loose connection – maybe some guck from the grass airstrip at Old Sarum or something knocked loose of the bumpy take off run. So I decide to land and advise the Tower. They declare me ‘priority traffic’.

I advise my experienced passenger that this is probably nothing, but to tighten his belt and brace in the flare. He does so and is reasonably laconic about the whole thing.

I do the usual approach and final checks and come in at the normal approach speed. Tower advise the gear still looks OK. I go for it and flare, but a bit ‘wing down’ towards the right so the right main touches first. This is what happens, I hold the left off as best I can, but it touches….and holds! I start to brake to make the first intersection, but the Tower advise me to roll to the end as there is an airport fire-truck following me along the runway! Wow, an escort!

We taxi the long way back. Needless to say, immediately we clear the runway, the left main green light comes on and stays on! On the way past, we give the tower a ‘thumbs up’ and taxi to parking. I close down and have a very long and audible exhale of breath. Dan reassures me and tells me that he was sure we weren’t going to die, because in his dreams he always dies screaming – and this time no-one was screaming! Thanks Dan!

I have a look at the gear and there is nothing visibly wrong. Phil from one of the flying schools obviously heard the radio calls on the school scanner and ambles over. One of his school aircraft is an Arrow 2 and he has a look. He can’t see anything wrong and also thinks it must be a loose connection.

I look up and see a Gloucester fire brigade truck pull up and onto the airfield. Standard procedure the airport firecrew tell me. I have to say I am extremely impressed with Gloucester Airport. The tower, the firecrew and the county fire brigade are very much on the ball – well done guys – top marks!

I write up the problem in the tech log and we head home. I stop at Dan’s for a beer (of course) and we both decide it is better not to tell the other half’s – after all, it was just a loose connection.

I email the group and ask for the plane to be checked out by our MO before anyone else flies. I ring the two members who were due to fly tomorrow and suggest that they shouldn’t until we get it checked.

Quite an exciting trip all in all. I have to say, I was 80% sure it was a loose connection or a claggy micro-switch, but the 20% was of course nipping away at my thoughts in the circuit.

As the old saying goes ‘anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’!

What a good weekend!

A real ‘April Showers’ weekend started the first weekend in April – that’s for sure!

I had the plane booked for Saturday morning for a local and all day Sunday so that myself and other group members could give the plane a full valet and wax ready for the summer season.

I had agreed to take Dave flying. He is a friend of a friend and disabled as a result of an accident while in the military. He has never been up in a small aircraft. I took advice and tried it out myself, and it did seem that it was quite possible for him to get into and out of the aircraft with only a little assistance.

So I turned up on Saturday and did the pre-flights, filled her with fuel, then I spotted that Dave had just arrived. I met him and escorted him airside and introduced him to the challenge of boarding. He was fine with it and in the event, only needed my shoulder to push against – well, he is a top class hand-cyclist and has arms about as think as my legs!

I only had to clamber over Dave to get to my seat (there is only one door in the PA28 series), which I managed without booting him in the face.

The weather was very changeable, with some blue bits between the clouds and isolated and easily seen showers. The wind was blustery but with Gloucester’s three runways, we rarely have to deal with much crosswind. In the event, the take-off was fine and the climb out good. There was not much turbulence as I headed North for Worcester and the Malverns to have a play.

Dave had a go at flying and made the usual mistakes – gripping the yoke in the ‘Vulcan Death Grip’ and going into a turning climb etc. Once we got that straightened out (using the ‘Dog turds wrapped in tissue’ analogy), he was managing straight and level and gentle rate 1 turns. I treated him to a couple of steep turns (60 degrees AOB). I thought about going above the clouds in the blue gaps and got to 5000’. Even at 5000’ it was clear that there was some vertical development of the cumulus and that I would have to get to 8000’ before I was truly on top, so with time constraints against me, I gave up on the idea. Instead, I spotted a few lower, small and self-contained clouds and had a play by flying right through them.


I picked up the ATIS and headed for Gloucester. Got a standard overhead join for 22 right hand. The circuit wasn’t too busy and made a nice final approach and with the assistance of the headwind, stopped in a very short distance of the runway.

Dave managed to get out even better than getting in and didn’t require any assistance at all. We decided to catch some lunch in the airfield café and settled down to a bacon baguette and tea, when I spotted a PA38 taxi up and park. I recognised it as one of the Pembrey aircraft and sure enough, Leia walked over to the café a few minutes later. Leia is a student flying from Pembrey and I gave her a lift to the student fly-in a couple of weeks ago. Said hello and was joined by the other student I gave a lift to – old home week this. Time was pressing, so Leia set off again on her return leg of her solo landaway while I set course for home.

Sunday dawned with pretty poor looking weather. My wife described the clouds to the west as ‘navy blue’. However, I was not planning to fly, only to round up three other members of the group so we could give the plane a full valet ready for the summer season. We aim to do this twice a year, with a ‘wash and shammy’ between each full valet. For us, a full valet means what it says.

First we scramble around on our backs and use ‘Yak Milk’ to de-grease and clean the entire underside and gear.

Then we wash, rinse and shammy dry all of the aircraft (including the dreaded underside – with water running off the sponge down your arms!).

Then a break while it dries, followed by ‘wax on / wax off’ of AutoGlym red label polish.

Then we ‘wax on’ AutoGlym gold label polish and go for another break to leave this for the required 60 minutes.

Then we polish off the gold label, while one or two members hoover the inside, polish the Perspex inside and out (AutoGlym FastGlass) and another member polished the aluminium spinner with aluminium polish, then waxes that.

Followed by the grand finales – apply some tyre black to the tyres.

Hey presto – a fantastic, brand new aircraft!

I am the nominated organiser for this activity and made sure that we had stocks of all material in place. We pulled the plane out and I made a start while the other turned up around 10:00 – actually for a change, they were all very prompt! We set about it. The new member, Garry, got volunteered for the crappy job, specifically degreasing the underside (although I did join him). That Yak Milk is fantastic – it really cuts through it without the risk of using some of the nastier sprays (Gunk etc.).

Usual hilarity follows as the people washing the top start on the wings when other members are working underneath (oops!). We push the plane into a hangar to shield it from the showers and try out Staverton Flying Club for the break as the plane dries. Under new management and it was indeed very welcoming. A lot of people there and it has a nice feel.

We start the polishing and yes, it is very hard work! We go for two layers of different polish, both from AutoGlym. One to polish and one to seal. It looks good after the first polish, then you have to ‘ruin’ all your work and apply the second sealing coat of gold label. This is almost like water and is very easy to apply – not rubbing. We take our second break and grab a good fry-up at the airfield café. After an hour, we return and the gold label is nicely dry and polishes off easily to reveal a fantastic shine! Meanwhile, I attack the Perspex, the inside and shine the tyres etc.


Yes folks! By a mere 15:00 we are done – four people working (with breaks) since 10:00. Well it sets us up nicely for the summer and we all agree, it really does look a million dollars! The paint job it had at Colton’s two years ago is truly excellent and polishes up really well.


Then the question – has anyone brought their flying gear? OK, it is quite blustery and showery, but it is flyable. As chance would have it, I have! So I agree to do the ‘test flight’ with two other group members as ‘official observers’! I check the aircraft over carefully – always possible that latches and catches are undone etc. In the event it is fine other than two incorrectly fastened cowling catches.

We load up, start up and are off. Gloucester is quiet due to the weather and they only have a single frequency going. The take-off and climb out are OK, even with the turbulence. Climbing to 2400’ over Gloucester and it is still smooth. Then we catch turbulence under some of the better developed cumulus clouds. We head to some new engineering works over Gloucester to get some photos so Garry can give them to the construction company (he works in that industry). Mark decides to have a look at his factory, so we set course into the wind to Monmouth. He seems to own a good 10 acres of factory in prime position in Monmouth – hmmm…. maybe Mark is rich and therefore worth sucking-up to a lot!

The plane is fine, so we set course for a return. Gloucester is quiet and now giving runway 27 with right hand circuits with winds 250 25G37. Could be an interesting approach! We get a direct to downwind join, so I start a cruise descent from 10 miles. I note from the GPS that our groundspeed is 160 kts!

Just before we get to Gloucester, we encounter a sudden jolt of turbulence. The first we knew about it was that all three of us are catapulted off our seats headed skyward! Time to find out who had their seatbelts nice and tight! As I am tall, I don’t have as far to travel until my head hits the roof, but poor Garry in the back is both smaller and had his seat belt loose - so his head hits the roof with a thump. Mark is not much better but manages to grab the seat. That was exciting! We probably now have three ‘power bulges’ in the roof-line of the aircraft!

Excitement over - we join downwind and I slow the plane down and drop the gear – that slows us nicely. I am getting pushed downwind very fast, so I turn base and pull on two stages of flaps. No need to turn at the ‘prominent building’ with this headwind, so I cut a lot of the base leg out and head for a curved final (no problem as we are the only aircraft in the circuit – maybe someone is trying to tell us something!).

I line up for final and give it the ‘Red / Green / Blue’ check. Then on half mile final, we start to get bounced around. The ASI is jumping about a lot, but I suppose averaging my desired ‘faster than normal’ approach speed. This is getting sporting now! I continue the approach and crab as there is a reasonable crosswind component. Over the hedge and still getting bounced around. I slow the rate of descent and start to get blown across the runway, so turn more into wind, then I flare and kick it straight, active on the rudder pedals and ailerons, then thankfully, the wheels touch – I quickly drop the flaps to dump lift. We touch at a quite a slow groundspeed (hardly surprising I suppose) and are stopped long before the intersection of 27. Phew, that was fun! Not bad at all in the circumstances. All good experience.

We taxi up and shut down. The showers we encountered en-route have left no mark at all of the aircraft as the polished surfaces shrugged it off. Once again, we admire our handiwork as the helpful firecrew push the plane back into the hangar for the night.

It has been a good weekend, despite the showery weather and the fact I was only doing locals. The plane is now all set for the summer season. First up is Garry who is flying her to Jersey next week, then to Spain in early May, then my flying her to Italy in late May. The others are not so solid in their plans yet, but I am sure they will involve cross-channel trips etc.

Back to circuits!

After one poor and a couple of ‘less than good’ landings last Saturday (albeit in gusty crosswinds) I resolved to return to the circuit for a thorough refresher. The weather was so good today that I couldn’t resist and trotted off to the airfield.

Got the plane out and for some reason, Gloucester was busy, not so much with students in the circuits, all sorts, loads of helicopters, a couple of light twins, as Cessna Caravan etc.

Anyway, booked out and started up and taxied out. They are giving runway 09 and 1013, so presumably still anti-cyclonic – excellent visibility though AND a high scattered cloudbase.

I did the power checks, all OK there then was held while a jet backtracked for take-off. While I was holding, the engine started to sound rough. So I checked the mags again and there it was – a big drop on the left mag. I did the usual ‘lean it off and run it hot’ trick to clear what I hoped was fouling – but no joy. Tower advised me that I was clear for take-off but had to tell them that I wanted taxi back to maintenance due to rough-running.

I figured that was it for the day and cancelled my booking-out. I parked up – yes, definitely a plug on the left mags gone. After shutdown, I marked up our tech log then wandered into Aeros, our maintenance organisation. Met Dave and told him the story and he offered to come straight out and fix it! Great, I was about to give up for the day!

We start up and yes, it is chugging! He tells me to leave it running on the left mag only for a couple of minutes and taxi round to their hangar – sounds odd, but OK. I get there and shut down, then he explains. By running the engine on the mag with the defective plug for a few minutes after start-up, what it means is that it is only firing on three cylinders, so once he takes the cowling off and touches the cylinders, the one that is coolest is bound to be the cylinder that was not firing and therefore the one with the defective plug – OH I SEE! Thinks ‘commit to memory and bore people to death with it later!’.

He spots what he says must be a blob of lead between the gap shorting the plug. We replace it and yes, it is much better. So I book out again and taxi out again. The airfield is quieter this time and I pay particular attention to the power checks. It all looks good, I get clearance and I am away.

I have not done a complete flight on circuits for some time, but it is all still there. First landing – hmmm. OK, not bad even, but I think I can see what I am doing wrong now. Approach is good, approach speed OK, but then on very short final, I seem to be rounding out too high, rather than just checking the rate of descent, then losing airspeed such that I have very little in the hold-off.

Second landing, yes, that is much better. Nail the airspeed on 75 all the way down, check descent, flare then a determined hold off.

Third approach and the Tower try to slot in a backtrack departure of a twin while I am on base. The twin gets to the end of the runway then says he is not ready for immediate, so I get a go-around. Oh well, only my second on in a couple of years – good practice I suppose.

The following landings are all much better, nice and smooth and I even hear the stall warner chirping as the wheels touch on the last one! In all I do 6 landings (7 approaches).

It is funny how you can suddenly have a ‘bad patch’ on things like this. Apart from when I was a student, I have not had this happen to me. I know many people say that they too go through bad patches on certain things (landing is the most common), I guess I just thought it didn’t apply to me – well now I know what they mean!

Well I am now quite happy that I have sorted that problem – it is all about accurate airspeed all the way down, don’t anticipate the flare (just check the descent) and hold-off hard!

I guess I had better get some instrument refresher training in ‘just in case’ on this Europe trip in May. I have the ADF tracking and NDB/DME approaches going well on FS2004, I guess I had better get back to the real thing with an instructor.

Flyer Forum Student Fly-In

For weeks now, the Flyer Forum has had a students fly-in planned on Saturday 18th March to Wellesborne Mountford airfield near Stratford on Avon. Needless to say, the weather forecasts looked dodgy, with a high pressure giving poor visibility, winds and occasional sleet!

Saturday dawned with a gusty wind and claggy with poor to moderate visibility. I had teamed up with Alan White who flies out of Gloucester. Gloucester to Wellesborne is hardly a challenge, being less than 15 minutes in the Arrow. At a late stage, one of the other pilots had to drop out and I agreed to pick up Leia who flies out of Pembrey. She did offer to train it up to Gloucester, but I agreed to try to pick her up in Pembrey – well, I hadn’t been there before so why not?

With the weather as it was, it was questionable whether I could make Pembrey, but the forecast did say the weather would be better out west and I could at least try. So I met Alan at Gloucester and off we went, with Alan doing the flying a navigating and me doing the radio and cross-checking the navigation – no I wasn’t cheating with the GPS – I had that turned off of the map page (OK – I used VOR and DME instead).


I planned to route around the north of Cardiff zone between the city and the high ground. Given the ceiling of about 2300’ and a visibility that was given by EGBJ as 15 km but looked to us more like 8 km, this was a good call. So we flew IFR (I Follow the River) down the Severn and called Cardiff Radar. We turned to follow north of the M4 just past Newport. We headed towards the wind farms, missing Cardiff zone by a couple of miles. Then on to Pembrey over Swansea. We had a belting tailwind of about 30 kts, giving us 160 kts groundspeed (yes, I checked the GPS for that – so!). Just east of Swansea, the cloud starts to break and by the time we get to Pembrey, we are bathed in sunshine!

Alan has done a good job of navigating and we spot Pembrey. I do a standard overhead join and line up for 04 with a nasty crosswind (070 / 15G25 IIRC). I didn’t like my first approach so for the first time in a couple of year, I do a go-around. Second approach is better and looking good, but I can only describe the landing as ‘an arrival’. A crosswind, yes, but no excuses, just not good.

Leia is waiting there. A quick cuppa, then off, this time direct to Wellesborne. We pretty much retrace the route, only a little more inland behind Cardiff playing in some of the valleys with Leia doing the navigation and flying with me at the radio. We are beating into a 30-40 kt headwind and the groundspeed varies between 90 – 100 kts! As we pass Cardiff, the sun disappears as does the visibility! We head east and pick up the Severn at Newport, then IFR again to pass north abeam Gloucester. Straight line now to Wellesborne – there’s the racecourse, Bishops Cleeve, Bredon Hill, Evesham – yep, nicely on track.

I take over with about 10 miles to run and we play ‘spot the airfield in the murk’. Wellesborne are giving 36 left hand with winds of 070 / 15G25 – oh joy! This will be sporting! We spot the airfield and I position for a left base join. The approach is fine and give me a good idea on the wind, I am cranked quite a bit into it to hold the approach line. I flare a little high and of course a gust catches me. Lower the into wind wing a bit, continue the flare and we are down – and the landing - not perfect, but not too bad. We park up with all the other forumites on runway 05 and about 12:50 – a lot have made it.


Into the airfield café for lunch and we spot quite a few forumites and say hello. The café is pretty crowded – maybe it’s us! We follow some of the others to the museum which opened especially for us and have a poke around. Nicely done and run with enthusiasm.

Time marches on and I am aware that we have to get back to Pembrey AND beat our way back into the headwind to Gloucester. I round the troops up and head back to the parking line. We hear Nigel Webb take-off in his Jet Provost – so much for noise abatement! The parking line is starting to thin now as I start up and taxi out. We take-off and I follow the noise abatement, heading for the green roof. We climb to 2200’ which is about all we will get in the murk and head for Gloucester. I use the NDB and DME of course while Leia and Alan dutifully check the ground features. We beat our way past Gloucester and head down the river again. This is a retrace of our steps – I am surprised we don’t hit our own wake vortex from the last trip!

Leia is doing very well – good height holding and seems very adept at visual navigation – while I point out to Leia and Alan how to use Brecon VOR radials and DME to establish position as we go. The other side of Cardiff and the clouds break again and we are again awash in sunshine. Cardiff hand us off to Swansea warning of traffic over Swansea bay. Swansea don’t know anything, but Leia spots it – a Tomohawk above, in front and to our left. We keep an eye on him as head heads north-west and we swing behind him. I hear him call me as visual on Swansea frequency, so I call him an air-to-air telling him what we are doing. Leia says he is one of the Pembrey school aircraft and instructors.

Again, we approach Pembrey and I take over to land. The wind is better now – IIRC 050 / 15kts. Better circuit this time and an adequate landing – not as horrible as last time, but still not smooth. I park up and check the fuel – from full tanks this morning I now have 75 litres left. Enough to get safely back to Gloucester, but in this poor visibility and headwind – I go for the safe option and refuel – at least to tabs at Pembrey. The most useless thing in the world is fuel in the pumps (when you need it in the tanks). I swear the chap burned more fuel starting the bowser and driving it up to the plane that I uplifted.


We bid farewell to Leia – I think she had some fun and has found an easier way of navigating to Gloucester. Alan takes over in the front as we take off and set course for Gloucester. This time, we elect to route direct via BCN – we are at 3000’ in scattered cloud, but of course approaching BCN, it becomes overcast, so we dip below. I am helping Alan to navigate using the VOR and DME with checks against ground features. Alan is having fun with the trim as we gain and lose a few hundred feet here and there. To be fair, as we get closer to Brecon, it has more to do with up and downdrafts. We have sensible visibility even if we are below MSA. Some of the hills look pretty close then drop dramatically away as we cut across the valleys.

It is a bit bouncy as one would expect, all good experience. We hit a bit that is quite a bit bouncier as Alan bangs his head on the roof and wears his headphones as a visor! I think he is still enjoying it? We pass in sight of the BCN VOR keeping a very good lookout. Then ten miles the other side, the ground drops away and reveals low fields and gently rolling countryside. We pass over Monmouth and the Forest of Dean. I call up Gloucester. They are giving 04 with left hand circuits and a wind of 050 / 20 kts – good old Gloucester – lots of runways, so rarely much of a crosswind.

At 5 miles I get cleared for a straight in approach – they really are not busy at all today – I wonder why?! The approach is again good, but I balloon a bit, so again an adequate but not a great landing. Right – it’s circuits for you next flight my boy!

We park up and I do the admin. Alan has enjoyed himself and I think he had some fun in the turbulence over the Brecon hills! We bid farewell.

A good days flying in occasionally challenging conditions. Visibility wasn’t great and I didn’t fancy going above the clouds as they were sat at freezing level. I am sure it would have been great up there, but would have defeated the object for the students, which was to practice visual navigation. Next serious trip is the Flyer Forum trip to Italy in May. I will try to sneak a trip in to France before then though – after some circuits though!

Bomber Circuits!

A couple of members of the group had previously reported slight vibration in the climb and recently some vibration in the cruise. The cruise turned out to be plug fowling which was fixed, but the vibration in the climb seemed to be continuing. I think this all started when one of the group went up with an instructor who spotted it and suggested we get it checked out. Needless to say, checking with our maintenance organisation has revealed nothing and it cannot be reproduced on the ground.

Well, of course once something like this is pointed out, we were all getting a bit up-tight about the slightest odd engine noise etc. A couple of members have been reading around the subject and wondered if the propeller needed balancing etc.

What the engineers needed they said was to go up with one of us. On Thursday 9th March, I was at a loose end in the afternoon, and although the weather wasn’t great, it was good enough, so I left early and set up a quick local with an engineer to move this forward.

Dave is an experienced engineer who works mostly on PA28’s and owned and flew an Arrow for a few years, so he came pretty well qualified in my books. We started up and took off. In the climb at 25/25 there was a slight vibration which he felt. He asked me to level out on the same settings and fly straight and level, which I did, and the vibration disappeared. Dave then played with many different power and prop settings, both straight and level and in the climb. The only time there was even slight vibration was in the climb.

Dave explained that he felt quite strongly that there was nothing wrong with the plugs or the engine and that it most certainly wasn’t propeller balance – if it was, it would happen in a narrow range of power / rpm regardless of the angle of attack. He asked if any of the group had experience in operating an aircraft with the three bladed propeller (as ours has). None of us do – he was convinced that it was simply the angle of attack on a three bladed propeller and that they routinely felt like this (where a two bladed propeller wouldn’t). He said that it would probably feel much the same on a power run up in a steady crosswind etc. He advised us strongly not to waste our money chasing this as there was nothing wrong! Well, that was good enough for me and I agreed to write his comments up for the benefit of the rest of the group, but that one or two of them might want to talk to him direct about it.

We headed back to the airfield, where it was pretty quiet. I was given a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits. It seemed that I was joining overhead at the same time as another aircraft. I looked hard, but didn’t see him until I was crosswind, where I saw him at the same level, ahead and to my right. He was too close for spacing, so I elected to extend crosswind as he turned and called downwind. I then turned and pulled the gear down to slow the plane up to gain space. I was given as number 3. I could see both aircraft in front, with the furthest looking like he was about to turn base.

During the downwind checks, I lost the furthest plane in the ‘ground clutter’ but stayed visual with the near aircraft. The near aircraft had also lost the other guy and called ATC to ask where he was and could he turn base? He was advised that the furthest aircraft was now on 2.5 mile base – hmmm… what is he doing out there? So we both extended a long way downwind. Eventually we both saw him now on 3.5 mile final!! It was only a PA28 – what the hell is he doing flying circuits outside the ATZ especially as there were no aircraft in front of him!

I commented to Dave that I had never seen anything like this. We both joked about a certain flying school based at Gloucester who are notorious for flying ‘bomber circuits’. I was on base and the aircraft in front was on final following the ‘Vulcan Bomber (PA28)’. Then Dave heard the offending aircraft and declared that it was ‘one of his!’ (the flying school who also owned his maintenance organisation). Well, from my vantage point at about 1.5 miles, holding height with high power, I could see the PA28 about to land with the aircraft in front of me close, but far enough away to expect a late clearance. The PA28 landed nice and slow and seemed to be certain to stop by the intersection, so he could vacate early. Instead he trundled past a slow walking pace! I heard ATC start to say ‘cleared for short back-track…’ when they stopped as the PA28 trundled slowly to end of the long runway! He hadn’t cleared and the chap immediately in front of me was ordered to ‘go around’. I was by now just inside 1 mile and descending. I was cleared to land and put it down easily in time for the intersection.

Well, I commented on the PA28’s poor airmanship in flying such incredibly wide circuits with no other traffic about. Dave said he would raise it with the flying school so I left it at that (otherwise, I would have gone over there and had a friendly chat. I could only assume it was an early student doing solo circuits, but he really should be made aware that it was very poor airmanship and dangerous as we were forced to overfly Cheltenham town centre a slow speeds and high power settings at 1000’).

I have since corresponded by email with the ATCO who may also look into it. I am certainly no expert and I am sure that I have been guilty of poor airmanship in the past (and will probably make mistakes in the future) and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but either he or his instructor really need to know that circuits are not flown like that.

Next time, I will ask to ‘cut in front’.