CAN/USA: Westchester to Niagara Intl

Route: KHPN (Westchester) DCT HUO DCT CFB DCT GEE DCT KIAG (Niagara International)
Logged: 2.8 hours
Fuel: 91 litres

After landing back at Westchester from the New York low level route, I had the plane topped off with fuel and settled the fuel and handling bill with Million Air. I was hoping that they wouldn’t live up to their name and sure enough, the charges were perfectly reasonable – barely more that I would pay for the landing fee alone at Shobdon! A mere $US22.00!



I called the wonderful 1-800-WX BRIEF and got the weather (hardly needed it as it was bright, warm and wonderful sunshine all the way), NOTAM’s (there weren’t any affecting me) and lodged a flight plan.

That settled, we mounted up, got the ATIS and called for taxi on the ground frequency. We were again on runway 16 and after power checks, I switched to tower and was cleared for departure with a right turnout and yes, they would activate my flight plan.

We lined up, powered up and were off again, barely an hour after touching down from the previous flight.

I climbed to the cleared 1500’, levelled out and tried to contact New York Centre. They were very busy indeed. I tried two or three calls asking for flight following but with no reply. Either they didn’t hear me or didn’t bother to reply as it was obvious they didn’t have the capacity.

It was at this point that I noticed that my headset was noisier than usual and a quick check of the battery box for the ANR showed no red light, so my battery had died. I tried to talk to Dan on the intercom, but he couldn’t hear me. Oh great! We carried on at 1500’ until clear of the NY zone now headed North West. I climbed to 2500’ for now and tried to sort out what was happening. Thinking I had radio failure, I tried Flightwatch on 122.0 and asked for a frequency for flight following. They heard me OK and replied, but did not come back with a frequency and didn’t reply to later calls, again either because they didn’t hear me or were ignoring me.

This set me worrying, did I have radio failure and should I turn around? Well, it was clear that people could hear me on the radio and Dan could hear radio transmissions, but my ANR was out as was the intercom – coincidence? I started to think that the failure in ANR was linked and setting up some sort of incompatibility with Dan’s headset and the ancient intercom. I had had an ANR battery die on me before, and all it did was carry on as normal but without ANR. Dan’s headsets were exactly the same as mine (DC 13.4’s) but without the ANR mod.

OK, work the problem. We swapped headsets and that didn’t do anything. I had Dan change the battery for a spare I had in the flight bag, but that too was dead. I know I had had it a fair while, but why would an unused battery be dead? I checked the circuit breakers and even recycled the alternator – no change.

I climbed to my cruise of 4500’ following the US quadrantal rule. Having spent a joyful 20 minutes or so trying to resolve the problem, I came to the conclusion that the intercom had failed but that I had radio contact, so no need for a divert. I still didn’t have flight following, so I checked the map for the nearest large airport.



I discovered Wilkes-Barre / Scranton and called them on 120.10 asking for flight following. They responded immediately and allocated a squawk and flight following – well at least something is now going right!

Despite my 4500’, the ground seemed mighty close on occasions, a fact confirmed by the contour colouring on the map, this was high by gently rolling countryside, alternately thickly forested with large clearer famed areas with scattered settlements.

We continued on, learning the lost art of mime to converse with each other. Well, at least the flight following was working well as I was handed on from Wilkes-Barre to Binghampton to Elmira.



As I was approaching the GEE VOR, I was given a traffic advisory of an aircraft at the same altitude orbiting over the VOR and I was advised to turn south immediately. Well the work ‘immediate’ grabbed my attention as I cranked it around before I even acknowledged the transmission. I continued south until I was advised I was well clear of the traffic and resumed course for Niagara.

It was at this point that I dropped my pen. In leaning over to pick it up, I noticed a very small panel on the lower centre console with two buttons on it that had previously been hidden from my view by the yoke. Hmmmm I thought – its got one of those very old hand held mikes attached to it……..YOU IDIOT! This was the elusive intercom control panel. Why I hadn’t noticed it before I will never know. Looking at it carefully I saw a small flick switch marked ‘Isol / All’. It was set to ‘Isol’. I wonder what will happen if I flick it to ‘All’. You guessed it, the intercom came to life! I even managed to adjust the squelch and volume setting so that the intercom was louder than the radio so we could hear each other without being blasted out by radio transmissions.

Well I had to confess my idiocy to Dan. Where the intercom controls were placed was right next to the trim wheel and I had obviously knocked the switch onto ‘Isolate’ when trimming the plane in the climbout from Westchester! In my defence, I would point out that the plane had a lot of instruments fitted, but many were noted as unserviceable, so it was a case of ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’.

So as it turned out, the failure of my ANR battery was pure coincidence. I suppose that on the plus side, I didn’t let it distract me too much while we were relatively low and in busy airspace. Well, that was my mistake for this particular leg and a very good one at that!

We continued on as I got over my stupidity and were transferred to Rochester and then onto Buffalo Centre on 126.15. Buffalo were great and clearly had time on their hands as they vectored me (not that I needed it) onto the right downwind approach for 10 Right at Niagara International. At 5 miles I changed to Niagara Tower on 118.50.

Niagara International is one of those American airports that is part USAF (Air National Guard) and part civilian. So one runway was HUGE (10,000') and the other was a more normal civilian size (4,000') with both parallel to each other, hence the necessary L and R designations.



I descended to circuit height and came in on the downwind leg. I was cleared to land and put her down nicely on the threshold. I was given a ‘next right’ exit and pointed towards the local FBO called Tech Aviation.



We taxied in and shut down. I wandered over to the handling agent and was met by a friendly and casual lady behind the desk. I asked for the plane to be gassed up and that we were looking for a quick turnaround. She pointed me at the flight planning room down the corridor and directed Dan to a diner across the road as he hadn’t eaten any lunch and he does not fit in with my pattern of a big breakfast and no lunch. She also indicated that the tower will already have closed the flight plan for me.



I grabbed a few sweets on display on the counter and headed for the flight planning room as Dan headed for the diner.

An easy trip in excellent weather that went off very much as planned except again for some initial difficulty in picking up flight forwarding and of course my debacle with the headset and intercom. Flying in the US is remarkably simple, cheap and easy compared to the crowded airspace, expensive handling and onerous radio work associated with the UK.

CAN/USA: New York City Route

Route: KHPN (Westchester) DCT Tappensee Bridge DCT Manhattan DCT Tappensee Bridge DCT KHPN
Logged: 1.1 hours
Fuel: 41.5 litres

After staying in downtown New York for two nights and being shown the sights by my sister (who now lives in New York), we returned to Westchester via the commuter train to White Plains and a pick-up by Million Air, our flight handling service.

I spoke to the Million Air reception about the bill and explained that I was going on a ‘local’ around the NY low-level route and would return to Westchester for a fuel top up and would prefer to pay then. They were fine with this and confirmed that it had already been fully refuelled.

I got some helpful advice on the route from a local pilot, who confirmed what I already knew. Basically not above 1500’, but with some sections not above 1100’ (so I decided to stick with 1100’ for the whole route). South down the Hudson river following the west (right) side of the river. Self announce position reports on the specific frequency for the low level route of 123.05. Then around Ellis and Liberty Islands, back over Governors Island, quick peek at the East River, then hard left around Battery Park and back up the Hudson on the east side (right) flying past Manhattan, Greenwich Village, Central Park etc and back up to the Tappensee Bridge, then inland back to Westchester.

We wandered out and Dan prepped and packed the aircraft. We were good to go so we mounted up and I called Westchester Ground for taxi. I was instructed to taxi to the hold for runway 16.

I did the power checks and switched to Tower and called ready. They gave me a right turnout departure not above 1500'. So off we went.

I had not programmed anything in on the GPS and there were no radio beacons of any use, so I flew by map, time and compass bearing direct to the Tappensee Bridge, some 30 nautical miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan. This was not much of a navigational challenge as I only had to head west for 10 nm before I picked up the Hudson running North / South and you can hardly mistake the Hudson!





We hit the Tappensee Bridge pretty much spot on and proceeded down the Hudson river on the right hand side (western side), but still over the river itself. I changed frequency to 123.05 and started self-announcing. The frequency seemed full of others doing the same. All of the other aircraft seemed very well versed and slick in their calls and used all sorts of locations not marked on the map, so I immediately realised I was dealing with the professional helicopter jocks who I saw plying the low level route in their droves while on the ground in NY.

We plodded along at our stately 105kts as the skyline of NY hove into view with the also imposing New Jersey skyline on the near shore I was flying. It looked far more impressive in the early morning haze than photographs can possibly do justice to. I turned on every light and beacon I had and hoped that ’see and avoid’ worked both ways!

I called over the Holland Tunnel, took a deep breath, and plunged into the really busy part of the pattern. I kept a sharp lookout for traffic and maintained situational awareness while Dan snapped happily away with the camera.

We passed very close to a particularly tall New Jersey skyscraper outbound to Ellis and Liberty Islands.



On the way to them, I came across two helicopters, one above me (surely in controlled airspace?) and one below. I was sure we saw each other, so continued and passed vertically between them like a sandwich – it probably sounds more dramatic than it was as there was always a couple of hundred feet between us. Any other day, I might have been worried, but I suspected that this was ‘just another Wednesday’ on the NY low level route.





I turned left around Liberty Island with the iconic status of liberty and headed for Governors Island on the way to the East River. I only went far enough up the East River to check out the Brooklyn Bridge, then hauled the plane around into moderate left-hander to pass in front of Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. Now we got some really ‘up close and personal’ photos of skyscrapers!





I was now on the right hand side (east) of the Hudson, over water of course and headed back up north. This was still a busy stretch but the worst was passed. I was still very busy flying the plane and keeping a lookout, but did managed some glances at the scenery – this isn’t the place for a relaxed and carefree bimble I can tell you!





I called at the Holland Tunnel (clearly visible from the matching ventilation towers) and was past the worst of it. On the way passed, we spotted ‘Ground Zero’ between the buildings and of course Central Park. I spotted where my sister lives as she is virtually on the Hudson near Central Park.





I bumbled on, starting to relax a bit now as we headed up-river back towards the Tappensee Bridge. I called Westchester Tower when I got to Tappensee and they gave me a squawk. I orbited while they picked up the squawk and they gave me a direct to right base for 16. I headed inland towards White Plains and searched for the airfield. We spotted the dam, so I knew I was on the right track. The Dan spotted the airfield and I started to line up.

I was lining up from about 5 miles and seemed to be on a direct to long final, so I continued. It was only a confusing minute later when I realised that I was busy lining up on the out-of-use runway 11. Embarrassed, I quickly entered right base to XX and lined up on about a two mile final. I was cleared to land and put her down nicely and took a right exit back to the now familiar Million Air hangar.

On shutdown, I asked the marshaller to fill her up ASAP while we adjourned to the terminal to pay fees and make personal preparations for the next leg of our trip from Westchester to Niagara International.

It was only a short trip, but what a flight. Yes the airspace is busy and it is hardly a relaxing flight, but it is quite simply THE most awesome, non-aerobatic flight I have ever done. If you haven’t done this, then you must! I can believe that it can be surpassed by some of the awesome scenery flying in the Grand Canyon or, say Monument Valley, but you won’t beat this for a city flight! It is a rare privilege in this security-obsessed day and age to be allowed to make a flight like this, especially in a city that has suffered so much and so recently.

It is a tribute to America and the enlightened approach of the FAA that we can fly such routes and to me clearly marks out the difference in attitude between the US and Europe. To me the European view is that ‘unless it says you can then you can’t’, the American view seeming to me to be the opposite.

Now - if only Americans could get Homeland Security to smile a bit and use common sense, this would be a ‘helluva’ country (as they say over here)!

CAN/USA: Massena to Westchester

Route: KMSS (Massena) DCT PLB DCT GFL DCT ALB DCT IGN DCT KIAG (Westchester)
Logged: 2.7 hours
Fuel: 95 litres

Massena was pretty deserted, certainly the main terminal was, so we mounted up and taxied across to the hangars on the other side of the airfield. Here we found a self-service fuel pump, so I pulled alongside to top up as the next leg was a three hour one.

I was trying to understand the instructions when a very helpful guy wandered over from one of the hangars and explained it to me. I topped up with about 35 litres (in US Gallons of course) and paid by credit card at the automated pump.

Dan discovered a PC and a telephone in the office of another hangar and I made my way over there to get a brief for the next leg. Sure enough, this was the briefing station and I got through immediately to 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Here I got a full set of NOTAM’s, a weather brief and filed a flight plan – what a fantastic and simple service. The guy said he would set the flight plan to activate automatically in 15 minutes to save me activating it once airborne.



The weather was good except for the last 50 miles or so where they were forecasting a 60% chance of thunderstorms (not good!). I decided to give it a try and at least see how far we got as I had plenty of divert airfields all along the route.

As we were starting to mount up, someone wandered over from the hangar and said they had just had a phone call asking if we had arrived from the previous flight plan – lesson to learn – always close your own flight plan over the phone when you land! My mistake for the trip (I always seem to make one).

We climbed on board and checked the windsock. It still favoured 05, albeit with a healthy crosswind from the left (I guessed 350/12G17). Still nothing on the radio waves, so I self-announced and made a crosswind take-off heading broadly east towards Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks.

The route I planned took us initially ESE towards Lake Champlain, then virtually due south for the rest of the flight initially following Lake Champlain, then picking up and staying to the eastern side of the Hudson Valley all the way into Westchester.

I tried to contact Boston Centre on 135.25 but had no luck until I climbed to my cruise altitude of 3500’. When I asked for Flight Following they transferred me to another frequency, they in turn suggested someone else etc. I was getting the run-around. So I called up Flightwatch on 122.0 and asked them for a suitable frequency for flight following. They gave me Burlington on 122.2 and I got good FF from them.

We were heading towards the Adirondacks (the home of Lake Placid of winter Olympics fame) and crossed the ridge at a lower point with the heavily forested ground coming up to meet us a mere 600’ below, despite our 3500’. There were few if any places to set down in the event of an engine failure, except maybe one of the lakes. I could only imagine how beautiful this countryside must look every fall when the Maples change colour.



We crossed the ridge and saw the huge Lake Champlain running north / south in front of us. We turned en-route at Plattsburg VOR and instead of slavishly following my pre-planned ‘straight-line’ route to the GFL VOR, I followed the reasonably straight I87 freeway so that at least I would have somewhere to land if the engine quit. The mighty Garmin Pilot 3 GPS was providing sterling service as there were gaps in the VOR reception at this height. I could easily have gone up to 5500’ and even now wonder why I didn’t.

Then around Lake George, I got handed off to Albany approach on 122.95. They could hear me but couldn’t get my squawk and advised me to call them again closer to the GFL VOR when they should be able to see me. I was beginning to wonder of this flight following was as wonderful as I had been lead to believe (but I decided it really was the business later in the trip).



By now, Dan and I had noticed that the radio transmissions were very loud in our headsets, but the intercom was fairly quiet. So to hear each other on the intercom, we had to put up with a very loud radio. I searched in vain for a way of adjusting the intercom and decided that it must be such an early model that it was ‘built-in’ somewhere without controls to adjust it (an assumption that later returned to mock me). Still we chatted away while Dan took turns at playing ‘auto-pilot’ with myself.

I called Albany again about 10 miles north of Glen Falls and they were now getting my squawk. So we settled down to FF from them. They were an incredibly busy frequency with lots of commuter traffic and ‘heavies’ coming and going from Albany. The land below started to thin out now with significant clearings in the forest giving way to open land with small woods. You could almost see the money from this altitude on the small villages on the lake with large marinas.

We routed directly overhead Albany without a comment from ATC. What a HUGE and very busy airport it was as well – easily the size of Gatwick in the UK and try routing overhead that!



We continued with Albany FF en-route to IGN VOR. The weather was still with us, with scattered cumulus with bases at maybe 4500’ and nice and sunny in between. As we approached within 50 miles of our destination, we could see the visibility begin to drop and a more solid wall of cloud ahead – this must be the promised TCU’s!

At about 30 miles to run, we were handed off to New York Centre on 126.40. At the same time, we had to drop altitude to remain VMC. Initially to 2500’, then to 2000’. The visibility had dropped to probably 5 miles. The ground was still remarkably hilly and wooded, but with many large and imposing houses and country clubs – clearly an upmarket area. At 20 miles, New York handed us off to Westchester tower, by which time we were back up to 2500’. We got a warning of a converging Citation at the same level from our right. We heard his transmission that he had us on TCAS, then we saw him and called no conflict as he pulled ahead of us, clearly also headed for Westchester.

We spotted the airport and were given a right-hand downwind join for the runway in use 34. I dropped height to the required 1500’ QNH as we joined ‘American style’ (i.e. diagonal and converging to the downwind line) and called downwind.



With such a busy frequency and airport, I was surprised to be given an immediate ‘clear to land’. We also heard transmissions to another Citation on long final asking him to slow up to let us in front of him. I gathered this and started a ‘military style’ descending turn from the end of the runway on the downwind leg with a curving approach to very short final. As I was on short final, I heard the controller give the Citation a ‘clear to land’. This got my attention – two people cleared to land on the same runway? So I called short final and I also got an unconcerned ‘clear to land’. Maybe this is how they do it in the US, but I found it pretty worrying knowing I had a Citation breathing down my neck, so I landed long-ish trying to aim to stop by a likely exit, which I just managed.



We were cleared to vacate left and change to Ground on 121.82. I asked ground for progressive taxi instructions to a flight handling outfit. I was offered two and opted for Million Air (having heard good things about them at OFC). I was patiently directed to the correct hangar. I queried the fact that it had ‘Westair’ on the hangar, but was told that this was Million Air. I saw a guy appearing to be marshalling someone, but as he wasn’t looking at me, I assumed a business jet would appear from around the corner so held position. Only after a minute did he gesture me and I realised he was trying to marshal me – ooops! So I followed his directions, parked up and switched off. We were greeted by helpful guy who held doors open and asked how long we were there. I told him the driver’s side door needed to be closed from the other side and he indicated where he would park it and that it would of course be chocked and tied down. I asked for it to be fuelled to the brim.

We unpacked and headed to the airside entrance of Million Air (hoping that the name was not an indication of the handling fees). We arrived and they told us that they would close the flight plan for us.

So there we are, in matching red ‘look at me’ trip t-shirts, in a very classy lounge with complimentary everything (yes, probably even that too), including showers and very nice toilets. There were some passengers and pilots (with four wanker bars on their shoulders) who had clearly just dis-embarked from a Citation already in the lounge. Well - they looked at us like we had crawled out from under a rock! I have to say I found this very entertaining, especially as Dan had located a beer with all the precision of a JDAM homing missile and proceeded to demolish it with relish and a loud show of appreciation – their faces – what a picture!



We asked about transport to New York and were immediately offered a ride into White Plains where we could catch one of the two trains every hour into Grand Central. The trip was easy as we wound around country roads between the states of New York and Connecticut looking in awe at the huge houses and country clubs. Apparently, this is a very classy ‘commuter town’ for New York. It too about 20 minutes to get to White Plains train station where we bought a one way ticket to New York for some $10. There are two trains, one on the hour which is virtually non-stop and takes 30 minutes and the other on the half-hour that stops several times and takes 45 minutes.

Well, we had made it, despite the weather forecast. The flying was very easy indeed and the radio work although initially challenging because it was so unfamiliar, was easy in the end (apart from the scare of clearing two people to land at the same time). The route and flight planning I had done in the UK certainly paid off. The flight handling and progressive taxi request at Westchester took a huge amount of stress out of the arrivals process at such a large and complex airport and I would recommend it for all but the simplest airports for the sake of a few bucks.

CAN/USA:Ottawa to Massena

Route: CYOW (Ottawa International) DCT KMSS (Massena)
Logged: 0.8 hrs
Fuel: 33.5 litres

This was the first, and the all important leg on the whole tour, as this was the leg where I had to clear US customs and the all-seeing and all-knowing ‘Homeland Security’! I had read up on this extensively and very carefully. The requirements are:

Before take-off
- Call US customs 2 hours before arrival
- File a flight plan, get weather and NOTAMs
- Buy and display a US customs decal ($25)
- Complete and fax form CBP178 2 hours prior

In flight
- Establish comms with US centre and get squawk before crossing border

After landing
- Do NOT leave ther plane until state ETA has passed
- If customs don't show, call them and get clearance and badge number

The key thing here is that if you are a UK citizen, you MUST have a specific visa to cross the border in a light aircraft (i.e. you can’t do this on the visa waiver program). From my point of view they key point was that I am a Canadian citizen who lives (currently) permanently in the UK. So on the US Form 178, I recorded my citizenship, but of course put my UK address as my permanent address. I hoped this wouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but of course it did! So Brit pilots, please don’t try crossing from Canada to the USA in a light aircraft without a full visa!!

We turned up at the airport in plenty of time, as we needed two hours minimum notice for US Homeland Security. So first thing I did was to call Massena customs on the number I got. They didn’t want to know anything specific and merely gave me the number to fax the form to. This I did and got a printout of the transmission confirmation from the fax machine on the standard office practice basis that if you get this, you won’t need it, but if you don’t, they will deny receiving it! I know I am sounding paranoid about border crossing!

I then got Dan loading the aircraft up while I checked and liberated the documents required for international flight in both Canada and the USA from the flying club (they were very helpful and it was all nicely packaged up).

I entered details of my trip onto the impressive and all-embracing OFC computer system so they knew where I planned to be and when.

I trotted out to the plane and started a thorough A-check. It was already filled to the brim with fuel and the oil was full and looked new. I checked Dan’s loading (which was excellent). The plane was loaded, checked and complete, so Dan and I returned to the clubhouse for a coffee, while I tried the Canadian equivalent of WX-BRIEF for NOTAM’s, Weather and filing a flight plane.

I called 1-866-WXBRIEF. I was put automatically through to the Quebec region. I asked for the full set. There wasn’t much to say about either the weather or NOTAM’s as the day was good, with broken thin cumulus at 4000’. I filed the flight plan to start at 10:45 local (14:45 Zulu), giving us an easy 0:45 to get to Massena. Remember, it is vital that you arrive at your stated destination within 15 minutes of the stated time – hence my reason for choosing an airport in the USA that was just across the border, and therefore a very short flight – the further the airport and the longer the flight, the longer there is for winds, weather or whatever to interfere with your timings and to risk arrival outside of the half-hour window, thus incurring the wrath and full force of bureaucracy that only Homeland Security can deliver!

I have to say that this WX-BRIEF stuff is absolutely fantastic! Everything under one roof and you get to speak to a real person to boot – WOW!!!!



Just as I was about to mount up, we got a call on the mobile, first from Dan’s wife giving us a weather update (which she generally continued to do for every leg), then we got a phone call from Homeland Security. They spoke to me and said:

HS: ‘Can you please tell me your citizenship?’
Me: ‘Sure, Canadian as I put on the form’
HS: ‘But you put down a UK address’
Me: ‘Yes, I am a Canadian citizen, but I live in the UK’
HS: ‘I see (he didn’t)…..and you have proof that you are a Canadian citizen?’
Me: ‘Yes, a current Canadian passport’
HS: ‘I see (he didn’t)….British citizens must have a full visa to fly a light aircraft into the USA’
Me: ‘Uh….. yeah sure……, but I’m a Canadian citizen’
HS: ‘I see (he didn’t)….and you have DOCUMENTARY proof of this?’
Me: ‘Yes, a Canadian passport’
HS: ‘Do you have a Canadian pilots licence?’
Me: ‘Yes I do’
HS: ‘What is the number?’
Me: ‘I thought I put it on the form?’
HS: ‘No you didn’t’ (checking later it WAS clearly there)
Me: ‘My licence is XXXXXXXXXX’
HS: ‘I see…..well……that SHOULD be OK – have a nice day’

Well that takes the cake as the weirdest and most pointless phone call I have ever received in my life. The guys voice was humourless and robotic and reminded me of the immortal line in the Blues Brothers film where they announced ‘the use of deadly force has been authorised’. Oh boy, this Homeland Security stuff looks set to be fun – I can already hear the ‘whap’ of surgical latex gloves being donned prior to being given a body cavity search!

We mounted up at 10:30 as I worked my way carefully through the checklist. I picked up the ATIS. The winds had changed since yesterday (about 330 / 10) and they now vaguely favoured runway 22. I called Ottawa Ground on 121.90 who cleared me to taxi via taxiway papa to the holding point for runway 04. I completed the power checks and switched to Ottawa Tower on 118.80 and called ready for departure. I got immediate clearance with a right turnout onto track, not above 1500’.

So I switched everything on (i.e. GPS and Transponder), lined up and took off using a crosswind technique. Despite max fuel, two hefty guys and reasonable baggage, we are still 400lbs short of MAUW, to the plane took off quickly and easily. I climbed out and came onto track, which took us parallel to Ottawa International, so we managed to get some decent photos. Tower switched me to Ottawa TML on 127.70. I settled down into the cruise and leaned the mixture.



For this trip, I anticipated a basic VFR fit to any aircraft I hired, but was hoping for working VOR’s (which I got). I planned the entire trip generally around a combination of visual features and VOR’s. However, there was no DME. So what I did in advance was to programme all of the airfields and VOR’s into my old hand-held GPS (a Garmin Pilot III – no longer sold), which of course only had the European database on it. I also programmed in all of the routes and saved these. So I tinkered with the GPS to start the route while Dan held the plane steady.

Ottawa release me as I left their area, so I climbed to a modest 3000’ as I didn’t have far to go. I contacted Boston Centre on 135.25 who gave me the required squawk for border crossing. They didn’t pick up my squawk but said their coverage at that height in that area was normally not good. I wasn’t concerned about this other than for the legalities of border crossing. So I asked if I had their permission to cross the border. After a confusing conversation where they said they weren’t border security (I kinda figured that) I simply said that I was contacting them and getting a squawk as required by border crossing procedures. They confirmed as far as they were concerned, I was OK to cross and land at Massena.



I was starting to stress myself out with this border crossing stuff – the flying is easy! We crossed the St Lawrence into American airspace and quickly spotted Massena airfield. I called on the required frequency of 123.00 but no reply. I was ready for this, so continued to give blind calls as I progressed around the circuit. I saw from the windsock that the winds favoured 05. So I swung around on a standard left had circuit to land. The first approach was too high (I cut it too soon onto base and final)so rather than try to sideslip it off on short final, I decided to go around – no hurry. Second approach was much better so I landed off this one.



Still no reply from the radio, and a quick look around the airfield indicated building in two areas on opposite sides of the airfield – now where would Homeland Security be? I decided to taxi to the more formal looking building, which turned out to be the main terminal (deserted of course).

The time? Precisely the 11:30 I had advise customs about. Damn I’m good! We taxied in and shut down. Checked the time again (as you are not allowed to even open the door of the aircraft before the stated time unless instructed to do so by Homeland Security). Yep – 11:30 alright! We looked around for a car or people and spotted a 4X4 festooned with lights and an official looking colour scheme with two people sat in it glowering at us (well – I guessed they were glowering – it was hard to tell from 50m!).

As we shut down and sat there, they also sat in their car – I could almost hear the spaghetti western music start up and pictured the scene from ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ where the three gunslingers eyed each other in the heat looking for who would make the first move! (Yes – I have waaaayyyy too much imagination). They walked towards the plane so we started to get out – and mighty ungainly I was as I caught my foot in the seat runner and nearly fell at the feet of the unsmiling lady officials!

My humorous ‘well, that’s a graceful way to make an entrance’ comment was greeted by stony silence and a rather silly ‘Is this you aircraft sir?’. To which of course all I could say was ‘No’ - well it went downhill after that! I decided at that point that you only answer their questions, don’t volunteer anything and don’t try to be funny.

HS1: ‘I see (they didn’t!), where did you rent it from’
Me: ‘Ottawa Flying Club …….in Ottawa (trying to restrain any trace of irony in my voice)’
HS1: ‘I see (they didn’t), and did you have their permission?’
Me: ‘Yes (no I stole it what do you think)’
HS1: ‘I see (they didn’t), do you have a renter’s agreement?
HS2: ‘They don’t have those in Canada (my God - this one talks too!)’
HS1: ‘I see (she didn’t), passports please’

I produced both mine and Dan’s passports. I also had my old cancelled one as it has a stamp of permanent residence for the UK that UK borders like to see.

HS1: ‘I want to see THAT one!’ (pointing at the cancelled passport I was putting away).

She glanced at the current passports and went through my cancelled passport with an electron microscope (OK I exaggerate, but not much!).

HS1: ‘Why are you in the USA?’
Me: ‘A three day flying tour, initially down to New York to see my sister’
HS1: ‘What is your pilot licence number’
Me: ‘I did put it on the form, but it is XXXXXXX’
HS1: ‘It wasn’t on the form (oh yes it was!!!)’
Me: ‘I see (I didn’t)’
HS1: ‘How do you know each other?’
Dan: ‘I was posted to the UK for three years where I met Steve’ (I was glad Dan jumped in as I was about to answer ‘very well actually’).
HS1: ‘I see (she didn’t), do you have military ID (looking at Dan)’
Dan: ‘Yes, this is my warrant card’
HS1: ‘I see (she didn’t), and are you still in the military (looking doubtfully at Dan’s impressive 6’2” and 250lb frame)?’
Dan: ‘Yes (If I weren’t in the military would I have a current card)’
HS1: ‘I see (she didn’t), what rank are you?’
Dan: ‘Warrant Officer (not called this in the US military so you wouldn’t know)’
HS1: 'I see errrrr.....'

She didn’t – looks hesitantly at HS2 – they look at each other then back at us – stood there like idiots in matching bright red t-shirts that say ‘Puck off – I’m Canadian’.

HS2: ‘Enjoy your visit – have a nice day (not meaning a single word of it)’

As they stalked off back to their own personal ozone-hole-creating V8 4X4 and roared off back to presumably the Men In Black HQ.

WELL! If I thought my first encounter with Homeland Security was weird, this one took the biscuit. If it weren’t so serious in intent, it would have been the most hilarious thing I have ever been through. But my advice is keep a straight face and answer their questions, no matter how stupid and even when they get their fact wrong, they are still right. It does strike me that it is the usual government thing though – the all important appearance of being seen to be doing something no matter how much it ignores the real threat or how ineffective it is – tighten up on the easy and obvious!

Wow! Major sigh of relief as we explore the deserted terminal. Someone drives across from the other side of the airfield on their way out and we ask about fuel and flight planning. He is very helpful and friendly and points us at the hangars on the other side of the airfield, so we mount up, start up and taxi across.



Well that’s the first leg over and I have to say I found it incredibly stressful, not because of the flying (that was easy), but because of the border crossing routine. Well, it will be easier from this point on I hope and I guess border security people aren’t the friendliest people in the world in any country (actually that’s a lie as I find the UK guys very good and friendly, even cracking jokes about the weather).

Well, we are in the USA now and all set to get prepped again and head to New York.

CAN/USA: C172 Sign Off

I arrived in Ottawa as advertised on Saturday 23rd August, as advertised, courtesy of Zoom Airlines (yes, I know – but that’s another story!). I had a restrained evening with my buddy knowing that I was going for a checkride at Ottawa Flying Club at midday the next day.

I arrived at Ottawa Flying Club about half an hour beforehand. OFC is based at Ottawa International Airport, but at one end of the airport (accessed by a different access road) and with what is in effect, its own runway.



I checked in with reception and was introduced to my instructor, an affable guy called Ken Wright. Ken started with the dreaded words……’ hasn’t anyone been in touch with you?’. Anticipating disaster or more bureaucratic hurdles, he went on to say that the C172 I had booked (C-GCOH) was in the workshops and that there wasn’t another C172 available just now. I patiently asked him why CGCOH was in the workshops and what they could do about a checkride today. He explained that C-GCOH was in purely to have a new starter arm fitted and would be ready by 17:00 latest that day. We could either postpone the checkride until then or he could try to scare up another C172. I went for the latter option as the sky was starting to look menacing with possible TCU forecast as the afternoon wore on.



He came back and found that we could do a checkride in a C172 at about 14:00. I agreed to this and hung around chatting until I saw the plane taxi back in at the promised time.

Ken had a look at my logbook and seemed happy with my experience and currency and asked ‘So what do you want to do?’. I replied that it was more a question for him as he was the guy the club expected to be happy about me as I was planning on taking one of their C172’s away for four days flying in Canada and the USA. He thought about this and decided ‘OK, let’s go do a few circuits’ – my kind of guy!



We talked about local radio, arrival and departure differences. Being based at a busy national and international airport makes a bit of a difference, although not actually much different from Gloucester (where I am based) as it turned out. We booked out and were allocated a squawk. I checked out the C172. Well, it was certainly well worn, with lots of bare patches in the paint and pretty scruffy on the inside, but mechanically sound I was told. I was assured that C-GCOH was much tidier.

We started up called Ottawa Ground for clearance and taxied the short distance to the hold for runway 22 and did the power checks. All went well as we switched to Ottawa Tower and were given permission to ‘line up and wait’. I read this back and Ken was surprised as apparently ‘line up and wait’ is ‘new’ terminology in Canada as was the requirement to read it back. I explained this was standard in the UK and would probably have been confused by any other terminology. So again, it seemed likely to me that the radio work would be the hardest part of the trip!

We powered up and took off smoothly with circuits to the right. All circuits on this GA runway are to the north west. You have to be a bit careful in USA and Canada as some of the plates (indeed the local area map for Toronto / Ottawa) are NOT aligned with N/S up – so holding the map upright may be with grid north and the grid lines pointing diagonally – I found this disconcerting!

Ken pointed out the local turning points for circuits. While doing circuits I asked him about the C172 ‘rule’ that didn’t allow side-slipping with flaps. He was dismissive and said the blanking effect on the elevators only lead to a bit of nodding and that side-slipping was fine – suits me!

The first circuit was OK. Oddly though on the flare, I over-controlled it a bit and twice ballooned slightly, although landed OK in the end. I apologised for the somewhat hesitant landing but Ken was fine about it as I vowed to nail it the next time.



Basically, the next three circuits were fine as we landed off the fourth circuit.

I taxied back and followed the OFC checklist. I noted with interest the OFC insistence on doing a magneto ‘dead-cut check’ immediately before shutdown. This I did and very nearly turned the mags back through both onto start again. He pointed out that that was how the starter arm got sheared in the first place! Yeah – I can see that! I did ask why they did this ‘dead cut’ check as this was the first I had seen of it in training. I never cease to be amazed at how procedures vary and how one particular school may have a ‘bee in its bonnet’ about one aspect that another doesn’t much care about etc. Suffice to say that it is highly likely that I will ‘forget’ to do the dead cut check when I am renting the plane rather than risk a wrecked starter arm or motor!

At the debrief, I asked Ken about Ottawa departure and arrival procedures, but he said they would route me as they required and were not frantic about using published VRP’s, indeed they would often use ‘local-knowledge’ VRP’s (which is what I was afraid of).

Ken signed me off for hire and asked about our planned route. Apparently a ‘posse’ of them had earlier been out to the west coast of the USA and back. He thought we would have a great time on our planned route. He also emphasised that our hire plane, C-GCOH had the standard tanks, although it was an excellent weight-lifter (he said eyeing me at 210 lbs and Dan at 250 lbs). I replied that I knew this from the published W&B sheet and was strictly limiting myself to no leg longer than three hours, which would leave a pone hour reserve. He confirmed that this was the rule they used as well.

Well, he was happy and so was I. He did confide that the head mechanic working on C-GCOH had asked him about us and seemed worried about ‘some new guys from the UK taking the plane away’ – apparently he replied that he was the instructor and that if he said we were OK, then we were. Nice of him I thought.



We had a quick look at the now assembled and ready for service C-GCOH. It did at least have all of the paint on all of the surfaces I would have expected. The inside was tidier, but did have several yellow notices referring to U/S equipment. It was a basic VFR fit with two functioning VOR (but a U/S glide-slope). The pilot-side door would not hold on the latch and had to be closed and latched from the inside using the passenger door. Other than that, I couldn’t see any other ‘foibles’.

So we left OFC for a quick tour of the Ottawa War Museum and a restrained BBQ and a few beers back at Dan’s place.

Evening bimble from Oaksey Park

Recently, I went flying with Gavin, a fellow pilot based at Gloucester, who I had ‘spoken’ to for a few years on the internet forum, but had never met in person. Well of course following a flight in my RV6, he offered to reciprocate with a flight in his Robin DR221.

The only problem was that his group had agreed to move the plane from Gloucester to Oaksey Park (south of Cirencester) that weekend. So Gavin agreed to call me during the week once he had settled in and if we could get some decent weather (the great British summer is of course in full swing with rain, showers, high winds and only fleeting glimpses of blue skies!).

Well, he tried to call me on Thursday, but instead we both played ‘telephone tag’ leaving various messages for each other on various devices. But anyway it worked, so I figured out how to get to Oaksey Park and set out at 17:00 from a showery car park north of Cheltenham with threatening skies and headed south towards Cirencester. Once clear of the ‘Cheltenham Bowl’ and on the ridge headed towards Cirencester, the clouds became scattered and white cumulus with lots of lovely blue skies between – what a difference ten miles can make!

At Kemble, I took three attempts to find the right road and eventually did as the road became a really narrow single track road. I knew it was the right road but dreaded meeting someone coming the other way and slowed to 20 mph or so as I crawled into Oaksey village. Two attempts and I found the road headed south from the village, again very small single track. Eventually, I drove past an un-prepossessing side road with a very small sign saying something about ‘Runaway One Fitness Club’. As I drove past at a blistering 20 mph, I thought ‘Hello – Fitness Club?, Runway? – RUNWAY! Sounds like airplaney things to me – maybe that was it?’. So about 100 metres later (yes, it took me that long to follow this long, tortuous thought process) a cartoon light-bulb appeared over my head as I searched for somewhere to turn around. Well, I only had to wait about another mile before I found a spot and backtracked.

Sure enough, this was the place. As I was driving to the clubhouse a rather nice biplane landed on the grass runway over my shoulder and overtook me as it touch with the grace of a prima ballerina – and looked every bit as pretty!

I parked up at about 18:00 and had a look around. What a complete contrast to the relatively bustling Gloucester. The guy who obviously ran the airfield gently enquired if he could help. I explained I was waiting for Gavin (blank-ish look) as I elaborated that he was part of the group who relocated here in the Robin last weekend (saying this as I glanced into an open hangar seemingly full of Robins of various shapes and sizes!). This drew a look of recognition as he nodded and wandered off to help Mr Biplane fuel (bit of a shocker for me when I saw a pump price of £1.75 a litre! Wow, crap, it is cheaper at Gloucester!).

Gavin wasn’t there yet, but no problem as I wandered around the clubhouse and hangars taking a look. Apart from the biplane, which quickly fuelled and was put away for the night, nothing else was stirring. The airfield manager bade farewell and said he couldn’t wait around and hoped Gavin didn’t need any fuel as he was locking it up now.

I soaked up the quiet and welcome solitude and realised just how different and placid ‘strip flying’ was from a full ATC field. I could see that I would be quite happy with either for different reasons, but that on balance, the sheer ‘lord of all you survey’ feeling of a deserted grass strip would be my preference! I could positively feel my tough day and the clockwork key in my back starting to unwind!

Gavin arrived at about 18:30 after a fraught day and a hectic drive and still seemed to be steaming (probably as I was a mere half hour earlier).

We headed over to the plane as Gavin gave it the A-check. I tried not to chat as I know how distracting it can be to check a plane and listen at the same time (well, it is for me anyway – after all, I’m a guy!).



Gavin was saying that this was only the second time he had flown out of Oaksey, the first time was on the Saturday, when he volunteered to be the ‘ferry pilot’ to take the plane from Gloucester to it’s new home at Oaksey, and on that day the weather was horrible and blustery and lead to an ‘interesting’ and no doubt entertaining first landing at Oaksey. Apparently, he hit a bump shortly after landing and became airborne again (I did spot a bit of a ridge about 100m along from the start of runway 22).

The weather was ideal. Scattered cloud and a slight breeze starting to die as the evening wore on and almost straight down runway 22.

We got chatting to another pilot that turned up and wheeled out his Robin DR400. He to Gavin the ‘secret procedure’ for self-refuelling and recording the invoice etc. so we filled the planes tanks. The drawback of this Robin is that there is only one tank and there is no way of ‘dipping’ it, you either filled it to the brim, or relied on fuel gauges (I know what I would do!!).



The DR400 took off nicely enough as we mounted up and started up. The plane started first time and the 300 hours engine sounded very sweet as we taxied to the end of runway 22. Blinds calls on the airfield frequency and we line up, full power and start trundling down the grass runway. Gavin keeps the tail on the ground until 40kts, then lifts the tail. Compared to the RV (not a fair comparison, but one I have to make as that is what I am now used to), the acceleration is modest and far more like a PA28. The tail comes up and we continue to accelerate in this attitude for what seems like quite some time, before Gavin rotates at the appropriate airspeed. Unlike the RV, it doesn’t seem to hop around excitedly and require serious efforts to hold it on the ground so you don’t try to fly too early.

We are off and climbing at 500 fpm, following the noise abatement procedure. We continue the climb and level out just above 2000’ heading towards the five valleys and Stroud and the ‘bends in the river’ on the River Severn. Gavin trims the plane out and it seems very stable and is quite happy to fly level ‘hands-off’ and chugs along in an economy cruise at 2200 rpm at 90-95 kts. Gavin demonstrates a few turns and steep turns and shows that he needs considerable back pressure and a few more rpm from the engine to maintain a level steep turn – this explains the impressive steep turns with an upward spiral (difficulty level of 2.4 – impressed the Russian judge!) that he made in the RV where at one point we had a 1000 fpm climb going on!

We monitored Kemble Information throughout the trip and only caught a couple of blind calls from aircraft either doing general handling near Tetbury or a circuit to land at Kemble.

He then generously handed control over to me to have a play. I started by getting a feel for the controls and how light / responsive / heavy / harmonised they were. Then a few normal rate turns to get used to the level picture. Then a couple of steep turns and yes, considerable back pressure and another 100 rpm on the throttle.

By now, we were over the bends in the river where the Severn is quite wide and devoid of boats, people, vehicles and pretty much anything! But we were at 2500' - no bother, timne to see how well the plane sideslips, so power nearly off, carb heat on and a side-slipping descent gave a pleasing 1500 fpm descent. So of course down we go to check the river out from a relatively low (but of course perfectly legal) level of probably 150’ ASL. I suspect some punters in one of the local pubs thought it a bit odd to see a plane where they are used to seeing boats.



Fun over and power lines approaching, I put the plane into a climbing turn back up to 1500’ or so for a stately bimble back to Oaksey.

Gavin resumed control and of course we got quite a few pictures. I marvelled at the honey coloured light of the sinking sun at what was now near 20:00 and the long shadows this drew on the ground. What a perfect evening for an aimless bimble!

We navigated around Kemble and headed for the Cotswold Water Park and the distinctive ‘ex-quarry’ lakes. I was the first to spot the grass airstrip, but only really because it was on the right hand side of the nose so Gavin was blind to it.



A check of the windsock showed the wind hadn’t changes and was still light and straight down 22. Gavin positioned for a long final onto 22 and gave the appropriate blind calls. I videoed the landing on my camera as Gavin deliberately landed a bit long to get past the irritating ridge across the runway which is conveniently marked by the upwind windsock (probably deliberately). He touched well into the stall warner and the aircraft stayed down and surprisingly quickly came to a halt well before we reached the hangar.

We had a bit of trouble getting the aircraft back in over the uphill lip of the hangar - pretty bad for a pair of hefty guys weighing in at 95kg a piece!

Well, what a lovely evening and how relaxing grass strip flying is - no ATC, no landing on indemnity, a real 'sort yourself out' kind of thing. I could certainly get used to this with the right machine.

Now - where did I leave that Glasair Sportsman 'two weeks to taxi' brochure????

Local with a forumite

I fancied keeping my hand in on the RV, so I fairly spontaneously booked a Thursday late afternoon / early evening slot for after work. The week so far had been very poor and changeable weather, with lots of cloud and showers and only the odd bits of blue peeking through the cloud cover, so I was just hoping for slight winds and scattered showers that I could dodge if necessary.

Then I thought I could use some ‘self-loading ballast’ as the aircraft performs quite differently solo vs two up. My mind turned to the offer I had made to Gavin (from the Flyer Forum) when I first met him in person at Timothy’s Pole Talk the previous fortnight. So I dropped Gavin a PM through the Forum and received a quick response, that if he could get time off a travel commitment, he would be delighted to come along.

It turned out that he could wangle the time, but it also turned out that I was unexpectedly held in the office later than I planned and didn’t manage to get away until 17:00, by which time, the rush hour traffic meant that a 15 minute drive to the airfield turned into a 30 minute one, so I didn’t arrive until 17:35’ish as opposed to my planned 16:30 – such is life as a employee wage slave!

The weather looked OK – not great, but do-able. Light and variable winds (I never used to care very much about this with nosewheel aircraft, but tailwheel flying introduces a whole new dimension to the wind), overcast, but generally high cloud (about 4000’), but with scattered Cumulo-Nimbus (nasty, big, windy and turbulent shower clouds = plummet / crash / burn / die!). I could see the odd shower a few miles away to the west, so decided to head for the North and North East and booked out accordingly.

I checked the plane out and Gavin must have spotted me as he headed over. He wandered off to grab a can of coke while I finished off the A-Check and pulled the plane carefully out of the hangar (a Citation jet was parked very close and I was frantic not to touch it in any way).

Gavin appeared again and guzzled the coke while I gave him a quick chat about the essential of the plane etc. Gavin is a qualified PPL with about 150 hours and owns a share in a Robin taildragger that is currently located at Gloucester, but shortly to relocate to Oaksey Park.

We clambered into the aircraft one at a time, while I showed Gavin how to do sort the slightly unusual 5-point harness.

Usual pre-start and start-up checks with all a bit quiet at the airfield, except that the scheduled flight from / to Isle of Man was in and being turned around as we taxied out.

Power checks went well and we were cleared to line up after a training flight by a PA28 doing touch and go’s. The take-off went well. As usual, I felt I had to hold the RV down to gain airspeed as it hopped excitedly, eager to be free of the ground. Up we went at a nice steady 80 kts climb with 1000 fpm – not bad at all given that I am not small (6’ 2” and 210 lbs) and I suspect Gavin is a similar weight.

We were quickly clear of the circuit and climbed to a modest 2500’ to do some general handling as I showed Gavin how sensitive and responsive the RV was. Gavin had a reasonable go himself and quickly acquired the ‘RV grin’ as he realised how light, crisp and responsive the controls were.



So we poled it about for a bit with some steep turns and wandered aimlessly around Tewkesbury / Worcester / Bredon Hill etc. I made a mandatory visit to my village for a few low level circuits and did some low level (but perfectly legal) flying around Gretton and Winchcombe. We swooped over Cleeve Hill as it dropped away then I headed toward Bredon Hill and climbed up to 2000’ as I picked up the ATIS for a return to Gloucester.



I called it in and headed back to the airfield. The airfield looked buried in a rather nasty shower, but I continued to see what it was like. I was given a standard overhead join for 27. Close in, I was about to report at 2 miles, when the scheduled flight reported ready for departure and was given a lengthy IFR clearance to copy and read back, so I patiently orbited at around two miles waiting for a break to report my position.

I got my call in and carried on. As I was descending deadside, the scheduled flight was cleared for take-off. I was a bit worried that I could be crossing upwind as a bloody great Fokker (geddit, geddit?) was taking off and climbing towards me. Obviously ATC had the same thought and reported my position, but fortunately, by the time the scheduled flight was ready to roll, I had crossed the upwind end and was clear – phew!

Usual downwind checks and visual of the windsock, nice, straight down 27 in a very light breeze. We had obviously missed a downpour at the airfield while we were up north as the runway was now very wet and though we were near the edge of the shower, we were only picking up light spits of rain, presumably, it had only just drifted off the airfield.

The approach was good, two stages of flaps and a steady 70 kts with good angle of approach. On short final, the PAPI’s started to come in nicely, first one red, then a second. Over the hedge now and continue the descent. OK, round out about now, power off, good height and back on the stick, a bit lower, back more, more yet, stall warner starts to chirp, more yet – try hard not to land – good three-pointer attitude now, stall warner now constant, more yet, then we touch – and stay touched. Nice one, pleased with that. Don’t want to make a twit of myself with a fellow tail-dragger pilot in the right hand seat!

I am given a back-track and vacate on A2 – how kind! We trundle slowly back and shut down. Gavin is very helpful as we carefully guide the plane back into the hangar while avoiding contact with the nearby hangar door on one side and Citation business jet on the other – I would hate to have to do this single handed!

Well, I think Gavin enjoyed it and now has some insight into the origins of somewhat smug ‘RV grin’. He kindly offered to reciprocate with a flight in his Robin taildragger which I will take up, but have to travel to Oaksey to do this. We chatted later about possibly two or three of us doing a lads cross-channel trip. Always happy to tag along and help where I can, so maybe we can schedule this in September sometime.

Trip to Deauville / Honfleur

For almost two years, I have promised to take the wife to Honfleur in the plane. I have had it scheduled twice now and had to cancel both time due to weather or aircraft tech problems. The weather leading up to the weekend was variable and the forecasts for the weekend were all over the place, ranging from heavy and persistent showers and high winds, to still air and hot sunshine – basically it was changing every day in the lead up to the weekend. So I concluded that it was one of those ‘stick your head out of the window in the morning’ things.

I knew this next six weeks or so starting with the Pole Talk on the 25th July was going to be hectic and so it is turning out to be. After getting to bed at 01:00 following a play on a commercial helicopter simulator, I then of course had trouble getting to sleep.

I got up at 07:15 and the weather was perfect. So I checked the aviation forecast on the Met Office and it said a similar thing, except that it showed France as being low cloud with showers. Well, they might be wrong and it may lift, anyway, Cherbourg seemed to be clear of that weather, so I could always divert. Worth a try anyway.

Timothy was up and about and while I packed the wife walked the dog and drove it into Cheltenham to drop it with my daughter, then we would both meet up at the airport.

I drove in with Timothy, having filed all the GAR’s and Flight Plans the previous night. The terminal was closed, so I used my pass to get us both airside. I headed off to pull my plane out and do a thorough pre-flight check in my own time, by myself in an unhurried way (the way I like it).

I completed this and set the plane up, locating the liferaft and the heavier bits of luggage as far forward (under the seats) as I could as the RV6 it very ‘balance sensitive’ and can easily be loaded aft of the C&G envelope.

The wife turned up just as I had finished and we waved Timothy off as he moved off in his Piper Aztec.

I gave Mazzie a briefing, especially on the seat belts, canopy release, seat belt cutters, ELT and liferaft. She takes this well and does not over-react (you know, the ‘why is he telling me all this – we’re going to die!’ scenario).

We mounted up and taxied over to the pumps. I filled the plane’s main tanks to the gunnels, so I have a full 140l in total on board (there are tip tanks, but we don’t use these in normal operations, given that filling the mains give about 5 hours!).

We were nicely on time as I ran the power checks and lined up in perfect, sunny and nil-wind conditions on runway 27.

Now I don’t know about you, but I seem to manage at least one item of stupidity (my fault) or excitement (sod’s law) on every leg I fly. Well, I exceeded the quota on this leg starting with a ‘not very good’ take off. I lined up and powered up and started rolling. Stick forward-ish to get the tail off. The tail came up as I held a bit of forward pressure to keep the plane on the ground until flying speed. Well, it started to skip and hop and maybe we hit a bump or something, but we seemed to be up, so I pulled back slightly expecting it to climb. Well, I had done this too early and she simply moved along the runway nose high. Feeling like an idiot, I tried again, stick slightly forward to get the tail up and off she came as sweetly as you please. Well, I haven’t done that before and felt like an idiot, but it was easily recovered so I guess no harm done. The wife refrained from comment, but I knew what she was thinking (so was I).

Up we went as I came onto route as:

EGBJ DCT GWC DCT SITET DCT LFRG

Nice and simple, but care was needed as I would come close to the Southampton zone and we all know how keen they seem to be to call an infringement if you come within two miles of their zone, let alone have the temerity to infringe it (OK, that’s my view, you may not agree or like it, but that is my opinion!).



I climbed to 3500’ to stay below the odd scattered cumulus and called Brize for a transit as I would ‘clip’ their western zone around Fairford, ‘threading the needle’ between them, South Cerney, Redlands Farm parachuting and other nasties.

Brize were great as always and they let me go just past the M4. I called Farnboro Radar who were busy as usual. I set the VOR to the GWC VOR and set the radial. I navigate by bearing, GPS and visually. I quickly spotted Newbury and Greenham Common in the right place, as was Popham and Petersfield, well clear of Southampton Zone.

But my second excitement was that the VOR didn’t seem to work properly. It would not wing in from the right, it was as though it was hitting an invisible obstruction and couldn’t move any further left. It would move out further right as I swung the OBS, but not any further towards the middle than a certain point. OK, not fatal I agree.

Then I noticed I had forgotten to switch the fuel pump off. I should have done this at the top of the climb check, but didn’t. I think my late night was impairing my concentration – I vowed to make the rest of the trip perfect and to really concentrate.

I switched to London Information around GWC and coasted out with them to SITET. A few mile north of SITET, a low undercast now slid in below me. I was only at about 4000’, but these ‘clouds’ looked a long way down – sea fog unless I missed my guess. It looked solid for as far south as I could see. Was this the lousy weather the Met Office had predicted? Was my wife ‘curse’ working again (it seems every time I have flown with her, we ended up diverting, or getting weathered in or having the plane go tech or something)?

I switched to Deauville Approach and asked for the weather at Deauville. They gave me CAVOK – hard to believe, but I guess they are the guys on the airfield, so I continued.

With about 30 miles to run, I though I could see maybe some break in the undercast on the horizon, but it could be the light. Closer still and it was definitely breaking a bit. Then as we closed in on Le Havre and the Seine Estuary, I could see it was reasonably broken over the land and I could get underneath what looked like newly formed and lifting cumulus.

Deauville advised me to stay well clear of Le Havre airport as there was an air display (that didn’t appear on the NOTAM’s I had, but I was happy to oblige.

Coming in over the coast with about 6 miles to run to Deauville, I switched to Deauville Tower who gave me a right downwind join for 30 with wind at 280 / 05. I dropped below the clouds (or between them more accurately) and once clear at 1500’, I spotted the airfield. But then I had another ‘brain fart’ and of course joined LEFT downwind for 30. Once I realised my mistake I called the Tower and apologised for my mistake. He was very laid back about it (splendid chap!) and advised me to continue and I was no.2. I spotted the plane in front on short final as I was about to turn base and called it in. I was cleared to land.



A good approach to 30 and the speed was nicely pegged. Down we came and over the piano keys, I judged the height to be correct and chopped the power. Maybe just a tad too high, but we are talking a few feet here. Round out and flare, fly level, hold back, hold back, no stall warner yet, back more, more yet, a distant trilling indicated the stall was imminent, more yet, more, a bit more – squeak – we are down. Very nice three-pointer and a smooth arrival. After an imperfect flight, I was pleased to finish it on a good note.

But it ain’t over in a taildragger until the engine is off and it is tied down, so concentrate on the landing roll, allow it to slow down of its own accord, don’t need brakes. He tells me to vacate on the grass taxiway and park on the grass. It looks smooth enough, so I comply. It is fine as I taxi in and park up.

It is very bright and sunny and bubble canopy of the RV transforms the inside quickly into a greenhouse once the airflow from level flight stops. We heat up really quickly and I am relieved to pop the canopy once we are shut down!



I run through the shut down checklist carefully and methodically, keen not to miss anything based on my performance so far today! I tie the controls back with the seat belt (we don’t have control locks). I don’t bother with tie downs as there is no wind and it isn’t going anywhere in this grass!

We unpack and wander over to the terminal. I report at the clearly signposted yellow and black ‘C’ only to find an empty room with a terminal and a phone to the BRAI. We wander out again and a fireman spots our confusion and points to a door about 20 metres to the right marked ‘Aircrew’ and we report there. This seems to be the office and is well manned. I check in and am relieved of EUR35 – which I think is the landing fee only (extortionate for France and pricey for the UK), parking on the grass seems to be free – I believe they charge for parking on the hard-standing.



They are very helpful and explain that I must show the receipt to get back airside. So I carefully file this in my well organised flight folder which I am very proud of (where I keep all sorts of hard copy, from copies of the weather, GAR’s, PLOGS, hotel bookings etc.). I know most pilots will think that the way I do this is way over the top, but I am not a ‘hairy-arsed’ pilot that thinks that planning is for wimps.

She ushered over the Douanes. This is the first time I have seen a proper ‘Douanier’ when private flying in France. He actually took and examined the passports as if he knew what he was looking at. He ignored my wife’s British passport and carefully examined my Canadian one. He solemnly produced a rubber stamp and carefully stamped a page, finished with a flourish and a ‘voila’! To this day, I think he believes I flew the RV6 all the way in from Toronto!

So feeling somewhat superior, I ask about taxis and she points though a window to a sign marked ‘Taxi’ and to at least three waiting cars. OK – feeling a bit stupid now and I ask her in my halting French where the exit is. She points me at the obvious door marked ‘Sortie’. I am having a severe attack of post-flight ‘stupids’. It happens to me, and I often wonder whether it happens to others or am I so inferior that it only happens to me?

We head off and board a taxi for the ride to Honfleur. About half-way there I realise that I have left my trip folder on the desk airside with the essential receipt! Oh crap!! Not to worry, we’ll sort it out when we return. The taxi cost me EUR30 to the hotel in Honfleur.

We book into the Ibis, an Accor Hotel about 1 mile from the town centre. I love the Accor chain because you can cancel same day – essential for a VFR pilot!



Suffice to say we had a great time in Honfleur. I did note that the Etap Hotel (a very low-cost automated hotel in the Accor chain was very close to town, but I knew that was fully booked. The Mercure (Accor Hotels) was right next door to the Etap and also very close, but it was more expensive. The walk took 15 minutes from the Ibis, which was fine.

Honfleur is very pretty. A bit like St Ives, with all the eateries and art stores and very ‘gentrified’ - but lovely all the same. It was very busy, but of course the weather was by now superb and it is near the height of the holiday season.

There was a special tourism promotion event by Quebec tourism of Canada – I noticed this as I passed a window and spotted a Montreal Canadiens hockey team shirt and sticks etc. – those sods get everywhere.




It is both mine and my wife opinion that the French only like to go on holiday where they are sure that the locals will also speak French, so I guess Quebec advertising there makes sense – get to see Canada without having to even try to get by in another language! Of course the English speaking world are the worst linguists in the world. But I like to think that I make an effort. Myself and my wife would constantly order and ask for things in French and even if they spoke back in English, we persisted with French as far as we were able.

We headed back after a leisurely breakfast on the harbour-front. Again, a EUR30 taxi trip some ten miles to Deauville Airport.

We tried to explain to the security lady that I was a pilot, but I didn’t have the pass. She didn’t understand a word of my Franglais and found another member of staff who understood that we might have left our ‘livre’ airside. He came back with my folder and all was well!! No silliness of scanning as she ushered us through. I established that the ‘C’ office was where we filed flight plans and I filed on over the phone with the local BRAI (the elaborate terminal wasn’t even switched on).

We wandered over to the plane and loaded up while I got the ELT and Seat Belt Cutter secured to my belt and donned lifejackets. I decided we had plenty of fuel and didn’t need a refuel. It had only taken us 1:35 airtime and the winds were calm.

We mounted up and I delayed buttoning up for as long as I could as the weather was superb, very warm and not a cloud in the sky, so we would cook until I got into the air!

Power checks complete, we were cleared for take of on 30. My take-off this time was text book (trying to make amends) as we climbed out heading north towards the coast. I changed to Deauville Radar and climbed to 4000’.



Our route was a precise reverse as:

LFRG DCT SITET DCT GWC DTC EGBJ

With about 20nm to run to SITET, Deauville got rid of us, so I contacted London Information, who were incredibly busy (hardly any surprise on a day like this!). But I managed to get a word in after about ten minutes!

I noticed a Battle of Britain memorial display at Tangmere on the NOTAM’s but the restricted area for this wasn’t due to start for another two hours, so no problems. We coasted in and I changed to Farnboro Radar overhead GWC at 4000’. Farnboro were frantic as well!

I navigated again carefully. There was some cumulus around now and we got bumped a bit as we went close underneath them. As we started to approach Lasham (about 6 miles to the east) my ‘glider radar’ switched on and we both kept our eyes peeled for the sods! We came across two well to the north of Lasham just as I was starting to relax, but managed to stay well clear. Then I was spotting aircraft after aircraft, mainly below us and non conflict.

I switched to Brize around the M4 and said that I would ‘transit’ at 4000’, so would be above his zone, but was calling him just in case. It is a good job that I did because as I was avoiding Redlands Farm around Swindon, we spotted a glider slightly above, but circling and coming around to head towards me. He showed no sign of having seen me, so to be on the safe side, I pulled the power for an abrupt descent to get out of his way and avoid any possible conflict. About 30 seconds into this while craning by neck to see where he was behind me and feeling like a WW2 Spitfire pilot with an enemy behind him, Brize came on the horn to ask if I now needed a transit due to my abrupt change of altitude. I managed to say ‘Errrr….. I’m playing dodgems with glider up here at the moment, I’ll call you back’. I think he got the picture and when I was sure I’d shaken off the glider, I put in a proper call and was given clearance for a transit at my now 3000’.

East abeam Cirencester, I changed from Brize to Gloucester and was given a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits.

I ran my airfield approach checks and crossed the ridge. With the airfield in sight, I changed to the QFE and settled at 2000’ while slowing the plane.

Normal overhead join and while crosswind, I spotted a Cessna well outside me, as he started to turn, so did I onto the downwind and called downwind. Turned base, power back and one stage of flaps. Let it stabilise, then pull on the second stage. Turn inside the distinctive doughnut shaped building and set up on final. Good angle and airspeed at 80, bring it back to 70. I get 70 and call final at just under one mile and get a ‘continue approach’. I can see the plane will be well clear, so continue. Finally I get a ‘cleared to land’.

Set up nicely, drop a bit of speed, back to 70 and peg it there. Over the displaced threshold, round out and pull to power. Hold off, and off and off. Attitude good, back more, trilling in the cockpit, ignore it, try not to land, back more and we touch and stay down. Another nice three-pointer. Stick right back into the nuts to keep the tailwheel welded to the ground as we roll out. I don’t apply brakes and roll past the intersection, so I have to roll to the end to vacate. The bad news about this is that it is the ‘long march of death’ from the 09 end back to the terminal and there is no way I can unbutton the canopy, so a nice slow trundle while we both bake nicely!

I shut down the engine as quickly as I can once parked up and pop the canopy. I work through the checklist carefully and clean up.

I hand Mazzie the buckets, soap and sponge to deal with the flysplats while I sort out the paperwork and unpacking.



We tuck her up in the hangar, give everything a double check and back through the main terminal (in case anyone from immigration turned up) to drop the liferaft off at Cotswolds.

Well, a really good trip. Very enjoyable and I finally got the wife to Honfleur. The weather was superb even if the forecasting was all over the place. The one thing they didn’t predict was perfect weather on both days – goes to show you!

Well apart from the odd evening, that will be it for me touring in G-GDRV until September. I’ll be touring in Canada and the US at the end of August. Next trip to France? Sometime in September and I think to somewhere I haven’t been before. I’ll plan on somewhere in Brittany and somewhere inland from L2K as a weather alternate, so I am looking for ideas!

Flying to the North Pole

No - not me - definitely not me!

I saw a posting on Flyer Forum where the redoubtable ‘Timothy’ was debating whether the demand for him to talk about his solo flight to the north pole was greater in the west country or ‘ooop north’. In all innocence, I posted a reply to say ‘west country please’ and next thing I knew, I ended up organising and publicising it!

Well, it was the least I could do really. I was happy to offer Timothy a place to stay at my house, I am only a 20 minute drive from the airport and have a spare room now my daughter has moved out. So we booked a date, Friday evening 25th July. I liaised with the airfield manager, Darren and he kindly offered the main terminal at Gloucestershire Airport from 19:30, so we booked the time for 19:45.

By way of publicity, I sent ‘Private Mails’ to all the pilots on the Flyer Forum who had Gloucester and Kemble listed as their base. In addition, I liaised with a contact at the LAA Gloster Strut who promised to send details to all of their members. In addition, I spoke to the four main flying clubs at the airfield and they agreed to put an A4 notice I had knocked up on their notice boards.

Timothy said he was already bringing his own PC’s and projectors and only needed screens. I asked Darren if he had any screens, which he didn’t seem, to but being a true gent, he bought one on the airfield account.

I wasn’t certain how many were attending as it was only with the Private Mails that I asked for a positive or negative response. I got 20 ‘definites’ from this, so I assumed the number would be somewhere between 20 and 40 – 20 being ‘respectable’ and 40 being ‘excellent’.

I turned up at the airfield at about 16:30, not because there was anything I could do until the scheduled flight for the Isle of Man left at 18:30, but just to be there with nothing to do! I grabbed a cold can or two and just sat or wandered around watching the planes come and go – am I really sad? I guess so, but this is just my idea of relaxing and kicking back.



At about 18:30 I picked out the distinctive shape of a twin on approach to runway 27. I guessed this was Timothy in his Aztec, so popped out my camera and started snapping away. Sure enough it was him, so I let myself through airside and snapped a couple more of him and Catherine (his hitch-hiker for the trip back from Canada) unpacking. And yes folks, Timothy really does arrange his propellers so that both are 12 – 6 o’clock!





Catherine’s parents were waiting, having driven up from Minehead while I showed them all to the Aviator for a quick bite to eat.

By the time I got to the terminal, it was all set up courtesy of Darren and the fire crew! As the hour approached, a few more people were turning up while I helped Timothy set up. He uses two screens and we only had one, so I pressed a somewhat reluctant flipchart stand into service. He show a map of the journey on one and photos on the other – and very effective it is too!

Eventually, a grand total of 24 assembled, I was hoping for more, but this was OK.



Timothy delivered his talk. For me, the highlights were:

• His obvious awe over the scenery at Svalbard,
• How he went on the trip solo despite having planned on an experienced co-pilot,
• His amusing tale of a low level pass of the ice strip near the north pole with astonished American tourist faces watching some ‘mad Brit’ beat the strip up in a small twin.
• The obdurate radio guy at Resolute who was as helpful as a chocolate fireguard.

There were questions throughout as Timothy indicated that he would prefer it that way. It was an excellent talk and Timothy is an experienced and compelling speaker. When I say that the talk went on until 10:30 without a break, it may sound like a bit of a marathon, but I for one (and I am sure everyone else) hardly noticed the time passing, it was that interesting and dryly amusing in the way that Timothy is.

The talk was concluded with a gratifying round of applause from an attentive and well informed audience.

At the end of the talk, two forumites also based at Gloucester introduced themselves to me. The internet can be strange like that, you have forum conversations with people based at the same airfield as you, but of course you have never met them and wouldn’t know what they look life. Anyway, I finally met GavM and ADP. They asked if Timothy and I would be interested in a pint at the Aviator followed by a ‘play’ in a wrap screen commercial twin squirrel (helicopter) approved simulator!

Well the answer would normally be ‘you bet your ass I would’, but as both Timothy and I needed to be up early the next day (Timothy to get to White Waltham by 09:15 and me to be wheels up hopefully for Deauville at 09:15), I could only spare a little time and asked Timothy if he was OK for this. Well he was, so off we went.

ADP (Adrian) works at this place airside and explained that it was a £300,000 simulator that was used to train commercial pilots and where they would log the time as it counted towards the ratings. Well it certainly looked the real deal. All of the dials were in fact screens all driven by Windows software – I guess it was a toss up what crashed more, the software of the pilots! No, really the software behaved very well.

I have never flown a helicopter and have no idea what the controls are nor how they work. ADP gave me a quick briefing and I was pretty much the first up. I found the take off straightforward enough as was flying it. Really not too tough at all. But coming to the hover and landing – no there’s the trick! Thinking about it, I guess that is the same for flying fixed wing as well.



Anyway, I managed to get it nicely into a vortex ring (whatever that is, but from what the simulator did, it’s bad – a bit like a stall. On the other hand, I did get it out of it, nose down and power on – again’ like a stall recovery. But even with Adrian doing the power, I couldn’t land it and crashed nicely on runway 27 at Gloucester!

The others fared better, but I think they had a bit more experience and if not, then certainly more aptitude! Timothy of course was set up to do a IMC approach on the ILS into Brize, which he did nicely – you can go off a person you know!



Well, we all had a play until about 00:30, when Timothy and I had to make our apologies and take our leave.

It really was an amazing simulator and I think we are all sorry that Adrian is changing jobs in a week or so to go and work for Cirrus. On the plus side, maybe I can swap some rides in the RV6 for some ride in an SR22!

Now that I have met Adrian and Gavin, I am sure I will be in touch and arrange some evening flying or maybe mini-flyouts. The trouble is that I am now pretty much wiped out for August, with a business trip to India from 28th July until at least the 9th August, maybe until 16th August. The off to Canada to see Dan and do some flying for a week on 23rd August.

Still I might squeeze in an evening or two and I have booked two weekends in September. I will have to leave all of the weekends in August to the rest of the group, so I don’t feel particularly guilty.

Spamcans - Gotta love 'em!

I am going to visit my buddy in Canada in late August and I plan to do a four day tour around New York, Toronto and Ottawa in a hired Cessna 172 while I am there. I have the appropriate licences and have lined up the club aircraft and a checkride.

The only slight fly in the ointment is that I have a grand total of 2.5 hours in any type of Cessna. I know and I agree that after a while and experience of a few different aircraft, that ‘a plane is a plane is a plane’, especially ubiquitous training aircraft like a C172 etc. However, I want to make sure I have some recent experience and am familiar with the ‘gotcha’ type differences that a C172 may hold before I appear for my checkride in Canada and make a twit of myself!

So I booked a one hour checkride at one of the local schools at Staverton that have an all-Cessna fleet. This was for an evening flight after work and I rolled up in plenty of time and got changed.

While waiting for the instructor, I admired the weather and the aircraft pottering around the airfield. Sunny and warm with only a modest breath of wind – wonderful! I even saw ‘my’ RV6 (OK, I have a share) line up on 22 and take off.

My instructor turned up and ushered me into the briefing room to find out what I was after. I explained I just wanted a bit of a workout on a Cessna 172. So we agreed on a few turns, then a few stalls in various configurations, a PFL and a few circuits with mixed landing types when we got back.

We drove over to the aircraft (the club is the other side of the airfield from the parking apron) and I popped out my commercially purchased C172 checklist and started working through it on a guided walkaround. I found the checklist illogical and annoying, as did my instructor. Still I carried on and Neil pointed out the specific things to check on a walkaround.



I have to say my personal favourite was checking the fuel in the gascolator. I have never seen anything like this before. Basically, you open the oil check door, locate a button with one hand, bend down and reach under the aircraft with the other hand holding the fuel drainer, press the button, see where the fuel is squirting out and try to hold the fuel drain under the flow to catch some fuel – long arms required!

I also particularly enjoyed testing the stall warner. Nothing can be seen or reached externally, so you have to wrap your mouth around the aperture in the wing and inhale sharply (note that I have resisted using the sexually suggestive words ‘hole’ and ‘suck’ respectively!). You are rewarded by a vague and faint rattle, a but like the sound you make blowing over a blade of grass held between your thumbs).

The fuel system is simple and easy, no electric pump (one of the benefits of a high wing design) and just stick it on ‘both’ and the fuel will feed from both tanks.

Walkaround complete, we climbed in as I started up. It fired up easily and first time and the engine sounded sweet. Taxy out to E1 for 22. Power checks are straightforward and simple enough. I line up and power up for take-off. This is no RV6 as we trundle down the runway. The airspeed slowly builds and the plane feels like it is running on rails it is so directionally stable compared to the RV. Eventually at 55, the plane starts to hop and at 60 I give it a gentle rotate and we are off. Trim for 75kts and the rate of climb is about 600 fpm – sedate and stable.

We head towards the Malverns as I climb to 1500’ and level out so I can see the level picture. I get this easily first time and we do a few turns. She is heavy in roll (OK, heavy in everything, but then most things are compared to the RV), but feels very stable.

We resume a climb to 3200’ to do a few stalls. The first is a stall recovery on first signs in normal flight configuration. The plane just gets a bit mushy, so I apply full power, nose down and recover. This was a pleasing 75’ altitude loss. The second is in landing configuration with full flaps and recover on his command. This was the same again really, the stall is a complete non-event as I power up, push forward and pull some flaps off, recover and clean up. Very well behaved in the stall.

Then we drop to 2000’ as he pulls the power for a PFL. I run through the drill and spot a remarkably runway like long and narrow ‘field’ roughly into wind, so I nominate that. ‘Yeah, it might work if you can avoid the jumps’ Neil announces. I don’t see any obstructions, but Neil knows that this is a ‘horse gallop’ for the local stables. Sure enough, closer in, there are jumps to one side, but the right hand side is clear and plenty wide enough for the Cessna. I run through the checks, radio and shut down drill. The Cessna just seems to float and glide forever and is in no hurry to loose altitude. I extend my base then turn final. Still way high, so full flaps. I know that you can’t sideslip with full flaps in the C172, something to do with the wings blanking the airflow over the elevators leading to loss of control, crash and death, so I can’t do that! On short-ish final, still high, I throw the plane around in some steep ‘s-turns’ which helps to lose height. Short final now and much better, probably no more that 200 feet now and it seems clear to me that we will ‘get in’. He give me the go-around.

Back to the airfield at a leisurely 90kts as I call for rejoin. Standard overhead join for 22 and I ask for and am given circuits.

The overhead join goes well as I come in for a normal landing. I line up on the centreline pulling on flaps and stablising the approach to 60 – 65. I am high, so full flaps. Still high and Neil advises to pull to power completely on short final. So I do as we come in for a glide landing. Not one of my better landings as I misjudge the heaviness of the controls and pull back too much and balloon a bit. But I hold off the second time for a not-terribly-graceful landing. Power up, flaps up and off again.

Second approach is with Neil’s preferred 20 degrees of flaps only. This is better and I find this a lot easier. The Cessna is very floaty.

Third and final approach is for a flapless. The approach is faster and much ‘flatter’ as I come in at 70. Neil advises me to be very careful over airspeed as the plane could just float all the way down the long 1000m runway! I get the speed right and hold off pretty well though I say it myself. While I was training, I always enjoyed flapless landings best of all, somehow I found them the easiest of the lot. This is my best landing of the three, I think I am getting used to the relative ‘heaviness’ of the plane now.

We taxy back and shutdown. Neil is keen to get off home as he has logged five hour today and is pretty tired.

Well a surprisingly useful lesson. I have picked up on a lot of the ‘oddities’ of the C172 and re-familiarised myself with the forgiving and relatively heavy controls and easy but ponderous landing characteristics of the plane. This I am certain, will serve me well when I do the checkride in Canada – I just hope it hasn’t screwed me up for handling in the RV6!