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!

Caen and the D-Day experience

I had promised Mark, my next door neighbour, a trip to the Normandy D-Day beaches for some time now. He is something of a military history buff and enjoys flying, so this would be an ideal combination, with a low level pass along the beaches of course!

This was to be my first overseas trip of the year and I was pessimistic of my chances in the week leading up to it, as the weather was terrible – showers, angry clouds and strong winds – welcome to the UK in July (so much so that the huge RIAT airshow due on the same weekend at RAF Fairford was cancelled for the first time in 38 years due to waterlogging of the grass areas)!

But as the week wore on, the forecast for Saturday look probably do-able with a bit of shower dodging and Sunday looked pretty good, so it was yet again a case of ‘stick your head out of the window in the morning’. On the assumption that it was a ‘go’, I visited the airfield late Friday afternoon and filed the GAR and Flight Plan and generally prepped the plane with all the gear I needed, packing it as far as I was able to achieve a sensible weight and balance.

Saturday dawned with a light wind and a broken overcast, possibly the odd shower later, but small and isolated. The 214 / 215’s agreed and promised better weather for Sunday (good, because I can’t afford to get stranded). So I decided to ‘go’. I picked Mark up next door at 08:00 and off we went. My preparations the night before paid off in time saved, so I could brief Mark properly on the liferaft, ELT, seat belt cutters and what he should do in the event of a ditching.

The plane was virtually out of fuel, so over to the pumps for a ‘full to the brim and then some’ refuel. While I was sure I could get fuel at Caen, I wanted to make sure I had enough for the round trip if for some reason they couldn’t oblige.

That complete, we mounted up and took off at about 09:15. Although the RIAT airshow was cancelled, the restricted airspace for the event stayed in place, so my routing was not the usual ‘straight line to GWC’, instead I used:

EGBJ DCT BATH DCT PORTLAND DCT ORTAC DCT CHERBORG DCT CARENTAN DCT OUESTERHAM DCT LFRK

Basically, almost due south, coasting out at Portland, then SSE to the Cherbourg peninsula, down along the east coast past Utah beach, then east along the other beaches, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, onto Pegasus Bridge over the canal and into Caen Carpiquet.

Due to the cloud base, I could manage 3000’ – adequate, but I would of course like higher, especially over water. I called Bristol Radar, as although I was going to pass below their controlled airspace, I would come close, so better that I am talking to them. As it turned out, he was the most helpful guy I have ever come across, volunteering to get me Caen weather (yes please). So I pushed my luck and asked if he could also get the status of D021 and D023 (two military danger areas I hoped were ‘cold’ so I could fly through them – they usually are at the weekend). He dutifully obliged – he must have been REALLY bored!

As is not uncommon, the cloud thinned and lifted over the channel as we coasted out and I climbed to 3400’ – I had to stay below 3500’ as there was a low-level airway heading to Jersey I needed to fly under. I was now talking to London Information. Some way out into the channel, they advised me to change frequency to Jersey Radar. I was not planning to cross their zone, but I would be touching ORTAC (at the corner of their zone), so I was surprised by this request and wondered if somehow I had blundered into their zone. A triple check with GPS and VOR radials revealed I hadn’t. I needn’t have worried, they gave me an immediate squawk and FIS until I was at ORTAC, then a freecall to Deauville Approach.

Deauville were fine as usual. We were now approaching Barfleur to the east of Cherbourg. As I coasted in, I requested a descent to 1000’. Deauville seemed surprised at this and asked me to repeat. I was worried that they might say ‘no’ for some reason, but they were fine and down we went to 1000’ for the rest of the trip, hugging the coast so Mark could get some good photo’s of the beaches and points of interest. Easy for me too, my alternate in the event of engine failure were miles and miles of sandy beaches!

The run down the beaches at 1000’ was great fun and gave some rewarding views. I spotted the American Military Cemetery at Omaha beach (popularised by ‘Saving Private Ryan’) so I did an orbit at 1000’ with the power pulled back somewhat to reduce noise while Mark snapped away on the camera.



Onwards we went to the still visible remnants of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches. Then onto the target for the weekend, the Canadian ‘Juno’ beaches at Courseulles-sur-Mer.





We easily picked out the visitors centre and orbited that. The on to the eastern beach, Sword around Ouistreham and then up the river and canal toward Caen and the famous Pegasus bridge.

We spotted this easily, but I didn’t remember until later that a few years ago, the actual bridge was removed and replaced by a bigger, but very similar looking bridge. As I was about to start my first 1000’ orbit, Deauville warned my of another aircraft coming in from behind and descending, either planning to do the same thing or possibly on his way into Caen airport, he advised me to head east for a few minutes, I was happy to oblige! After about two minutes, he advised that I was clear of the traffic and could resume. So back we went and clicked away merrily at the wrong bridge! As it turned out, the location of the old bridge was at a visitors centre about 100m away, so many of the photos Mark took got both bridges in it anyway, together with a full size replica of a Horsa glider!



Orbit complete, I called up Caen and got approach instructions. I was given a right base join for 31. As I called right base, I was then immediately made number three to two aircraft on long final. I quickly spotted one and then spotted the other, which looked like a biplane painted dark grey and hardly standing out from the overcast! I tucked in behind him and called final.

On final, the controller offered me 31 ‘hard’ or ‘grass’. I hadn’t even realised they had a grass strip, but no thanks anyway. They were giving the wind as 260/10, but the windsock didn’t seem to agree, so I judged my approach and there seemed to be very little crosswind. As we approached to short final, I spotted the biplane again, but this time trundling slowly along the runway, having presumably touched down ‘on the numbers’, with the first exit three-quarters along the runway – thanks pal! I had already been cleared to land so I assumed the controller was giving me a ‘land-after’. Then on very short final, the controller piped up and in very broken English with a lot of ‘aaahhhs and errrrs’ eventually gave me a ‘you tack ouf agin and chreye agin pliiz’. The moment she piped up, I knew it was a go-around, so powered up and was well into the go around before she found the right words!



Around we went for a left hand circuit and came in again, this time number one and a clean runway (always a bonus). I didn’t think there was any traffic behind me, but just in case, I stayed high and aimed to touch down well past the piano keys to minimise the taxi trundle. This I did with a good landing. I was directed to the grass parking area which while not billiard table smooth, wasn’t too bad. I parked next to the biplane which turned out to be painted a dark olive green and in German WW1 markings. I shut down, unpacked and set the plane up for overnight parking (stick secured to the rear with seat belts etc. I didn’t bother with chocks as it would take a hurricane to move it in the grass.



Last time I was here (three years ago now) we left via the tower, but I went and checked all the doors in the main terminal building first. The third door from the right was signed as ‘aircrew’ and was open, so in we went. We had arrived at the right place and a very pleasant lady with very little English helped us.





With my very poor French (and Mark’s excellent understanding of French but his apparent refusal to actually speak a word), we got by. Yes, there would be fuel tomorrow and yes, we could pay all the fees tomorrow. Douanes? A gallic shrug and a smile – we had correctly notified them with advance notice and full details the day before as it said on the French AIP and Caen plates. This is not at all unusual, I have rarely actually seen customs at a French airfield. She was kind enough to call for a taxi to take us to the SNCF station in Caen, as that was the best place to hire a car.

Waiting for the taxi, Mark and I visited a small monument by the tower to the Canadian regiments that finally took the strategic airfield in early July 1944 in hand to hand fighting.

Well, of course by the time we got to the station, all of the four car hire places were shut for lunch (this is continental Europe remember). The earliest to re-open was at 13:30 – well it was 13:00 now so a beer and a juice at the local bar was in order – the bill for this reckless extravagance? – a mere EUR 11 – AAARRRGGGHHH KEEEYYRRIIIIISSSTT! This is gonna hurt!

The rest of the trip went better in comparison. On the Saturday we went to Benys-sur-Mer and the Canadian cemetery then onto Courseulles and the Canadian visitors centre.



The visitors centre was fine except for some ‘political correctness’ nonsense with one entire substantial room devoted to why Canadians like Canada (no kidding!) and how bad we were to the Inuit (and this has what to do with WW2???).

We drove in the direction of Ouistreham to get to Pegasus bridge before it closed, but spotted some more Canadian monuments along the way, so stopped at them. We came to the famous house on the coast that the clip of the landings always show, of a Canadian soldier running off a landing craft with a distinctive French house on the shore. This was the first house liberated by the beach landings and sported a decent sized Canadian flag.





We managed to get to Pegasus Bridge with 45 minutes until it closed, so we whizzed around and then realised that the original bridge had been moved to this site (complete with bullet marks) – ooops! We both hoped that Mark had managed to capture this bridge in his aerial photos as well (he did, but of course more by accident that design).



We stayed at the Ibis in the centre of Caen. The Accor Hotel group (Mercure, Ibis etc.) are a pilot’s best friend because they allow for cancellation on the day of arrival! To be fair so do the Campinile and B&B groups.

We got ripped off with a below par evening meal in a very nice restaurant in the ancient quarter of Caen. It was full of stuff heads of deer and other game and incongruously a huge Moose! A mere EUR 130 for the two of us, for a so-called fillet steak (about 1cm thick) from a cow that had clearly died from malnutrition!

The next day, we headed to Omaha beach and the American Cemetery. The American do things differently – they have a few HUGE cemeteries whereas the Commonwealth have a lot of smaller ones. I have to say it is very impressive and now has an excellent and remarkably ‘balanced’ visitors centre and display (i.e. it actually acknowledges the contribution made by nations other than the US). Of course this was popularised very movingly in the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (based on a true story of the Niland family, but only loosely) with the emotional opening and closing scenes taking place here. You have to visit to understand it. On the northern edge of the cemetery is a path and a low wall which is on the top of the low ridge that overlook Omaha beach and is precisely where many of the German defenders were sited. A visit here is a very moving experience and it is very hard now to watch the opening 15 minutes of the film without tears coming to your eyes.



We dropped the car back and noted that everything was shut on Sunday (unlike Le Touquet where quite a lot was open). We just managed to refuel, but crapped-out on the wine front.

Back to the airport where we had to find some way of getting back airside. A disembodied voice on the ‘buzzer-phone’ on the door mentioned something about the Air France desk. So we waited there for a bit and when no one came, spotted a guy reading a paper by the security machines at departures, he motioned asked for our passports and my licence and beckoned us through. We went through the now time-honoured charade of stripping almost bare (OK, emptying my pockets and taking my belt off) to walk through machines that were turned off anyway.

We went to the office and paid the exorbitant EUR 8.50 fee (bargain of the trip). We refuelled, filed the flight plan and were away by 15:00 local (14:00 UK time).

The weather was overcast and showery south of the airfield, but looked sunny with widely scattered clouds north of the airfield over the water. I didn’t mess about with low level runs and climbed to 3500’ to stay below the very occasional cumulus as we back-tracked the same route back to the UK.

The weather was great, but I still had to stay below 3500’ to clear that bloody low level airway into Jersey. On the way back, I decided to show Mark the Cerne Abbas Giant with his large appendage, keeping a careful eye out for aircraft at this ‘honeypot’.

The return trip was uneventful, except for a glider passing a couple of hundred feet to our left and below (but still too close for comfort). I did spot him, albeit late, but early enough to take avoiding action (which wasn’t needed), so I waggled wings instead.

Bristol Radar were very busy and I barely managed to get a QSY in well north of their airspace. That and getting the Gloucester ATIS and the initial call to Gloucester distracted me so that when I looked around I spotted that I was barely a mile east of Nympsfield at 2400’ while glider winch launch was in operation. Oh crap – what an idiot! I felt really bad and hoped they didn’t have to suspend launch activity. I made a mental note (and did) to call and email them later with an apology.

Gloucester were fine as usual and I got a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits. Then at 4 miles they changed it to 22 with right hand circuits. No bother. Around we went, taking care to be precisely over the upwind numbers at 1000’ as a Sligsby took off below us so we passed overhead while he was climbing out – Mark and I kept a very careful watch out for him as he passed underneath. The approach was good as was the landing. Down at just before 16:00 local.

We taxied in and shut down, we unpacked and I asked Mark to use the car shampoo to wash down all the leading areas of the plane and the front of the prop for fly-splats. Of course, he thought the front of the prop was the front (i.e. grey side) so missed the real front (i.e. the back) - so I had to give the real front a decent clean – clear – errr perhaps not!



This was a very good trip and blew my ‘touring cobwebs’ away. The usual very ‘relaxed’ French ATC (I wonder if the hysterical, shrill and barely competent lady controller at Le Touquet has relocated to Caen now?) – having said that, Deauville were great.

A good trip and I look forward to taking to wife on a long promised trip to Deauville . Honfleur in two weeks time – as usual, pray for the weather!

Local and the North Pole!

No – not the hordes of Polish workers now in the UK – a planned talk at my local airfield by an intrepid aviator who flew his Aztec twin solo to the North Pole!

First the local.

I hadn’t flown for since the 7th and the ‘itch’ has been getting worse for the last few days. I booked the plane for Monday evening hoping that the wind would die down (it has been VERY blowy the last few days). Well, it was OK. The weather was sunny with scattered, thin cumulus at about 4000’ and a wind reported at the airfield as 200V250 / 11 – fine by me.

I shot home first to get changed and picked up my daughters boyfriend (as he is always keen to go flying). The airfield was quiet and Rob helped a lot by opening hangar doors, helping wheel the plane out etc. He is very keen and quick to learn.

I booked out for a local to the SW, then checked the fuel – oh nuts! Only about 30l on board, so a trip to the pumps in order. No particular hassle, it’s just in such warm, sunny weather, any time spent with the canopy buttoned up, but not actually flying means you get very sweaty very quickly.

We put 70 litres in, so now plenty on board. Just before I was about to climb back in, an Arrow pulled up behind us, so I climbed out and pulled the plane forward so he could pull up far enough to start fuelling (a little consideration for others is no bad thing). We started up and taxied out to runway 22. Power checks complete, a glance at the windsock said it was pretty much straight down the runway – you learn to get very sensitive to ACTUAL wind strength and direction (as opposed to reported winds) in a taildragger!

Cleared for take off, I taxied past the displaced threshold and started the take off run. The take-off itself was nice and smooth (though I say it myself) as we headed straight ahead towards the ‘bends in the river’ the other side of Gloucester and headed down the Severn towards the Bristol Channel.

Rob got a couple of pictures of the bridges as I headed up the Wye valley at Chepstow. I got Rob to take the stick and he held it nice and level and carried out some gentle turns to follow the course of the river.

As the plane had just had it’s 100 hour check, I was carefully monitoring the gauges and digital engine readouts for any unusual behaviour – none appeared.

We wandered over to Ledbury for an orbit of the grass strip there, then I whistled up the Gloucester ATIS. I called for a rejoin at Tewkesbury and was given a standard overhead join for 22 with right hand circuits. I could have asked for a direct join, but it’s been a while since I did a ‘standard overhead’, so what the hell!

All went well and I managed to get the plane slowed to sensible circuit speed (I needn’t have worried as I was the only one in the circuit). On base, the Tower advised me that some genetic throwback had started a huge bonfire on short-ish final to runway 22 and given this and the current wind (they were giving 250 / 11), would I like to change runway. Turning final now, I saw the windsock and it looked only slightly off of 22, the smoke didn’t look too bad, so I opted to continue.

In the event, the smoke was no bother and the wind definitely favoured 22 – only slightly off runway heading – so a good decision. The landing was good, although I could have ‘nailed the tail’ on the ground quicker than I did – last remnants of my nosewheel ‘bad habits’.

Nice flight in excellent visibility. I am definitely ready for touring now. Locals are OK, but I really need to go somewhere now. Trip to France planned for mid-July!

On the other topic, I frequent an internet forum called ‘Flyer Forum’. I joined this in 2002 and have found it an excellent and generally friendly source of information and debate (unlike the apparently un-moderated but much better known PPRUNE – where they seem to spend vast amounts of time ‘willy waving’ and generally insulting each other without mercy). Here I got wind of the flyout to Italy that I took part in in 2006. On this flyout, I met ‘Timothy’, a vastly experienced ex-commercial pilot who normally flew an Aztec twin, but was actually flying with another forumite in a C152!

Well, in April 2008, Timothy fulfilled a lifetime ambition and flew his Aztec via Norway and Spitzbergen, to the North Pole (solo), then onto various airports in the extreme north of Canada, across the Greenland icecap to Iceland, then back to Biggin Hill. We all followed his posting avidly on the forum and since he returned he has written an article that was published in Flyer magazine about the trip.

Well, I asked if he was planning a talk in the west country anytime soon and this turned into him agreeing to do a talk on 25th July at Gloucester airport if I organised it. I agreed to go this and have since worked with the very helpful head of ATC at Gloucester who has booked the terminal building and I am now in the process of publicising the event to the aviation fraternity in the local area.

So Friday, 25th July 2008 at 19:45 in the main terminal at Gloucestershire (Staverton) Airport EGBJ – be there! Admission free.

Ramble and rant about overseas touring

My ‘big tour’ this year is one I have planned for a while now. This is a visit to my buddy in Ottawa in August to hire a plane and fly from:

1. Ottawa to New York (Westchester / White Plains) via Massena to visit my sister,
2. New York low level city trip, then Niagara Falls and Toronto City Airport,
3. Toronto City to Ottawa.

As part of the preparations, on my last visit in February this year, I had lined up the paperwork and medicals etc. for a written test to get a full Canadian PPL based on my standalone FAA PPL.

This was a mini-performance in itself which I have already written about. Suffice to say that it didn’t end in February and I had to actively chase Transport Canada to persuade them to chase the FAA for an answer to a very simple question (which I was sure the FAA had overlooked – and so it turned out). Anyway, I finally got my Canadian PPL in early June – precisely four months after applying for it.

While I was in Ottawa in February, as part of the preparations, I visited my preferred flying club (where I had flown on a P U/T ‘trial flight’ basis the year before), Rockcliffe and introduced myself to one of the Senior FI’s there. I explained my plan and asked if I could hire one of their C172’s. He agreed in principle (subject to a check ride – of course) and even talked about the relatively complex and fiddly Canada to USA border clearance procedures and where to read up on them (I am a Canadian passport holder, so easier for me to get into the USA than a Brit). He said that he couldn’t actually book a plane for me there and then as their system didn’t load dates that far in advance and advised that I should contact them 8-10 weeks before the trip. So far so good. I had previously checked Rockcliffe out on the internet and noted that they had several write ups on trips their members took to US destinations and made various recommendations for US destinations.

So having done what I thought was ‘all the right things’, including personally introducing myself to a senior Flying Instructor at Rockcliffe, once the actual licence arrived in early June, I called the same FI at Rockcliffe and re-introduced myself and explained again my plans and asked to book a plane for a check ride followed by my planned trip.

There was something in the vague and non-committal way he was responding that made me wonder. It told him about my flying experience (not vast at 400 hours TT, but hardly a beginner either) and again he sounded a bit vague but promised to get back to me. I was left with a somewhat uneasy feeling, but put it down to the fact that English wasn’t his first language (Ottawa is probably the most bi-lingual city in Canada). Two days later I got an email from him saying that he had now spoken to the club CFI (……hmmmmm……that sounds ominous…) who wanted to ‘keep trips to the USA down this year’ and wasn’t keen to rent to ‘someone they don’t know’ to make such a trip!

OK – not happy now! So I emailed back and politely pointed out that I had flown with them before, met their FI in February when he raised no objections at the time. I would be flying with my buddy who lives in Ottawa and was a long-serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces and he would be happy to ‘vouch’ for me. This didn’t cut much (i.e. any!) ice with them and they responded that the USA was out, but they would be happy to rent to me ‘provided I passed the check ride’ (they mentioned this every time and I was getting bored with the repetition). They also asked for copies of both the Canadian and FAA licences (why the FAA one I don’t know), copies of my last few logbook pages (fair do’s) and a note of recent touring and experience in the C172 (OK – fair enough).

I had already carefully planned my trip to New York, bought the maps, marked the routes up, prepared the PLOG’s, prepared flight plans, made enquiries about the trickier stuff (New York low-level city route, Niagara Falls traffic patterns etc.) only to be told that although I had discussed it with them in February, that they would not now rent me the plane for the trip, but I could change plans and do something else purely within Canada – NOT HAPPY! Had they told me this in February, I would probably have gone along with it and planned something else, but now I feel a call to other clubs coming on.

I tentatively booked with Rockcliffe anyway and sent the information requested while at the same time emailing my buddy with the news and suggesting alternatives along the lines of:

- Check with other flying clubs in Ottawa / Montreal / Kingston and see if they all had similar concerns and restrictions – if so then it must be a general rule
- Drive to Massena in the USA and hire an FAA aircraft from there and stay in the USA.
- Do alternative tours in Canada only – like Ottawa to Quebec City or maybe the Bay of Fundy etc.

Well, my buddy is a resourceful kind of guy who sees ‘no’ as the first step on the road to a ‘yes’. He made a few calls and spoke to some other clubs. If I know him, he probably ‘talked me up’ and made me sound like a cross between Charles Lindberg and Chuck Yeager – I hope not! Anyway, the good news is that ‘the other club’ in Ottawa were happy to hire a C172, subject to a checkride (of course!) for the planned trip. They want a substantial deposit on account (I have seen this before when I trained with a school in the US – they are a long established club, so I am not too worried), but it looks like a go-er.

So I will be speaking to this other flying club and sending them no doubt much the same information and a substantial deposit ‘on account’.

What I don’t understand is what I could possibly have done differently and why people say one thing then do another. With hindsight, I suspect that I should have made a point of speaking to the CFI. Needless to say, I will not be doing future business with Rockcliffe Flying Club.

I am hoping to arrange a similar flying holiday next year in the summer. But this should be easier (note ‘should be’) as I hope to fly with my bother-in-law’s brother, who lives in Texas (he is an aircraft owner and an FAA Instructor) and maybe my sister (who lives in New York) and my buddy (who could fly down from Canada). The trip could be entirely in the USA around Texas, New Mexico, Nevada etc. My contact in Texas could easily arrange a rental for me and even do the checkride / combined FAA BFR. Sounds strange to be looking forward to next years trip before I have done this years, but that’s what GA touring is about I guess.

Taking the 'War Department' flying!

It had to happen! The wife wanted a trip in my 'new' plane now that I had taken others up and not actually managed to kill them or myself!

Well, I had the plane booked for a local on Saturday afternoon and the weather was excellent. So of course I had to oblige. I was hoping to do a 'landaway', but as one of the other group members booked the plane after me, it didn't leave enough time, so a local it had to be.

She know how long the 'boring bit' takes as I check the aircraft out, book out etc. so brought a book and sat reading it in the hangar while I toiled away! I announced we were ready and she helped me manouevre the aircraft out of the hangar.

I gave her the safety brief, especially the harnesses and canopy opening - she knows the rest already, then away we went.

Gloucester were giving runway 36 with the wind 330 / 05 variable - fine. It is amazing how obsessed you get with the wind in a taildragger - when I flew nosewheels it was 'yeah whatever' unless it was howling a gale!



And yes, it is a snug fit in an RV6 - she was chuckling at how cosy me and the neighbour must be (he is a bit bigger than the wife!).

Off we went on 36 with the aircraft skipping along happily, then flying itself off. Up to about 3800 and I followed my now 'time honoured' local route of the Malverns, Defford, Bredon Hill, Winchcombe, Gotherington then back in the Gloucester - with of course a few turns and steep turns thrown in for fun.



She is an excellent passenger, but wasn't going to take the stick any time soon.

Rejoining, we were still on 36 as I was given a standard overhead join. This was fine, but 36 is narrower than the other runways and the base to final leg heads straight for a hill, so it focuses the mind somewhat.

I was high (as I usually am on 36 for some reason), so side-slipped the height off. My wife has seen me do this before, so was not unduly alarmed by the aircraft sliding sideways.

Good approach gradiant now on short final with the required speed. Over the threshold and roundout. Fly level and back, back, back - no baloon and minimal crosswind. Stall warner chirping, now constant, back more and we touch and stay touched - whoppee - no bounce or hop! I see the wife give a 'startle reflex' as we land - it was a good landing, but the tailwheel makes it noisier and a bit bumpier than the Arrow or the Beech Bonanza she was previously used to - I guess I should have warned her. No matter, she is fine.

She enjoyed the flight and now has a feel for the plane and the touring I have planned withb her to France should go fine.

Another lovely flight. I really want to go touring or at least 'airfield collecting' next time - maybe Southend or Bournemouth, not been there yet.

Pleasant evening bimble

On checking the bookings for the plane, it seems that June is pretty popular, with a booking for every weekend now. So I thought I would get in early for July as I am planning on a couple of trips to France. Even so, a couple of weekends in July had already ‘gone’, so I booked two that were left, one for a Caen trip with my neighbour and another for a trip to Honfleur with the wife.

The Caen trip is on the same weekend as the huge RIAT Airshow at Fairford. That’s a pain because they will create a bloody great big RAT (Restricted Airspace) in a huge upside-down layer-cake arrangement directly between Gloucester and the south coast (where I need to head). No matter - a quick look at the charts and I will head south towards the ‘gap’ between Bristol and Lyneham, then coast out at Portland (if the Danger Areas are closed) routing to Cherbourg, then along the east coast of the Cotentin peninsula overflying the invasion beaches headed for Caen – should work nicely.

With the June weekends being heavily booked and things at work being very busy (with a one week business trip to India in early June), I decided to keep my newly-minted taildragger skills up to date with a quick local of an evening after work (blessed be the long summer evenings!).

The weather on Wednesday was pretty good – a bit like to opening sequence of the Simpsons – odd puffy clouds and light winds. Despite the forecast for rain by late afternoon, this had not happened by 15:00, so I checked the on-line booking and booked the plane for the evening. A quick trip back home to see if anyone wanted to come with me as self-loading ballast and my daughter’s boyfriend volunteered.

Drove the 20 minutes to the airfield and parked up. Quick check of the NOTAMS (can’t be too careful, even on a local, especially in the summer – I would hate to blunder into a Red Arrows display).

I booked out and checked the plane out. Amazingly, it had nearly full tanks – great, no trip to the pumps. The plane was in good order and I noted that the brakes had been serviced from the tech log.

Pulled the plane out and got in. Gave Rob another safety brief (he had one last time, but I wanted to go through the key safety points again, especially the seat belts and canopy opening / jettison). Started up and lit up the panel. The ATIS said basically that all runways except 27 were closed due to grass cutting and that the winds were 220 / 10 knots. OK, could be a crosswind here, but I am happy with 10 knots, so we set off.

The brakes were noticeable ‘rumbly’, but we had be warned that this might be so, so no drama.

Power checks OK and I was cleared for take off on 27. The windsock showed very little wind, so the wind had dropped since the ATIS, but be aware of a possible crosswind from the left, so a bit of left aileron and read with right rudder during the take off run. In the event, I didn’t seem to need any more than normal. The tail came up quickly and the RV started hopping merrily down the runway like an excited toddler heading towards the beach. I let her climb gently away which she did with the usual aplomb.

We turned on track to the north west and continued the climb to 3200’ (I always like to avoid round 1000’s and 500’s) and levelled out there. Top of climb checks and lean the mixture. Before I knew it, we were over the Malverns. Time for a few normal and steep turns! The RV handles steep turns really well and is a pleasure to fly.

I let Rob try a ‘normal’ angle of bank turn for a full 360 degrees. He is a keen Flight Simulator ‘pilot’ and it showed! He had his eyes glued to the instruments, especially the altimeter most of the time. I explained visual reference flying to him. I made a similar mistake when I was learning and was ‘rewarded’ by my instructor sticking a piece of paper over all the instruments and making me do a couple of manoeuvres purely visually, only to be rewarded by the ‘reveal’ when he took the paper away to see that I had only lost 100’ – so it can be done!

The visibility was much better than last time and Rob got some much better photographs.

Despite Gloucester being very quiet, I was spotting several aircraft in flight. None close enough to worry, but then if you can see them at all, it is a worry!

Over to Bredon Hill to check it is still there and I played ‘spot Croft Farm’ from a safe 4200’. We spotted it and heard at least two aircraft heading in to Croft Farm. While orbiting Croft Farm, we spotted to twin about 500’ above heading in a Brize Norton direction.

Over to my home village to ‘buzz the town’ (of course from the correct legal altitude – besides the village is so small, I have to turn around the outside). More pictures as I set course to the North East and climbed while getting the latest Gloucester ATIS. Winds had dropped and were minimal and variable (that’s what I like to hear).

Suitably organised, I headed back to base and called for rejoin over Gretton. The airfield had not combined TWR and APP frequencies and were very quiet (apart from turning around the scheduled Dornier commercial flight from the Isle of Man). I was given a direct long final join for 27.

I misjudged the height a bit and was too high and too fast over the racecourse – the RV is very slippery. So I pulled to power and held altitude to slow the plane. Once closed, I put some power in and started a sideslip. Managed to get to a sensible height over the distinctive ‘doughnut’ shaped office building (about 2 mile final). Called final and cleared to land. Speed slowed to flap limiting speed and dropped the flaps. Got 80kts and decayed this to the desired 70kts. I ran through the landing in my mind.

Good approach path, good speed, windsock hanging with the odd flicker at the bottom to show it was still alive – but barely – my kind of wind! Cleared to land and backtrack (they really ARE quiet). Over the hedge for 27, past the displaced threshold. Power off, fly level. Edge back on the stick, tiny movements as the elevators are powerful and sensitive. No balloon, back more, a bit more, stall warner starting to chirp, back more, more, wheels touch – bit of a small hop, back more, touch again and we stay down, stick fully back to anchor the tailwheel. We are down – good landing – pleased with that.

Carefully slowed the aircraft, gentle braking. Now going very slowly, carefully turn the plane around for the backtrack. I am possibly being too careful about this, but rather that than an embarrassing pirouette! Taxied back and shut down.

Lovely flight in good weather. I can’t wait to go touring now. I have two weekends booked in July, both for trips to France (weather permitting of course).

And no Manuel – I didn’t grease the fuel caps!

Yet more locals!

Surprisingly, the aircraft wasn’t booked at all over the weekend, until that is it was booked late in the week for Saturday for its 25 hour service. Sunday was a great day weather-wise – sunny and warm with scattered ‘fair-weather cumulus’. Unfortunately, I had flown it on Friday evening and had to paint the front window. However, I did this in short order and my thoughts turned to flying again at about mid-afternoon. A quick check of the booking system showed it was booked for one hour between 16:00 and 17:00 with a note to say the person wasn’t going to fly, but just wanted to take the GPS unit out of the plane and home so he could program the flight plans for a coming trip.

Great, so I booked it for 2 hours from 17:15! I gave Mark, my neighbour a shout to see if he was interested in a local as he hasn’t flown in this plane yet (and I owe him a trip to the D-Day beaches). He was up for it, so we piled in the car and off for the 20 minute drive to the airfield.

We got there about 16:30 and there was no trace of the other group member and the GPS was still in place. No matter, I checked the plane over in the hangar then pulled it out onto the ramp. I gave Mark the safety brief, especially how the canopy releases and seat belts worked. It was approaching 17:00, but to while away the time, Mark and I watched someone at the pumps trying to ‘hand-prop’ start a biplane. He was having a few problems with a couple of trips to look under the engine covers and tinker. What surprised me was that he was doing all this without anyone in the cockpit (I thought it was a ‘golden rule’ to have someone competent at the controls?). I guess if I was a gentleman, I would have walked the 100 m or so and helped out? Well, he got it going eventually, but I suspect he was a bit hot and bothered.

Hmmmmm…..17:00 and still no show by the guy who wanted the GPS. I wasn’t certain how to remove it. Managed to pull it out, but it had a serial port connector (which I could easily take off) and a brass connector that looked like it was screwed in – well that was too much for me, so rather than tinker with something I wasn’t certain about, I refitted it and assumed it was a ‘no show’ by the earlier booking. Just in case, I left a note on the locker and booked the plane out.

Of course it needed more fuel, so we refuelled and added some 64 litres. By now it was 17:20. I checked the hangar and still no show by the other group member, so we mounted up and called for taxi clearance. It was runway 04, so off to B1 for 04 crossing 36.

I pointed out to Mark the restricted forward view while taxying and that I could just see forward without having to resort to weaving. We pulled up to B1 as I did the power checks. The plane was fine and all readings were as expected. I called ‘ready for departure’.

I had previously explained to Mark about the differences between taildraggers and the nosewheel aircraft he had previously flown with me in. I checked the windsock, minimal wind, maybe a little from the right, then I applied power, stick slightly forward of neutral to raise the tail. Tail up, modest dance on the pedals and the plane started to ‘skip’ happily along the runway – she was getting ready to fly. Ease back a bit and off she went, happily climbing away at 1000 fpm with two big guys and a decent fuel load. Mark was amazed at how little ground run it needed.

I flew straight ahead until past the noise-sensitive Staverton village (I kid you not, there is a lady there that sits outside with a clock and binoculars recording the registration of every aircraft that overflies the village and sends the list into the airfield as a noise complaint!), then set course to see if the Malverns were still there. We climbed to about 4000’ then set the plane up for the cruise as I allowed the speed to build, pulled the throttle back to cruise and leaned the mixture. This gave a very reasonable 23 lph and 135 kts airspeed.

I showed Mark a few normal turns then a few steep turns. He flies model aircraft, so has some idea of the forces involved and what is going on. I gave him the controls and he managed straight and level and some modest turns. He quickly adapted to the very sensitive controls and immediately declared it ‘like a fighter’.

We flew down the Wye Valley at 3000’ and checked that the two Severn bridges were still there – they were! Then we headed back to the airfield IFR (I Follow the River) up the Severn. I got the ATIS and called Gloster Approach overhead Lydney. They gave me a straight-in approach to long final for 04 and asked me to report at 4 miles.

Overhead the bends in the Servern, a helicopter called and reported at the same position as me. I didn’t catch his altitude, so asked Gloster – it was fine, he was only at 1000’ and shortly he reported visual with me.

I played with the GPS and for fun set ‘direct to’ Gloster – well, it would also give me the range so I could accurately report my 4 miles. I do find this unit not as easy as the Garmin 430’s I am used to, but I will have to get use to it I guess.

I had a cruise descent on, but was still pretty high. I reported 4 miles and was cleared to land – circuit not busy then! I was way high and fast, so power back and started side-slipping. This worked well as I unwound from the sideslip and brought the speed back by flying level with the throttle close. Once in flap limiting speed, dropped one stage of flap, then the second and set up for about 80 kts. Two mile final now. At one mile, brought the speed back to 70kts. Good altitude now with one pinky red and one white from the PAPI’s. Tower reported wind agreed with the windsock – 050 / 05 kts – almost perfect!

I had earlier briefed Mark on what to expect on landing and not only NOT to be alarmed if the stall warner went off before we touched, but to be alarmed if it didn’t – coz it would mean we could well bounce! Fortunately, he is an experience passenger and used to my dry humour!

Rounded out and flew level as she eased down. Gently back on the stick, back a bit more, a bit more, more yet….. chirp of the stall warner, back more, stall warner now constant, more yet and the wheels touch – and stay touched! Back more on the stick to nail the tailwheel – stick fully back, ride the landing roll with the pedals (not much needed and she slows to an easy taxi without any braking (I find I rarely use brakes with this aircraft, only really for engine start, occasional turns and power checks).

A good landing and again I say as much to Mark – not to brag, but to ‘condition his expectations’ for future landings in less than ideal conditions like today.

Taxi in and shut down. The other group member has turned up and is quite understanding that I took the plane after his booking slot. He shows me how to undo the GPS unit (which of course is simplicity itself) and heads off with it to program in his flight plans for a Scotland trip starting tomorrow.

Mark thoroughly enjoyed the flight and the handling of the aircraft. I remind him that he needs to come back to me with one or two weekends that he is free for this D-Day beaches trip so I can book the plane.

Well, another good flight in near ideal conditions. I am now looking forward to ‘breaking out’ of the local area. Maybe I should book a weekend for myself and the wife for one of my long overdue trips with her to one of the channel ports – this time either Etaples or Honfleur.