Landaway to Goodwood

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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



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



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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AVGAS Prices? JTFC!!!

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

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

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

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

Check this graph out!



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

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

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

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

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

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

Two year revalidation

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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to claggy old Blighty!

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

While I was at it, I also booked last Saturday morning for a simple bimble. The day dawned and the weather was truly horrible, very low cloud, a good breeze and raining, so even circuits were out. So I changed the booking for the afternoon, when the weather was forecast to improve. Indeed it did, so I made my way to the airfield at 14:00 and met up with my daughter’s boyfriend.



The weather wasn’t great, but the lower cloud layer looked around 1200’ and had firmed up, it wasn’t raining and the wind was modest. So I decided that a local would be fine and if worst came to worst, I could easily scuttle back to the airfield at 1000’. I checked the plane out and gave the canopy a good polish. It was OK-ish for fuel, but very lopsided, with far more in one tank than the other, so I pulled the plane out and taxied over to the pumps to put a few litres in to balance it back up.



Rob clambered in and we buttoned up and taxied over to E1 for runway 22. As I was doing so, the wind seemed to be blowing some rain our way and the clouds being pushed over the airfield looked very misty and drizzly. But in most other directions, the weather looked do-able, so I decided to take-off and stay tight to the airfield to see what it was like. Once airborne, we climbed and at 1000’ I was level with a thin scattered layer. Above that and the next layer looked like it cut in at about 3500’, so I wandered out west a bit where the clouds looked thinnest and with large areas of the ground visible beneath the scattered lower clouds. I levelled out at 1500’ to the west of Gloucester and did a few turns, climbs and descents just for the fun of it.

I tried to decide where to go, but the clouds didn’t seem to open up in any particular direction. I could still see the airfield. Well, we clearly weren’t going anywhere, so I admitted defeat after fifteen minutes and called for a rejoin from a grand distance of five miles from the airfield. I was given a direct join at whatever altitude I could manage to maintain VMC.



It wasn’t anywhere near as dramatic as it may sound, as I was still between layers and could easily see the ground through the scattered lower layer. In any event, at 3 miles to run, I descended to below the lowest scattered layer and managed 800’ as I scuttled back in for a right downwind join for runway 22.

There was a flying school Cessna in the circuit doing circuits, and I tucked in behind them. Th approach and landing were fine as I taxied back after a very short 15 minute flight. Needless to say, the weather on the next day (Sunday) was glorious, such is the luck of the draw in the UK!

The trials and tribulations of licences!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flying in the Caribbean

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

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

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

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

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



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



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

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

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



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



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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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



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

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



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

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

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

Annual blues

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



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

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

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

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

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

The joys of a local on a frosty day

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

Local around the flooded local area

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Local after foul weather!

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

I had planned on a landaway on Sunday, but the pressure of personal commitments meant that I could only spare the time for a local. The week leading up to Sunday had been truly horrible, with very high winds and lashing rain, but oddly, Sunday was pretty good. A few scattered low clouds that were probably going to lift and a light wind meant the plane would at least get an airing.

I decided to head west to see either the Welsh hills or at least Ross on Wye and Hereford for the likely flooding from the recent rains.

When I saw the RV in the hangar, my heart sank – it has a yellow high-vis vest on the propellor and a large wheely bin in front of the wing blocking it being pulled out unless I moved the bin. All of this smacked of someone else in the group spotting a technical problem with the plane and marking it as unserviceable, which was strange as I had no emails from anyone to that effect. I pulled out the tech log where we all record comments on snags with the plane and there was nothing relevant in it. I pulled the vest off the prop and moved the bin and gave the RV6 a careful A-check, but could spot nothing wrong. I know the vest that was normally stored in the plane went ‘walkies’ some time ago, so maybe the mystery ‘borrower’ had returned it – if so, it must have been someone outside the group?

Well anyway, the plane was fine as I pulled it out into the sunshine and wandered off to book out. It was low and a trip to the pumps was in order to rectify this. I was cleared to taxi to E1 for runway 22. Power checks complete I lined up after a departing Firefly for a right turnout to the West. As there was only me in the plane and much less than full fuel, the plane soon had it’s tail up and was hopping eagerly down the runway, I relented and she shot skywards, soon out-climbing and overtaking the Firefly which was also headed to the West.



I was presented with a thin bank of cloud pretty much exactly at the 2500’ I was maintaining. So a decision – under or over? Under looked like scud running at about 1800’ over the higher ground in the Forest of Dean. Over looked about 3500’ with a clear ‘between layers’ going up to, I would estimate, 7000’ – so over it was. The cloud below of course looked solid edge on, but once above it was clearly broken, so I was still ‘in sight of ground’. Once past the Forest, the undercast broke even more and I got clear views of some of the inevitable flooding on the Wye at Ross on Wye. I was headed towards the two prohibited areas for the SAS around Hereford, but the cloud looked worse around the Welsh hills, so I turned North East before the prohibited areas and tracked towards Ledbury. For the hell of it I cranked a few steep turns and felt a small amount of ‘G’ as I pulled back to maintain level – nothing like one would feel in aerobatics, but amusing nonetheless.

I popped a few photographs, including a ‘blind shot’ straight into the glaring sun, which actually came out rather well! I am playing with the new camera my buddy bought me after he (Zoltan the destroyer of cameras!) busted my previous cherished Panasonic Lumix – we all know who you are Dan – don’t lend this man your camera!!



I did an orbit of Tewkesbury, but amazingly no flooding. Then headed off the Bredon Hill and over to Bishops Cleeve to orbit my Mother’s house – she always thinks any small plane over her house is me, I thought for once it would make that true! I called for a rejoin and was given the usual standard overhead join. I could have asked for a direct, but it is sometime fun to practice one of these unique (find anyone outside the UK that does this join!) joins. The circuit was quiet as I did a nice overhead join, carefully watching for traffic. The approach was good, if a little fast. I bled that off over the hedge and came in to land. I didn’t hold off for long enough and we touched before I heard the stall warner. Well, I knew what this was going to be and sure enough, I was punished for my sloppiness by the RV as she indignantly bounced me back into the air as if to say ‘you know better than that – now do it again – and properly this time!’. Well, I rode the bounce (not much of a bounce actually) and landed properly this time. I could almost hear her say ‘that’s better, now don’t do it again!’. Perhaps I am ascribing too much to mere metal!

I put the plane away carefully between the tape marks in the hangar and wondered if anyone else had her booked today in what looked like the only decent flying day of the week.

Must do a landaway next time and maybe take a friend or family up with me.

Thinking about my ‘flying trip’ next year and I am trying to talk the wife into going on the Flyer Forum trip to Italy. It was great last time. Probably one week in early June, I think she will reluctantly go for it – she likes the being there, just not the uncertainty of delays due to the weather and doesn’t enjoy ‘scud-running’ and certainly does not enjoy IMC (not that I can fly in that in this aircraft anyway). If she doesn’t go, my daughter or her boyfriend would kill to go, so maybe I will do it, just not sure of the passenger, other than that they will be much lighter than me!

Texas Flying Trip: Reprise

Flying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corpus Christi to San Antonio

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

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

The plan was easy as it turned out:

KCRP DCT CRP DCT THX DCT KSAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Galveston to Corpus Christi

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







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



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

KGLS DCT CRP DCT KCRP (Coastwise)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

San Antonio to Galveston

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

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



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

KSAT DCT VCT DCT PSX DCT KGLS

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



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

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



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

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



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

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



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

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



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



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

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

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

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

Biannual Flight Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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



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



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

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

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

Kemble

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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



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



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

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

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

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

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

We eventually parked up and shut down.

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

Lydd to Southend and Home

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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