Saturday dawned with a gusty wind and claggy with poor to moderate visibility. I had teamed up with Alan White who flies out of Gloucester. Gloucester to Wellesborne is hardly a challenge, being less than 15 minutes in the Arrow. At a late stage, one of the other pilots had to drop out and I agreed to pick up Leia who flies out of Pembrey. She did offer to train it up to Gloucester, but I agreed to try to pick her up in Pembrey – well, I hadn’t been there before so why not?
With the weather as it was, it was questionable whether I could make Pembrey, but the forecast did say the weather would be better out west and I could at least try. So I met Alan at Gloucester and off we went, with Alan doing the flying a navigating and me doing the radio and cross-checking the navigation – no I wasn’t cheating with the GPS – I had that turned off of the map page (OK – I used VOR and DME instead).
I planned to route around the north of Cardiff zone between the city and the high ground. Given the ceiling of about 2300’ and a visibility that was given by EGBJ as 15 km but looked to us more like 8 km, this was a good call. So we flew IFR (I Follow the River) down the Severn and called Cardiff Radar. We turned to follow north of the M4 just past Newport. We headed towards the wind farms, missing Cardiff zone by a couple of miles. Then on to Pembrey over Swansea. We had a belting tailwind of about 30 kts, giving us 160 kts groundspeed (yes, I checked the GPS for that – so!). Just east of Swansea, the cloud starts to break and by the time we get to Pembrey, we are bathed in sunshine!
Alan has done a good job of navigating and we spot Pembrey. I do a standard overhead join and line up for 04 with a nasty crosswind (070 / 15G25 IIRC). I didn’t like my first approach so for the first time in a couple of year, I do a go-around. Second approach is better and looking good, but I can only describe the landing as ‘an arrival’. A crosswind, yes, but no excuses, just not good.
Leia is waiting there. A quick cuppa, then off, this time direct to Wellesborne. We pretty much retrace the route, only a little more inland behind Cardiff playing in some of the valleys with Leia doing the navigation and flying with me at the radio. We are beating into a 30-40 kt headwind and the groundspeed varies between 90 – 100 kts! As we pass Cardiff, the sun disappears as does the visibility! We head east and pick up the Severn at Newport, then IFR again to pass north abeam Gloucester. Straight line now to Wellesborne – there’s the racecourse, Bishops Cleeve, Bredon Hill, Evesham – yep, nicely on track.
I take over with about 10 miles to run and we play ‘spot the airfield in the murk’. Wellesborne are giving 36 left hand with winds of 070 / 15G25 – oh joy! This will be sporting! We spot the airfield and I position for a left base join. The approach is fine and give me a good idea on the wind, I am cranked quite a bit into it to hold the approach line. I flare a little high and of course a gust catches me. Lower the into wind wing a bit, continue the flare and we are down – and the landing - not perfect, but not too bad. We park up with all the other forumites on runway 05 and about 12:50 – a lot have made it.
Into the airfield café for lunch and we spot quite a few forumites and say hello. The café is pretty crowded – maybe it’s us! We follow some of the others to the museum which opened especially for us and have a poke around. Nicely done and run with enthusiasm.
Time marches on and I am aware that we have to get back to Pembrey AND beat our way back into the headwind to Gloucester. I round the troops up and head back to the parking line. We hear Nigel Webb take-off in his Jet Provost – so much for noise abatement! The parking line is starting to thin now as I start up and taxi out. We take-off and I follow the noise abatement, heading for the green roof. We climb to 2200’ which is about all we will get in the murk and head for Gloucester. I use the NDB and DME of course while Leia and Alan dutifully check the ground features. We beat our way past Gloucester and head down the river again. This is a retrace of our steps – I am surprised we don’t hit our own wake vortex from the last trip!
Leia is doing very well – good height holding and seems very adept at visual navigation – while I point out to Leia and Alan how to use Brecon VOR radials and DME to establish position as we go. The other side of Cardiff and the clouds break again and we are again awash in sunshine. Cardiff hand us off to Swansea warning of traffic over Swansea bay. Swansea don’t know anything, but Leia spots it – a Tomohawk above, in front and to our left. We keep an eye on him as head heads north-west and we swing behind him. I hear him call me as visual on Swansea frequency, so I call him an air-to-air telling him what we are doing. Leia says he is one of the Pembrey school aircraft and instructors.
Again, we approach Pembrey and I take over to land. The wind is better now – IIRC 050 / 15kts. Better circuit this time and an adequate landing – not as horrible as last time, but still not smooth. I park up and check the fuel – from full tanks this morning I now have 75 litres left. Enough to get safely back to Gloucester, but in this poor visibility and headwind – I go for the safe option and refuel – at least to tabs at Pembrey. The most useless thing in the world is fuel in the pumps (when you need it in the tanks). I swear the chap burned more fuel starting the bowser and driving it up to the plane that I uplifted.
We bid farewell to Leia – I think she had some fun and has found an easier way of navigating to Gloucester. Alan takes over in the front as we take off and set course for Gloucester. This time, we elect to route direct via BCN – we are at 3000’ in scattered cloud, but of course approaching BCN, it becomes overcast, so we dip below. I am helping Alan to navigate using the VOR and DME with checks against ground features. Alan is having fun with the trim as we gain and lose a few hundred feet here and there. To be fair, as we get closer to Brecon, it has more to do with up and downdrafts. We have sensible visibility even if we are below MSA. Some of the hills look pretty close then drop dramatically away as we cut across the valleys.
It is a bit bouncy as one would expect, all good experience. We hit a bit that is quite a bit bouncier as Alan bangs his head on the roof and wears his headphones as a visor! I think he is still enjoying it? We pass in sight of the BCN VOR keeping a very good lookout. Then ten miles the other side, the ground drops away and reveals low fields and gently rolling countryside. We pass over Monmouth and the Forest of Dean. I call up Gloucester. They are giving 04 with left hand circuits and a wind of 050 / 20 kts – good old Gloucester – lots of runways, so rarely much of a crosswind.
At 5 miles I get cleared for a straight in approach – they really are not busy at all today – I wonder why?! The approach is again good, but I balloon a bit, so again an adequate but not a great landing. Right – it’s circuits for you next flight my boy!
We park up and I do the admin. Alan has enjoyed himself and I think he had some fun in the turbulence over the Brecon hills! We bid farewell.
A good days flying in occasionally challenging conditions. Visibility wasn’t great and I didn’t fancy going above the clouds as they were sat at freezing level. I am sure it would have been great up there, but would have defeated the object for the students, which was to practice visual navigation. Next serious trip is the Flyer Forum trip to Italy in May. I will try to sneak a trip in to France before then though – after some circuits though!
