I had the plane booked for Saturday morning for a local and all day Sunday so that myself and other group members could give the plane a full valet and wax ready for the summer season.
I had agreed to take Dave flying. He is a friend of a friend and disabled as a result of an accident while in the military. He has never been up in a small aircraft. I took advice and tried it out myself, and it did seem that it was quite possible for him to get into and out of the aircraft with only a little assistance.
So I turned up on Saturday and did the pre-flights, filled her with fuel, then I spotted that Dave had just arrived. I met him and escorted him airside and introduced him to the challenge of boarding. He was fine with it and in the event, only needed my shoulder to push against – well, he is a top class hand-cyclist and has arms about as think as my legs!
I only had to clamber over Dave to get to my seat (there is only one door in the PA28 series), which I managed without booting him in the face.
The weather was very changeable, with some blue bits between the clouds and isolated and easily seen showers. The wind was blustery but with Gloucester’s three runways, we rarely have to deal with much crosswind. In the event, the take-off was fine and the climb out good. There was not much turbulence as I headed North for Worcester and the Malverns to have a play.
Dave had a go at flying and made the usual mistakes – gripping the yoke in the ‘Vulcan Death Grip’ and going into a turning climb etc. Once we got that straightened out (using the ‘Dog turds wrapped in tissue’ analogy), he was managing straight and level and gentle rate 1 turns. I treated him to a couple of steep turns (60 degrees AOB). I thought about going above the clouds in the blue gaps and got to 5000’. Even at 5000’ it was clear that there was some vertical development of the cumulus and that I would have to get to 8000’ before I was truly on top, so with time constraints against me, I gave up on the idea. Instead, I spotted a few lower, small and self-contained clouds and had a play by flying right through them.
I picked up the ATIS and headed for Gloucester. Got a standard overhead join for 22 right hand. The circuit wasn’t too busy and made a nice final approach and with the assistance of the headwind, stopped in a very short distance of the runway.
Dave managed to get out even better than getting in and didn’t require any assistance at all. We decided to catch some lunch in the airfield café and settled down to a bacon baguette and tea, when I spotted a PA38 taxi up and park. I recognised it as one of the Pembrey aircraft and sure enough, Leia walked over to the café a few minutes later. Leia is a student flying from Pembrey and I gave her a lift to the student fly-in a couple of weeks ago. Said hello and was joined by the other student I gave a lift to – old home week this. Time was pressing, so Leia set off again on her return leg of her solo landaway while I set course for home.
Sunday dawned with pretty poor looking weather. My wife described the clouds to the west as ‘navy blue’. However, I was not planning to fly, only to round up three other members of the group so we could give the plane a full valet ready for the summer season. We aim to do this twice a year, with a ‘wash and shammy’ between each full valet. For us, a full valet means what it says.
First we scramble around on our backs and use ‘Yak Milk’ to de-grease and clean the entire underside and gear.
Then we wash, rinse and shammy dry all of the aircraft (including the dreaded underside – with water running off the sponge down your arms!).
Then a break while it dries, followed by ‘wax on / wax off’ of AutoGlym red label polish.
Then we ‘wax on’ AutoGlym gold label polish and go for another break to leave this for the required 60 minutes.
Then we polish off the gold label, while one or two members hoover the inside, polish the Perspex inside and out (AutoGlym FastGlass) and another member polished the aluminium spinner with aluminium polish, then waxes that.
Followed by the grand finales – apply some tyre black to the tyres.
Hey presto – a fantastic, brand new aircraft!
I am the nominated organiser for this activity and made sure that we had stocks of all material in place. We pulled the plane out and I made a start while the other turned up around 10:00 – actually for a change, they were all very prompt! We set about it. The new member, Garry, got volunteered for the crappy job, specifically degreasing the underside (although I did join him). That Yak Milk is fantastic – it really cuts through it without the risk of using some of the nastier sprays (Gunk etc.).
Usual hilarity follows as the people washing the top start on the wings when other members are working underneath (oops!). We push the plane into a hangar to shield it from the showers and try out Staverton Flying Club for the break as the plane dries. Under new management and it was indeed very welcoming. A lot of people there and it has a nice feel.
We start the polishing and yes, it is very hard work! We go for two layers of different polish, both from AutoGlym. One to polish and one to seal. It looks good after the first polish, then you have to ‘ruin’ all your work and apply the second sealing coat of gold label. This is almost like water and is very easy to apply – not rubbing. We take our second break and grab a good fry-up at the airfield café. After an hour, we return and the gold label is nicely dry and polishes off easily to reveal a fantastic shine! Meanwhile, I attack the Perspex, the inside and shine the tyres etc.
Yes folks! By a mere 15:00 we are done – four people working (with breaks) since 10:00. Well it sets us up nicely for the summer and we all agree, it really does look a million dollars! The paint job it had at Colton’s two years ago is truly excellent and polishes up really well.
Then the question – has anyone brought their flying gear? OK, it is quite blustery and showery, but it is flyable. As chance would have it, I have! So I agree to do the ‘test flight’ with two other group members as ‘official observers’! I check the aircraft over carefully – always possible that latches and catches are undone etc. In the event it is fine other than two incorrectly fastened cowling catches.
We load up, start up and are off. Gloucester is quiet due to the weather and they only have a single frequency going. The take-off and climb out are OK, even with the turbulence. Climbing to 2400’ over Gloucester and it is still smooth. Then we catch turbulence under some of the better developed cumulus clouds. We head to some new engineering works over Gloucester to get some photos so Garry can give them to the construction company (he works in that industry). Mark decides to have a look at his factory, so we set course into the wind to Monmouth. He seems to own a good 10 acres of factory in prime position in Monmouth – hmmm…. maybe Mark is rich and therefore worth sucking-up to a lot!
The plane is fine, so we set course for a return. Gloucester is quiet and now giving runway 27 with right hand circuits with winds 250 25G37. Could be an interesting approach! We get a direct to downwind join, so I start a cruise descent from 10 miles. I note from the GPS that our groundspeed is 160 kts!
Just before we get to Gloucester, we encounter a sudden jolt of turbulence. The first we knew about it was that all three of us are catapulted off our seats headed skyward! Time to find out who had their seatbelts nice and tight! As I am tall, I don’t have as far to travel until my head hits the roof, but poor Garry in the back is both smaller and had his seat belt loose - so his head hits the roof with a thump. Mark is not much better but manages to grab the seat. That was exciting! We probably now have three ‘power bulges’ in the roof-line of the aircraft!
Excitement over - we join downwind and I slow the plane down and drop the gear – that slows us nicely. I am getting pushed downwind very fast, so I turn base and pull on two stages of flaps. No need to turn at the ‘prominent building’ with this headwind, so I cut a lot of the base leg out and head for a curved final (no problem as we are the only aircraft in the circuit – maybe someone is trying to tell us something!).
I line up for final and give it the ‘Red / Green / Blue’ check. Then on half mile final, we start to get bounced around. The ASI is jumping about a lot, but I suppose averaging my desired ‘faster than normal’ approach speed. This is getting sporting now! I continue the approach and crab as there is a reasonable crosswind component. Over the hedge and still getting bounced around. I slow the rate of descent and start to get blown across the runway, so turn more into wind, then I flare and kick it straight, active on the rudder pedals and ailerons, then thankfully, the wheels touch – I quickly drop the flaps to dump lift. We touch at a quite a slow groundspeed (hardly surprising I suppose) and are stopped long before the intersection of 27. Phew, that was fun! Not bad at all in the circumstances. All good experience.
We taxi up and shut down. The showers we encountered en-route have left no mark at all of the aircraft as the polished surfaces shrugged it off. Once again, we admire our handiwork as the helpful firecrew push the plane back into the hangar for the night.
It has been a good weekend, despite the showery weather and the fact I was only doing locals. The plane is now all set for the summer season. First up is Garry who is flying her to Jersey next week, then to Spain in early May, then my flying her to Italy in late May. The others are not so solid in their plans yet, but I am sure they will involve cross-channel trips etc.
