I asked the neighbour, who is a history and military buff, if he fancied a flight to Duxford air museum. He jumped at the chance and I prayed for my health and the weather!
Sunday dawned in bright blue sunny skies for Cheltenham, with some hill fog clearing as the sun raised the temperature, but a dubious forecast for the day. So we set off anyway. At Gloucester, I got a verbal update from Duxford – not good news – 2000m visibility with a 1000’ cloudbase in murk! However, the forecast was for the weather to move east, so I thought I would do a leisurely A-Check, mooch around a bit and give it a go to see what would happen.
We set off about 10:40 and climbed to 3400’ in clear skies and good visibility. Martin handled the aircraft once I got it level and trimmed up. I explained a few more instruments and re-explained some I had gone through before – I’ll make a good ‘Auto-pilot’ of him yet! I routed direct to DTY and changed to Coventry Approach. They were busy as usual, but I got a call in a got FIS with a 0250 skwawk. I routed south of DTY and kept a careful lookout, but no aircraft.
As I switched to Cranfield, Martin remarked on the ‘wall of fog’ we seemed to be heading into. Well it wasn’t, but it certainly looked like a classic inversion layer at 3200’ topped with scattered cumulus – clear above that but very murky underneath. So I set course for Duxford and reduced height to about 1500’ and grovelled along in maybe 4km visibility – flying a mixture of visual with reference to the AI. I gave Duxford a call and as I expected they weren’t rushed off their feet. They gave 3-4km and clouds at 1500’ – so I figured I would give it a go.
I recognised Fowlmere so followed the road in to Duxford for a downwind join for runway 24. I flew a wide circuit to avoid Duxford village and turning base lost the airfield, but as I knew where I was, I picked up the road and the BP roundabout then spotted the runway. I think this taildragging stuff is paying dividends as the landing was again a good one. I rolled to the end and taxied under instructions to a bay next to the one seemingly used by the Sally B. We parked up and shutdown – a good run!
Off we went to pay for the fee at the admissions hall and buy our tickets. To my astonishment, on the way to the American Hangar, I saw a chap with an expensive telephoto lens camera taking pictures of my plane – PICTURES OF A PIPER ARROW WHEN YOU HAVE EVERY CONCEIVABLE WARBIRD AROUND YOU!!! MADNESS!! I really don’t get it – sorry!
So we checked out the hangars from the American hangar working back.
Great they were as always for me, but of course a first time for Martin and his step-son Jackie. I particularly enjoyed looking at the ‘flyers’ – the warbirds that regularly fly – and the Corsair – what a lovely plane!
By nearly 15:00 we had seen all we wanted and headed back. It was now a lovely, warm and sunny day, with vis still not fantastic but certainly several km. We took off and I climbed to 3100’ and gained track for DTY.
Same again in reverse really. Difference was I has Jackie in the front this time and handed the controls to him. However, he is only 12 and I didn’t put booster cushions in so he was struggling to see over the coaming! So he didn’t ‘steer’ for long.
Closing in on DTY and we started to hear about and spot aircraft. Martin spotted one below and to the right which swung around under us to the left the made a wide arc around in front of us, all the time well below, but worth watching in case he thought it would be fun to do a zoom climb! Then Jackie spotted a biplane above us heading across and behind. I didn’t see him emerge the other side, so I can only assume he dropped in behind us following a similar track.
For Jackies benefit, once well clear of the DTY honeypot (probably around Stow on the Wold), I did a steep turn to either side – this is the closest I can get in the Arrow to aerobatics – it seems to impress my young passenger anyway though.
I got the ATIS and called Gloucester. They were quiet, so I asked for and got a straight in approach to final for 22. Got the plane slowed down and the gear down with three miles to run and started a descent and completed the ‘downwind’ checks. The approach was a bit high and I overdid the throttle cut and got a bit slow in flare and as a result bumped it down – I am sure I would have been proud of one like that as a student, but not now – still, you can’t win them all.
Taxi back and shutdown. The plane is running very smoothly and there were no problems. Martin and Jackie seemed to enjoy the trip and it was a fun day out.
Next up, a taildragging lesson on Wednesday.
