Local and the North Pole!

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

First the local.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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