Then I thought I could use some ‘self-loading ballast’ as the aircraft performs quite differently solo vs two up. My mind turned to the offer I had made to Gavin (from the Flyer Forum) when I first met him in person at Timothy’s Pole Talk the previous fortnight. So I dropped Gavin a PM through the Forum and received a quick response, that if he could get time off a travel commitment, he would be delighted to come along.
It turned out that he could wangle the time, but it also turned out that I was unexpectedly held in the office later than I planned and didn’t manage to get away until 17:00, by which time, the rush hour traffic meant that a 15 minute drive to the airfield turned into a 30 minute one, so I didn’t arrive until 17:35’ish as opposed to my planned 16:30 – such is life as a employee wage slave!
The weather looked OK – not great, but do-able. Light and variable winds (I never used to care very much about this with nosewheel aircraft, but tailwheel flying introduces a whole new dimension to the wind), overcast, but generally high cloud (about 4000’), but with scattered Cumulo-Nimbus (nasty, big, windy and turbulent shower clouds = plummet / crash / burn / die!). I could see the odd shower a few miles away to the west, so decided to head for the North and North East and booked out accordingly.
I checked the plane out and Gavin must have spotted me as he headed over. He wandered off to grab a can of coke while I finished off the A-Check and pulled the plane carefully out of the hangar (a Citation jet was parked very close and I was frantic not to touch it in any way).
Gavin appeared again and guzzled the coke while I gave him a quick chat about the essential of the plane etc. Gavin is a qualified PPL with about 150 hours and owns a share in a Robin taildragger that is currently located at Gloucester, but shortly to relocate to Oaksey Park.
We clambered into the aircraft one at a time, while I showed Gavin how to do sort the slightly unusual 5-point harness.
Usual pre-start and start-up checks with all a bit quiet at the airfield, except that the scheduled flight from / to Isle of Man was in and being turned around as we taxied out.
Power checks went well and we were cleared to line up after a training flight by a PA28 doing touch and go’s. The take-off went well. As usual, I felt I had to hold the RV down to gain airspeed as it hopped excitedly, eager to be free of the ground. Up we went at a nice steady 80 kts climb with 1000 fpm – not bad at all given that I am not small (6’ 2” and 210 lbs) and I suspect Gavin is a similar weight.
We were quickly clear of the circuit and climbed to a modest 2500’ to do some general handling as I showed Gavin how sensitive and responsive the RV was. Gavin had a reasonable go himself and quickly acquired the ‘RV grin’ as he realised how light, crisp and responsive the controls were.
So we poled it about for a bit with some steep turns and wandered aimlessly around Tewkesbury / Worcester / Bredon Hill etc. I made a mandatory visit to my village for a few low level circuits and did some low level (but perfectly legal) flying around Gretton and Winchcombe. We swooped over Cleeve Hill as it dropped away then I headed toward Bredon Hill and climbed up to 2000’ as I picked up the ATIS for a return to Gloucester.
I called it in and headed back to the airfield. The airfield looked buried in a rather nasty shower, but I continued to see what it was like. I was given a standard overhead join for 27. Close in, I was about to report at 2 miles, when the scheduled flight reported ready for departure and was given a lengthy IFR clearance to copy and read back, so I patiently orbited at around two miles waiting for a break to report my position.
I got my call in and carried on. As I was descending deadside, the scheduled flight was cleared for take-off. I was a bit worried that I could be crossing upwind as a bloody great Fokker (geddit, geddit?) was taking off and climbing towards me. Obviously ATC had the same thought and reported my position, but fortunately, by the time the scheduled flight was ready to roll, I had crossed the upwind end and was clear – phew!
Usual downwind checks and visual of the windsock, nice, straight down 27 in a very light breeze. We had obviously missed a downpour at the airfield while we were up north as the runway was now very wet and though we were near the edge of the shower, we were only picking up light spits of rain, presumably, it had only just drifted off the airfield.
The approach was good, two stages of flaps and a steady 70 kts with good angle of approach. On short final, the PAPI’s started to come in nicely, first one red, then a second. Over the hedge now and continue the descent. OK, round out about now, power off, good height and back on the stick, a bit lower, back more, more yet, stall warner starts to chirp, more yet – try hard not to land – good three-pointer attitude now, stall warner now constant, more yet, then we touch – and stay touched. Nice one, pleased with that. Don’t want to make a twit of myself with a fellow tail-dragger pilot in the right hand seat!
I am given a back-track and vacate on A2 – how kind! We trundle slowly back and shut down. Gavin is very helpful as we carefully guide the plane back into the hangar while avoiding contact with the nearby hangar door on one side and Citation business jet on the other – I would hate to have to do this single handed!
Well, I think Gavin enjoyed it and now has some insight into the origins of somewhat smug ‘RV grin’. He kindly offered to reciprocate with a flight in his Robin taildragger which I will take up, but have to travel to Oaksey to do this. We chatted later about possibly two or three of us doing a lads cross-channel trip. Always happy to tag along and help where I can, so maybe we can schedule this in September sometime.
