James Stewart memorial flight

For some time now, I have been hoping to take in a couple of airfields I haven’t been to before in Norfolk. Part of this is also around my interest in military history, in this case both were bomber bases for the US Army Air Corps in WW2, AND both were the bases that a certain Hollywood ‘great’, James Stewart, flew from during the war.

The weather during the week had been appalling, strong winds and rain showers, but oddly it was always forecast to be calm and clear on Sunday. I awoke with my usual healthy degree of scepticism with UK weather forecasts, but in this case they got it right. OK, not quite clear skies, but scattered fluffy cumulus and best of all from a taildragging point of view, virtually nil wind!

I met up at the airfield with a fellow pilot (and on this occasion, self-loading ballast), Gavin, who has just returned to flying after three months off with a snapped Achilles tendon (nasty).

I had the route planned for weeks and had already checked the NOTAMs during the week, so we were good to go. The plan was to fly from Gloucester via DTY VOR then track towards Norwich airport, neatly slotting between Lakenheath and Marham MATZ’s to land first at Old Buckenham, then onto Tibenham a few miles away then back. All at FL40 if possible. I had planned the route some time ago and had all the changes of frequency marked, circuit directions, the lot. I called as requested for PPR and was told that there was intensive parachute activity at Old Buck and to call some ten miles from their ATZ.

The weight and balance with two of us bigger guys in did not make for happy reading, with room for a meagre, but entirely sufficient 70 litres, so we stuck 30 litres in at the pumps and took off on 27 at about 11:00.

My plan called for FL40, but it was either 3500’ odd or FL60 above the thick but broken cumulus. I opted for FL60 and called for a ‘basic service’ from Coventry. I was soon forced up to FL65. From earlier trips, I recalled a vague notion that there was controlled airspace around DTY at maybe FL55. A check on the map and it looked like we would easily miss it.



I still had a nagging doubt when Coventry called me and said if I continued on track at the current FL for another 5 miles, I would be in controlled airspace. Without hesitation, I confirmed a circling descent back to below the clouds at 3500’. Once established there, a close look at the map showed that I was right AND wrong (i.e. therefore wrong!). The bit I had spotted dropping into BHX would have been fine, but there was a small area of controlled airspace at FL55 right by the VOR. Lesson learned – plan the flight and fly the plan – always go through your long planned route on the day of the flight to refresh yourself on min / max altitudes etc. Some people now question ATSOCAS and debate the value of a ‘basic service’ – well, it certainly helped me on this occasion!

Abeam Northampton, I bade farewell to the helpful but relatively quiet Coventry and switched to a listening watch onto Lakenheath MATZ. Gavin and I were astonished at the apparently huge new ‘hard’ runway at Sywell / Northampton. I knew they had a planning application in, but I didn’t know they had built it now – wow!

We bumbled along at 3300’ odd keeping a sharp lookout for traffic. We saw some, usually below us and certainly no conflict. We were going to thread the gap between Lakenheath and Marham MATZ on a direct track to Norwich until some 15 miles to run, then turn SE to Old Buck.



As it turned out, I decided to orbit Shipdam at 3000’ whiole I called Old Buck for airfield information and the latest on para-dropping. They were OK for me to approach and suggested a downwind right join for 25. We started towards Old Buck, mindful that an overhead join was not allowed (one of the few occasions where I WOULD like an overhead join is at a new airfield!).

We both squinted and instinctively leaned forward to reduce the visual distance by about one foot (like you do!) to try to spot the airfield. It was probably lurking in the shadow of a cloud on an otherwise sunny day. I spotted where it must be and saw large buildings, but no runway. Then we spotted the Jodel that called a few minutes before us as I decided to slot in behind and follow him on the assumption that he knew where he was going! He certainly did as we spotted long sheds aligned with the correct runway heading, which on closer examination were obviously built on part of what must have been the HUGE original runway.



I was a bit too close to the Jodel so called that I was setting up for an orbit on final. That complete we resumed approach. The displaced threshold for 25 is VERY rough and we avoided that for a decent landing. The guy on the radio gave us very helpful taxi instructions to park on the very smooth and neatly mown grass.

We parked up and paid the landing fee, a very reasonable £10 IIRC. The café is basic but clean and with very prompt and friendly service. We took the bacon roll and tea outside to the picnic tables arranged on the grass overlooking the runway (very much like Compton Abbas, and Old Buck definitely reminded me of Compton somehow). It was such a perfect day and such a friendly and generally pleasant airfield, we both remarked that this was flying as it should be – friendly, unfussy and relaxed.

There was a lot of WW2 memorabilia and photos around, including of course James Stewart, who we the Executive Officer here for the Liberator group based here.



Their fuel bowser developed a few problems so I couldn’t refuel as planned. I did want to refuel here as the Flyer Forum fuel survey indicates that it has very reasonably priced fuel. Instead we mounted up somewhat reluctantly, having obtained PPR from Tibenham for the short hop some 5 nm away to Tibenham.

We departed on 25 and did a climbing right turn out of the ATZ to climb to some 2000’ to spot Tibenham. This we did easily as it has three huge black tarmac runways in the classic triangle arrangement. I called on the radio and got some information, basically to say they were using runway 33 for gliding. I approached and got myself oriented with the runways. There were cars and (as it turned out) a glider control cabin on runway 08/26, so clearly that was out, so I slotted in for runway 33 right hand downwind. I spotted a glider on final and was warned about this by the Radio. I continued until final and saw that the glider had come to a halt on the runway by the intersection with 08/26 and wasn’t moving. Then it dawned on me that of course gliders didn’t normally taxi off themselves, but needed man-handling – DOH! So I did a go around. At the same time, I heard another aircraft declare final and land on 03. Tibenham Radio suggested I did a right turn onto downwind for 03 and landed there instead. The windsock was barely moving so that is what I went for.

Man, the runways are HUGE! A decent landing had me down on 03 and the very helpful Radio operator gave me suggested taxi routing to hold by the gliding control cabin while they recovered the glider on 33. Once clear, I carried on and parked up outside the brick building near the clubhouse that turned out to be the AVGAS store.

We shut down and clambered out. There was some sort of MG rally going on as we inspected the poignant war memorial to the 445th US AAC Bombardment Group who flew Liberators from here in WW2 (again, along with the famous actor, James Stewart).



They were again very friendly and helpful in and outside the clubhouse. The glider towing pilot helped us to put 40 litres in the tanks (at a pretty expensive rate I have to say) and I settled up in the clubhouse.

This was only a flying visit as I said to another group member that I would try to get back by 16:00.

We mounted up and cleared the area, heading north to Shipdam then set a direct track to DTY at about 3400’.

We had a listening watch on Lakenheath as we sat happy as sandpipers at 3300’ below some very scattered and thin fair-weather cumulus. The trip back was uneventful, apart from an encounter with a glider not far from a gliding field (yes, that did alert me to keep a particular look out). I suspect we both saw each other as I skirted around him and he continued doing tight orbits, obviously trying for lift in a thermal.

Gloucester were still on a single combined frequency, so busy, but not frantically so. We got a standard overhead join for 27. Going crosswind, we spotted a PA28 in the circuit outside us to our left, so kept a close eye on him. We turned downwind in the usual place and he just kept going. I thought maybe he was departing the circuit. I called downwind only to then see him also turning ‘downwind’ waaaayyyyy outside us – I mean as bomber circuits go, this was mega! He HAD to have been outside the ATZ on the ‘downwind’ leg!

I turned base and called final. There was minimal wind. I made the mistake of coming in a little too fast this time. Well the RV will punish you for this with a very long floooooooaaaaaat! And so it did! I sat there feeling (and probably looking) like a numpty until the RV had humiliated me sufficiently with the tower and assembled onlookers and decided to sound the stall warner and deign to land. Bit of a bounce, nothing dramatic, then down. In the event, I didn’t go far past the intersection with runway 18 and was given a backtrack to vacate.

A great days flying in wonderful weather. I managed to take in two airfields I had not been to before and give myself a decent refresher on navigation and touring. Ready now for a spot of France with maybe some more UK-based ‘airfield collecting’.

Sudden Dread Syndrome

OK, I made the condition up, but it neatly summarises what I felt on my last flight and feel very occasionally when flying. I just wonder if it happens to others?

Last time it happened was on a commercial flight from Venice back to the UK. We had climbed to, oh I guess 25,000' on a very clear day and I looked down out of the window and had a sudden wave of what I can only describe as 'fear and dread' sweep over me. No panic, sweating or uncontrollable twitching like in the films, just a certainty that the plane was going to blow up or otherwise fall apart, eject me into the air and leave me falling to my death without a parachute - weird or what? It didn't last long, but it did unsettle me and I had to look away.

Now I confess that I am fundamentally scared of heights (or altitude if I have the QNH set), which is mainly why I took up flying - yeah I know, dumb or what. But I have since discovered that many pilots are scared of heights.

Well I didn't think anymore of it until it swept over me again at 8000' in the RV6 over the Malverns. Not as bad as before, but a fleeting irrational fear about being at 8000'. I got over it and descended below the clouds to 3500' odd and felt much better - which is really stupid because a fall from 3500' will kill you just as sure as a fall from 8000' - not that I was going to fall anyway!

I just wonder whether others also feel this on occasion? Hmmmm.... maybe I should get 'professional help' after all!

Local

The plane has now been suitably repaired, signed off and flight tested. Not bad, only three weeks beginning to end.

It was decided that the worst damaged area could be ‘flush patched’ by cutting out the affected part and flush riveting in a new piece. The other damage was pushed out and filled where necessary. A slight dent is still visible, but they did a very nice job. The cost was a not at all unreasonable £200-odd. I’ll post a photo when I remember to take one.

I decided to go up for a local to shake the cobwebs loose. Saturday was already booked all day, but Sunday was free. To allow for other group members to book a decent slot, I booked the plane from 15:00 to 17:00. As it turned out, no one else wanted it, so I started checking it out as 14:30.

The weather was good, with decent visibility and scattered cloud at about 3700’. Winds were 290/10 with runway in use 27.

Nice leisurely walkaround making sure I checked all the boxes. Fuel was fine, some 70l – I could only take a maximum of 87 with me and my passengers weight anyway, so not worth topping up for mere one hour local.

I booked out and we climbed in and strapped in. Startup was easy and I taxied to the customary A2 for 27. Power checks were good and I was asked to hold and line up after the backtracking PA28. This I did and gunned the plane for take off. The tail came up quite quickly and the RV started to hop and skip excitedly down the runway. I held her down to build up speed then eased her off as she seemed to do her best to get to circuit height by the end of the upwind numbers! If you haven’t flown an RV yet, then you probably should – they are so willing and responsive with crisp and light handling – if anything, too sensitive in pitch. Not an ideal ‘stable IFR platform’, but a delight to fly VFR.

We headed west and climbed quickly to the cloudbase at 3700’. There were huge holes in the cloud all round, so I decided to continue the climb to get on top. I levelled out at 8000’ with great views of the undercast. A bit of general handling to blow the cobwebs away while Rob took pictures.



I bumbled around my usual local route, start in the west, fly clockwise over the Malverns, then onto Evesham, Winchcombe, Bishops Cleeve then back to Gloucester.

I descended back to below the clouds north of Bredon Hill and did a low (but entirely legal) circuit of my home village north of Bishops Cleeve for the obligatory photo of the house and happy waving neighbours (at least I think they were happy and waving…..).

I got the ATIS and called for a rejoin. We were given a standard overhead join for 27 right hand. I talked my passenger, Rob through what I was doing. I don’t find this at all distracting as it is what I used to do while learning.



On crossing the upwind numbers at 1000’, I noticed the other aircraft in the circuit a fair way to my left. I would turn downwind around the same time as him, but as he was much further out, I would be a decent way ahead. I asked my passenger to keep a close eye on him as I turned and called downwind. I was given number 1 and turned base as normal.

Power off, carb heat on, bleed the speed back to flap limiting arc and pull on one, then two stages of flaps. Turn final, speed bleeds back from 80kts IAS to 70kts. Call final, cleared to land. Height good, speed good. A bit to the left, get back on centreline.

Look for windsock, can’t see it. Call for spot wind as I seem to be holding the nose to the right to hold the centreline. Sure enough wind is given as 290 / 11, so a slight crosswind from the right. I think this through in my head so I am ready to give left boot and right aileron if a crosswind landing is required.

I hear the PA28 behind me calling final, he is given ‘continue’, so he must be close to me. I put this out of my mind, that is his problem, although I do aim to have landed and stopped in time to take the first turnoff past the 27 displaced threshold rather than roll to the end and force the poor sod to go around.

Over the road and over the displaced threshold. Roundout, chop power. She eases down to a good hold off height. Back on the stick into the holdoff, little more, stall warner chirrups like one of those 1970’s ‘trimphones’. Back on the stick more, stall warner constant. Back more, don’t let it land….don’t let it land….don’t you DARE land……The RV gives up the battle to stay airborne drops the final foot or so for a decent three point landing. I continue to pull the stick back to ‘anchor’ the tailwheel on the ground (something I occasionally forgot in my early days of taildragging, which allowed the plane to skitter drunkenly all over the place. That is the sort of thing you only do once – OK twice in my case!).

I do easily make the first runway intersection with little use of the brakes, aided no doubt by a headwind. I cannot say that I noticed any crosswind, if there was one then I catered for it without particularly thinking about it – not bragging it up, just stating a fact.

We taxi in as I give way to a hover-taxi by a lovely looking green metallic Gazelle helicopter. Park up, shut down and carefully manhandle the plane past the Citation bizjets in the hangar, to the allocated parking slot, hunched up in the front right corner like a scared churchmouse (I have a seriously sad imagination).

A good flight although I now really fancy stretching my wings a bit. Booked and hope for a landaway to Old Buck and Tibenham next Sunday. Then I really must start considering a weekend overnighter to somewhere I haven’t been yet in France. I have a standing invite from a fellow Flyer Forum member which I want to take advantage of, we’ll see.

Honey I crunched the plane!

Not something you ever want to say to fellow group members and the title is in no way intended to convey my feeling – I feel truly terrible as it was 100% my fault.

I visited Little Rissington recently. It is ‘sort of’ open to the flying public, but is owned by the MOD and you have to get PPR and a briefing from a resident maintenance organisation there (Devonair) to land.

This involves reading the flying order book and understanding the taxi rules etc. Basically, most of the historic taxiways joining the three runways are disused and the way you get to the Devonair hangars is to taxi along runway 32 to then end then take a grass taxiway some 100 m or more to the Devonair hangars.

Well, I turned up and landed on 22 and turned off onto 32. I got to the end and for the life of me I couldn’t see a grass taxiway. I did see one of two bollards, but not apparently arranged in a linear manner that indicated a taxiway. I did see a tarmac track with grass patches on it, so I thought that must be what they meant by a grass taxiway. I carefully followed this, weaving in the RV6 as it is a taildragger and the forward visibility (in common with virtually all taildraggers) is poor. I can normally managed by craning my neck, but on this occasion, I decided to ‘play it safe and weave’.

I approached an intersection with another taxiway checking left and right for traffic and obstructions. I spotted one of the folding, low level road signs (you know, the ‘accident here – can you help’ type) on my left and moved slightly to the right to make sure the wing didn’t pass over it – I was clear of it. I heard a cry from my passenger saying ‘STOP’. I looked to my right and stopped a split second later as I saw a shape disappear under the right wing.

Now you see it....


I didn’t feel anything in the aircraft and of course hoped that whatever it was (my passenger said it was another sign of a different type and he didn’t see it as it was edge on until we approached it). Don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way attempting to ‘blame’ my passenger, only to indicate that although both of us were looking, neither of us saw it until the last second - I fly with this guy fairly often and he knows the drill.

So of course I shut down and got out and investigated. I was sick to see that the edge of the sign (made out of car licence plates) has scratched the underside of the wing and as the wing dipped, it lead to a deep scratch, then a dent – in total about 30-35 cm long. We carefully lifted the wing off and man-handled the plane to parking.

Now you dont..... (the feet were nicely concealed by the grass lip)


The dent did not appear to have pierced the metal (although on closer examination later, it did in one place). Well, I was mortified. I would be pretty hacked off if it was my own aircraft, but as it is a group of six, I felt worse. Bottom line is that the chap from Devonair told me that I was on the tarmac taxiway marked as ‘do not use’ – of course from the Devonair hangar, I could clearly see the grass taxiway now and the bollard lines. My only defence is that I did not see it from the end of 32 as the airfield has something of a ‘domed’ shape, so some of the bollards were out of line of sight.

What would / could I have done differently? Well, I did think of calling on the radio for taxi instructions, but dismissed this as it is only a ‘radio’ service, manned by the military, who were on the other side and because of the shape of the airfield, couldn’t see me anyway. What I could and should have done (hindsight being perfect) was to shut down at the end of 32, got out and walked around to be certain. I didn’t do that, so it was my fault. The sign was edge on and devilishly hard to see, we only saw it when ‘it shape changed’ as we approached it, but then I shouldn’t have been there anyway. An expensive lesson learned.

We have since had the aircraft examined by our LAA Engineer who took photos and communicated his repair suggestion with the LAA and gained their approval. We will have the shallow dent beaten out and smoothed and the deeper dent cut and patched with a flush patch (much like an inspection panel). Hopefully this won’t take too long, days not weeks. I will of course bear the full cost of the repair as I hope it is unlikely to exceed the policy excess.

Well, lesson learned. If in doubt, have the courage to shut down and check it out yourself! I guess ‘there are those that have and those that will’. I write this account for the benefit of others who may be able to learn from my mistake. This incident and cracking the perspex cover of a wing tip light is the full extent of my aircraft ‘incidents’ in some 440 hours of flying – so on balance, maybe I am lucky!