The weekend was perfect flying weather such as we have rarely seen this year in the UK. Sunday was sunny with nil wind and a bit hazy at first, but clearing later. I rocked up early and gave the plane a pre-flight check in the early morning quiet of the airfield around 0815 – quiet, unhurried – bliss!
They turned up as expected about 0845 and I gave Micah a full passenger safety brief, with Rob present as I needed to be sure she understood what I was saying (they are German). This would be her first time in a light aircraft, so I was especially pedantic in my briefing.
Of course I needed to add some fuel, so I agreed to met them at the pumps. I was getting strapped in again, when a helpful instructor pointed out that I had left the fuel tank caps off – ooops! I would have spotted this as part of my start-up checks as I have a specific check for fuel caps at this point, but embarrassing nonetheless. Hopefully, that was my one mandatory gaff per flight!
Power checks complete, we lined up about 0930 and were away. I decided on a circular route, first down to the Severn bridges, then up the Wye valley at Chepstow to the Malverns, then across to Bredon Hill and over my house in Gotherington, along Cleeve Hill and back in to Gloucester.
Micah was fine and I gave her control for a while. She flew well, with a relaxed grip, quite unlike the normal ‘death grip’ of most newbies! I dropped altitude along the Wye valley for fun, then climbed back to 3500’ for a few steep turns outside Ross on Wye, which she enjoyed.
Dropped again for a mandatory low-level pass over my house as I then ran parallel and low-level (although still perfectly legal) to the ridge at Cleeve Hill into a climbing power turn towards Winchcombe to give me time to get the ATIS.
I called for rejoin and got a normal overhead join for 27. I warned Micah about the deadside descent being a bit rapid. We came around to land on 27 with nil wind. I was about 5 kts too fast coming in and was punished with a decent float, even so, I got it stopped easily just past the intersection and mercifully given a backtrack, rather than having to roll to the end, especially in the bright sunshine as it beat down through the bubble canopy and rapidly heated the cockpit, now without the benefit of cooling airflow.
Back in and shutdown and get the canopy up! Phew, that was warm!
Micah enjoyed her flight, but admitted to starting to feel a bit off-colour during the deadside descent. Well, a good warm up for hopefully a day trip to Le Touquet with the wife next Saturday. For a change, we plan to walk to Etaples just over the river rather than Le Touquet.
