The route would be from Gloucester to GWC at Goodwood, the along the south coast to Lydd as my first stop. Then from Lydd to Manston (taking in the RAF memorial along the coast) for the next stop. Then from Manston to Southend, then Southen back to Gloucester via the low level route north of London. This would be a series of quick stops, long enough to pay the landing fee then bash on. Considerations would be the wind as all of the mentioned airports have only one runway, are all coastal and so may suffer from significant crosswinds (not a favourite for taildraggers).
I had planned this for Sunday. I got a call from one of the group member on Saturday night who said that when he checked the plane on Saturday, another group member had shut down a few days ago and left the master switch and engine monitoring display on, so the battery was completely dead! He explained that he borrowed a charger and charged it enough that with hand-swinging he got the plane started and the alternator charging the battery, but he wasn’t sure if the battery was now ruined and whether it would hold the charge. Bottom line was that if the battery readout was less than 12.2v – don’t fly as we need to replace the battery. It transpired that the relatively new group member concerned didn’t use the checklist when shutting down.
I checked the UK Metoffice forecasts first thing on Sunday morning and it didn’t look good. A front was forecast to be in over Gloucester by early afternoon and raining, with significant winds of 240/25. It was already pretty gloomy and although it was perfectly flyable with clouds at about 2500’, by the sound of it, it was going to deteriorate. All of this persuaded me to abandon my long trip and settle for a local with a few circuits in the morning.
I checked the plane out and the battery reading was well above the suggested minimum, so it looks like the battery wasn’t trashed and hopefully won’t need replacing.
Next trick – to get the plane out of the hangar by myself. Wimp I hear you say? Not a bit of it, there was a bloody great big Citation jet in the way with barely enough room to squeeze our tiny aircraft past – even then, our wing would have to pass under the low wing of the Citation which if I got it precisely right, it would do so with about 6 inches of clearance, but if I got it wrong it could easily make contact – well, that simply wasn’t going to happen! I shuffled the plane by hand by myself, continually stopping and checking the left wingtip (could hit the fully open hangar door), the right wingtip (will it pass underneath the Citation’s wing) and the tail assembly (would it hit the back wall or the motor glider also parked nearby.
With two people that know what they are doing, it is delicate but you can do it in one, but with just me?? First attempt wasn’t good, so had to back the plane back into its parking slot and try again. Managed it on the second attempt though – phew!
Fuel required of course, so that done, I completed the power checks and got going. This time I decided to check out Stroud and the bits to the south. Did a few steep turns for the hell of it, then decided to check out the Forest of Dean. From there I could see the hills of Wales, so of course I had to check those out too and headed over to Abergavenny. I was just above the level of the hills and of course with the moderate wind, it was starting to get bumpy. It wasn’t a good idea to fly too deeply into the valleys as I would hit rotor of various strengths, so flew around a couple of the hills to the east of Abergavenny, then headed back to the airfield.
Called for a rejoin for some circuits. We were now on runway 22 and of course when I joined there was a sudden rush for circuits, with three or four aircraft in the circuit. Fortunately, all behaved themselves and spacing was good.
My first T&G was a little bouncy. On the second I flared a bit too high, but on the third and final made a very nice landing just past the numbers. Unfortunately that left me with a moderate taxy to the turnoff with someone else on final, so I tried to keep the speed up and managed to vacate without making the guy behind go around – should have landed longer you idiot!
I managed to put the plane away much more easily as the Citation was just starting to taxy clear as I approached!
A very enjoyable flight just bumbling around by myself.
I emailed the rest of the group advising them that the plane was now free for the rest of the day and that the battery seemed to be holding up.
I have the plane booked for next Saturday for a Flyer Forum fly-in. I have to say if the weather is good, I will try for my trip to a few airfields instead.
