What a good weekend!

A real ‘April Showers’ weekend started the first weekend in April – that’s for sure!

I had the plane booked for Saturday morning for a local and all day Sunday so that myself and other group members could give the plane a full valet and wax ready for the summer season.

I had agreed to take Dave flying. He is a friend of a friend and disabled as a result of an accident while in the military. He has never been up in a small aircraft. I took advice and tried it out myself, and it did seem that it was quite possible for him to get into and out of the aircraft with only a little assistance.

So I turned up on Saturday and did the pre-flights, filled her with fuel, then I spotted that Dave had just arrived. I met him and escorted him airside and introduced him to the challenge of boarding. He was fine with it and in the event, only needed my shoulder to push against – well, he is a top class hand-cyclist and has arms about as think as my legs!

I only had to clamber over Dave to get to my seat (there is only one door in the PA28 series), which I managed without booting him in the face.

The weather was very changeable, with some blue bits between the clouds and isolated and easily seen showers. The wind was blustery but with Gloucester’s three runways, we rarely have to deal with much crosswind. In the event, the take-off was fine and the climb out good. There was not much turbulence as I headed North for Worcester and the Malverns to have a play.

Dave had a go at flying and made the usual mistakes – gripping the yoke in the ‘Vulcan Death Grip’ and going into a turning climb etc. Once we got that straightened out (using the ‘Dog turds wrapped in tissue’ analogy), he was managing straight and level and gentle rate 1 turns. I treated him to a couple of steep turns (60 degrees AOB). I thought about going above the clouds in the blue gaps and got to 5000’. Even at 5000’ it was clear that there was some vertical development of the cumulus and that I would have to get to 8000’ before I was truly on top, so with time constraints against me, I gave up on the idea. Instead, I spotted a few lower, small and self-contained clouds and had a play by flying right through them.


I picked up the ATIS and headed for Gloucester. Got a standard overhead join for 22 right hand. The circuit wasn’t too busy and made a nice final approach and with the assistance of the headwind, stopped in a very short distance of the runway.

Dave managed to get out even better than getting in and didn’t require any assistance at all. We decided to catch some lunch in the airfield café and settled down to a bacon baguette and tea, when I spotted a PA38 taxi up and park. I recognised it as one of the Pembrey aircraft and sure enough, Leia walked over to the café a few minutes later. Leia is a student flying from Pembrey and I gave her a lift to the student fly-in a couple of weeks ago. Said hello and was joined by the other student I gave a lift to – old home week this. Time was pressing, so Leia set off again on her return leg of her solo landaway while I set course for home.

Sunday dawned with pretty poor looking weather. My wife described the clouds to the west as ‘navy blue’. However, I was not planning to fly, only to round up three other members of the group so we could give the plane a full valet ready for the summer season. We aim to do this twice a year, with a ‘wash and shammy’ between each full valet. For us, a full valet means what it says.

First we scramble around on our backs and use ‘Yak Milk’ to de-grease and clean the entire underside and gear.

Then we wash, rinse and shammy dry all of the aircraft (including the dreaded underside – with water running off the sponge down your arms!).

Then a break while it dries, followed by ‘wax on / wax off’ of AutoGlym red label polish.

Then we ‘wax on’ AutoGlym gold label polish and go for another break to leave this for the required 60 minutes.

Then we polish off the gold label, while one or two members hoover the inside, polish the Perspex inside and out (AutoGlym FastGlass) and another member polished the aluminium spinner with aluminium polish, then waxes that.

Followed by the grand finales – apply some tyre black to the tyres.

Hey presto – a fantastic, brand new aircraft!

I am the nominated organiser for this activity and made sure that we had stocks of all material in place. We pulled the plane out and I made a start while the other turned up around 10:00 – actually for a change, they were all very prompt! We set about it. The new member, Garry, got volunteered for the crappy job, specifically degreasing the underside (although I did join him). That Yak Milk is fantastic – it really cuts through it without the risk of using some of the nastier sprays (Gunk etc.).

Usual hilarity follows as the people washing the top start on the wings when other members are working underneath (oops!). We push the plane into a hangar to shield it from the showers and try out Staverton Flying Club for the break as the plane dries. Under new management and it was indeed very welcoming. A lot of people there and it has a nice feel.

We start the polishing and yes, it is very hard work! We go for two layers of different polish, both from AutoGlym. One to polish and one to seal. It looks good after the first polish, then you have to ‘ruin’ all your work and apply the second sealing coat of gold label. This is almost like water and is very easy to apply – not rubbing. We take our second break and grab a good fry-up at the airfield café. After an hour, we return and the gold label is nicely dry and polishes off easily to reveal a fantastic shine! Meanwhile, I attack the Perspex, the inside and shine the tyres etc.


Yes folks! By a mere 15:00 we are done – four people working (with breaks) since 10:00. Well it sets us up nicely for the summer and we all agree, it really does look a million dollars! The paint job it had at Colton’s two years ago is truly excellent and polishes up really well.


Then the question – has anyone brought their flying gear? OK, it is quite blustery and showery, but it is flyable. As chance would have it, I have! So I agree to do the ‘test flight’ with two other group members as ‘official observers’! I check the aircraft over carefully – always possible that latches and catches are undone etc. In the event it is fine other than two incorrectly fastened cowling catches.

We load up, start up and are off. Gloucester is quiet due to the weather and they only have a single frequency going. The take-off and climb out are OK, even with the turbulence. Climbing to 2400’ over Gloucester and it is still smooth. Then we catch turbulence under some of the better developed cumulus clouds. We head to some new engineering works over Gloucester to get some photos so Garry can give them to the construction company (he works in that industry). Mark decides to have a look at his factory, so we set course into the wind to Monmouth. He seems to own a good 10 acres of factory in prime position in Monmouth – hmmm…. maybe Mark is rich and therefore worth sucking-up to a lot!

The plane is fine, so we set course for a return. Gloucester is quiet and now giving runway 27 with right hand circuits with winds 250 25G37. Could be an interesting approach! We get a direct to downwind join, so I start a cruise descent from 10 miles. I note from the GPS that our groundspeed is 160 kts!

Just before we get to Gloucester, we encounter a sudden jolt of turbulence. The first we knew about it was that all three of us are catapulted off our seats headed skyward! Time to find out who had their seatbelts nice and tight! As I am tall, I don’t have as far to travel until my head hits the roof, but poor Garry in the back is both smaller and had his seat belt loose - so his head hits the roof with a thump. Mark is not much better but manages to grab the seat. That was exciting! We probably now have three ‘power bulges’ in the roof-line of the aircraft!

Excitement over - we join downwind and I slow the plane down and drop the gear – that slows us nicely. I am getting pushed downwind very fast, so I turn base and pull on two stages of flaps. No need to turn at the ‘prominent building’ with this headwind, so I cut a lot of the base leg out and head for a curved final (no problem as we are the only aircraft in the circuit – maybe someone is trying to tell us something!).

I line up for final and give it the ‘Red / Green / Blue’ check. Then on half mile final, we start to get bounced around. The ASI is jumping about a lot, but I suppose averaging my desired ‘faster than normal’ approach speed. This is getting sporting now! I continue the approach and crab as there is a reasonable crosswind component. Over the hedge and still getting bounced around. I slow the rate of descent and start to get blown across the runway, so turn more into wind, then I flare and kick it straight, active on the rudder pedals and ailerons, then thankfully, the wheels touch – I quickly drop the flaps to dump lift. We touch at a quite a slow groundspeed (hardly surprising I suppose) and are stopped long before the intersection of 27. Phew, that was fun! Not bad at all in the circumstances. All good experience.

We taxi up and shut down. The showers we encountered en-route have left no mark at all of the aircraft as the polished surfaces shrugged it off. Once again, we admire our handiwork as the helpful firecrew push the plane back into the hangar for the night.

It has been a good weekend, despite the showery weather and the fact I was only doing locals. The plane is now all set for the summer season. First up is Garry who is flying her to Jersey next week, then to Spain in early May, then my flying her to Italy in late May. The others are not so solid in their plans yet, but I am sure they will involve cross-channel trips etc.

Back to circuits!

After one poor and a couple of ‘less than good’ landings last Saturday (albeit in gusty crosswinds) I resolved to return to the circuit for a thorough refresher. The weather was so good today that I couldn’t resist and trotted off to the airfield.

Got the plane out and for some reason, Gloucester was busy, not so much with students in the circuits, all sorts, loads of helicopters, a couple of light twins, as Cessna Caravan etc.

Anyway, booked out and started up and taxied out. They are giving runway 09 and 1013, so presumably still anti-cyclonic – excellent visibility though AND a high scattered cloudbase.

I did the power checks, all OK there then was held while a jet backtracked for take-off. While I was holding, the engine started to sound rough. So I checked the mags again and there it was – a big drop on the left mag. I did the usual ‘lean it off and run it hot’ trick to clear what I hoped was fouling – but no joy. Tower advised me that I was clear for take-off but had to tell them that I wanted taxi back to maintenance due to rough-running.

I figured that was it for the day and cancelled my booking-out. I parked up – yes, definitely a plug on the left mags gone. After shutdown, I marked up our tech log then wandered into Aeros, our maintenance organisation. Met Dave and told him the story and he offered to come straight out and fix it! Great, I was about to give up for the day!

We start up and yes, it is chugging! He tells me to leave it running on the left mag only for a couple of minutes and taxi round to their hangar – sounds odd, but OK. I get there and shut down, then he explains. By running the engine on the mag with the defective plug for a few minutes after start-up, what it means is that it is only firing on three cylinders, so once he takes the cowling off and touches the cylinders, the one that is coolest is bound to be the cylinder that was not firing and therefore the one with the defective plug – OH I SEE! Thinks ‘commit to memory and bore people to death with it later!’.

He spots what he says must be a blob of lead between the gap shorting the plug. We replace it and yes, it is much better. So I book out again and taxi out again. The airfield is quieter this time and I pay particular attention to the power checks. It all looks good, I get clearance and I am away.

I have not done a complete flight on circuits for some time, but it is all still there. First landing – hmmm. OK, not bad even, but I think I can see what I am doing wrong now. Approach is good, approach speed OK, but then on very short final, I seem to be rounding out too high, rather than just checking the rate of descent, then losing airspeed such that I have very little in the hold-off.

Second landing, yes, that is much better. Nail the airspeed on 75 all the way down, check descent, flare then a determined hold off.

Third approach and the Tower try to slot in a backtrack departure of a twin while I am on base. The twin gets to the end of the runway then says he is not ready for immediate, so I get a go-around. Oh well, only my second on in a couple of years – good practice I suppose.

The following landings are all much better, nice and smooth and I even hear the stall warner chirping as the wheels touch on the last one! In all I do 6 landings (7 approaches).

It is funny how you can suddenly have a ‘bad patch’ on things like this. Apart from when I was a student, I have not had this happen to me. I know many people say that they too go through bad patches on certain things (landing is the most common), I guess I just thought it didn’t apply to me – well now I know what they mean!

Well I am now quite happy that I have sorted that problem – it is all about accurate airspeed all the way down, don’t anticipate the flare (just check the descent) and hold-off hard!

I guess I had better get some instrument refresher training in ‘just in case’ on this Europe trip in May. I have the ADF tracking and NDB/DME approaches going well on FS2004, I guess I had better get back to the real thing with an instructor.

Flyer Forum Student Fly-In

For weeks now, the Flyer Forum has had a students fly-in planned on Saturday 18th March to Wellesborne Mountford airfield near Stratford on Avon. Needless to say, the weather forecasts looked dodgy, with a high pressure giving poor visibility, winds and occasional sleet!

Saturday dawned with a gusty wind and claggy with poor to moderate visibility. I had teamed up with Alan White who flies out of Gloucester. Gloucester to Wellesborne is hardly a challenge, being less than 15 minutes in the Arrow. At a late stage, one of the other pilots had to drop out and I agreed to pick up Leia who flies out of Pembrey. She did offer to train it up to Gloucester, but I agreed to try to pick her up in Pembrey – well, I hadn’t been there before so why not?

With the weather as it was, it was questionable whether I could make Pembrey, but the forecast did say the weather would be better out west and I could at least try. So I met Alan at Gloucester and off we went, with Alan doing the flying a navigating and me doing the radio and cross-checking the navigation – no I wasn’t cheating with the GPS – I had that turned off of the map page (OK – I used VOR and DME instead).


I planned to route around the north of Cardiff zone between the city and the high ground. Given the ceiling of about 2300’ and a visibility that was given by EGBJ as 15 km but looked to us more like 8 km, this was a good call. So we flew IFR (I Follow the River) down the Severn and called Cardiff Radar. We turned to follow north of the M4 just past Newport. We headed towards the wind farms, missing Cardiff zone by a couple of miles. Then on to Pembrey over Swansea. We had a belting tailwind of about 30 kts, giving us 160 kts groundspeed (yes, I checked the GPS for that – so!). Just east of Swansea, the cloud starts to break and by the time we get to Pembrey, we are bathed in sunshine!

Alan has done a good job of navigating and we spot Pembrey. I do a standard overhead join and line up for 04 with a nasty crosswind (070 / 15G25 IIRC). I didn’t like my first approach so for the first time in a couple of year, I do a go-around. Second approach is better and looking good, but I can only describe the landing as ‘an arrival’. A crosswind, yes, but no excuses, just not good.

Leia is waiting there. A quick cuppa, then off, this time direct to Wellesborne. We pretty much retrace the route, only a little more inland behind Cardiff playing in some of the valleys with Leia doing the navigation and flying with me at the radio. We are beating into a 30-40 kt headwind and the groundspeed varies between 90 – 100 kts! As we pass Cardiff, the sun disappears as does the visibility! We head east and pick up the Severn at Newport, then IFR again to pass north abeam Gloucester. Straight line now to Wellesborne – there’s the racecourse, Bishops Cleeve, Bredon Hill, Evesham – yep, nicely on track.

I take over with about 10 miles to run and we play ‘spot the airfield in the murk’. Wellesborne are giving 36 left hand with winds of 070 / 15G25 – oh joy! This will be sporting! We spot the airfield and I position for a left base join. The approach is fine and give me a good idea on the wind, I am cranked quite a bit into it to hold the approach line. I flare a little high and of course a gust catches me. Lower the into wind wing a bit, continue the flare and we are down – and the landing - not perfect, but not too bad. We park up with all the other forumites on runway 05 and about 12:50 – a lot have made it.


Into the airfield café for lunch and we spot quite a few forumites and say hello. The café is pretty crowded – maybe it’s us! We follow some of the others to the museum which opened especially for us and have a poke around. Nicely done and run with enthusiasm.

Time marches on and I am aware that we have to get back to Pembrey AND beat our way back into the headwind to Gloucester. I round the troops up and head back to the parking line. We hear Nigel Webb take-off in his Jet Provost – so much for noise abatement! The parking line is starting to thin now as I start up and taxi out. We take-off and I follow the noise abatement, heading for the green roof. We climb to 2200’ which is about all we will get in the murk and head for Gloucester. I use the NDB and DME of course while Leia and Alan dutifully check the ground features. We beat our way past Gloucester and head down the river again. This is a retrace of our steps – I am surprised we don’t hit our own wake vortex from the last trip!

Leia is doing very well – good height holding and seems very adept at visual navigation – while I point out to Leia and Alan how to use Brecon VOR radials and DME to establish position as we go. The other side of Cardiff and the clouds break again and we are again awash in sunshine. Cardiff hand us off to Swansea warning of traffic over Swansea bay. Swansea don’t know anything, but Leia spots it – a Tomohawk above, in front and to our left. We keep an eye on him as head heads north-west and we swing behind him. I hear him call me as visual on Swansea frequency, so I call him an air-to-air telling him what we are doing. Leia says he is one of the Pembrey school aircraft and instructors.

Again, we approach Pembrey and I take over to land. The wind is better now – IIRC 050 / 15kts. Better circuit this time and an adequate landing – not as horrible as last time, but still not smooth. I park up and check the fuel – from full tanks this morning I now have 75 litres left. Enough to get safely back to Gloucester, but in this poor visibility and headwind – I go for the safe option and refuel – at least to tabs at Pembrey. The most useless thing in the world is fuel in the pumps (when you need it in the tanks). I swear the chap burned more fuel starting the bowser and driving it up to the plane that I uplifted.


We bid farewell to Leia – I think she had some fun and has found an easier way of navigating to Gloucester. Alan takes over in the front as we take off and set course for Gloucester. This time, we elect to route direct via BCN – we are at 3000’ in scattered cloud, but of course approaching BCN, it becomes overcast, so we dip below. I am helping Alan to navigate using the VOR and DME with checks against ground features. Alan is having fun with the trim as we gain and lose a few hundred feet here and there. To be fair, as we get closer to Brecon, it has more to do with up and downdrafts. We have sensible visibility even if we are below MSA. Some of the hills look pretty close then drop dramatically away as we cut across the valleys.

It is a bit bouncy as one would expect, all good experience. We hit a bit that is quite a bit bouncier as Alan bangs his head on the roof and wears his headphones as a visor! I think he is still enjoying it? We pass in sight of the BCN VOR keeping a very good lookout. Then ten miles the other side, the ground drops away and reveals low fields and gently rolling countryside. We pass over Monmouth and the Forest of Dean. I call up Gloucester. They are giving 04 with left hand circuits and a wind of 050 / 20 kts – good old Gloucester – lots of runways, so rarely much of a crosswind.

At 5 miles I get cleared for a straight in approach – they really are not busy at all today – I wonder why?! The approach is again good, but I balloon a bit, so again an adequate but not a great landing. Right – it’s circuits for you next flight my boy!

We park up and I do the admin. Alan has enjoyed himself and I think he had some fun in the turbulence over the Brecon hills! We bid farewell.

A good days flying in occasionally challenging conditions. Visibility wasn’t great and I didn’t fancy going above the clouds as they were sat at freezing level. I am sure it would have been great up there, but would have defeated the object for the students, which was to practice visual navigation. Next serious trip is the Flyer Forum trip to Italy in May. I will try to sneak a trip in to France before then though – after some circuits though!

Bomber Circuits!

A couple of members of the group had previously reported slight vibration in the climb and recently some vibration in the cruise. The cruise turned out to be plug fowling which was fixed, but the vibration in the climb seemed to be continuing. I think this all started when one of the group went up with an instructor who spotted it and suggested we get it checked out. Needless to say, checking with our maintenance organisation has revealed nothing and it cannot be reproduced on the ground.

Well, of course once something like this is pointed out, we were all getting a bit up-tight about the slightest odd engine noise etc. A couple of members have been reading around the subject and wondered if the propeller needed balancing etc.

What the engineers needed they said was to go up with one of us. On Thursday 9th March, I was at a loose end in the afternoon, and although the weather wasn’t great, it was good enough, so I left early and set up a quick local with an engineer to move this forward.

Dave is an experienced engineer who works mostly on PA28’s and owned and flew an Arrow for a few years, so he came pretty well qualified in my books. We started up and took off. In the climb at 25/25 there was a slight vibration which he felt. He asked me to level out on the same settings and fly straight and level, which I did, and the vibration disappeared. Dave then played with many different power and prop settings, both straight and level and in the climb. The only time there was even slight vibration was in the climb.

Dave explained that he felt quite strongly that there was nothing wrong with the plugs or the engine and that it most certainly wasn’t propeller balance – if it was, it would happen in a narrow range of power / rpm regardless of the angle of attack. He asked if any of the group had experience in operating an aircraft with the three bladed propeller (as ours has). None of us do – he was convinced that it was simply the angle of attack on a three bladed propeller and that they routinely felt like this (where a two bladed propeller wouldn’t). He said that it would probably feel much the same on a power run up in a steady crosswind etc. He advised us strongly not to waste our money chasing this as there was nothing wrong! Well, that was good enough for me and I agreed to write his comments up for the benefit of the rest of the group, but that one or two of them might want to talk to him direct about it.

We headed back to the airfield, where it was pretty quiet. I was given a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits. It seemed that I was joining overhead at the same time as another aircraft. I looked hard, but didn’t see him until I was crosswind, where I saw him at the same level, ahead and to my right. He was too close for spacing, so I elected to extend crosswind as he turned and called downwind. I then turned and pulled the gear down to slow the plane up to gain space. I was given as number 3. I could see both aircraft in front, with the furthest looking like he was about to turn base.

During the downwind checks, I lost the furthest plane in the ‘ground clutter’ but stayed visual with the near aircraft. The near aircraft had also lost the other guy and called ATC to ask where he was and could he turn base? He was advised that the furthest aircraft was now on 2.5 mile base – hmmm… what is he doing out there? So we both extended a long way downwind. Eventually we both saw him now on 3.5 mile final!! It was only a PA28 – what the hell is he doing flying circuits outside the ATZ especially as there were no aircraft in front of him!

I commented to Dave that I had never seen anything like this. We both joked about a certain flying school based at Gloucester who are notorious for flying ‘bomber circuits’. I was on base and the aircraft in front was on final following the ‘Vulcan Bomber (PA28)’. Then Dave heard the offending aircraft and declared that it was ‘one of his!’ (the flying school who also owned his maintenance organisation). Well, from my vantage point at about 1.5 miles, holding height with high power, I could see the PA28 about to land with the aircraft in front of me close, but far enough away to expect a late clearance. The PA28 landed nice and slow and seemed to be certain to stop by the intersection, so he could vacate early. Instead he trundled past a slow walking pace! I heard ATC start to say ‘cleared for short back-track…’ when they stopped as the PA28 trundled slowly to end of the long runway! He hadn’t cleared and the chap immediately in front of me was ordered to ‘go around’. I was by now just inside 1 mile and descending. I was cleared to land and put it down easily in time for the intersection.

Well, I commented on the PA28’s poor airmanship in flying such incredibly wide circuits with no other traffic about. Dave said he would raise it with the flying school so I left it at that (otherwise, I would have gone over there and had a friendly chat. I could only assume it was an early student doing solo circuits, but he really should be made aware that it was very poor airmanship and dangerous as we were forced to overfly Cheltenham town centre a slow speeds and high power settings at 1000’).

I have since corresponded by email with the ATCO who may also look into it. I am certainly no expert and I am sure that I have been guilty of poor airmanship in the past (and will probably make mistakes in the future) and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but either he or his instructor really need to know that circuits are not flown like that.

Next time, I will ask to ‘cut in front’.

I'll huff and puff and blow your plane down!

Since that great day on the 10th February, the weather has been truly terrible. So I put myself down for at least some circuits on Saturday afternoon weather permitting.

During the week, I had some email correspondence with a TB9 pilot in the USA who responded to the advert for the front spat of our now defunct TB10. We agreed a price and shipping details and I spoke to other members of the group and agreed to take it to the airfield on Saturday for Mark to pick up and ship. He runs a packaging company, so packaging it would be easy. So I rolled up to the airfield at 11:00 and met Mark. He was due to do some circuits but decided against it due to the weather. The weather was nice, scattered cumulus at 3000’ BUT a howling wind – Gloucester were giving 050 at 25 gusting 38 kts – sporting!!

However, he did want to have a play with the Garmin GNS 430 – so I suggested rather than him run the battery down on the ground and me come back in the afternoon, why not both of us go up for a local, I would fly and land and he could play with the GPS to his hearts content. He agreed (while at the same time thinking where his next of kin might find his will).

Anyway, we filled up to tabs and trundled off to runway 04 – so the wind was very gusty but at least pretty much down the runway. I could certainly feel the find during taxi. Power checks complete, I line up and give it full power (making a note to hold the plane down and rotate about ten knots faster than normal). Anyway, no sooner have I finished the brief ‘runway rolling’ checks the check of the airspeed shows 70kts and increasing fast! I rotate at 75 kts (10 kts faster than normal) and am amazed at how little runway we used and how fast we are climbing – this thing feels like it is on reheat!

I get the gear up and the gusty wind is making this climb a lot of fun! I climb on the runway heading and decide to get above the clouds (although that would take me sub-zero, there are plenty of gaps to come back down through). We climb quickly to FL55 and I level off at that. Obviously a lot smoother up here although of course the GPS groundspeed is saying some very interesting things to me depending on the heading!


I bimble about over the Malverns, which have a light dusting of snow from the showers during the week. I do a few steep turns – it is great fun to do a level steep turn and ‘fix’ the wingtip to a point on the ground – so it looks like you are pivoting around a point.


Mark plays contentedly with the GPS and I show him that great OBS function to track a direction into an airfield. I snap a couple of pictures off through the open side window.

Coming up to an hour, thoughts turn to the landing and I head back to Gloucester. The ATIS is still giving 050 28G38 odd – this is going to be fun! I descend below the cloud and am given a standard overhead for 04 left hand circuits.

The deadside descent is easy with such a wind and we cross upwind nicely at 1000’. I have to crab a lot into the wind to hold ground track. The downwind leg takes an incredibly short amount of time, but I get everything done and haul her round to base. I pull the MP back and wait, then push the blue VP know fully fine. Airspeed is within limits, but I elect to take only one stage of flaps. RED / GREEN / BLUE – all good – OK, here we go onto finals.

I call finals and am cleared to land. I keep the speed well up from the normal 75 decaying to 70 to more like 85-90. I bit high, but I can lose that easy enough. I am getting buffeted and use ailerons and rudder to keep things right side up. I can certainly feel the gusts. Numbers coming up… now I am over them. Keep the descent going, bit more, crabbing a little….wind must be a bit off centre-line. Airspeed about 85 – hard to tell, but groundspeed looks OK. Keep going – NOW – flare and hold off – rudder to kick it straight – wow, a gentle squeak – tyres have touched – dump flaps and pull the power off.

We are down. Damn – the palms of my hands are sweaty! Mark peeks between his fingers – yes, we are down! Hmmm... maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas!

I certainly give up on the idea of circuits and taxi to stand.

Well – what an interesting flight. I am grateful for Gloucester’s three runways which pretty much means you can land into wind most times – I wouldn’t have fancied that as a gusting crosswind to any great extent. Anyway – good practice and good for the soul.

We had a cuppa in the Aviator cafe on the airfield. I have rarely seen so many people in there - all I can think is that they fancied seeing the planes wobble and dance their way vaguely skywards with the off chance of a bit of carnage!

Next flight maybe I will aim for White Waltham or Old Sarum – oh and must do some IMC refresher training and start thinking about re-validation.

I can report that Snowdon is still there!

The weather was forecast to be perfect on Friday. Recently arrived high pressure would mean a cold, clear day with little wind. Too good to resist, I took the day off, booked the plane and planned for my long awaited trip to Caernarfon with a bimble around Snowdon. But as the day was so good, I turned it into a ‘round Wales’ trip taking in West Wales (Aberporth), then to Strumble Head and east back to Gloucester via BCN.

My regular flying companion, Dan had to pop in to work just down the road from the airfield so we agreed to meet there. It suited me as it gave me plenty of time for a leisurely A-Check and to clean the windows.

Good to his word, Dan rolls up at 10:00, we jump, start up and taxi. However, a few other people had the same idea and after waiting a good 15 minutes at the hold behind a twin doing IR training and VERY leisurely power checks, it’s my turn to line up. Off we go and I elect to climb to FL50 above a modest inversion and set course to Snowdon.

The scenery was fantastic and I got some good photos as floated along serenely.


I changed from London Information to Valley Radar and headed towards Snowdon. Amazingly I had mis-identified it on the map (I totally missed the big white box with the Snowdon spot height) and successfully navigated to what I thought was the highest point – hey – where is the narrow gauge railway and café on the top? Yes – that peak just to the SW does look bigger doesn’t it? So I headed over there and yes, there it all was looking very dramatic. Dan held it in the turn while I took photos with the side flap open.


Headed towards Caernarfon which we easily spotted from Snowdon and had to loose height pretty fast. Did a couple of orbits and some ‘S’ turns approaching the airfield. This and a lack of food made Dan feel no so good, but he held up. Did the low 1300’ overhead join for 02 followed by the 800’ circuit and landed. Backtracked and parked up. The bad news was that the museum was closed, but we had a filling lunch instead and had a brief look around.


We loaded up then off over the spit of land south towards West Wales (Aberporth). Got a good service from Valley and were warned of Typhoon a few thousand feet above and ‘manoeuvring’ – we never saw him. It seems a shame that Llanbedr is now closed, but it did mean we could fly along the coast and overhead the now disused field.

We trolled along heading broadly south and coastwise (but about 1 mile inland to avoid the danger area). Called up Aberporth who told us the danger area was closed, so we could carry out any approach we liked. The wind was influenced by the cost and was veering all over the place generally at 90 degrees to Aberporth’s only runway. I made an overhead join and went for 08. On final, the very helpful radio chap said the winds had changed and now favoured 26. I elected to continue as it was a minimal tailwind component.


We landed and parked up. I wandered up to see the chap in the tower who was very informative and told us all about the UAV trials we had heard were now common at Aberporth. He gave us a few tips for the flight back to Gloucester and some excellent low level routes around the mountains (perhaps next time). Aberporth was very quite a nearly deserted. Someone was doing their QXC in a Cessna 152 and was headed to the next airfield. He sounded OK’ish on the radio, but was clearly a bit tense – I remember mine well – he did have an excellent day for it with easy navigation in that area though.

We paid the usual £10 landing fee and took off. On recommendation, we climbed to 2000’ and headed to Strumble Point, taking in the view of Fishguard at the Irish ferries on the way. We turned east towards BCN and admired the view. London Info handed us off to Cardiff Radar. It was pretty busy near the beacon and we had a couple of traffic warnings – two of which we spotted in plenty of time – two pairs of eyes really are far better than one! I think Dan is better at spotting air traffic but I am better at spotting airfields!

We climbed to 3500’ to clear the Brecon beacons then saw the hills fall away as we crossed the border into England. We switched to Gloucester approach and picked up the ATIS. They sounded very busy and gave us an unusual ‘report at 10 miles’. The we got another unusual ‘report at 5 miles’ – they must be incredibly busy! Indeed they were. I was approaching from due west and could see straight down 09 which was the runway in use – but no point in asking for a straight in approach with this volume of traffic!

Did a standard overhead join and put her down on 09, taxied, filled up at the pumps and parked on stand.

I had taken a careful measure of the fuel at the start and at every stop using the dipstick and again now. Then I double checked fuel burn by filling it up to where it was when I started the day. Bottom line is that with the airtime I flew, even with the extended 20 minute hold before I got off at Gloucester, I still averaged 38 lph. I had a reliable 70 litres left from full tanks – so this tells me that I can be very confident about 3.5 hours airtime with plenty for diversion and orbiting. Part of what I wanted to do today was to test the fuel burn, endurance and dipstick accuracy to give me confidence for some of the long legs coming up on the ‘Europe 2006’ Flyer Forum trip to Italy in May this year. I now have the required confidence!

What a great day and what a great days flying. I can’t wait to start ‘limbering up’ the May trip with some cross channel forays soon!

Airfield Collecting - Panshanger

Yet another free landing free from one of the mags was enough to pursuade me to visit this airfield on the edge of the Luton zone. That, and my sister turning up from Vienna.

The weather was excellent on Saturday, some scattered low cloud at 2000' then clear above.

Tried to set off from Gloucester, but I have never seen it so busy - I even got a 'standby' from the tower for a full seven minutes - it was manic! Eventually got away and did a transit of Brize zone to avoid flying through the Oxford overhead.

Dropped to 2200' and ran south of the Luton zone and underneath London. My sister spotted the grass airstrip of Panshanger at about 3 miles and before I did! Did a right downwind join and a nice landing on the numbers on 29. Only problem was that I stopped quite quickly but still had to roll to the end to get onto the taxiway. It was bizzare taxiing with loads of new houses no more than 40 yards away along the airfield boundary.

Tried the Blue Skies airfield cafe and what a difference. Very nicely done, but still able to get a good fly up! How civilised.


We bimbled about a bit and talked to a nice chap from Netherthorp who had just landed in his smart RV4. Off we went, but this time routed from BNN to HEN then to DTY and climbed to 5000' to give my sister a feel of the controls.


Quite busy aloft and spotted a few plane and gliders. Routed back to Gloucester for a standard overhead for 36 right. Given an orbit on base as some instrument traffic was landing on 27. Got it down for a very nice landing, parked up and switched off.

Then I saw the mud all over the underside and splattered on the stabliator. Bucket and sponge sorted that. That reminds me, I must organise a full wash and polish soon.

Great day out and fantastic weather - make the most of it!

Airfield Collecting - Denham

Had the plane booked and as chance would have it, the weather at Gloucester was great - a few, high clouds with lots of blue sky. Great - maybe today is the day I can try for Haverfordwest and Pembrey. Yes, the 215 looks good so I call them for an update.

'It's overcast at 2000' and the cloud is on the hills to the east. It's OK for circuits but if you really want to get here today, I'd drive!'

OK - so not west, how about east? Never been to Denham, being on the edge of the London zone and all that so lets try there. Oh yes, much more encouraging. I check the NOTAM's - better and better! Brize is closed, give three calls then if no response you are free to zone transit giving calls on the frequency. Denham it is.

I turn up at the airfield and my regular passenger is a bit late, so prep the plane. By this time he turns up and off we go. Winds are about 230/07 on the ground, so we have a fair old tailwind pushing us east. The turbulence well past the ridge of the Cotswolds is quite choppy and surprised me, but it smooths out soon enough. I start to descend to stay below London airspace and contact Denham. OK, call at Maple Cross, then follow the lake in on base to 24. We spot the VRP, lakes and airfield easily and make a nice approach.

The landing is OK and commendably short, but there are no marked taxiways, so off the runway and park up in front of the tower. The jolly chap on frequency admires the paint job on the Arrow as we shut down.


I pay the fee of £15 but oh no! No airfield cafe, just vending machines in Cabair! But look - just outside, there is a posh restaurant so we try there.

It is virtually empty and staffed by Spaniards. We both feel seriously under-dressed, but they are fine and happy to seat us in the posh restaurant despite the fact we only wany soup and rolls. Dan of course splashes out on whitebait and clownsaround with the christmas crackers.


Back to the plane. Checked the noise abatement and special departure routines, started up and took off. Holding it below 1000' on the QNH, straight ahead, the NNW along the train line. Didn't spot the train line until I had passed it so ooops! hard turn to the right to regain track. We cleared to zone to the NNW the set course direct to Gloucester. Got some good height eventuually up to 3000' as the weather was much better to the west. Heard traffic giving blind calls in Brize Zone - so people do read NOTAM's after all!

Back to Gloucester for one touch and go then a landing - probably a mistake as the circuit was very active. Had to orbit on my landing circuit. Got down and shut off. Dan had to shoot back to work, so I tidied up.

Actually, seemed a very busy day, certainly at Gloucester, although Denham was a lot quieter. Oh well, another airfield visited and now up to 52. It gives you a focus to these short hops which is about all I can manage with this iffy weather and low freezing levels. Maybe Fairoaks for January - never been there before and again a bit of a trickier approach sitting as it does on the edge of the London Zone (and a free landing voucher - bonus).

Next flight, weather permitting, is Enstone on the 27th to discuss dates and routes for the round Europe trip planned in 2006.

Air Combat USA - Reprise

Just managed to upload and convert the 'in-cockpit' video tapes that were taken on my recent trip to Air Combat in the USA.

It was hard work struggling with firewire, different bit rates, different format etc., but I now have them in good old PAL and burned into two DVD ready for playback at my mates house over several beers with lots of swagger on my part :-)

AND!!! Took some stills off the film which I thought I would post here. Had a fantastic time and these brought it back to me.


Formation flying there and back was a great bonus!


Inverted over the Pacific between Long Beach and Catalina Island


I see him!! I'm coming around!


Die! Imperialist running dog!


Home for tea and medals! (actually, copious amounts of beer!)

Tatenhill

OK - Had the plane booked for a landaway on Saturday and really wanted to go to Caernarfon, but only if the weather was top notch - no point in risking anything in icing conditions over Welsh hills.

So of course the weather was forecast to have an occluded front coming into precisely that part of Wales in the afternoon, so despite a hopeful looking sky in the early morning, I decided to switch to the alternate - Tatenhill.

Only reason I wanted to go there was simply because I haven't been yet, so a bit of 'airfield collecting' to keep my hand in over the winter months is pretty much what I try to do.

The weather wasn't great with some low, thin and scattered cloud at anywhere between 2200' at Gloucester, to 1500' at Wolverhampton. Then a big clear gap up to the next layer at 6000'. Tempting to go between the layers, but that would have been in sub-zero temperatures, and if the lower layer decided to close up and go solid, I could be in a bit of a pickle trying to take a sub-zero airframe through visible moisture - so I decided against that and in favour of 'scud running' (that, plus the actuals at Tatenhill were excellent, so the clag was west and it was much better east).

Uneventful trip up there. Routed almost due north and turned west of Wolverhapton, 2 miles outside their ATZ and went between them and Cosford to Tatenhill. Sure enough, with about 25 miles to run the lower cloud and most of the upper layer disappears and there is streaky, high cloud and sunshine!

Spotted Tatenhill easily enough and did a direct left downwind join for their runway 26, with a crosswind of something like a quoted 330 at 13 kts. Approach was fine, but again allowed it to get a little too slow and didn't managed much of a flare before landing. This aircraft is clearly very draggy with everything down - learning point for next time.

A paltry landing fee of £8 was all we paid. Tatenhill is a nice little airfield and the canteen lady was very cheerful and helful indeed and made us feel very welcome.


Going back to the plane, we spotted a nice yellow T6 Harvard WW2 trainer in authentic RCAF Canadian markings - so of course, I had to have some photos. I am very much looking forward to my birthday treat flight in the T6 at Shoreham in the spring - the size of the aircraft is amazing - its huge!


Got back to G-GYMM, started up and away in reasonably short order. Weather was fine again until we got close to Wolverhampton and we were down to around 1300' to stay out of the low stuff. Fumbled my way between Wolverhampton and Cosford, then set course straight to Gloucester. By about Kidderminster, the cloud started to lift and we could climb to a heady 2500' AND have something like a horizon - bliss!

Given a standard overhead join for 36 right hand circuits. We got into a busy circuit and were forced fairly far out on base to hold distance from a Cessna. I did my best to keep my distance and pulled everything vaguely draggy on pretty early. We were given a late clearance to land when it was clear the Cessna had just vacated the runway. A much better landing with the extra few knots and a nice flare this time.

The aircraft behaved fine, except that the anti-collision light seems to have gone (again) and the plane was still covered in bird poo from being in the hangar - there are birds in the front roof beam. We need to get Gloucester to sort this out before I bring an air rifle in myself - you really dont expect to pay what we pay for hangarage only to have your paint attacked by acid bird droppings!

Anyway, another fun flight to keep my hand in. More of the same over winter, then probably some IMC refresher instruction in the spring.

First landaway in G-GYMM

Now that we have bought the Arrow 2 from Leland at Cranfield, the group have a new aircraft to fly. All of this went through while I was on holiday in the USA, so one of my first tasks was to take it up for a local last week to get used to the handling and especially the panel. An uneventful ‘maiden flight’ around the local area at 130 kts IAS was enough to convince me to book the aircraft for a landaway.

Where to go? Not too far given the short days and winter weather, but a long enough trip to get really settled in and see what the plane can do and somewhere with a bit of tarmac (not grass in this weather). So I decided on Peterborough / Conington. It then occurred to me that there might be a free landing voucher somewhere – sure enough, one for November in ‘Pilot’ magazine, so I bought the mag specifically for the voucher!

I went to the airport on Sunday midday with my usual ‘self-loading baggage’ - Dan. In the terminal of ‘Gloucestershire International’ I spotted a work colleague. He was showing his brother-in-law around who plans to move to the UK and maybe bring his aircraft with him. He flies a Rockwell Commander 112 around Joburg and might fly this up to the UK and base it here. We chatted about flying in the UK and basing in the local area in particular and I have since sent him a few useful UK web links.

I check the aircraft out while Dan cleans the bird poo off the aircraft. Although it is hangared, it turns out that the birds are too! We must speak to the airfield about that. As always, it is low on fuel. So we hauled it over to the pumps to re-fuel. During the checks, I had a bit of a problem with the intercom and the squelch level. A bit of fiddling with some unfamiliar and very modern panel instruments soon revealed separate pilot and passenger squelch and volume controls.

That done, it is the shortish taxy out to 36 for power checks and take-off. Clear to take-off so I line up and apply full power. A healthy boot of right rudder (well – more that I am used to) keeps her straight on the roll and we rotate at 65 kts. She climbs very well once the dangly bits are raised and we set course NE to DTY then to Conington.

The weather is great, a few ‘fair weather cumulus’ at 2500’ and lovely blue sky above. So I elect to climb above the clouds as the gaps between are huge and I can easily get down again without an instrument let-down. Up at FL45, I call Brize Radar who give my FIS to DTY where I change to Sywell. What a great day for flying and very good visibility heading east. The plane handles well and is easy to trim. I add a bit of rudder trim to correct a slight left drift of the aircraft. Well, it really is 130 kts IAS at 24/24 – although the GPS show groundspeed as 115 kts, so some kind of headwind component.

Before I realise it, we are over Sywell and I switch to Conington and have to start thinking about losing some height and slowing the plane down. Conington are giving 28 left hand and they are pretty busy by the sounds of it. I do a standard overhead join and slot into circuit traffic for a not terribly good crosswind landing.


Anyway, we are down as I backtrack for parking – but where? The place is very busy, but fortunately an aircraft is taxying out, so I take their space.

I used to live in this part of the country, so the flat landscape does not come as a surprise. But it is a very nice looking airfield and we get a good welcome in the clubhouse. Unfortunately, with the landing voucher and the excellent weather, the place had been all but cleaned out on Saturday and much of the menu is off – including bacon sandwiches!!

We down our food and coffee and I go on a wander of the apron. Nice and varied selection of parked aircraft, including an RV4 dressed up like a Mustang and complete with three (yes, three!) GPS’s – two in the back and one in the front – someone is keen not to get lost! The hangar has some lovely aircraft (looks like it might be a paint shop) with a nice Commander and a Maule on floats.


Back to my own recently acquired aircraft for start-up. I did know the 200 hp injected engines could be tricky to start – quite different from the standard Lycoming 0-360. Anyway, a couple of ‘warm engine’ start routines has it running. We line up and take off holding the extended centreline to clear the local villages before turning en-route.

This time, I climb to FL40 and squint my way back to DTY – flying west into the low sun and the now ‘dusty’ horizon make for poor visibility. My passenger has the hang of the aircraft, so I try the auto-pilot again. It does very well too, but as Dan points out ‘It can’t hold the height like me!’ – Dan has competition! Our airspeed again is exactly 130 kts IAS at 24/24, but this time with 145 kts groundspeed. We are fairly whipping along compared to what I am used to.

Brize throw me away with 25 mile to run so I contact Gloucester and start to descend to slow the plane down. They are now on 04 with left hand circuits and I am given direct downwind join not below 1500’. I report downwind and am cleared to descend to 1000’ QFE circuit height and number 2 to land. The Cessna in front is pulling quite a wide circuit and is some way further out on base than I would be, so I am forced to go further out than I would like. I do my ‘Red / Green / Blue’ finals check and the aircraft is nice and slow at 80 kts with all flaps. I am cleared to ‘land after’ and do so with a much better landing than at Conington.

Taxy clear and shut down and write up the log (noting the anti-collision light failure). Just as I have finished, Garry, one of the other group members rocks up. As it is now 16:00, he can only be wanting a night flight, so I give him the bad news – no anti-coll, no night flight! We swap experiences with the intercom which he was struggling with last flight.

All in all an excellent and very smooth flight. I think I am getting used to this aircraft very quickly, hardly surprising as I trained on PA28’s. With an aircraft flying 130 kts IAS at 38 litres and hour fuel burn, I am very much looking forward to some multi-leg trips around Europe and Scandanavia!

Air Combat USA!

Went on a special birthday holiday to the USA at the end of October with the wife, so minimal flying content, except that as a special treat, I had booked the all day ‘Fighter Lead In Program’ at the famous ‘Air Combat’ outfit in Los Angeles. Fighter pilot for a day – yep, that got my attention – not cheap, but I would get to throw a high performance plane around the sky and shoot the bad guys! I had this booked on the second last day of my holiday on Tuesday 1st November.

I turned up at Fullerton airfield in Buena Park, near Anaheim in LA at 0930 and saw on the board that I was (as expected) slated for two flights. I was welcomed by the instructors for the day, ‘Nails’ and ‘Party’. Both are ex-Navy pilots of different generations. Nails flew F8’s and Party (Marty Stowe) flew F14’s and now flies for American Airlines. One of Marty’s claims to fame is that he is in a scene from the film ‘Top Gun’ as he was in the navy at the time.

I was partnered with Marty and he helped me suit up with a natty USAF flight suit, helmet with integrated headphones, parachute and lifejacket. We went through the safety drills then sat down to the pre-flight briefing.

Flight 1

First flight was for both me and my ‘enemy’ to practice manoeuvres that would place us in a position bring guns to bear. These included high and low yo-yo’s, loops, high speed turns and barrel rolls etc. The principles and importance of ‘lead and lag’ were explained as were the rules of engagement (hard deck at 2500’, no forward quarter engagements, lose sight, lose the fight etc).


Following the briefing, we went out to the aircraft, me to the Extra 300 (yippee) and my foe to the Marchetti 260. The company dictates that the instructor must do both the take off and landing, but apart from that and demonstrations of manoeuvres, I flew for the rest of the time.

As I am 6’ 2” and 210lbs, you don’t so much get into the Extra 300 as put it on! I flew from the front seat and had only two dials to worry about, airspeed and altitude. The visibility in the bubble canopy was fantastic. It was a warm and sunny day and I fully expected to get roasted the minute we buttoned up, but it wasn’t too bad as it was not at all humid – not something I am used to from the UK.

I have not done any formation work before so was pleased that we were going to fly formation out to the aerobatic area off the coast south of Long Beach and east of Catalina Island. I found the formation work not as difficult as I expected (possibly because the leader was holding a very stable course), but it certainly does take concentration and fine adjustments, it must be easy to get it wrong and attempt to ‘over-control’ and end up chasing too many things at once.

After checking the alignment of the gunsights and tracking on each other in turn, he then played the part of the ‘dumb bogie’ and maintained a steady 30 degree turn while I carried out low and high yo yo’s. All good fun, but reasonably tame, pulling no more than 3G or so. We practiced one loop (which was brilliant fun) and I was invited to do a few aileron rolls (aka victory rolls) which I duly did. The first was a bit ropey, but the rest felt much better.

After this, back to base, again with me holding the rear formation slot. I handed over close to the airfield where Marty carried out a sort of formation ‘run and break’ join using a military style ‘racetrack’ circuit and sideslipping final approach (as the Extra 300 has no flaps, is a taildragger and has a huge nose which you can’t really see over). I have to say, he really greased it on with a perfect 3 pointer nice and gentle with no hint of a bounce.

The debrief was carried out on two video screens, showing one of the three camera views from each aircraft so that we could see what both aircraft were seeing and doing at the same time. What a good learning tool that was.

Following the debrief, we re-hydrated, drained the lizards and relaxed for an hour or so while the planes were refuelled.

Flight 2

Full briefing again with a reprise on the basic combat manoeuvres, then out to the planes and airborne. Again, my chance to get some formation flying in as we flew out to the area.


On arrival at the area, we gained height up to about 6000’, then positioned so that we crossed in opposite directions flying ‘left to left’ level at about 160kts. At this point the instructors announce ‘fights on!’ and we manoeuvre as previously practiced to try to get on the opponents tail. It is fair to say that the instructors are advising you a fair bit and keeping a good lookout for the opponent, but the certainly expect you to watch the opponent yourself and have your own intercept ideas.

I try a low yo yo, but overdo it by pulling waaaayyy too hard in turn and induce a high speed stall. Started with wing buffet then quickly ‘snap rolled’ me out of the turn as it dropped a wing. I realised my opponent was gaining in the turn, so promptly did the same thing again, and again and again! This was not helped by my opponent’s instructor cheating on the radio by saying ‘pull harder Steve!’, which I obligingly did! My opponent put me out of my misery and shot me down as the Extra 300 obligingly belched smoke to indicate the kill.

After a few words of advice from Marty, we start the second engagement. I won’t bore anyone by describing each engagement in details (6 in total) and will jumble them up and generalise. Bottom line is that I won the next 5 engagements (although I think my opponent, who was an Air Combat pilot-in-training, was being kind to me). My opponent’s instructor tried the same ‘radio dis-information’ thing on the last fight, but I had by this time I had learned!

Highlights were at least two loops with half rolls on the way down, a couple of successful yo yo’s and other manoeuvres that clocked up nearly 1G negative and 5.3G positive on the ‘G-metre’. It is absolutely amazing to pull hard loops and rolls and see the sea and the sky change places and at crazy angles – just like a simulator except that you don’t have the radio chatter, not to mention the G to worry about.


I have to say that although I felt the G I didn’t seem to notice it too much as I was fixated on getting behind my opponent. On a few occasions, my instructor asked if I was OK as I suspect he didn’t want the inside of his Extra 300 pebble-dashed with vomit. I was having far too much fun to feel sick and felt absolutely fine throughout. I think it is easier if it is you flying the manoeuvres rather than being a passenger.

After a couple of victory rolls, I rejoined the Marchetti in formation and returned to Fullerton.

After the landing, I had just got out and into the flight centre when my wife turned up after a heavy day’s shopping to join us for the debrief. I have to say (and my wife commented) that Marty looked drenched in sweat while I was fine – perhaps it is a lot harder having a green student throw you around the sky in unexpected moves from the back seat – of course it could just be that it was a hot day!

The mistakes of the first flight were highlighted and potential opportunities that I could have taken in other flights suggested. All useful learning points.

Conclusion

As part of the program, I got a ‘free’ A2 leather flight jacket with the appropriate badges to sew onto them. I mentioned to my new American friends that I would get laughed / sniggered at back in the UK for having badges on the jacket. They looked confused and asked why – I just couldn’t explain and frankly don’t care anyway – the badges are going on, so smirk all you like! I really do find the American view of things so much more like my own, perhaps it is my Canadian background?

Oh, and the handle they bestowed one me was agreed to be ‘Grimace’ after they saw the determined facial contortions I was using on the videocam trying for the kill – total concentration is my excuse!

Did I have fun and was it worth £1000 odd? ABSOLUTELY!

What a FANTASTIC day and what a nice bunch of people. I got to:

• Throw an Extra 300 around the sky,
• Try formation flying for the first time,
• Perform many of the basic aerobatics unaided,
• Log a total of 2.5 hours as P U/T,
• Shoot the bad guys down 5 times (he was being kind),
• Have an A2 flying jacket that I can cover with badges,
• Shot full of enough adrenaline to last for a month,
• Full videos of both sessions that I can bore people with for hours,

IT REALLY DOES NOT GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS!

Now, if the ‘Ultimate High’ in the UK can equip their aircraft with gunsights, cameras and smoke and whistle up LA style predictable weather, I would be over to Kemble like a shot.

PS - To my wife's friends (you know who you are) - Yes - I am a spoiled brat!

Buying an Arrow 2

Sunday 9th is also the day that Leland from Flyer Forum has agreed to bring his Arrow 2 over to Gloucester for the group to take a look at. This is less than one week from our decision to go forward as a group with an Arrow 2 or 3 at the top of the list and indeed less that one week from Leland putting his plane up for sale through Flyer Forum. Synchronicity eh?

We got the Cotswold CFI, Phil Mathews to take it up for a test flight. He is a man of few words at the best of time and was succinct in his judgement – ‘It’s an Arrow 2 and flies just as I would expect’ – I am told that if you know Phil, this is probably high praise!



We crawl all over (and under) the aircraft. It really is beautifully presented with a great recent paint job and top notch avionics. Leland has clearly spent a small fortune on it in the last two years. I mentioned the lovely ‘retro’ interior until he pointed out that these were the original seats – dating from 1971, I was impressed at the condition. But I guess it does make sense given the very modest 2600 hours that the aircraft has done since 1971.



The only potential ‘gotcha’s’ we can see is that we will need a good ‘panels off’ structural inspection (but would not expect to find anything) and the engine is past TBO and therefore being run ‘on condition’ and could therefore need replacing / zero timing at any time. This appears to be reflected in the asking price.

It turns out that Leland is fluent in French, so he and my French Canadian neighbour wander off gabbling away and waving their arms while we as a group form a circle and look at our shoes.



The upshot is that we won’t try to muck about on the price and offer him the full asking price with a deposit now and the balance payable on the conclusion of a full engineering report with satisfactory results and view of logs if we can get the aircraft back to Gloucester for Aeros to take a look.

Leland is happy with this and now we need to come up with a few dates and make arrangements to drive the logs separately or something. Hopefully this can happen in a week or two at the outside.

So with luck, I will soon be back into group flying at a far more reasonable £70 an hour zipping around at 130 – 135 knots!

Bimble to Cranfield

Decided to take the Arrow I am hiring from Cotswold on a short landaway just to keep my hand in. This club rental thing has reduced my flying to about once every three or four weeks.

Decided on either Cranfield or Tatenhill, both being fairly local airfields that I have not yet visited. Tossed a coin, and Cranfield won.

I had arranged to take my neighbour with me (my regular flying colleague), and the previous evening, he was ‘yes – tell me when and i’ll be ready’. So we settled on a 08:00 Sunday morning start. I was knocking on his door at said time, then at four minute intervals until 08:20 and out a note through the door on the off chance he woke up.

Got to the airfield just as it was opening, pulled G-OMNI out and gave her the A Check. Waited around until 09:30, still no show from the neighbour, so climbed in and took off.

The Arrow climbs very well indeed with one on board and full tanks and I was soon at 4000’ on a clear, crisp day in the early light. Gloucester were not busy and they handed me on (no freecall – wow!) to Brize as I navigated the VOR from Gloucester to Daventry. I have to say I had my head in the cockpit a lot trying to find my way around the avionics – could I find the DME? Could I buffalo!

At Daventry, gave Cranfield a call. They seemed busy and I was a bit phased by their seemingly brusque question ‘state your business’ – ‘….errrr – just a brief landaway for a £100 bacon sandwich!’.

Told to report at Woburn. I had expected to be routed by their VRP’s as that is what it says in the AIS. So took some speed off and bumbled around the west of Milton Keynes until I was at about the right bearing and distance from the airfield. Not sure I know what Woburn looks like, but I had to be over it, so called my position. Routed for a direct downwind join to 21 with left hand circuits with four in the circuit.

Descended to 800’ QFE, called downwind. Circuit was uneventful and made a nice landing if I say it myself. Yes, these PA28’s are nice to land. Instructed to take the first right exit as someone was pretty close behind. Parked up near the tower beside an HS125 (?) jet.



It was a lovely day until I had to pay the landing fee - £31 odd – OUCH!!! I knew it would be around this and I had put off going to Cranfield until now because of it. Well, I don’t plan to be back here again – not that they will care as Cabair seem to keep them very busy.

Checked out the bacon baps in the Café Pacific. Yep – pretty good. Had a brief wander around the airfield in lovely sunny and clear weather. What a busy place, with more flying schools than you can shake a stick at.

Started up and took off at about 11:15. Same route back. This time I found the DME. I know this sounds silly – how can he not see a DME? Well, when it is combined as a small digital window with a second VOR that is switched on with what looks like a heading bug knob on the VOR itself – that’s how! Phew – big sigh or relief. Now I have both VOR radials and DME readings – EEEH - LUXURY LAD!

Straightforward standard overhead join into Gloucester for 22 right hand circuits. Good approach and, well, if not a greaser like at Cranfield, still a reasonably gentle ‘arrival’.

I spot my neighbour while taxiing in – hard not to see him in his Montreal Canadians hockey shirt! I shut down and tot up the cost – a mere £305 for 0.8 there and 0.9 back (excluding the Cranfield landing fee)! This club hire stuff is killing me.

Oh – apparently its my fault that the neighbour was not up for not ringing to doorbell, shouting, throwing gravel at the window, waiting longer, coming in through the back door etc.!? I did ask if they had this great new invention in Canada yet – we call it the alarm clock! Maybe he just waits for the sound of timber crashing to the ground as beavers get going in the morning!

I am bored writing about such mundane bimbles, but at this price, it's all I can afford for now until the share gets going again.

OK - Now let's get used to this thing!

I was signed off on the club Piper Arrow 2 a couple of weeks ago. Since I trained on PA28’s, most of the handling and instrument placement came back to me quite quickly, but it still felt strange after flying the TB10 for two years.

You don’t realise how quickly the workload drops off when you have your ‘own’ (err group) aircraft and become totally familiar with it – you know where everything is and everything falls automatically to hand – leaving you to focus on flying. Conversely, you certainly do realise how the workload increases when you have to think then search for specific instruments and controls etc.

That’s how it is with the Arrow, well, that and the fact that it is about 25kts faster!

Anyway, decided to give myself a solo general handling. Since it is so much faster, I decided on a longer route for a one hour local. First down the Severn to the bridges, then up the Wye valley to Hereford, over the top of the Malverns, around Bredon hill, a couple of orbits of my village, then set up for an approach to Gloucester.

The weather was forecast to be wonderful sunshine and clear skies. So of course it was overcast with SCT at between 1800’ – 2500’ and OVC at 4000’! You know, the typical ‘high pressure gloom’ that you can get. QNH was 1027.

So set off and settled down. Moments of ‘head in cockpit’ checking and setting various bits, only to look up and realise that the ground had disappeared – oops! Nose down for a bit and ground reappears! If worse came to worse of course, I would have to have climbed on instruments then requested an instrument approach to Gloucester, but didn’t fancy that being both rusty and in an unfamiliar aircraft.



Found myself constantly ‘bumping my head’ on the cloudbase until closer to Evesham, when I could just manage 2500’.

Headed towards my village and slowed the aircraft down to do a few orbits around the outside at 1400’. Spotted that my neighbour (my regular flying companion) had literally just returned from holiday and was waving, so waggled the wings, gave it another orbit, then wandered away to gain height prior to rejoin at Gloucester. Could see a balloon in the distance launching from the racecourse – that’s the balloon festival I was expecting.

Wandered back to Bredon Hill, set myself up, listened to the ATIS and gave Gloucester a call. Would I like a direct approach? Yes, why not. Given direct to 27 report at 3 miles.

Started to slow the aircraft down at 5 miles. At 3 miles, given number 1. With the doughnut nicely in view, completed my pre-landing checks and lowered the gear. Got it nicely set up with some flap, but still pretty high – four whites on the PAPI’s – hmmm. Now about two miles. Pull on all the flap, set to fully fine and throttle back. There goes the doughnut. Its coming in now, three white and one pink, no - make that a red. Now a second pink – nice, power up a bit and hold this. Sometimes I swear I find it easier to land without PAPI’s, it’s too easy to get fixated by what they are telling you.

Can I put it on the number? No forget that, concentrate on giving it the full hold-off treatment and try to touch on the buzzer. Manage a good hold-off with a nice, light touchdown, but no stall horn – oh well! With minimal wind, I just miss the runway intersection (might have made it if I had stomped on the brakes, but why do that?). So I have to trundle to the end and make the long taxi back to stand.

Park up and shut down. Into the club to complete their tech log and charge envelope. OK, got all that. And the bad news is….. total for 1 hour 5 minutes plus one landing is £175 odd! Ouch – this club stuff is going to kill me! The sooner I am back in a share the better!

So what did I learn?

Well, weather pretty murky and didn’t get much of a horizon, but I did get it trimmed nicely and managed to hold the level most of the time (until I put my head in the cockpit that is).

I have definitely got the hang of the ‘Red / Green / Blue’ check on finals and of course how vital it is on a retractable gear aircraft – especially when you are given a ‘direct to final’ join. It would be easy to forget to do the downwind checks – and we all know how missing both checks would end up!

The big difference is the speed. Going from the training PA28’s at 95kts to the TB10 at 105 – 110kts wasn’t too tough speed wise (handling and landing were another matter). But going from 105kts to 130-135kts is a fair old step. It is gratifying how soon your waypoints come up, but it is also alarming how quickly you can be on top of the destination airfield.

All in all, a good flight and feeling on top of the aircraft by the end of it. Yes, I do really like the Arrow 2 as a tourer – a bit agricultural, but nice. All the familiarity of the PA28 with a nice turn of speed and the same fuel burn as the TB10. Of course it is not my ‘dream plane’ (hmmm…. Cirrus SR22, Beech Bonanza….), but as an affordable tourer – yes please!

The next door neighbour is complaining that with one thing and another, he has not been flying with me for nearly six months. So I had better schedule the next local to include him. At these sorts of prices, I think my flying will be in a holding pattern until the insurance is sorted out and I can get into another share.

Back to the skies!

Well, the AAIB and insurance stuff is still going through on poor old G-OFLG. But in the meantime, there is great weather and flying to be done, so it is back to the 'full club rental' route.

This time I decided to switch allegiances from Aeros at Gloucester to Cotswold Aero Club next door. Most of the other part owners of G-OFLG trained at Cotswold, plus I liked their Arrow 2 (rather than Aero's Arrow 4 with the dreaded 'T-tail'), so I put myself down for some training and retractable gear sign off just in time for Cotswold to put the Arrow 2 in for the annual! Well, I managed a low level bad weather trip for half an hour at the end of July just before the annual, with this being my next trip.



Anyway, finally back from the annual this week and I had some time on Sunday, so got the two together and had a check ride with the CFI, Phil Mathews.

At 10:30 on Sunday, it was hot and clear skies, but very murky with lateral visibility given as 4000m. After flapping about learning the intracacies of starting an injected engine both hot and cold and in between etc. got airborne and headed north for some general handling. I am still mentally attuned to hearing my old callsign of G-OFLG so I missed the call to G-OMNI and was just wondering who the idiot was in that aircraft that was not replying when Phil asked if I was going to answer the call! DOH!

Got above the murk at 3000', did a few turns, trimming and various power settings etc. Played with gear extension and the pitch changes to be prepared for, then good old Phil decides what I really need is a touch and go at Croft Farm (Defford) with its 570m grass runway - thanks Phil! - no pressure then!!

Managed the T&G - a lot of fun in the murk. The Arrow shows good short strip capability.

After a bit more fun, we head back to Gloucester with me trying to slow the plane up so it doesn't get ahead of me - this is quick compared to the TB10! Of course on the way in I get mixed up again with callsigns and I start calling myself G-OFLG - I think the tower were cutting me some slack. I join the circuit for 09 Left hand circuits with a standard overhead join. Did one touch and go and got a demo about holding it off in the flare for longer for my pains - the TB10 didn't have anywhere near as much 'float' as this - when the TB wanted to land, it landed! So mentally switched back into PA28 mode (as I trained on them) and vowed to do better next time.

Second circuit was to land. Turned in close on base as another aircraft was close behind and left myself high, but I was impressed how quickly the height can bleed off with the gear down, full flaps and the engine on idle! Re-established the glideslope and came in for a much better hold off landing - ah yes, I remember those from the PA28's!

Back to the hangar and another chat about gear emergencies and starting the engine in various states of warm / cold / flood etc.

Back to the clubhouse and £200 lighter (incl. 6 months membership - ah the joys of club flying!) and I am now signed off for G-OMNI and retractable gear.

What do I think about the Arrow 2? Well, it feels and looks more agricultural than the TB but then it would as it is an earlier generation. I still don't like one door, but at least the wing is on the right way around.

BUT - on the plus side. It is a lot faster with the retractable gear and 200hp engine - giving 130 kts against the TB10's 105 / 110 kts for pretty much the same fuel burn per hour (about 40 litres). The Arrow climbs much better, can lift 100 lbs more load on full fuel and is an easily maintained 'mainstream' aircraft. I have to say while it does not look as pretty as a TB10, I prefer it, as it is a far more capable tourer and would cost about the same to run in a group.

So for now I am stuck with 'clubbing it' until the insurance is sorted out and if the group agrees, to go again as a group and hopefully buy a nice Arrow 2 or 3.

G-OFLG down and out!

Very bad news! Our much cherished TB10, G-OFLG crashed last saturday afternoon and is assessed as being beyond economic repair.

The good news is that the pilot (not me) and passenger are OK, although the pilot got a nasty broken leg and probably needs a bone graft operation. I don't want to write too much about the pilot on an open forum like this I will write about the aircraft instead.

Don't know too much about the accident and not right to speculate, but my colleagues in the group report that the aircraft failed to develop full power on the take off run and crashed on take off.



This is a bitter blow as she was a lovely aircraft with a nice avionics fit and seemed to be running nicely. I flew her the Monday before as recorded in this diary.



One of the group is off to visit the pilot this weekend and of course there is the AAIB and insurance stuff to go through. I just hope that the pilot make a full recovery and we can think where we go from here.

For myself, well accidents happen. There are car accidents every day but people still drive. I will certainly continue to fly. In fact I went up in one of the local club Piper Arrows on Friday and want to get signed off in that. Then I will consider what happen in the group, whether we buy another plane or I see what other groups there are out there.

Austrian Visitor

My sister lives in Vienna and visits the UK from time to time for work / family / friends. This year she is visiting again and specifically asked for another flight in the plane saying “I won’t be as frightened this time because I’ll know what to expect!”.

She has been up before and was gripping the seat at take-off and every time we turned. She was coaxed to hold the yoke only to go into a death grip and pull back causing a sudden climb. After that on a previous flight, it was good that she wanted to try again.

The weather on Monday was not so good cloud in layers, some of it low and occasional spits of rain. Not so bad by late afternoon so I thought we would give it a go. Turned up at the airport to find the new ‘square section’ nosewheel tyre had been fitted (should help to overcome our nosewheel shimmy) and the faulty plug had been replaced (always a bonus).

So gave her a thorough passenger safety brief again and noted that the clouds were starting to break up revealing nice blue bits in between.

Off we went from runway 27 to do some ‘that’s where mum lives – that’s where I live’ type flying, so reasonably low and tight turns. She was so fixed on trying to spot the houses that she didn’t seem to notice the steep turn. Things are looking up!
After the house spotting, climbed over Woolstone Hill to 2900’ initially, trimmed the aircraft and got her nice and settled, then let Linda hold the controls for straight and level pointed at the Malverns. She was better this time, still over controlling and had to get her to relax her ‘death grip’ several times and feel the aircraft and the trim. After prompting, she was holding it within + / - 100’ and generally heading towards the Malverns – not bad at all.



By now the clouds had well and truly broken up into quite scattered at about 5500’ so decided to go up and have a play. Climbed to 5500’ where we were pretty much level with the base and had a nice ‘map like’ view of the ground as relief disappears and the Malverns looked flat.



Well, we had a BBQ waiting and all good things must come to an end, so set course for Gloucester and put the plane into a cruise descent for a rejoin. Gloucester was fairly quiet with only one in the circuit and was given a downwind join for 27 right hand circuits. Decided to make the most of the block landing fee and do one touch and go. The touch and go was very smooth though I say it myself. My next circuit was fine, but with a more ‘normal’ landing – anyway, I managed to stop before the first intersection on 27 and vacate quickly as there was another aircraft not far behind landing off an NDB / DME approach, and the last thing he wanted was to have to do a go around because I was still trundling up the runway to the end!

Anyway, the plane flew very nicely, no trouble with the plugs and no nose wheel shimmy. My sister certainly enjoyed it as well and I think has a far better understanding of the primary and secondary effect of the controls.

Now looking forward to giving the plane a good wash and shammy at the start of August and my trip to Hannover in mid-August.

Flyer Forum Golf Day

As a regular user of a virtual flying club called Flyer Forum, a fly in was proposed to North Weald for Sad Forumites to indulge two passions at one - flying and golf! Why not I thought. I haven't played a single round since 2002 and before that no regular play since 1990! I was assured that they were all fellow 100+ hackers so I should fit right in!

The date was Friday 8th July. Oh! I was down to run in a five mile road race against a fellow shareholder in the plane with a serious meal out riding on the outcome the previous evening - so was flying the next morning to play 18 holes of golf with a flight back such a good idea? No - but lets do it anyway!

Of course you dread taking a days holiday since you will be asked at work 'Are you doing anything nice?' to which you reply 'Yes - I am flying to North London to play golf' - just watch to look on their face as they hastily change the subject and figure you must be being paid waaaayyyyy too much!

The weather in the morning at Gloucester was scattered cloud but lots of warm, sunny bits and what low cloud there was seemed likely to lift into nice puffy 'fair weather cumulus'. My early start was disrupted by the AVGAS tanks being refilled and having to wait 20 minutes for it to settle and the firecrew to test each pump before I could fuel. So I set out later than planned at 09:35 for the hours run to North Weald.

As I passed Bovingdon VOR now at 2300', I could see 'clag' ahead. This didn't worry me as I had to descend to 1400' anyway to dip under the Stansted zoen to get into North Weald. Joined left base for 02 at North Weald and parked up outside 'The Squadron' at 10:40ish.



Of course, no golfers there! After asking about a bit and trying to ring Johnny - still no joy. Wondering what to do next, a taxi appeared, so I collared him and drove around to North Weald Golf Club. Got there about 11:15 and asked at the bar about a group of flyers and was directed to the third tee. Charged over there, spotted 'Johnny' who I recognised and introduced myself and made the foursome up to a fivesome!



As this is a flying diary, I won't overdo the golf bit, but suffice to say we were all hackers, me somewhat more so - but not too awful - a couple of bogeys and no hole more than 10 shotted! My drive of the day saw the ball trickle two feet to come to rest between my feet!

The weather at North Weald was in marked contrast to Gloucester with low clag and rain. But if did improve a bit towards the end of the day and as I had to make a low level scuttle out at 1400' anyway, it didn't bother me.



Scuttled off at about 17:00 keeping below Stansted and London and the further west I got, the more the cloud lifted abnd broke. By Oxford way I was up at 3000' and a happy bunny! Brize Radar were very good this time and gave me a zone transit so I could stay clear of Oxford Kidlington. Back to Gloucester to land on my least favourite runway 36.

A good day out nearly ruined by the great British weather. Oh - and what a nice but under-utilised airfield North Weald is. Hope it survives the current planning discussions going on.

Swedish Guest

I noticed a new member on flyer forum recently, with the catchy handle of ‘Akg1486’, posting a question about flying from Popham as he normally flies from Gothenburg in Sweden.

Well what a coincidence I thought! I had just been mulling around my ‘big trip’ for next year and deciding on a Nordic trip, including trips from Copenhagen to Gothenburg and Gothenburg to Oslo!

So in the spirit of friendship and the prospect of picking a locals brains, I offered this chap a ride around my local area if he could find his way to Gloucester. Well bless him, Peter PM’d me and said he could fly up on Sunday 3rd July, weather permitting.

Peter arrived on a very nice day with at least 3500’ ceiling and scattered puffy cumulus in a rental and very beige Cessna 172. I knew it had to be him from the colour (which he did warn me about) and from his hesitation at taxi around to the parking spaces (the toughest part of a flight to a new airfield for me is always where to go once you get there, how to get fuel etc.!).

We had a pleasant chat sitting at the outside tables at the Aviator café and Peter pointed out on my maps the typical route I should follow, the reporting points, restricted areas, likely joins and best of all, where I would probably have to taxi and park! He made the useful observation that AVGAS is virtually tax free in Sweden (but heavily taxed in Norway and Denmark) so I should make a point of stopping in Sweden going both ways and filling up.

Chat over, I took Peter up in my TB10. I think he found it very tidy indeed compared to the ‘seen better days’ club hacks he normally flew.

Peter finds the UK quite different from flying in his native Sweden. In Sweden, they have lots of lake as reference points (looks like too many to me) and not many towns so the town you are looking for is likely to be the one you see – in the UK of course, especially England, there are towns and villages all over the place and it is easy to talk yourself into confusing Broadway with Evesham with Stratford if you are of a mind!

Flew the local ‘racecourse route’ from Gloucester to Chepstow (taking in the Severn bridges), then up the Wye valley to Hereford, across to Ledbury and around the Malverns then back to Gloucester. Lovely day and great visibility. Pointed out all of the local sights and landmarks and as I now know the area so well from the sky, didn’t need to refer to my map.



On requesting rejoin at Gloucester was told to ‘standby – dealing with priority traffic’. An unusual comment so I stayed schtum! I heard nothing on the normal frequency until they called me back and advised that runway 22 was no longer in use (!) and I was cleared for a standard overhead join for 27 etc. This gave me the opportunity to turn final over GCHQ and point it out to Peter – he thought it was a sports centre at first!

On landing and taxi back, saw the smallest single engine tail-dragger I have ever seen on 22 with the fire crew towing it away – apparently this was on its way from Kemble to ‘ooop north’ when he called for a priority landing with what turned out to be vapour-lock – the engine stopped on the landing roll! All in all, I heard that Gloucester had an exciting time of it on Sunday!

Peter seemed to have enjoyed himself and offered a return of the favour next year when I get to Gothenburg. Careful Peter, I will take you up on that.

All in all, a good excuse to get up for a local bimble and talk to someone about flying. I do find it really useful talking to locals about trips you are planning, it all helps to make the trip so much easier and more enjoyable – to rephrase an old army adage:

Plan and prepare hard – fly easy!