Excellent weekend (and the planes i love to fly)... :)

[Ace Rimmer]

What a great weekend well way down sarf anyway. Saturday: took Bro-in-law for a blat in the club’s new (well new to it ) Warrior.

Bro-in-law much taken with the bit of handling let him have spot of S&L turns left and right (could have the ****** hooked, I ‘ve seen that look in the eyes before).
EGKA was just a tad on the busy side what with circuits being bashed out, folks going for local bimbles and visitors dropping in for a spot of lunch (Was that you in G-UTSY Keef?).
Ended up having to go around twice and so what? it’s all good practice. (folks taking their time to clear the runway) which intrigued the bro-in-law who then promised that he’d never tell his "we were just about to land at Heathrow when the pilot opened up and we went up again. How do they keep these things quiet?" story ever again.

Sunday the wx was even better and Mrs R and I decided to repair to London Ashford Intergalactic megaport for a quick Sarnie and a cup of tea. Vis superb although a little milky on the way back.
Mrs R has no inclination to handle the a/c but she is the ‘queen of the checklist and takes her other traffic spotting very seriously (even though she identified a greenhouse and a cross channel ferry as possible conflicting traffic she’s keen just needs more practice at it).
EGKA much quieter given a left base to 21 join. Wack the cover on the wagon and do the paperwork while She who must be obeyed gets some tea organised in the Airport Caf.

Quality winter weekend. What say you?

[rustle]

Agree :D

Sunday, Kemble for lunch, clear and very stable... (the weather I mean)

Trip home (East) was fine, but they were still on rwy 26 so the landing into the setting sun and mist was exciting :)

[knobbygb]

I know exactly how you feel. Love it when somebody posts just to say "I went flying today and it was great". As a newbie to this, I often feel like doing the same - now I have the excuse.

Up north it was beautiful Saturday but a bit murky Sunday. Managed to take my 7 year old daughter up for her first ride Saturday afternoon. She is mad - loves all the biggest roller-coasters etc. and as expected, her favourite part was stalls. Had to do five before she'd let me return to the field. Steep turns were 'cool' and she wants me to "learn to drive one of those planes where you can go upside down". Hmmm.... I sense an expensive hobby starting in a few years - as soon as she's big enough to see out the front of the a/c.

[Monocock]

Dont you just love how smooth the air is in those temperatures. The approach and flare doesnt get any easier than it did this weekend in my book.

Even the wife said she enjoyed her trip up today.......!

[TheKentishFledgling]

Indeed, a good weekend.

I was also at Kemble for lunch (great to meet you rustle!) courtesy of my friend with a Golden Eagle :)

Super day's flying, and my second time night flying - magical!

First flight since October 5th - was nice to be airborne again ;)

tKF

[Flyin'Dutch']

Let's see,

Friday saw me with mate bimbling over to Wellesbourne in the Citabria.

Saturday after a hard morning's work went over to Turweston and had a go in a Cirrus SR22 and a checkride in the newest Robin DR400 on the register.

Sunday convince better half that Kemble was the place to be seen. So after getting over to Turweston to find out that Robin was in workshop to rectify minor ailment resigned ourselves to a drive over.

Mr Hairyplane kindly threw a spanner in the wheels by offering to take us over in his superb mount.

3 days of flying some of the nicest toys around.

Indeedy it does not get much better than that.

With the inversion on the deck you had the strange experience that the viz got dramatically better as soon as you took off.

FD

[Kolibear]

Well I had a really exciting time taxiing! :(

The Koliber has been outside in the rain and is displaying her French ancestry by exibiting a typical Rallye fault - a sticky brake.

I spent ten minutes trying to persuade her that turning right wasn't too difficult and she really did want to go up that nice taxiway but she wasn't having any of it, prefering to go and investigate the grass on the other side instead.

Sometimes I think she's related to a horse!

So we are going to get the vet, sorry, a mechanic in to free off the brake, which means the weather will promptly clamp down again.

[CBG]

Same on this side of the channel.

Saturday: went to the "aeroclub" early. selected the Cub but decided on a DR400 when I realised the Xwind was too strong.
Spent 30 minutes warming up the engine with hte hair dryer. Went up flying all over Normandy.

Sunday - I did take the cub, went up with in formation with some friends in another aicraft to take pictures of the cub with some "chateaux" in the background (interesting flying that was!)

[Rod1]

Ok now I am really P****ed off! I had the aircraft booked all day Saturday and the vis never improved beyond 650m. Drove over to the airfield anyway and had a coffee and a chat, but it would be nice to get some serious flying in.

Rod

[Circuit Basher]

Had the aircraft booked on Sunday - got text message on Sat evening to say that the pilot who had used her couldn't get her started (suspect stuck carb float and magneto starting coupler problems).

:mad:

[Flyin'Dutch']

CBG

You wrote:

Spent 30 minutes warming up the engine with hte hair dryer. Went up flying all over Normandy

:eek:

Why?

1. I think that heating up anything but one's hair with a hairdryer is unlikely to give a significant increase of temperature of the vital bits

2. Lycoming does not require preheating unless it gets seriously cold (IIRC)

FD

(Obviously have no problem with your heating actions but may save you some time for the future)

[A and C]

It was nice to have a good weather weekend , for the first time in living memory my aircraft was making money all day.

[CBG]

Flying Dutch.

On the "heating up the engine bit": some do it, some don't. It was dead cold on Saturday, and our club mechanic recommends we do it on selected parts of the engine - so I did. When I have millions of hours in the book, I'll be able to give you my own point of view.

I rented a plane in Toronto a couple of months ago - if you could see the size of the "hair dryers" they stick up the aicrafts nose out there! And it was not that cold either!

[vancouv]

Ace Rimmer - new Warrior at KA wasn't G-BOTI was it??

Didn't manage to fly at weekend, but surprisingly got off the ground on Tues - flying OK, but base/final onto 21 over the high ground was hairy - very turbulent!!

[Hampstead]

G-BOTI... I did a couple of ILS approaches into Southampton in that a few weeks ago and it was the nicest PA-28 I've flown.. much nicer than the Archer I usually fly (G-JJAN)

[Ace Rimmer]

Vancouv - Yep

Hamstead - Have to agree, it goes alright (once you get past the mega prime needed for starting) My normal mount is VL but of the Archers I have to say that AN is my least favourite. Top of the pops would be UY

[vancouv]

I'm not checked out on VL, but I have been in it quite a few times. I like UY, but I've had problems starting it as well as BOTI - one time when I'd landed away which caused me to sweat a bit - the battery wasn't sounding too good, and then it caught - phew!

I believe BOTI is being swapped for TE this week - I haven't flown TE, but I hear it starts very easily!!

[Ace Rimmer]

vancouv - Yep they all have their quirks UY seems to like about 2" of throttle while you crank then whip it back to when it catches to set 1200.

VL on the other hand is exactly as per book for cold or when hot but if you've taxied from the main apron to the pumps and its little warm much rapid juggling of the mix while cranking usually does the trick.

[Hampstead]

G-JJAN was recently immortalised for me in the shape of a 40th birthday cake. I passed my IMC in it the day before my birthday so a very caring girlfriend had a cake commisioned from a photo ! It's still in the fridge...

What about G-BXWO ?.. now there's a plane

[Monocock]

G-BORED ?