I broke my Compton Abbas Jinx today!

[Saab Dastard]

I finally got to Compton Abbas today - on my 7th attempt!

I first planned a flight to Compton Abbas on Saturday April 12, having pitched up at Fairoaks with a pilot pal, but decided the WX wasn't good enough - went with him to Brooklands for the day instead (v good!). Strike 1. :*

(Intervening boring bit of circuits and practice to stay current)

Took the half term week off at the end of May expecting to get some flying in and planned to go to Compton Abbas, using the flight plan I'd prepared in April. Tuesday 27th May was C**P with low cloud at 1200', so didn't even bother going to the airfield. Thursday 29th looked promising, but when I got to the airfield it was too hazy < 6 Km viz so I didn't bother getting in an aeroplane. Friday was marginal - about 7-8K, so I got airborne but could hardly see Guildford from south of Fairoaks so gave up and went home. Strike 2, 3 and 4! :*

By now it's getting personal! No way am I planning to go anywhere except Compton Abbas! :E

Saturday 7th seemed much more promising, good viz and reasonable cloud base, not too windy. Actually planned to go to Sherburn, for the fly-in, but couldn't get an aircraft till the pm.

Cloud was broken at 2500 most of the way from Fairoaks. Solent were very busy so I routed south to Portsmouth then planned to route west via Calshot and Beaulieu, but the cloud over Gosport dropped to about 1500.

I could actually see a bank of cloud below me between IOW and the mainland, so I decided not to descend and press on but diverted East towards Goodwood, then back to Fairoaks. Strike 5! :*

Friday 13th - not the most auspicious date - and everything seemed to be going fine: WX perfect, all checks complete, taxiing out to the runway - and the DI has failed! Not a whisker of movement. Back to the apron, shut down and into the club house. Only other aeroplane has just 10 minutes left to its 50 hour check! Strike 6! :* :mad:

The jinx seemed to have struck again, but another aircraft might be available at about 14.30 - have lunch with crossed fingers!

Finally get the plane fuelled and ready, take off on my 7th attempt and ...

Had a great flight, routed through the Solent zone @ 3000 (EVO eat your heart out!), tracked the 275 radial outbound from SAM and hit Compton on the nose. First approach to 08 was a go-around, next approach got converted into a downwind for 26 as the runway direction was changed (yes they gave me the option of continuing for 08 again!), followed by an uneventful landing - it does slope away a bit, though. All right there was a weeny bounce - more like a bump really! :O

Best bit - there's 4 YAK 52s (or whatever you call the YAK 52 if its got a tailwheel!) at the fuel pumps who take off and give a formation aerobatic display, I guess as practice? Nice flying guys! :ok: Very distracting when you're doing the flight plan for the return.

Came home via Stoney Cross - Beaulieu - Portsmouth as I figured Southampton would be a bit busy at that time of day (I was not wrong!). Gorgeous flying over the Solent. I was tempted to fly around the IOW, just cos I could (But didn't)! Jinx broken. :ok:

Days like today are why we fly. :D

Hope you all have great flying and safe landings.

SD

[Genghis the Engineer]

Well done, nice place isn't it.

I'm re-assured to know that, like most other people (myself included) you needed radio aids to find it the first time.

G

[FormationFlyer]

The 4 yaks - 3 x 50 and a 52 if I recall is actually my old aerobatic instructor - and they are in fact the Yakolev 4 Formation-Aerobatic Display Team which is displaying across europe this summer and had a write up in the magazines a few months back - privileged indeed to watch four talented pilots enojoying themselves :)

[Windy Militant]

It's a lovely place to visit, no need for nav aids though just get someone who's been there before to take you in first time round.
Friendly people and Fudge cake to die for. :ok:

[Mike Cross]

Not difficult to spot if you are to the north. Big dark wood along the southern edge of the field with the flashing strobe beacon against it, and it's at the end of the ridge.

Glad you got there in the end SD

Mike

[FlyingForFun]

:D Great post, Saab!

I know exactly what you mean about jinxed airfields. I used to go to school just off the end of the runway at Elstree, so was determined to fly there, especially since most of my family live around there. I think I cancelled about 4 trips to Elstree before I finally made it earlier this year. I've still never made it to either Goodwood or Shoreham, despite many attempts. For about a year after getting my PPL, Sywell was jinxed too, but I think I've crossed that one off the list because I've been there several times now.

I have jinxed passengers, too. It took about 5 attempts before the weather finally cooperated to let me take my dad flying. My sister has been flying with me a couple of times, but we've never actually made it to our planned destination - the weather has forced us to re-plan every time. And my best mate has still never been flying with me (although to be fair, he's not particularly interested - if he wants to get somewhere and there's an airport nearby he'll ask me to fly him, and we invariably end up driving when the weather's bad - but he's not interested enough to come for a jolly with me).

Anyway, now you've made it, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I think Compton is a great airport - I'm sure I'll be popping in soon, quite possibly for the fly-in later this summer...

FFF
-------------

[The Nr Fairy]

I broke my Compton Abbas jinx on the third attempt in April 1994. Almost came a cropper leaving, tho. And not been back since !

[t'aint natural]

Hah! I got there at the first attempt... almost.
A helicopter fly-in in 1991 - I flew from WAP. Flew into rotten Wx and landed about 3 miles north of the field, behind a pub. My logbook says Easy Knoyle, and the publican there had previously played host to helicopters in similar straits. After a fine meal, we crept up the hill into Compton Abbas... only one other helicopter arrived for the event.