So, did anyone else get airborne?
The two of us who fly G-ATKF (our ancient C150) wanted a last flight of 2005 on 31st Dec. The TAFs looked pretty good, so we just decided we'd go somewhere fairly close to Sleap for lunch - nothing too taxing.
Not so easy, we found out. Barton didn't seem a good idea after all the rain we've had. Wolverhampton - now with only a £10 landing fee and pleading with GA to come back and forgive them for their delusions of grandeur - well, the cafe was closed. Tatenhill had a burst pipe, and wasn't sure if the cafe could cope or not. Welshpool is just too close. Hawarden has no food at the best of times. But Shobdon was open all day (despite the fact the NOTAMs said they closed at 3pm) and the cafe was open. Great!
So we set off, with more cloud than forecast, and a few hills in between us and Shobdon, but no real worries. Untill we got south of Shrewsbury, and the cloudbase was getting lower, and the hills higher.
OK, we thought -we'll follow the road and railway line through the valley. By this point we were down to 1300 feet, with cloud just above, and a narrowish way through the hills. Then, almost immediately, we realised the potential trap - flying south, strong westerly wind over hills, narrow valley....equals downdrafts and no place to go!
Right then, on to plan B. Turn east, and fly around the next set of hills to a wider valley which leads to Shobdon. I told Paul to turn on to a heading of 120, roughly follow the hills, and I'd sort out the details. But then we thought...do we really, really, want to do this? The weather was already worse than forecast. It could be a predicted shower, but it could be a forecast front coming in earlier. Or the met man could be plain wrong! And we had to get home later, flying close to hills by any route, with few hours of daylight, and bad weather coming in at some point. And for what? A £100 bacon butty on New Year's Eve.
So we both agreed that it was time for a diversion. We'd go to Wolverhampton, cafe open or not, since we were pretty close. I told London Info what we were doing - we'd decided to talk to them as soon as the weather got iffy, though normally we wouldn't bother on such a short flight. Lovely man! He offered to phone Shobdon for us and tell them what we were doing, and gave us the frequency for Wolverhampton without even being asked. (Actually, I think he wanted something to do!)
Now, where exactly were we, after sorting out all that? Ah, there was a town, and a lake. Fly to it, I said; we've got to identify it; we could be anywhere by now. I had my GPS in my pocket for just such situations, but we navigate the old way if we can; we're funny like that.
So we got there, and saw the lake to the south of it, so it had to be Bridgnorth. But how had we got there so fast? Ah, it's obvious really; we'd turned from south to basically east, and the strong crosswind had become a stonking tailwind. Need to remember these things, even when you're doing six other things at once! So we called Wolverhampton and asked for a weather diversion, and they said no problem at all....and about five tailwind-blown minutes later we were on the ground.
Don't ever, EVER say nasty things about Wolverhampton again! The lovely man in the tower refused a landing fee, saying it was a weather diversion. Well, it was, but we could just as easily have gone back to Sleap, and we wouldn't even have asked to land for free. The cafe was indeed closed, and the coffee machine didn't work, but the nice people in the flying school made coffee for us and let us sit in there. (I think they wanted something to do too, actually).
So we warmed up, and looked at the rain starting, and decided to get back to Sleap sooner rather than later. I flew us back, and wondered whether to do a few circuits. But the sun came out, and realising it would very soon be straight down the only runway usable in the ever-increasing wind, I decided to stay on the ground once I got there.
And, what do you know - we were back at the one airfield with an all-day-open cafe. The airfield had officially closed at midday, but the cafe hadn't. Sleap has a new person running it, and if there might be people around, she stays open. So we had a late lunch after all - and homemade cakes too. I thoroughly recommend Sleap for your next lunch stop (and no, she isn't paying me commission).
We learned a lot from that flight about decision-making - all basic stuff I know, but easy to get it wrong. We also had a really, really nice day, since the few snags weren't enough to be really stressful, just to keep us on our toes. I suppose that's because we made the right decisions in good time.
So all in all, it was a great ending to a good flying year.
OK now, what did the rest of you do?