Well I did it. Departured Thruxton at 0940 and arrived at the MID VOR about 25 minutes later. Having taken off VFR I then entered IMC with a RIS from Farnborough and then made contact with Gatwick Director just west of the MID VOR. I was then given a climb to 3000ft inside controlled airspace and told to proceed to the MAY VOR. Once well downwind of runway 26L I was given vectors for the ILS (I have an IMC rating). The clouds were pretty turbulent as I descended on the ILS and I broke through at about 1200ft.
I was now on finals for the world's busiest single runway airport.
Airliners were everywhere and as I vacated the runway I was given stand 142L. Then came the best moment:
Ground: G-KT proceed direct to stand 142L on J, the BA 737 on you left will give way to you.
Me: Taxi stand 142L on J G-KT
Ground: Speedbird xxx hold postion....give way to the cherokee on your right.
On stand and car from Interflight comes to greet me...takes me to the "General Aviation terminal" (which is a little portacabin next to the South Terminal).
The inbound flight was not too bad actually...ILS approach wasn't perfect...but then its always difficult in turbulent cloud.
Departure was a VFR depature to the NW from runway 26L...while sitting in the take off queue I could feel the aircraft shaking a bit from the jet blast coming from the plane in front of me, but I kept my distance.
Overall it was worth it...sitting on the apron next to a 747 was brilliant and the contollers (especially ground) were really nice.
Some pictures:
