...was a dual, as predicted. Well, it had been two months, or so. Bruce phoned from his home to say that he was going to be delayed by snow but it was dry and clear in the Medway towns, so off I went. The forecast had given 'significant' snowfalls for east Kent. Hmmm. And the Met had given a northerly wind of some 25 kts at 1,000 feet. More hmmm. At least the wind would be down the unlicensed 'short' runway, 03, and as this was not to be a training flight I could use it for the first time.
I decided to take the less pretty main road route through Maidstone to Headcorn, and as I got past south-east Maidstone, the snow started to get 'significant'. By the North Downs, at Sutton Valence it was really starting to mean it, and by Headcorn it had downright attitude! The depth increased from about 4 to 6 inches while I waited for Bruce. Thanks to the wind no snow appeared to be accumulating on the aircraft.
No-one else had turned up to fly, but on the other hand, no-one had closed the runways - we could potentially fly! At this point let me emphasise that this was not a decision I felt able to make, other than that I would probably have scrubbed long before this point. I have total trust in Bruce's judgement - his attitude and professionalism have kept him safe over forty years of flying and I've always thought that if you do things his way you can't go far wrong. So when Bruce said he would go and check the runways, I said, "I'll go and DI the aircraft". And with collars turned up against the blizzard, we sallied forth.
The aircraft I'd booked was the only Cessna 150 availble - the Aerobat (a new engine meant we couldn't do aerobatics, though) - and I brushed off snow wherever I could find it. The airframe was mostly clear but quite a lot had accumulated behind the leading edges of the ailerons and this needed removing with care: those ailerons are very good finger-shears in a strong and gusty wind!
Bruce took his trusty Blackberry with him, and here is 29/11:
Open for business! We started up early in the sequence a) to warm up and b) to get moving before the next snow shower came through (it had stopped by now). Taxying fast over the snow we arrived at 03's threshold for a short-field take-off. The upwind boundary fence looked alarmingly close but the strong wind and 'IE's new engine got us into the air in half the length.
We levelled off at 2,300' and headed north-west, and it immediately became apparent how marked the snow boundary between east and west Kent really was.
Here, Bruce tried me with a couple of steep turns. They were not as neat as I would have liked, but were apparently passable. Then we bimbled about sightseeing for a while before heading back to the airfield.
It would have been impractical to practise circuits on 03 (too small) so we did them on 11. This was interesting because it made square circuit-keeping a challenging exercise in geometry! I don't think I've flown in such a strong wind before. We did two circuits, one normal and one flapless. The first time I finished downwind I knew base leg was going to be quick (with the wind behind us) but I didn't realise
how quick, and I overshot. It seemed to take ages to claw my way back to the extended centre line. Bruce asked me not to touch down, so we floated down the runway, more or less on track, with left wing down and opposite rudder, then we climbed away.
The next circuit was flapless and I managed the final turn a little better.
Flapless approach to 11. The crosswind from the left was 25 knots at 1,000'.
This time Bruce asked me to gently touch on the left mainwheel. We actually touched on both, despite me being convinced I still had left wing down! Never mind, we were still on the runway and that was what counted. This time we had to climb out to 500' then turn right to be downwind on 03 for a full stop. 03 is 312 metres and I knew we'd be using the wind strength and the snow to bring us in to a stop.
"This will be a performance landing", said Bruce, "So we'll be taking full flap. Turn in any time you like". And so followed one of the most fun landings of my life.
There was no base leg to speak of. We were at quite a high angle to the threshold so I took full flap and reduced to 60 mph. I noticed that there were trees all the way up to the threshold. We came down steeply, but steadily. "Keep the nose down, we use throttle to control speed". Now there's an interesting snippet of new information at this stage! This was high workload but I was loving every minute. We cleared the trees comfortably, but I could see every detail of that boundary fence.....then the mains settled on the snow. It grabbed us like the arrester wires on the Ark Royal, and we trundled sedately off the runway without even having to backtrack. Landing on a short runway? - easy peasy in a strong headwind on snow.........and with an experienced instructor!
Final approach to 03. The runway is central. The theshold is obscured by the middle propeller stripe and the upwind boundary is just above it.