As others have said, it was a good day out yesterday. I flew with FNG
in his Cap 10B, which previously, I'd flown a 30 mins aero session in.
On the ground at Rochester we briefed on the route, and agreed that we'd
climb into Rochester's overhead, where I would take control, and fly us up to Duxford. We routed around
the east of Stansted's airspace, and had talked of the
possibility of doing some aeros over the disused airfield Wratting
Common. FNG would navigate, I'd fly.
The Cap 10 is a real delight to fly. At first, I couldn't get used to
the sensitivity of the trimmer, but after a few minutes I'd got it
trimmed in straight and level.
When we reached Wratting Common, we decided that there were too many
loose articles to hold safely on my lap while we aerobated, so we'd
proceed straight to Duxford, where later we'd deposit a load of stuff
and go for a local aeros sortie.
On the ground at Duxford we met up with some PPRuNers, had
some lunch and then left some gear in
the tower. We then briefed on the aerobatic sortie. We would fly loops, aileron rolls and barrel rolls.
We left Duxford's zone straight off 06, and climbed up to 5000'. FNG
first demonstrated the manoeuvres, and then I tried some aileron rolls.
The first couple were pretty terrible, as I wasn't getting the required
angle of pitch-up before applying aileron. After a couple I began to
get the hang of them, and they weren't
that bad. After 20 minutes or
so of aeros, we headed back to Duxford.
The flight back was as fun as the outbound flight, and as you'd
expect of a day like yesterday, Rochester's circuit was jam packed -
there were six other aircraft operating in the circuit with us.
A really super day out, and
many thanks to FNG for coming to Rochester,
and taking me with him.
Thanks also to Stampe for the lift to Rochester train station
tKF