Who flew this Bank Holiday Weekend?

[You want it when?]

Struggling through my PPL (11 hours now) with nere a chance (or wish) of an ATPL I was doing the first "instrument appreciation component" of my course on Sunday in the rain / storms (somewhere near the tower warned) / and 8/10th cloud about 1500'. Great Fun.

Finally with a rain splattered screen - I flew the approach on instruments. Then at 500' or so the instructor said OK look out and land. I've got to say after flying the panel for an hour (with some cheating OK) its a very big sky and the runway lights looked wonderful.

Shame about my flare - but it's getting better, no really it is :) Hats off to those with a VMC / IMC rating it would give me a headache to do it for more than a couple of hours.

[ 28 August 2001: Message edited by: You want it when? ]

[Rallye Driver]

Saturday - went to the 936 Squadron ATC Fly-in at Nuthampstead, where we received a very warm welcome. :D

Sunday - drank about 27 gallons of tea waiting for the weather to improve, which it didn't. :(

Monday - did some circuits to keep current in on of the club PA28s, then ferried the group aircraft to North Weald ready for its 50-hour check. Sat and watched the world fly by for a while - a Harvard, Extra, Pitts and various JPs, nice. :)

Total time logged 1 hour 7 minutes.

RD

[Simon W]

Didn't fly Saturday or Sunday. Monday I was doing Xcountry #1 from Wycombe to Newport Pagnell to Cranfield and back to Wycombe. Absolutely brilliant weather, I was able to see the towers at London Docklands from 2500 feet over Wycombe. Next flight is my first "landaway". Wycombe to Bournemouth and LAND, then Bournemouth to Blackbushe and LAND and then finally back to Wycombe. I cannot wait. Life does exist outside the local training area after all!

Regards,

Simon

[ 28 August 2001: Message edited by: Simon W ]

[PPRuNe Dispatcher]

Rumour has it that the PA-28s I'm learning to fly will land at other airfields than White Waltham.

I've had my first landaway changed to some other exercise three times due to weather, but have instead had lots of fun spending 30 minutes on foggles followed by 30 mins in bumpy Cu, another session was low-level nav and PFLs with power, and another short lesson included more engine failures in the circuit - from such places as 90 degrees off course to the runway direction while directly approaching the downwind end numbers at 800' :D

---Mik

[ 28 August 2001: Message edited by: PPRuNe Dispatcher ]

[Whirlybird]

Friday I arrived back at Gloucester a little before sunset, after a wonderful week flying in Ireland. I hadn't actually done any flying that day, as we'd flown all the way back in cloud, so my friend had to do all the flying since I've spent so much time flying little whirly things that I haven't yet got round to getting an IMC. But I'd had fun doing the radio and navigation. And I'd done more f/w flying in the week before than I'd done all year, so i didn't mind really.

Saturday I drove home, then Sunday I flew an R22 to a friend's lunch time party/gathering, landing in their field. All the people watching were most impressed; happily they didn't seem to notice how long it had taken me to identify the right field!

Monday I had to work. But it was a great weekend overall.

[IFollowRoads]

It all came together for me this weekend - after 6 weeks waiting for a star annual to get done, managed to pick the a/c up, and join in with everybody else waiting to get into Jersey on Friday night. We gave up early (RVR had gone down to 400 from 500) having listened to various commercials diverting back to where they had come from (or worse) and set course for our alternate - Dinard. Slight problem - RVR was just too low here too, so plan F came into play, and set course for Rennes. Having worked out a course and ETA out, nice lady at Dinard announces 1000m RVR there, so we do a quick about turn, join the hold, line up down the localizer and grab the glideslope, for her to tell us the cloudbase was overcast at 100 ft! Bu**er. Back to Rennes where it was CAVOK. Fell on our feet with the choice of hotel - best bar in town (or certainly within walking distance) and got a reasonable start in the morning to Bordeaux for lunch. Uneventful flight, although the vis. wasn't brilliant, and then met by an absolute honey for 'handling' at BDX ('Come on boys, I take you for a ride' - ooh - tissue please!) Slightly expensive, although convenient meal in the terminal, a load of Avgas, and then to Bezier, where we got fairly burnt and sozzled in the sun. Sobered up for Monday, hit Deauville in the afternoon for fuel, customs & non-rip off Britain smoko & vino, then back to Blighty for w*rk in one of the best vis conditions I've ever been in (Bristol was reporting 40k+ on the ATIS - we could see them and the Welsh coast from Bournemouth!). 11.5 hours flight, 500l of avgas, 5 landings, 1 proc. ILS & MA. Need another bank holiday now - SOON! - please arrange with the weather :D

[Lawyerboy]

Rallye Driver, where are you based? I flew into Nuthampstead on Saturday as well during my first nav session.

[Rallye Driver]

Lawyerboy

I fly out of Stapleford. The two Moths that flew in to Nuthampstead from Henlow turned up later at EGSG in company with another Moth and small biplane from Laindon. Were you in BJUS, which is a regular at EGSG as well?

RD

[arrow2]

The best laid plans!!!....Intended to go to La Rochelle via Deauville to pick up passenger and meet the other 5 aircraft travelling. Get to Blackbushe, pre-flight, draw lines on map, fill out forms etc etc. Then "oh do you need fuel 'JI?", "yes please", "we have run out until early afternoon". Bu**er. OK re-plan direct to La Rochelle whilst thunderstorms overhead Blackbushe. Come afternoon and fuelled up decided I did not really wish to fly all the way to La Roch without a passenger for 3 hours in the heat that we had with CBs around. So decided to give up and have a relaxing weekend instead. Flew to Thruxton Saturday for bite to eat, stayed grounded Sunday due to wx and Monday flew to Headcorn to meet a friend for lunch - relaxed there watching aircraft all afternoon and then back to Blackbushe.

BTW who was flying the all red Jet Provost that overtook me on my left hand side as I was in the turn at Sevenoaks at 2000'?? Waggled wings at me and then did some mild aeros around Clacket Lane services / Kenley area? I hope he still had me in sight whilst he was doing this! My eyes were glued to him - not sure how wise it is to carry out such manoeuvres in that particular piece of congested airspace though - why not go down and practice over Kent away from the zones??

a2

[Aussie Andy]

Simon W:

I was able to see the towers at London Docklands from 2500 feet over Wycombe

I trust you mean 2500' QNH, not 2500' above WAP!? :)

Good luck with the XC to Bournemouth! I also trained at WAP (got PPL just a couple of months ago) - are you at BAFC or the "Scare Centre"!?

Anyway, I think I found the XC to Bourmeouth one of th emost exciting days of the whole course! For starters, its a HUGE strip, with PAPI's and big jets about and everything! :)

The best part was striding along in view of all the people on the observation area outside the terminal building - this time with ME as the pilot :)

Andy

[ 29 August 2001: Message edited by: Aussie Andy ]

[Lawyerboy]

RD -

BJUS it is, out of High Cross. Have to T&G at Stapleford to start the clock ticking. Interesting that they call that hill at Nuthampstead a runway... :D

LB.

[Reichman]

I flew to Macedonia and back as part of Operation DENY BANK HOLIDAY - Mmmm nice.

[gapilot]

There's nothing like a good landaway!!!

When you're far enough into your training to take on a landaway and then make a good approach and landing onto a different surface than you're used to the sense of achievement is immence!

I qualified for my PPL last October and spend months flying around in circles, then thought.... time to see the rest of the airfields around here!

Now I land away almost every flight, good expercience!

[Flying Lawyer]

After an unpromising start, a wonderful flying weekend!
Friday:
The planned trip to Cornwall in the Gazelle had to be abandoned when Penzance Heliport reported a 200' cloud base - confirmed by St Mawgan. Is it likely to improve later? "Well it hasn't for the last four days - try Devon, they're doing better."
Saturday:
Wx no better on the Cornwall coast. Change of plan - glorious weather in Wales. Flew to a hotel site in the Brecon Beacons and explored the local area for a couple of days. Mountain flying is fun - as long as it's done with respect for the mountains and the wind.
Monday:
Time to see more of Wales from the air. Followed the Welsh coast from Swansea Bay round to St David's in Pembrokeshire. (Dyfed?) Landed at the Warpool Court Hotel, only minutes walk from the centre of St David's. Wonderful Cathedral in a glorious setting. I'd forgotten how beautiful the Welsh countryside is - in the sunshine!)
Then off to Haverfordwest for some fuel. "Hold by the Control Tower for a minute, a Cessna 172 is just finishing refuelling." True, he finished refuelling in a minute, then started packing his bags into the a/c, then decided they needed rearranging, then repacked, then rearranged them again. At last - he's moving. No! Five minutes later, it's kisses all round to the people seeing him off. At last - no, someone has been left out of the goodbyes! I can't get to the Jet A1 pump because it's next to his Cessna. I won't repeat the conversation in our cockpit because this is an open forum! Eventually I give up - a quick call to the Tower, (cautiously because I'm a visitor and assume he's local) does the trick - they come out and push him away.
The Cessa pilot walks over when I've shut down at the pumps, and I recognise the face under the baseball cap - an old friend, fellow London lawyer, and very experienced aviator - but he obviously doesn't know how much Gazelles cost per minute. I'm not going to let him forget that appalling inconsiderate airmanship for a long time!
In contrast, the staff at the airfield couldn't have been more helpful. - I'd recommend Haverfordwest, the surrounding area and coast line is stunning. (Landing fee £8)
Time to start heading back to Brecon? Well, we should really? On the other hand, the weather is beautiful, a perfect flying day.
We continued up the Cardiganshire Coast to North Wales and landed at Caernarfon. Again, a very friendly airfield - landing fee £10.
Snowdon is only a few minutes flying from the airfield. After playing around in the mountains, we started our way back to our hotel on the Southern edge of the Brecon Beacons.
Snowdon - a slight detour to see Bala Lake - and on to Aberdare. The Gazelle cruises at 135 knots, and we were back at our hotel 55 minutes later, just before sunset.
Tuesday:
Ambled back to London, stopping en route for a relaxing lunch at a hotel site in the Cotswolds. Then back to London via the Heli Routes, and a detour to cross Heathrow. My passeneger hadn't seen LHR from the air, and I enjoy it every time I do it.
A perfect flying weekend!

[arrow2]

And we all watch as FL drowns in a sea of e-mails!!!

A2 :)