Today the sun was out...

[gijoe]

Lots of tales of lost flying days in December on this thread.

So did anyone else get up today and make the most of the great morning?

I wandered around Oxfordshire and Wiltshire with my ATPL mate in a Cessna and a very pleasant time was had by us both - made complete by a photo of my house.

I hope January brings all that need it the good weather.

G

[eyeinthesky]

4.5 hours up at FL100 + FL90 en route for and from a very pleasant lunch. Views in excess of 100 miles all around and deep blue with a few contrails above. Superb:D :cool:

[AerBabe]

So was Coventry the only place to be in thick fog all day? :confused: :(

[Wrong Stuff]

You must have been unlucky - I was only a bit south of Coventry - hanging around in the Westcott / Milton Keynes / Daventry triangle - and it was lovely. Patches of sun and the rest of the cloudbase up at 5,000' - loads of room to do all those general handling exercises I'd been yearning to do over Christmas. Not clear as crystal, but I could easily see Didcot from well north of Westcott - what's that, about 20 to 30nm. A bit bouncy low down, but good viz and a healthy breeze almost straight down the runway back at Elstree.

Cheers,
Wrong Stuff

[flyboy6876]

Well does'nt that just take the cake.

We have days and days of great weather (being summer down under of course) and I could'nt fly on one of them. Come Saturday when I could get out and I was supposed to do NAVEX2 (a lovely 3.5 hours flight down south) and there's bloody thunderstorms right smack dab in the middle of where I wanted to go.

Just goes to show, you can NEVER trust the weather;)

[In Altissimus]

:) Blimey - a nice day to end the year, and, after more false starts than I could be bothered to count, I finally got the solo nav hours I need prior to the GFT! Watch out - it may not be long before they let me lose in the skies...

I bumped into G_SXTY (on the ground) and he's in exactly the same position.

We had a couple of teas/coffees to celebrate ;)

[FlyingForFun]

Glad that most of us seem to have enjoyed the good weather :)(except AerBabe :().

I spent the afternoon over Newbury in my Europa, practicing stalls, PFLs and steep turns, then in the evening I did some circuits in a PA28 to complete the club check-out I needed to be able to rent and do some night-flying - woohoo!

The only downer was a rough-running engine on the Europa, which was caused by a clogged fuel filter. No problem to turn the reserve pump on and get home, but it cut my flight slightly short. And after changing the fuel filter, the engine now claims it needs servicing. :eek: No idea if the two are related, but an initial look through the manual suggest that at least we're not grounded between now and getting the engine looked at (although I'll be reading the manual in detail later today to check that's right).

FFF
--------------

[eveepee]

WhoHasControl very kindly showed me Essex from the air in his Koliber ...and very nice it was too. He even trusted me to navigate :eek: ...well the coastline was a bit of a giveaway and I managed to find Sarfend....most expensive cup of coffee in 2002 if you add the landing fee :D Great day though and to be flying once again. Thanks WHC
FFF - hope you get that engine sorted.

[G SXTY]

It’s true!

I spent a happy hour and a half trundling round Kent in a 152, following BlokeInAnArcher in a Warrior. :)

Cloudbase down to 2,000’ in a few places, but the visibility was fantastic – a few brave souls were even off to Le Touquet.

Business as usual today though . . . :(

[Fly Stimulator]

Yes, Saturday was good, and by the look of things outside today and the forecast for tomorrow it was probably the last flying day of 2002 for most of us in the UK.

I decided that I could reduce weight by spending lots of money on landing fees, so dropped in to first Shoreham and then Southend which lightened the wallet nicely. Fun to see one's registration on the flight arrivals board at Shoreham - I hadn't noticed that on my only previous visit.

I then set off on a night flight from Lydd to Bournemouth. The visibility was fabulous - I'm sure we could see lights all the way up to Belgium - and the clouds even cleared enough to see the stars for most of the way. Slight setback when the vacuum pump failed over the Isle of Wight so we had to give up the Bournemouth stop and go straight home, but altogether a great day's flying to end the year on.

Spent Sunday up to my knees in mud at Redhill positioning some paving slabs under the wheels of my aircraft so that it doesn't disappear completely into the quagmire. :(

[eyeinthesky]

Aerbabe:

Err... Which Coventry was that? I flew in there (EGBE) in the mid morning, and apart from a heavy shower to the south the cloudbase was 3000ft+. Returning just after dark we were VMC beneath cloud at 5000ft + and could see 30 miles or more.

Does not compute..:confused:

[Cusco]

Must've been Coventry USA:

I went from deep Suffolk to Leicester for one of their most excellent bacon baguettes in the early afternoon and the vis while not stunning was good enough to allow me to dodge the maniacs carving up the Leicester circuit in their Yaks and Extras (envy, envy ;-) )

Then on to Duxford for the most expensive bit of choccy flapjack this year.

Back to airstrip in the gathering gloom to find the RNAV was playing up. Fortunately my DR steer was right on and aided by Mr Garmin's most excellent commodity the a/c was tucked up safe just as the sun dropped below the horizon.


And not a single ppruner that I could recognise all day. (not that I could put a name to many of them)

But seriously though folks, are there any suggestions as to how ppruners can recognise each other apart from the obvious wearing of a bowler hat with jockstrap over trousers while carrying a copy of the financial times. (might be difficult for the ladies)

Another forum I subscribe to has some pretty distinctive hats, but I'm afraid my tiny pprune badge is a bit difficult to see and I've had some odd looks going up to lady pilots and staring at their chests. (Just looking for the pprune badge officer, honest)


Safe flying

See yas at Duxford in April