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 :D

tKF

Aah Barney - but I got two hugs and a kiss from Flower. Beat that! :p
And no, I don't fly topless. :rolleyes:


Often.

and why not? :D :D :D

Because I haven't got enough money...



;)

I am sorry that I didn't meet Aerbabe and others but it was good to see FFF, Genghis and to meet LownSlow at last as well as others. TKF and I arrived a bit late and then went off flying, so we weren't on the ground for very long. I had promised to go aerobatting with a friend back at Waltham. We met Stampe back at Rochester.

I enjoyed the day, with three airfields, six landings (three crosswind), one go around (crosswind and gashness induced at Rochester), a circumnavigation (widdershins) of London, two aeros sessions and 4 hours 10 minutes logged. The Rapide, Spitfire and Mustang were the sort of bonuses which a visit to Duxford often brings (but shame on those blokes from Oxford who started up their Lycoming Mark 1 Bagofspanners just as the Spitfire ran in).

TKF was excellent company and a smooth flyer. Ed: just pull up a bit more positively and check the pitch more definitely for the aileron roll. I forgot to suggest that you try shouting out "Pull! Check! and ROLL!" as you do it)

Duxford is a great place (I did my QXC from there) but so big that it's difficult to remain as a group. My vote for another one is Kemble. I'll go off to Whirly's thread and suggest that.

There's a fly-in coming up at Kemble - Great Vintage Flying Weekend or somesuch that we hijack. The red chippy and crew are booked for it, so Keef - get that weather ordered please (I know, I know, sales not management. But you must have *some* influence ;~)

SSD

Shaggy, we just missed you, but exchanged waves as we taxied past the Chipmunk.

SSD the VFWE at Kemble is a great weekend but its booked in advance and normally heavily oversubscribed so not "hijackable".I did it last year flying Hairyplanes Miles Falcon and am penclilled in this year flying either the Falcon or Magister whichever the great man allots me (rather depends on the wx. as I,m a bit of a girlie when it comes to open cockpit x-country flying in cold weather).Be nice to meet some of you there a great event but not many modern aircraft make it there ,great for your chippy but they don,t take many modern aircraft due shortage of capacity.

A great day out and a great opportunity to put more names to Pprune names. Also a great chance to see just how long it takes a fully loaded Auster to get off the ground with "slightly" soft tyres :D

Thanks to Vintage ATCO for calling my Auster (the one with the unfeasably large registration letters) "splendid". We will eventually meet up if only by accident!

Do crossedcontrols and I get the award for the shortest flight to Duxford? Did anybody else take less than 25 minutes to get there? That includes 5 minutes of positioning for the downwind join by the way cos there were no overhead joins were there people...........

SSD, nice to see the Chippy there. You can come and talk to us, we're not all completely mad, honest :D :D

Nice pics from you clever bods who can post these things, glad my double chin didn't feature in any of them :p :p

See y'all at the next one weather and leave schedule permitting.....

L&S,

Nice to meet you mate and CC too.

I have only two words to say to you..Cosmic Wind.. cor! - they are probably still mopping up our saliva!!

Oh and there were no overhead joins at all - none, zilch, nada, zero, not one - okay? :E

Kingy

14 minutes from Cranfield, including circuit positioning and an orbit for spacing. Any advances?

Ok folks i'm a tactile person, anyone else want to claim any hugs and kisses off me;)

Damn, didn't realise there was a flower-hugging competition, otherwise I might have counted my hugs. :rolleyes:

Can't think of much to add! It was fantastic day, saw a load of people I hadn't seen for a while, met a load of new faces, still can't believe that we actually got that many people to all meet up so successfully. I have a load of photos, mostly of museum aeroplanes but a few of PPRuNers and their aeroplanes. I also have a selection of photos of AerBabe doing impressions of various aircraft - unless anyone else has already posted similar (I should have time to have a proper look later today) I'll post them, and see who can guess what they are!

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

The longest flight to Duxford
 

But first - excellent piccies (again) DamienB.

L&S - I'll talk to anyone. Didn't know who you were or would definatly have had a chat ;~)

The Red Chippy is loveley, but not the fastest aerial conveyance (90 knot cruise). So our flights were 1:50 down, 2:00 back.

Any advance???

SSD

SSD,

I win, I win !

Eastbach - Finmere (to pick up AB but bang on track) - Duxford 2hrs25m - headwind gave 45kt groundspeed

Duxford - Finmere ...its a long story.. :O 1hr55 (!) - Eastbach - 45m

Making a total flight time of 5hrs5mins total - anyone beat that?

Kingy

A Grand Day Out
 

What a gorgeous day!

Many thanks to rustle and Mike for the pick-up in FF, it's a very speedy, comfortable and well kept aeroplane...I'm sure you love showing it off! I don't think I've ever seen such big numbers on my GPS! Max reading was 168kt by the way!

Had a great time there sitting in the sun and trying out my mini camera, which actually performed very well! I will post the pics within a day or two!

The trip back, although into horrible hazy sun, was really good fun. Everyone commented how nicely painted that Warrior was knobby! Hope I was of some assistance as your first semi qualified passenger!!!

Unfortunately I think I didn't get to meet half of you, but Duxford is huge and I think I got to see about half of the PPRuNers and half of the hangars and exhibits so it worked out great!

To the chap with the C421 - (I'm afraid I forget your name) if you ever stumble across Coventry on your travels I'd love to have a closer look at that beauty - although I can't cover landings - the C310 was over £40!!!

Best regards,

Mike :cool:

That's me :O Coventry is an easy run up, all the way from Cranfield. I am sure we can get together.

Also, now I've been to a PPrune fly-in (my first) I will try and get to another, providing we go somewhere with around 850-1000m of tarmac, depending on passenger numbers :D

Great day out. It was good to meet a whole lot of new faces. Not an epic trip, but a nice day's flying.

We pottered back to NW, and sat there watching the JPs, Gnat and various Yaks go by. Gave Kolibear & Co a wave when they got back a bit later.

Looking forward to the next one

RD

How about a special offer Flower three hugs for the price of two.....I got two hugs so am I owed a third??? Although on another thread you were saying you were going to punch someone on the nose, so I decided I had better not mess with Flower:O

Barney x

P.S. I heard that EGFF stands for Early Go For Flower ....but I am sure it is just a vicious rumour ;)

Barney ,

Special Hugs coming your way, are you sure I only gave you two .

Oh well better save them up for you for next time.
;)

As for early goes they don't exist just a figment of your imagination :p