Short shift to Sleap

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For quite some time, I’d promised a flight to a boating friend of mine. Our intent had been to fly to Guernsey, where Vernon had also been with his boat, but the weather wasn’t suitable. So instead we made a short flight to Sleap, after first flying down to Filton and circling overhead his house.

Jason also came along, a pilot friend who hadn’t flown with me before. In the past, he had considered buying a TB20 share and was keen to see how this one performed.

Circling overhead Filton

This was a pretty routine VFR flight, the only surprise was when I spoke to Bristol on the radio and explained our intentions, the air ambulance at Filton popped up to warn us they were active. Since we would only be making a couple of orbits north of the airfield, we wouldn’t get in their way. Perhaps it’s a reminder that just asking for a Basic service allows other airspace users to become more situationally aware. It also ensured we knew how we might affect others and could change our plans if the air ambulance launched.

Sleap Aerobatics Competition

Sleap had an aerobatics competition in progress to the north west of the field when we arrived. We’d been briefed on that when phoning for PPR, and there were also regular broadcasts about it on the radio. No overhead joins, meaning we could simply descend and join downwind for a straightforward landing. I think Jason was surprised at how fast I was still flying when we turned final (about 90 knots), and even more surprised when he saw the effects of full flaps which rapidly slowed us down nicely to flare at about 75.

Full English Breakfasts All Round

There’s a good canteen at Sleap which was busy, and Jason and Vernon treated us all to a full English. They kindly covered the landing fees too. It seems quite a lively and thriving airfield.

Rapid Return

Our return was fairly uneventful. The circuit was busy, so we just made a straightforward overhead join and landed. We refueled and parked up on the main apron in good time to hand over the aircraft to Rich, who took it away for an overnight stop.

Time today: 1:50
Total PIC: 169:20
Total Time: 271:45

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