UK Instrument Rated Private Pilot and Instrument Flight Instructor
I confess to getting a bit restless on holiday – I’m not one for sitting on the beach, so we agreed that I would make a flight while the girls sunned themselves at the seaside. The forecast looked great – a high over eastern France – and I thought would be good for any direction. After discounting Belle Isle (only 9 minutes away, and the airport far from anything else),
Continue readingMid-holiday change of resort After our first week on Ile de Re, we flew direct La Rochelle to Quiberon – about an hour’s VFR flight (compared with 3h30 by car or 5h19 by train). Direct flights to/from the UK to Quiberon aren’t permitted – you must land at an immigration “Port of Entry” first, both inbound and outbound – but there are no such formalities for flights from any French
Continue readingA holiday on the Cote Atlantique After the success of our German family trip last year, we had agreed to take our family holiday this year also by flying ourselves to Europe. Not too far, must have a beach/sunshine, not too hot. So the essential criteria became airports near beaches. I had also been enthused by a presentation at the local LAA Strut, where the chairman shared his holiday photos
Continue readingProject Propeller is an annual gathering of remaining World War 2 aircrew (friend and foe), flown into an airport by current pilots. Often these passengers take an active role in the flight, either navigating and/or piloting. Mostly male, there are a few women pilots who were involved in tasks such as delivering aircraft from the factory during the war. This year’s event was held at our home airport at Gloucester,
Continue readingSome minor changes since last year I had a really great time flying in Dallas last year and found myself again in the same place on business, so took the opportunity to fly while I was there. Pleased with the outfit I used before, I returned to Slipstream Aviation at Dallas Executive – they have the same aircraft (three Grumman AA5A Cheetahs) – although there’s been a bit of turnover
Continue readingRich, one of the other TB20 joint share-o-plane owners, offered to share his flight with me from Gloucester to Cherbourg for the day. He had originally planned to take along a couple of work colleagues, but they dropped out at short notice. We agreed that he’d fly there and I’d fly the return leg. The weather looked promising, with a broken cloud layer between about 2000 and 4000 feet. This
Continue readingA trip to France and the Channel Islands from Gloucester in the same day in the TB20. With a warm front casting its shadow over the UK, the forecast was for fog in the morning and relatively low cloud in England, but sunshine for the south coast and points south of that. I had arranged a flight with Bruce, one of the Lyneham club members, in the TB20 from Gloucester
Continue readingToday’s daytrip from Gloucester to Waterford, Ireland in the TB20 involved a number of unusual firsts today, in no particular order: First boarding pass for my own aircraft First full scanner treatment to get airside (belts off, wallets, mobile etc. all Xrayed) First private flight to Ireland First time had completely the wrong frequency and unable to make contact First flight in Class C airspace Between a huge weather front
Continue readingA short ferry trip outside the European Union The concept of ferry pilots brings thoughts of fearless individuals who fly small aircraft across the Atlantic, surrounded by huge extra fuel tanks and the risk of bad weather, sharks and a cold sea. In my case however, it was just a one hour flight back from Alderney after one of the other share-o-plane owners had flown it out there. Alderney is
Continue readingThe final leg And so now was the time for the final return leg back to base. Weather in the morning looked good for VFR throughout as expected, so I filed my flight plan from the hotel using SkyDemon and emailed the GAR form to the UK Border Agency and Gloucester Airport. After making full use of the pool during the morning, we snacked our lunch before walking back to
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