A week’s VFR flying holiday in North East USA – Part 5 of 5 – Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, Block Island

Friday 15 May – New Bedford, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, Plymouth For our last day of flying, we were down to four pilots because Paul had booked to return a day earlier than us. I shared an aircraft with Phil and we packed in three flights each, visiting the islands but starting with New Bedford (KEWB) where he knew the assistant manager. This can be a very busy airfield with many

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A week’s VFR flying holiday in North East USA – Part 4 of 5 – Portsmouth, Hyannis

Thurs May 14 – Portsmouth and Hyannis A great start to the day with breakfast of blueberry pancakes at Two Cats in Bar Harbor. David flew us direct from Bar Harbor (KBHB) to Portsmouth (KPSM), a very large military base hosting an airborne tanker fleet but shared for civilian use. I’m sure it’s the longest runway I’ve used at 10,000 feet (over 3,000 metres). The FBO served us quickly with six

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A week’s VFR flying holiday in North East USA – Part 3 of 5 – New York Skyline, Bar Harbor

Tuesday May 12 – Washout We’d planned to fly the New York Skyline route the following day, and had been watching the weather forecast which varied with every update. We made a late start and had a very enjoyable breakfast at Gilchrist’s on the old harbour front before checking out and heading off to the airport. We prepared to go, planning and preflighting, calling the phone briefer and packing everything

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A week’s VFR flying holiday in North East USA – Part 2 of 5 – Sky Acres, Sky Manor, Atlantic City

Monday 11 May 2015 – Sky Acres, Sky Manor and Atlantic City I don’t think any of us had great expectations for the day, but in the morning the weather forecast changed and wasn’t nearly as pessimistic. With some clever analysis, it was thought feasible to head west and skirt around the west side of New York down to Atlantic City or Ocean City. This we did in three stages,

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A week’s VFR flying holiday in North East USA – Part 1of 5 – Mansfield, Nashua, Keene, Bradley

Something Different A few friends in the Bristol Aero Club regularly take a week’s holiday together and go somewhere different to fly and explore. They’ve made some European tours, but in recent years have spent the time in the USA. I joined them for a week’s intensive VFR, with five of us sharing two Cessna 172’s from King Aviation in Mansfield (1B9), about 20 miles south west of Boston. We

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An eventful overnight trip to Schwabish Hall

My co-owner Rich and I packed a lot into two days flying, staying overnight in southern Germany having flown IFR in our TB20 from Gloucester UK with an intermediate stop each way: Vectored into mid-channel when IFR route filed was direct over London Handled through a couple of large regional airports Light icing RNAV LPV approach into an AFIS towered airport IFR departure from an AFIS towered airport iPad shutdown

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Daytrip airways flight to Deauville with very strong crosswinds

My co-owner Rich and I agreed to share a daytrip in our TB20 from Gloucester, and were hoping to make this an airways flight to somewhere in Northern France. We settled on Deauville and planned accordingly. Rich brought a work colleague along and flew outbound, leaving me the return flight. The forecast wasn’t good and would certainly have ruled out much VFR flying. The low cloudbase of 1200 to 2000

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Extreme crosswind practice in Dallas

Dallas Executive Airport – Great place to fly from Another business trip found me in Dallas in December again, and I found time to visit Slipstream Aviation at Dallas Executive Airport for the third time. The airport facilities continue to amaze me, full IFR towered 7am-9pm with four runways, ILS/RNAV approaches, diner, FBO and plenty of hangarage – yet usage is at such low levels that you practically have the

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