Time for a short Bristol Aero Club expedition with two other members, John and Russ. We’ve flown on day trips before, typically practicing our IMC skills, but all of us were keen to journey a bit further and we agreed on a three day jaunt to Scotland. We’d booked the PA28 aircraft and time off on the understanding that if the weather wasn’t suitable then we might head off in
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Copenhagen for the weekend
The EuroGA Forum organised a fly-in to Roskilde near Copenhagen which my co-owner Rich and I decided to attend. We took Friday and Monday off work to make this a full four day tour. I suggested a route-plan of Gloucester-Antwerp-Groningen-Roskilde-Rendsburg-Bremen-Texel-Gloucester which was what we ended up flying. Rendsburg was included because it has the cheapest fuel in the area; Antwerp and Texel would be our border control entry/exit points for Schengen
Continue readingCaernarfon IFR
Low Cloud but warm and (not too) windy Low cloudbase of 900 feet (broken 600) at Gloucester meant there was very little activity. It was forecast to clear during the afternoon, and the weather looked better to the west, so I picked on Caernarfon as a destination for a day trip in the TB20. Dave, who I’ve flown with at Lyneham came along for the ride. This was very much
Continue readingIFR Ferry Flight from Coventry to Gloucester
It seemed a straightforward job. Fly as passenger to Coventry to collect the Turbo Arrow and return to Gloucester – just a 20 minute flight each way. The weather wasn’t entirely favourable but once the early morning fog had cleared I didn’t foresee any problem. John, my co-owner, kindly offered to fly me up to Coventry and conducted the flight with his usual calm and measured discipline. I’ve not actually
Continue readingWest Wales business trip
Mixing Business with Pleasure It’s rare for me to be able to combine business with aviation, but the opportunity came up to visit a couple of sites conveniently near to airfields in Wales. Comparing 2 hours flight time with about 10 hours driving (the roads aren’t very good there) is a very persuasive argument. Not that I normally need one to go flying, but it helps justify the expense. Unfortunately
Continue readingInstrument practice at Cardiff and Exeter
Three pilots sharing some practice Instrument Approaches A plan to share some Instrument flight practice with a couple of IR(R) rated pilots at Bristol Aero Club was thwarted by the club aircraft going tech at short notice. So instead, we all took to the air in my shared TB20 G-CORB and flew to Cardiff and Exeter in turn. Since I can’t instruct, I was P1 throughout and flight time wasn’t
Continue readingIMC practice into Southampton
IMC refresher club mini-flyout Several club members at Bristol Aeroclub had expressed an interest in sharing a flight to brush up on their IR(R) skills. We’d fly G-BASJ, a PA28 based at Kemble, and on the day agreed a round robin trip to Cardiff, Southampton and Gloucester, making an approach at each. John flew the first leg and we were fortunate to get a vectored ILS on request into Cardiff
Continue readingIMC Diversion and VFR into St Athan
Solo IMC landaway to St Athan After having to replan the weekend due to bad weather in the Scillies, today’s trip in the TB20 from Gloucester was intended to add a few grass airfields to my list. The strong winds (20 knots on the ground) would make for short ground rolls where reasonably aligned with the runway. But low cloud again stymied that plan. Instead, I decided on a short trip to
Continue readingIMC to a beach trip at Lee-on-Solent
Rapid Change of Plan I had our TB20 share-o-plane at Gloucester booked for the weekend. Plan A was a weekend away in the Scilly Isles, postponed from April due to bad weather. Sadly, once again the weather was a combination of strong winds (25 knot crosswind) and low cloud (reported at zero feet), with some forecast rain thrown in for good measure. Plan B was a daytrip to the beach with
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Inverness and Wick
I planned a long Bank Holiday weekend in Northern Scotland, visiting two different sets of friends near Inverness and Wick. Both were separately happy with the idea of a local flight in return for board and lodging. My wife was interested in coming along too, so I booked our TB20 at Gloucester and kept a close eye on the weather forecast. Both Inverness and Wick require PPR. A call to Wick
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