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
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West 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
Continue readingRecordbreaking Ride to Rotterdam at up to 218 knots
The large number of windmills should be a strong indicator that Holland is a country with plenty of wind. In the aftermath of storm Abigail, I flew to the Netherlands from Gloucester for a few days trip. As with many airways IFR GA flights, 90% of the flight was in glorious sunshine with a brief but intensive departure and arrival. The flight achieved two new records for me – the lowest airport elevation
Continue readingDaytrip to Jersey
From our holiday base in Guernsey, we made a day trip across to Jersey to visit some of my wife’s relatives. It’s only a short distance (23 miles) but technically a different jurisdiction – both are UK Crown Dependencies and each have their own Bailiwick. A full flight plan had to be filed but no GAR forms (there is a special mini-flight plan for inter-island flights between Guernsey and Alderney
Continue readingFrance for lunch: IFR Airways daytrip to Rouen
Making the most of this month’s flight Only one flight this month, flown in the TB20 from Gloucester. The weather looked promising and so I planned for a daytrip to northern France – Rouen seemed like a nice destination to try out. Airborne flight time would be around 1:30 each way and I intended to fly IFR Airways outbound and VFR on the return. One passenger dropped out at a
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