Change of plan Andy had kindly offered to take me for a flight on the club’s Arrow – an aircraft that I’m not qualified to pilot myself. This is a faster version of the PA28 range, with retractable undercarriage and a “wobbly prop”. Andy had completed two hours of differences training and so was keen to consolidate this with a few flights. I don’t believe it’s worthwhile for me to
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Haverfordwest
Great weather for a landaway We had been enjoying an “Indian Summer” of warm weather at the end of September, and I was looking skywards during the week hoping it would last for the weekend. I’d arranged to take a friend, James, for a flight and hoped to go west to Cornwall or South Wales. Andy Hawkins was also planning a flight on Saturday, so we agreed to share a
Continue readingAnother couple of willing victims
Although I’ve been spending a lot of time and effort on my IMC training, I also wanted to enjoy the benefits of my PPL through landaways and sharing these with passengers. I’d discussed taking a friend up for a trip some months back, and we had settled on a date – today was to be the day. Dave asked if his 14 year old daughter could come along too –
Continue readingFamily daytrip to Sandown
Third time lucky This was planned to be our third flight with the family. Previous trips had been dramatically shortened by bad weather, the last being a short local from Kemble. With a close eye on the weather, the plan was to fly from Kemble down to Compton Abbas and either stop there or continue on to Sandown on the Isle of Wight. The forecast was for fairly strong winds
Continue readingPlymouth Ho!
No IMC training today Although I had hoped to continue with my IMC training, the Oxford flying school had a club flyout and weren’t instructing today. They organise a club trip every month, alternating between Saturday and Sunday, to a variety of destinations. Of the clubs I’ve been to, no other does this and I believe it keeps up the interest of both PPLs as well as showing students what
Continue readingLandaway to Compton Abbas
A passenger flight from Kemble With Lyneham closing down and no further weekend flying permitted from there, the club had again arranged to operate out of Kemble for the weekend – almost certainly the last time they’ll do so. With the weather looking very promising, I had arranged to take a friend up for a trip. He’d flown in light aircraft once before, having been given a trial lesson a
Continue readingSolo to Welshpool
Time for a solo flight Looking through my logbook, I’ve been taking a lot of training and instruction recently, particularly for the IMC course. With the weather looking good for the weekend, my intention was for a solo landaway – something that would improve my confidence and start enjoying what a PPL enables. During the week there had been some short term changes to arrangements. After taking the differences training
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Solo to Sanddown, Isle of Wight
A solo landaway to Sandown With my IMC course being delayed due to lack of instructor availability, I thought I’d make best use of the holiday I’d taken off work combined with good weather to enjoy a solo landaway. I booked G-VICC which I’d been learning the IMC course on for a few hours, but was asked to swap to G-ELUE because a problem with a faulty press-to-talk button on
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My first Farm Strip
The opportunity One of the more experienced club members used to have share in a plane at a small farm strip near Aylesbury. He’d not been back there for several years, but still kept in touch and was planning a landaway to visit there again. I’d already had a landaway with him to White Waltham, and was more than happy when he asked me along. He would fly there and
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Dunkeswell Solo
Where to go for a Sunday afternoon? Unable to take off until 3pm on Sunday (due to family commitments), but with no hard stop on my return (apart from sunset at 8), I thought Dunkeswell would be a good choice. Although the airfield website quoted 5pm closing time, I rang to see what time I could arrive and depart. They are open for arrivals until 5pm, but you can leave
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