UK Instrument Rated Private Pilot and Instrument Flight Instructor
Lockdown restrictions have eased, removing the “Stay at Home” order and allowing private leisure flights within England to resume. Instruction awaits the next stage of relaxation, and many flying clubs and airfields remain closed until then. Some, such as Kemble, have already indicated they won’t accept visitors for a couple of weeks after that, to allow enough time for residents and club members to regain currency (both legal and practical)
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Today’s flight was a VFR trip from Gloucester to Leeds East – what pilots call a $100 hamburger run – flown solo in my shared TB20 from Gloucester. Leeds East (EGCM) used to be RAF Church Fenton (EGXG), a busy wartime fighter base. For some years it was the Royal Navy’s Elementary Flying Training School, and from 1998 to 2003 became the RAF’s main Elementary Flight Training airfield. It’s about
Continue readingMy shared TB20 was back from its Annual, and I took a day out from my FI course to enjoy a solo flight. Apart from one trip to Liverpool in October, I hadn’t flown it since August. The Annual hadn’t found anything particularly unusual but a small part for the magneto took some weeks to source and fit. Combined with poor winter weather, that meant a downtime of over 2
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The choice between flying and driving is sometimes quite easy There’s something about a short flight that always seems much more enticing than a long drive – so a tradeoff between about 1.5 hours in the aircraft vs 7 hours in my car seems an easy decision. Even if there’s still 2 hours of driving involved. I had a business presentation to make in Cambridge for an afternoon and tried
Continue readingLow 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 readingIt 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 readingMixing 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 readingA solo flight After a busy week and uncertainty about whether or what time I might be able to go flying, I took the TB20 for a landaway on my own. I haven’t flown solo for a little while and it does focus the mind. My destination today was Sandtoft, a relatively small airfield with a hard runway tucked just inside the Doncaster zone at the north east corner. The phone
Continue readingSolo 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 readingI had a good excuse to fly this week – a business trip to Cambridge. The choice between over 7 hours by car or 42 minutes each way by plane isn’t a difficult one to make, even after adding an hour to get to Gloucester airport. The TB20 was free as it often is during the week, so I booked it up early. Planning A warm front had been causing
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