A short landaway to Gloucester

A break in the poor January flying weather January’s weather has been very poor for flying, with Cotswold Airport (which we still call Kemble among ourselves) NOTAM’d closed during the snow and ice on the runway and taxiways. Warmer weather and heavy rain washed this away overnight, leaving what seemed like good conditions for Sunday morning. The only concern was strong winds, but at least these were blowing down the

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2012 Summary

It’s been another great year for flying, and I’m lucky to have been able to do so much. The weather hasn’t been that great, but we’ve had some very good flights, met some great people and visited many new destinations. I made fewer flights, and had less flight time than last year, partly due to spending a lot of time gaining the IMC rating during 2011. My objectives from the

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Local round trip after Christmas

A challenge just to get into Kemble airfield Few pilots were flying today, despite it having the better weather forecast for the week. Rain seems to have featured strongly for some time, with parts of the country flooded including some peoples homes. Today was a late decision based on a combination of weather forecast and family commitments. It wasn’t a certainty that I’d even make a flight. The road into

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Farewell Filton

Another UK airport closes Bristol Filton airport closed today, with the last flight departing around noon. It’s a sad day for local aviation, with the airport having been opened in 1910 by the Bristol Aircraft Company. Since then, the widest runway in the UK (91 metres) has seen the first flights of Concorde and the Bristol Brabazon. The weather was good though, and quite a few GA aircraft were flying

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Shooting it up in Texas

Shooting some practice instrument approaches at Dallas Executive Airport, Texas My last flight of this business trip was intended to take full advantage of the wide availability of instrument approaches, including plenty of GPS approved ones. There’s never any charge for making an instrument approach in the US, and rarely any landing fees. So once again, I found myself at Dallas Executive airport in the good hands of Slipstream aviation,

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Dallas downtown backdrop

BFR near DFW

Some private piloting in Texas I had a business trip to Dallas, Texas (airport code DFW = Dallas Fort Worth) for a week and hoped to squeeze in a local flight at some point. Flights to the US are much cheaper if you stay over a Saturday night (to differentiate between business and pleasure), so I saved considerably by flying out a day early. The journey out was fairly uneventful,

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Sleap again and another door problem

Opportunistic change of day for flying I had planned to make a flight on Saturday, but Friday really the only decent flying day for weeks. Torrential rain for many days had caused extensive flooding in many parts of the country. With further forecast heavy rain, I took the opportunity to take most of the day off and catch up on Saturday instead. It helps that I work for myself now.

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Dodging the clouds to Caernarfon

North West Wales for lunch I’d been talking with Andy about sharing a flight – it’s been too long since we’ve flown together. He had been keen to fly to Caernarfon last weekend, where his wife was visiting relatives, but I couldn’t make it. So we agreed to fly on Saturday and then delayed to Sunday based on the weather forecast. A friend was keen for me to take him for

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Bath and the Bridges

A full load of passengers ready for check-in I’m still at the stage of taking friends up for a short flight. I have a (short) backlog of potential victims. Perhaps word may have got around that I’m reasonably competent not a complete loony. Belinda had asked me to take her for a flight, and also her daughter and nephew, Ben. She couldn’t have picked a better day, with almost clear sunny

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Sunshine at the beach with the kids

Sunshine on offer You wouldn’t have thought it likely after the heavy rain during the week and forecast showers for the day, but there was quite some sunshine breaking through at times. My wife had left me at home with the kids for the day and a suggestion that I might take them flying didn’t need too much persuasion on my part. Who knows what flying weather is left as

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