Winter Update

It's been a tough winter, weather-wise. On the odd occasion that it hasn't been snowing, the mist and fog has killed off the slightest chance of getting airborne throughout most of November and December. I flew in the first weekend of November, and the availability of the aircraft and the weather didn't line up again until the second weekend of December, by which time I only felt current (and confident) enough to make a local flight. Still, I had a whole week off at Christmas, and sometime in that week the conditions have to be flyable...don't they?

At first it didn't seem like it. The snow came down, and the mist descended. I booked, and had to cancel, flights on the 29th, 30th and 31st of December. And that, was that, for flying in 2010.

Look - No hands!

I'd offered to take up my 9-year old nephew, Oakley, up for a ride as a Christmas present, but had explained that it would be weather dependant, and that he had to be patient, and that it probably wouldn't be before the end of his Christmas school holiday. But, on the 3rd of January, the last day of the holiday, the snow melted, the visibility finally cleared up enough, and I was able to make the call that today was the day we'd be going up. Oakley's a really good kid, but my brother, Ben (Oakley's dad), was to come along to supervise, in case Oakley got motion sickness.

Oakley with CC after his first flight

In the end it was a perfect day for a first flight. 10k visibility, 5000ft cloud base, and absolutely no turbulence. Oakley was a little nervous at first, but once we were up he loved it, commenting that the trains looked like caterpillars, and that the villages looked so small you could jump out and squash them (we didn't point out that they get bigger as you go down!). He had a go at flying, (closely supervised, obviously) and decided that it was easy. A very fun and successful flight.

Birmingham International

The weather wasn't conducive to VFR flight again until the 23rd January, and even then it wasn't great - only good enough for a quick run to Halfpenny Green for a coffee and back.

But on the 29th, things were much better. Rich, another member of the CC group, and I had planned to fly to fly to White Waltham, but a forecast poor cloud base across the Cotswolds and Buckinghamshire meant a new idea was required. We settled on a long flight to Gamston, near Sheffield. I would fly there and Rich would fly back, with the non-flyer handling the radios and assisting with navigation. This would be the longest distance I'd flown in one hop at over 100 nautical miles, and we would be trying to fly direct.

Birmingham International Terminal

I took off from Gloucester and headed North, into pretty murky conditions, and unable to get much above 1800ft before running into the cloud. This improved north of Evesham, and we were able to get 2000ft before it was time to call Birmingham for a transit of their controlled zone, which we were granted (after a gentle reminder that we were waiting when we were told to 'standby', then forgotten about). We routed just south of Birmingham airport, at around 1800ft, and could see all of the approach and runway lights in the still murky conditions.

East Midlands Airport

Once clear of the Birmingham zone, it was immediately time to call East Midlands Airport for our second transit of the route. EMA was pretty busy, and I was grateful of having another pilot alongside to help with radio. We were granted a transit through the zone, and once north of Nottingham the weather really improved. By the time we arrived at Gamston it was under blue skies and light winds - it was lucky that I greased the landing because there really was no excuse not to!

After a great lunch at the Gamston restaurant, we loaded up again and departed, with Rich flying and me handling the radios. It was my turn to negotiate clearances with East Midlands and Birmingham, which were helpful and provided us with the routes we needed, although East Midlands did need to vector us around to avoid an airliner which was executing a missed approach. On arrival back t Gloucester we were given a downwind join into quite a busy circuit, and after a landing on runway 04 we taxi'd back and shut down.

CC resting in the sun at Gamston - Very different Weather
to 'down south'

It was a great way to spend a day, and sharing the flying (and cost!) meant that my range is double when flying with someone else. There's been talk of a trip to the channel islands soon, which sounds fantastic. After a frustrating couple of months of bad weather, this trip has really reignited my passion in flying.

A frustrating couple of weeks!

That pretty much sums up the last few days in terms of flying, or lack of it.

I had to cancel my mid-week lesson at the end of August because my monthly flying budget had run out. I barely earn enough to fund this ridiculously expensive hobby at the best of times, so that's something I've had to get used to since my initial PPL training funds ran out. In addition to my monthly budget I'm trying to put aside some contingency money just in case there is a cash call from the group. Then my next flight, which was planned for the 5th of September, was canned because of weather - again something I've got used to over time.

These little delays are part of flying, but at the moment I'm especially keen to get up in the air to finish my sign-off on 'CC so that I can go and explore before the winter sets in. You're always at the mercy of the Met Office if you're a pilot, and although the best flying days are cold, frosty and clear winter days, there's a much greater chance of being cancelled due to weather once September is finished.

On the plus side, I've used my time on the ground wisely. I'm trying to get involved in the running of the CC group, and I've sat in on both of the committee meetings so far. Hopefully over the next few months this will give me a bit more insight and knowledge into my aircraft, and particularly the mountains of paperwork that need to be done in order to keep both the aircraft and pilots legal and happy.

I've downloaded the Memory Map software for my i-phone, and purchased the CAA charts for £20 and a £10 in-car suction mount. With the GPS built into the phone I'm hoping that this will be a really useful rudimentary GPS for flying. It'll only provide a moving map type system, but the software allows you to draw a route on and the only reason I really want it is to confirm my position if I become unsure. Considering that even a basic Aviation GPS is £200 I think I've done well there!

I've also embedded a Google Map on the side of this blog which shows all of the airfields I've visited up to now. At the moment it's pretty sparsely populated, but hopefully over time it'll become a bit more impressive! I've added the strips that Phil and I took in on our last flight, and all of the airfields I visited during my training.

Steve Noujaim being welcomed back by a couple of Spitfires

During the last week, Steve Noujaim completed his London-Cape Town-London record-breaking flight in his RV7. I saw the aircraft last time I was at the airfield, and it looked fantastic. Steve's achievement to fly the distance with only a 10hr turn-around in Cape Town and just 2 stops in each direction and a couple of hours sleep en-route is super-human, and I got very addicted to watching his live GPS track snake it's way down through Africa! It's the kind of challenge that I would love to take on one day, but I think I'll need a bit more of a budget and a lot more experience first. It has, at least, got me looking at the Vans RV website though, wondering whether I could afford to build an RV of my own one day! For more information on Steve and the challenge click on >this link<

Anyway, I've not much else to say at the moment. I'm hoping to fly again tomorrow, and maybe visit a couple more of the local grass fields, but the weather's not looking good at the moment. I'm also down to fly on Monday night, which, all being well, should mean that my PA28 conversion is complete. Then, the world will be my oyster!