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.