Night Rating

G-CBLE before being put through her paces for my solo night flying 

Yes, it seems like a eternity since the last post, but work, moving house and the final year of university have all contributed to make me more ground-bound as opposed to air-bound! 

However, I havnt been away from flying for all this time as I was fortunate enough to be awarded a flight bursary through The Air League in 2014, so I used it to gain a night rating onto my PPL over the winter months. 

Coastline of Bournemouth at night from 1200ft 

The night rating comprised of 5 hours flying to include, a dual (with instructor) night familiarisation flight, a dual cross country navigation exercise, dual circuits and finally 1 hour of solo circuits. 

I decided to conduct my training at a fantastic school at Bournemouth Airport because I wanted to experience flying out of a commercial airport, all good for refining my radio skills and accurate flying. It gave me the opportunity to fly in a new aircraft- Robin HR-200 and lastly because I have aspirations to fly commercially in the future. 

The dual navigation leg was highly interesting and beneficial. We flew from Bournemouth Airport (EGHH) -Blandford Forum-Crewkerne-Dorchester-EGHH over a variety of small settlements each identified by the patterns of lighting they use. The weather needed to be perfect for this-good visibility and high cloud base as it was vital to be in sight of the ground at all times! It made me think about possible areas to land, if for example the engine failed, because without daylight, dark areas on the ground could be water, vegetation, high ground, and that perfect field next to a pub is harder to spot, should the unthinkable happen! 

The night rating will benefit me because I can now fly legally after dark whilst building my flying hours. Secondly it has opened my eyes to flying out of a fully air traffic controlled airport, sharpening my RT ( Radiotelephony) skills and lastly the rating is a pre- requisite before going onto to the CPL ( Commercial Pilots Licence).

Thanks for reading, until next time!

New flying group

Just before Christmas 2013 I joined a fairly new flying group based at Goodwood flying a Piper Tomahawk PA-38 aircraft. For me it is a totally different aircraft as it is much older, the wings are mounted underneath the fuselage, as opposed to the top (like the Cessna 172) and it has a traditional cockpit with all the round dials as instrument displays. On the Garmin 1000 Cessna 172s I learnt to fly on, they contained a glass cockpit with all the same instruments as the 32year old Tomahawk, but instead displayed on two digital display screens. I'm looking forward to building some flying hours in this new toy this year!

Where I flew this Summer...

Now the clocks have turned back and those frosty mornings are back I thought I would put up a selection of pictures to illustrate my summer aloft, completing my 'tea and cake' foodie tour around airfields in Southern England. I managed to log a further 13.8 PIC (Pilot In Command) on the Cessna C172 which to some serious hour builders may not sound alot, but not a bad achievement as I juggled my flying between work, university and money constraints.

                                                         Lashenden/Headcorn, Kent

Goodwood to Lashenden/Headcorn, south-east abeam Bewl Water, East Sussex

                     On the ground at Lashenden/Headcorn, with a Britten Norman Islander in the background-used for parachute jumping-which was active    when I visited, so a good lookout is vital to avoid any straying parachutists!

sadly no tea or cake here, as I had spent all my money on a landing fee! Clever of me...

Sandown, Isle of Wight

View from the tower

Undoubtedly one of the best 

bacon sandwiches known to man

'OA, second from back on the flightline at Sandown

Compton Abbas, Dorset

The sun began to break through the autumnal mist as we arrived! Excellent timing!

On the ground at Compton Abbas

A brilliant airfield to fly into, excellent service and very good food, very good local food, the sausages can't be missed! Will return back there in the future that's for sure!

Lydd

Its been a while...needless to say its been a busy summer. Luckily the weather has been very kind I I have managed to get out flying when I can. Here is a selection of views from Lydd Airport on Romney Marsh in Kent, where I flew one breezy Wednesday afternoon earlier in the summer. Sadly no home made cakes here, just a cup of tea and a prepacked average chocolate muffin-but good enough and needed after the flight down there!

Enroute to Lydd, passing north of Rye, just outside Lydd

On the ground at Lydd, preflight checks in progress

                                                    

                                                              Beachy Head, Sussex

                                                                                   

                                                          

Kemble Cotswold Airport

I planned to revisit Kemble or Cotswold Airport as it is officially known soon after I had my PPL. I had been twice during my training, one of them being a swelteringly hot day in May 2012, the day of the solo cross-country!

I knew it had to be on my must visit 'food tour' list because of a previous encounter with a thick slab of buttery flapjack. Amazing

Sadly I forgot to bring cash and there was a minimum limit for card payment so in the end I settled for tea only. However this was free , thanks to a free tea/coffee token given to me on arrival when paying my landing fee!

By the way, the landing fee was also half price! A bargain fuelled day. May is a good month to visit this Gloucestershire airfield as they were offering half price landing fees to bring in more visitors. Its a great place to fly, good ATC/ops service, decent food and beautiful scenery, nestled at the foot of the rolling Cotswolds.

My routing was Goodwood-Petersfield-Whitchurch-Malborough-Kemble. Flying around 2,300ft and talking to Farnborough, Boscombe and Brize Radar stations. My return leg was a reverse of this. A mostly uneventful flight except the circuit being overwhelmingly busy on return to my home airfield. Everyone decided to arrive back at the same time!

     In the overhead at Kemble for Runway 26, lots of stored/scrapped airliners below

     The view when checking the fuel tanks for fuel quantity, tower, Gnat (early Red Arrows jet) and two Boeing 747-400s ex Corsair and Cathay Pacific

    Flying north west, overhead M3 motorway near to Popham Airfield

Tea and cake tour 2013?

Parked. On apron at Shoreham, off to pay my landing fee...

This picture does not do this cake justice, it was mighty fine

Sussex coast, after passing Worthing 

Odd name for a post? Well maybe, but it will make sense. Since late last year after reading about various airfields I could visit with my newly gained PPL, I began to notice that a common reputation amongst the UK's many fine airfields is the abundance of decent tea and cakes sold in aeroclub cafes. So what better excuse was there than to fly to these gastronomic delights, whilst at the same time logging flight hours and challenging myself by flying somewhere new each time. This first set of pictures are from my first point of call on my tour-Shoreham Airport. It is literally an 8 minute flight from Goodwood but I wanted to experience landing somewhere with full air traffic control facilities ( ATC) . Very good value tea and cake to be had there as the photograph illustrates! 

Nav to Newbury

Here is a selection of photos from a recent navigation flight I did-

Goodwood-Newbury-Whitchurch-Goodwood

I wanted to gain permission and fly through a MATZ (Military Air Traffic Zone) at Odiham, very good opportunity to improve my amateur RT (Radio telephony) skills!

I flew at around 2000ft dodging the few and large rain/sleet/snow showers. My lookout was kept even more sharp as I passed near the gliding site at Lasham, gliders tend not to carry a transponder onboard so they do not show up on the traffic alert system on the Garmin 1000.

It was a nice, short little nav flight, just to see something different, fly a planned route,fill out a plog (small flight plan), fly through through a MATZ and speak to Farnborough Radar. A few of the pictures illustrate the climbout from Goodwood and the lying snow on the Downs. After this, I passed south west of Lasham Airfield, quite alot of Boeing 737s and the odd 727 airliners there-either in storage or there for maintenance. Also some shots of Greenham Common, outside Newbury, ex RAF/USAF airfield and really quite cool to see from the air. The runway is massive ( whats left of it, before the grass and weeds take over)