Cessna 182 G-POWL

Local 11 Nov 16

The long-awaited day has arrived: the syndicate have found another C182.

This is a Cessna-built 1982 C182 with an engine monitoring system and height-hold autopilot; this time around I've also bought a share, so I now own one of the wheel spats.

Willie and Steve reckon we need a joint flight prior to any solo outings and I totally agree: I certainly wouldn't want to flail about in an unfamiliar aircraft at 1,000ft the first time...

First impressions are that the inside is a lot tidier than Tango Golf (bits of trim tended to be falling off), the 2-bladed prop (longer blades mean less ground-clearance, so must be careful...), more fuses and an ELT, a 28V electrical system so we need to be very careful what we plug in to the cigarette lighter socket, the engine management system, funky glass prisms on the ends of the wings so you can see if the Nav lights are working, wet wings so more usable fuel (87USG as opposed to 78USG), P1 headset sockets you can reach in flight, a more nose-down parked appearance, tidier paintwork, a weird short drain on the gascolator that looks like it can't be drained single-handed, brake pedals a lot further down the rudder pedals than before, the fuel tank fillers further inboard (but no useful steps to reach them that later model C182 have, removing the need for a ladder to check the tanks), a stupid stub ADF aerial sticking out of the cabin roof that is determined to rip the cover, a better storage area door lock, daft fixed seat belts (well, they'll be replaced with inertia reels) and seats that even I with my long back don't need to wind all the way down to get sufficient headroom (DA40 designers, take note!).

After a long familiarisation pre-flight I crank the key, and nothing happens.

Huh?

Ah, you have to push as well, à la PA-28.

And within a few seconds it's all very familiar: the eerie silence as I activate the ANR noise-cancellation, the slight stiction of the nose oleo as we roll out of the parking slot, that C182 smell and the gentle wandering of the steering requiring constant correction.

We taxy to B3 to await a crossing helicopter, then we're cleared up to B1 via 29.

On 29 we stop for power-checks which are pretty much as before, but the engine management system disagrees with the analogue instruments for both manifold pressure and engine revolutions by quite a large margin, something we will need to discuss.

It feels as smooth as the 3-blade prop did at high revs, the mag drop is very small but equal, but the oil temperature will not rise in to the green arc on the engine management system. The analogue instrument is in the green arc, however, so we shall continue.

We get stuck behind a German business jet at the Hold, and Oxford Tower is really busy with various helicopters, instrument traffic and training flights so both us and the jet are there for 10 minutes. Still, the oil temperature has come up at last.

Finally cleared on to 19 so SPLAT check, get offered a right turn out without asking (I was going to go around the circuit instead), and roll.

Speed rising..... lots of right rudder to keep on the centre-line, feed the power in, Ts&Ps are good, 65Kts rotate and let it fly itself off then push and trim for 85Kts...

EFATO check: below 1000ft AGL any field 30° left or right of heading, above that turn back to the runway or even the grass, but anywhere within the airfield boundary where there is a fire engine!

Right turn out, don't overfly Blenheim Palace, watch the flashing blue lights of an emergency service vehicle in Woodstock as we climb, switch to Approach and get a Basic Service and mind Enstone as we head NW.

Well... surprise, surprise: it flies just like Tango Golf. So high breakout forces, high elevator forces, a bit of free play around the level position, a stable platform.

Climbs, descents, steep turns, steeper turns, flapless stalls, flapped stalls, then we try the autopilot which works and also has a height-hold facility which works. The GNS430 works, the panel lights work (except for the AH), the engine management system works, it's all pretty cool.

40 minutes later we approach Banbury from the West and ask Approach for a straight-in for 19 so we can play with the ILS; they agree (they sound a lot less busy now) and turning to 140° we get "steer left" indications from both instruments; check the beacon ident (push the NAV button on the 430), descend to 1850ft on the QNH (oops, let it get a bit low there...), let the Localiser come in half scale before turning to 175° for a 15° cut.

I can see the runway lights from 13 miles so that's a useful bonus, but we'll do this heads down: at one division we turn to 190° to see what that does. Hmm.... we're drifting left so we'll steer 210° to bring it back then 200° to keep it there... that works.

The glideslope is coming in from above so BUMPFTCH then push to keep on the slope, trim for a hands off stable approach and report abeam Upper Heyford, swap to Tower, go visual at 4d and get cleared for a touch-and-go.

It looks good: 2 reds 2 whites, so slow it down, push some flap in (ooh er, 105Kts is too fast, must watch that), push for 85Kts and fly it hands-off down to double-decker bus height, roll the power off, eyes on the end of the runway, hold off for as long as possible and the stall warner buzzes at 6" from the runway and we drop on tidily.

Flaps away, power in, right rudder and we're off at 65Kts, back up in to the circuit. OK, I can land it, that's a relief (to both myself and Willie!).

Back in the Downwind, call Downwind Whisky Lima not Tango Golf, the circuit is quiet but the light is going so we'll land off this one. They've knocked the chimney down, how am I meant to know where to line up on Base leg? Honestly.....

We're a little high turning Final so back off the power, drop back in to the "I can get it in from here" cone then come back up, stable at 85Kts and just ride the rails down. It's as smooth as silk, there's no wind and no thermals so we can drop down hands off to flare height, roll back the power and drop on just as the stall warner buzzes. Blimey, two in a row, no bounces! No one is more surprised than I......

Keep the back pressure on and the nose wheel stays off until we let it come very gently down. I'm very sensitive about this prop clearance.

Vacate and taxy in, pull the mixture and put the aircraft to bed.

Very nice: I'll enjoy flying Whisky Lima. Especially the left spat that is all mine!

Kemble 19 Nov 16

Free from meddling AME's. Free from having to fly with another pilot. Free to go where I like, when I like, with whom I like. Hard-earned, but so worth it.......

Saturday, in mid-November. Weather forecast to be absolutely bloody awful. Tonight.

But this morning we have bright blue skies and a new aircraft, so Nessa and I will go to Kemble.

It's damned cold this morning and we don't get there early because I don't fancy de-icing the aircraft (I have a huge tank of de-icer and a back-pack squirter but it's a faff...); even so they've only just de-iced the runway and opened it to traffic.

Oxford Tower's frequency is frantic: trying to get a word in edgeways takes a while, but I'm happy twiddling knobs and getting used to things not being where they should be.
Now where's that starter warning light?

Eventually we get going and depart over Oxford "not above 2,000ft" (I think I can manage that), before a low-level buzz around the house (looking tidy) and a friend's house (she's doing her PPL at the moment and says Air Law is very boring), then an attempt to switch to Brize ("working at capacity") fails, so we'll just stay clear of their zone and switch to Kemble somewhere near Fairford.

Now: let's check out the autopilot. Now with height hold (Washes whiter! Inspired by DNA technology!).

It works (in bug mode). I will try the VOR track and slave to the GNS430 later. It's a bit abrupt changing direction and occasionally hunts for the right track but it's OK. The height hold moans about any out-of-trim forces and makes you adjust the trim and/or throttle so it can keep you on-height but for those IFR "cleared to cross at 2,534ft" clearances by fussy ATC folk this will reduce the workload considerably.

Kemble's weather has deteriorated and the last 1,000 ft down to circuit height (they like their overhead joins, do Kemble) is mainly IMC. This is how accidents happen, so we'll make sure we have a really good mental picture of where everyone is before reporting overhead, descending, reporting crosswind and then downwind, j-u-s-t below the clag, turning Base then Final and staring the world's longest runway in the face. I think I can get it down on here.

This is one of thise aviation "quick decision" moments they don't teach you about. There is an aircraft in front of us on late Final doing a touch-and-go. So at what point should we abandon if he's not clear? He is dawdling somewhat and we're only at about 150ft before he finally does take off again, but he's a long way down the runway and I reckon I can stop before I get to him even if he does suddenly come to a screeching halt, so I'll continue the approach until... he's clear and Kemble clears us to land at our discretion.

The stall warner is a bit buzz-happy as we found out when low-speed handling last week, but the stall warner on Tango Golf went off when you were stalled, so it wasn't so much a warner as a "you are stalled" notification. This one is, I suppose, more useful(ish) but the C182 has a steadily rising airframe whistle before the stall anyway so I tend to work off that instead of the stall warner. It is becoming apparent that Whisky Lima can be flown quite happily with the stall warner blaring away, but of course that would frighten the passengers!

Anyway, a tidy arrival and off we go to the grass with Willie's imprecations about the longer 2-blade prop and resultant increased prop strike risk ringing in my ears. The nose wheel oleo on this aircraft is slightly less extended as well, so it sits more nose low. We will need to be careful. I tend to land nose high anyway, but taxying on grass needs to be done with caution.

If you believe that the AMEs and the politicians have done their worse and that GA in the UK is doomed, you should go to Kemble and eat in the AV8 restaurant, which is busy with non-aviation people coming to eat the (excellent) nosh and enjoy the entertainment, which pays to fly itself in! A model, like Compton Abbas, of integration.

The weather forecast is for CAVOK, which is most certainly isn't. Whilst shutting down the aircraft at the restaurant we listen to the radio where a PA28 tells Kemble he can't join overhead and remain VMC. Well that was almost true 10 minutes beforehand, and he ends up joining crosswind having presumably either dodged the cloud (now more "overcast" than "broken" at 1,000ft) or more likely descended IMC. There is, as always, a world of difference between the "black and white" rules of EASA and the changeable English weather, yet another good Brexit reason.

Although we are unlikely to leave the JAR world following Brexit, we are more likely to retain and extend the UK-only "save your life" IMC Rating and the Night Rating to NPPL licences.

I'm not stupid enough to believe that as I age I will continue to be able to retain my Class 2 Medical, so eventually will need to drop down to an NPPL/UK PPL with its reduced Medical requirements, and being able to continue to fly in cloud (like the flexwing microlight pilot I was talking to last week. Tell me that's legal!) and at night will be important.

The coffee and fruit cake at the AV8 restaurant are very, very good and before long we are starting up and departing, very carefully, along the rutted grass. Kemble Radio are even busier than Oxford but I have noticed that ATC has "flurries" where it is incredibly busy for 10 minutes then completely silent for a while.

All the way down to the end (I'll not do 26 grass today), and with an aircraft on Base leg turning Final we're cleared for take-off so we'll expedite and before he's finished clearing us we're rolling, accelerating as we turn on to 26 Hard and off in 300m or so, clearing the tarmac for the landing aircraft. Stay below circuit height until beyond the end of the runway (crosswind joins, anyone?), then a good look out and turn right, straight towards a 3,000ft bank of cloud that's come in.

Hold the prop in and keep the yoke back for best climb and we breast at 3,200ft to find clear sky beyond (might as well have gone through...), by which time we around the corner of the Brize Zone and turning for Oxford once more.

Oxford Approach is hugely busy but by the time we are 6 miles they have calmed down a bit and we swap to Tower to request a simple Right Base join which is accepted, and we turn Final a bit high, drop in to the "I can get it in from here" cone, and establish a stable glideslope. As we flare, though, the SW wind is pushing us across the runway, so whilst I can flare it OK it's impossible to keep it aligned using the rudder and prevent us from drifting off the centreline.

Here is where my lack of currency shows: whilst I am "Legal" (3 take offs and landings to a full stop in the last 90 day) I am not what I would consider to be "on the ball".

Of course Captain Hindsight says "half a mile back I should have dipped the into-wind wing and held it down whilst I kept the aircraft straight with opposite rudder, the amount of aileron required increasing as the speed dropped", but he's not here now and I'm close to making what I consider to be a mess of the landing.

I have to choose between landing left of the centreline (left rudder) or landing on the centreline but not straight (right rudder), so I choose "left of centreline" and we drop smoothly on, but it's moving to the left as we touch, so a little squeak.

Not perfect, and certainly not good enough.

Local 18 Dec 16

I've been away in India for a month and ever since my return the weather has been hugely foggy, but I'm determined to do some flying, even if only a little. Today the 600ft cloudbase is slowly clearing and we have a 2 hour weather forecast window before the fog comes back again. Let's go and give it a go.....

My friend Ann has been taking lessons and of course the CAA (they don't call it the "Campaign Against Aviation" for nothing) have been playing her up with her medical. You wonder sometimes if, despite their recent smiley publicity campaigns, they really have aviation's, particularly GA's, best interests at heart. Maybe I'm just cynical.

So she is down and depressed, feels she is not getting anywhere and wondering what on earth she is pouring money in to her flight school for. I will say nothing more than that I believe the flight school may not be helping..... She needs a flight.

At Oxford Whiskey Lima awaits: the weather looks just about good enough, so maybe we'll go and do an experimental circuit. If it's crap at 500ft we'll do a low-level VFR circuit back in; if it's OK we'll go off and do some general handling. Of course it goes without saying that no one else is flying...

As we taxy out the ailerons suddenly go over hard on to right lock. Huh? I overpower it but as we turn it goes hard left lock. We cant fly like this. It takes me 100 yards or so to realise it's the autopilot: the "on" switch is just above the throttle and I've flicked it on without realising. Willie warned me about this. Once disarmed we get full and free movement again, but it's not ideally placed. Still, now we know....

The ATIS is giving "few at 600ft", so we depart and actually there isn't any cloud at all: the sun is shining and the air is smooth. At 2,500ft over Oxford a few fluffy bits obscure some of the colleges but as Ann climbs us South towards Newbury the weather up here is just fabulous. What were we worried about?

She has definitely changed from underconfident passenger to pilot. She takes control of the aircraft, keeps it under control as she wheels around the sky and yes, of course a C182 is more complex than a PA28 but it flies the same (well, the elevators are stiffer) and her smile gets bigger and bigger as she gains confidence that I'll just let her pole it around while I tinker with the GNS430. There's no one up here, no one on frequency and the air is gin-clear. We're the most visually noisy thing arond anyway with all the Navs and strobes on, you can see us for miles.

South of Newbury it is in fact overcast at 600ft so we won't go to Lee-On-Solent today, but there's no wind so it won't overwhelm Oxford, they'll be VFR until about 5:00pm and we can trundle about Didcot (poking up through the clag and visible from everywhere), Wantage and Abingdon before gently putting the nose down and heading back for a rejoin. Ann gets us to the Downwind join while I run the radio, then we can report Downwind and cruise in over Kidlington.

Ann says she can't see the airfield (her smile is too big) but experience shows it's.... right there. Left towards the satellite dishes, pop the flaps and as we turn Final the lights of 19 appear as if by magic, we drop in to the approach cone and I'm deternined to be on the centreline as we flare and drop neatly on. The nosewheel tyre is a little underinflated so I'm keen not to overstress it as we taxy in to our normal 20 slot and shut down.

The light is fading as we pop the cover back on and depart. Ann will make a good pilot once the CAA and the flying school finally release her; she's asking the right questions now.

Lee-on-Solent 2 Jan 17

The fomer RNAS Lee-on-Solent has long been out of bounds, making a hole in the South of England's GA landing fields as Southampton is not GA-friendly any more (too many Bombardier twin turboprops going to Jersey and France).

Since its demise as a Royal Naval Air Station it has been almost defunct, apart from the Police helicopter and the Coastguard base. But the Residents' Association, having fought for years to have it shut, were told if it was shut it would become lots of houses and an Asylum centre so promptly reversed their animosity, meaning it has recently re-opened as a proper GA airfield, open to all. Sometimes you do win....

So on the Bank Holiday following New years Day we will try it out.

We'll take Jason, my daughter's boyfriend's father (and owner of 14, yes 14, classic Minis...), who is up to speed with magnetos, carburettors and other antiquated engine components, so should feel quite at home in a C182.

The weather has been awful but today is perfect: no wind, CAVOK but cold. No fog is forecast (that's scotched a couple of attempts at this flight), so we can go without fear.

We fly a couple of sightseeing circuits around Oxford before letting Jason fly us South. He does an excellent job and declares the control stability to be more like a bike than a car.

We change to Solent and arrange to slip VFR beneath their Control Zone stub before swapping to Lee Radio and announcing our intentions (Lunch!), extending downwind out across the Solent to give a landing aircraft a little more free time on the runway, then descending for a nice smooth arrival on the brand-new laser-levelled 05/23 tarmac, taxy to the end and follow a C152 that landed after us all the way back round the peri track to cross at the South end, then park up on the grass.

Lee-on-Solent are efficient, friendly and cheap (£17 works for me: Shoreham, take note...), and have an excellent beach exit system: depart by the pilots' foot gate which has a code for re-entry that they supply you with on a nice small laminated card. What could be better? This has been Thought About.

After a longer-than-anticipated lunch the sun is getting low in the sky as we return, book out and start up. The runway is right next to the parking so a quick departure Northbound and we are once more back with Solent, this time with Alice flying smoothly and confidently around the Odiham stub, past the inactive Popham and back to Oxford.

In fact I don't need to touch the controls as she executes a smooth orbit around Oxford as the sun disappears and the lights come on, and places us in a suitable location for a right base for 01....but 40Kts too fast and 500ft too high, so throttle right back, yoke right back, 20° flaps as the speed decays through 100Kts and we fall in to the approach cone as we turn Final, watch the lights and sink in to the blackness between them... for a little bounce (just a few inches) then a settle, but that was my first night landing in a while, I can be forgiven.

Kemble 4 Feb 17

We are keen to get Basil, our Cocker Spaniel puppy, used to flying because then we can take him to interesting airfields with beaches he can run free along.

The received wisdom is that dogs, once habituated to travelling in cars, will happily travel in aircraft; they don't know the difference. Aircraft are noisier inside than (most) cars, but dogs, whilst having acute hearing, are also very good at rejecting loud background noise. He won't need headphones.

The risks are that he could go mad and run around the cockpit, so we'll put him on the back seat with his comfortable bed/rug, and Nessa will sit in the back with him. If he fails to settle after take-off we'll simply land back at Oxford.

The mains tyres look a bit soft, but equally so, and Steve has lubed the tie-downs which is a huge improvement!

Basil gets in quite happily, just like he would the car. We start up and taxy, he looks out of the window and wags his tail, so he's not bothered by the noise.

On take-off he simply curls up and goes to sleep, so that's not a problem. He's quite happy.....

We, however, are less happy.
The intercom squelch seems to be misbehaving and our ears are filled with outside noise from the engine.
I try disconnecting various headphone leads and putting my hand over the microphone, but to no avail.
I'm sure there is a squelch control somewhere, but I'm damned if I can find it.
The comms box has no squelch, only a volume (our old TG comms box had individual squelches for P1 and P2).
The radio is running OK, so we'll continue to Kemble, but it's distracting.

Kemble are, as always, busy and an Overhead Join is required so we descend and report Downwind. A PA28 is ahead of us and despite extending and slowing down we're still catching him up, so by the time we turn Final he's still in the air. It's almost appropriate to Go Around, but he's a long way ahead, we'll slow some more.

Now he's down but needs to taxy a long way down to vacate, I'll float along the runway at flare height until he starts to turn... there he goes, so call "Whiskey Lima landing", chop the throttle and we're immediately down, bit of braking and we've got room to go round him if he suddenly stops, follow him off and the guy behind does exactly the same thing. Safe, but tight.

It's too muddy to park outside the restaurant but we can park near it, and get a cup of tea and a flapjack, plus water for Basil from the always excellent AV8 restaurant.

I always seem to get the departure from Kemble wrong: I steer too far to the North instead of North East to just avoid the corner of the Brize Zone. Kemble warns of glider activity at Aston Down, to the North West of Kemble, as we backtrack the grass runway and depart from the midpoint. There is so much runway here you could get a 747 on it... and they do, for this is the airfield where airliners come to die.

We take-off, and immediately turn right to 030° which works much better. Climbing to 4,000ft we skip round the Brize Zone, leaving a mile or so buffer zone so they don't get itchy, and head for Oxford. Descending for a Right Base Join, I realise we are very high (this seems to be my default approach position at present), so an impromptu glide approach ensues, but we're stable and by 100ft we are in the right place and ready for landing. The soft tyres don't seem to affect the landing, and we taxy in.

"Whiskey Lima, taxy slot 19"

"Slot 19, Whiskey Lima"

"Er... Whiskey Lima, are you based?"

"Well yes, and we're normally on slot 20"

"Ah.... Whiskey Lima, taxy slot 20"

"Slot 20, Whiskey Lima"

And the sun sets as we park up. Who couldn't love aviation?

Local 13 Apr 17

Whiskey Lima has had its avionics restored to the original Tango Golf fit of a 430W plus a 340 audio box and a new Garmin GNC255 COM2 box, so hopefully a re-run of the squelch issue will be prevented now: the 340 audio box has individual squelches for P1 and P2 sides. However, this has taken from February to April...

I have the Garmin GNS430W simulator on my PC (recommended and free) and have been familiarising myelf with all aspects of its operation, so after a 2-month refit we're ready for some Spring flying.

I want to explore Whiskey Lima's short-field abilities. The POH says you should advance the throttle to full whilst holding it on the brakes until 1700rpm then release and hold the yoke back and it will fly at 48Kts, so we'll try that on the safe (and long) environment of Oxford's 19 runway.

And indeed that is exactly what happens: 20° flaps, run up holding on the brakes, release passing through 1700rpm, a bootful of right rudder and hold the yoke back. The nose lifts almost immediately and by the time the speed starts to register it's already getting floaty. At 45Kts we lift, and a good push forward raises the speed to 55Kts at which point the Cessna 182 "helicopter" effect kicks in. We're at 1,000ft before the end of the (admittedly nice and long) runway, and a right turn out with a positive rate of climb allows us to lose the first stage of flaps during the turn followed swiftly by the 2nd stage as we pass through 90Kts and accelerate North East.

As I haven't flown since February I am a little rusty: some steep turns, slow flight, holding a heading and/or speed, descents and climbs are a little ragged. I just need to fly more.

At 13 miles to the North West we turn back in, ask for and get a straight-in for 19 (it's evening and we are the only people out), take a 60° cut and switch the 430W to "Vectors for the ILS" mode. It gives us the correct steer (left) but will not come off the stop even at half a mile. A moment's distraction as I try to find the runway visually and it flips all the way through. I'm not sure it's meant to be that twitchy: that close to the ILS it should have been closer than half-scale deflection before I looked away. I had assumed it wasnt working. It may need some adjustment. I'm not that bad at establishing the Localiser.....

Once established, we follow the glideslope down and I'm trying lower speeds for the approach: 20° flaps should be flown at 70Kts, coming back to 65Kts in the flare or even lower. That, coupled with aiming for further back down the runway and concentrating on not getting too high in the approach, makes for less energy to dissipate, a shorter roll and lower vertical speed in the flare, so a gentler touchdown.

Or at least, that's the theory.

In practise, it works very well and apart from drifting across the runway a bit in the flare so a squeak from the tyres (wrong rudder pedal...) and we're down and rolling, heading back for the stand.

Now I have my 3 take offs and landings to a full-stop and can legally take passengers to wherever we decide to go on Easter Saturday.

Bembridge 28 Apr 17

I have been out of the country on business in Africa (hot, humid, dirty...) so my head is not quite back in the groove today but an emergency call has come in from one of our clients who has a holiday home close to the end of the runway at Bembridge.

It's quicker and more cost-effective to fly down as I can be there and back in a couple of hours and the Landing fee is only £15.
Well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it....

Arrive at Kidlington only to find no aircraft. Have the other guys taken it without putting it in the diary?
No: it's here, outside Hangar 4 which has a big door sign "no propwash here".
This is a towbar job to turn the aircraft round so the wash doesn't impinge on the doors.

Start up, taxy out and line up. No premature take-offs today: we'll roll, check centre-line, speed reading, Ts & Ps good and rotate at 60Kts for a clean climb-out, swap to Approach that the other guys have kindly left on the 430... only to be informed that I'm with London Info and why am I telling them I'm airborne? Oh bugger, that's not Approach. An apology, a quick flip to Approach and all is under control once more as we accelerate South of Oxford.

I'm going to be really lazy today: listening squawks are great because you don't have to keep passing messages they aren't interested in at all. So a Farnborough sqauwk, then a Solent squawk, but they've got some temporary CTR down there today so I suppose I'd better talk to them. They aren't interested at all, though, once they know I'm going to stay outside their zone, so I report coasting out over Thorney Island and switch to Bembridge.

This is a tricky approach: the secret is to get really low over the trees, so you feel you're brushing the hedgerow. You need to be at double-decker bus height over the road before the runway, then aim to land on the starter extension (you won't manage it). But done carefully, you can be down just after the start of the runway and stopped just after the taxiway, for a quick 180 and backtrack.

Which we manage. Now I have a better idea what Whisky Lima will do with the barn doors out I can bring the speed right back to 60Kts and thus have less energy to dissipate on round out. Drop it on, gentle braking and it's all drama free.

Bembridge has become less popular now the café has closed but is still surprisingly busy. It's a fair schlepp up to the hangar to drop your £15 in to the Honesty box but all very easy and relaxed, the way an airfield should be.

My client flies in behind me and we pick up his car to go to the house. Easy.

I solve his IT problems and he drops me back at the airfield. Check the oil, close the cowl flaps and fire up, invert the flight plan in the GNS430W and taxy out, power check, drop the flaps, SPLAT check, call entering 31 and rolling, and roll.

Short-field technique gets us off in 250m (not bad!) and we climb rapidly out until we can see the Solent once more, turn right, sign-off and do the listening squawk thing for Solent as the air smooths over the water.

Back over land via POMPI this time (I spent 4 years there as a student and I've never been back. What a dump...), then North West around Solent's Zone, dogleg around Odiham's stub (I won't need to talk to anyone today) and straight North for CPT, swap to Oxford and get the ATIS.

Asked to report at 5 miles I'm still daydreaming, concentrating on slowing down and getting down, and looking out of the window at Oxford at 5.8 when they want to talk to me.
Apologise, swap to Tower and slide into Downwind for R19, where we're no 3 to land, so we'll slow down and let them get on with it.
It's amazing how quickly being no 3 gets resolved in to being no 1 as the other aircraft go around or touch and go, so we slow right up for Final.
I've been flying my approaches too high and too fast recently so now I'm concentrating on energy dissipation.
Lower and slower is this week's motto, which brings a gratifyingly smooth arrival, and I'm marshalled to a spare slot on the apron.
I wonder where they'll put the aircraft once I've gone home?
Back via the blow-up hangar - I've flown both these in here....

Bodmin - Lands End - Melbury - Brize Norton 3 Jun 17

Today Nessie and I will take Basil to Lands End for a jolly, breaking the journey at Bodmin (outbound) and Compton Abbas (inbound).

The weather forecast says it will be sunny with occasional showers. How can the Met Office get these things so wrong?

Oxford Airport is busy today with foreign dignitaries arriving by private jet for some football game in Cardiff tonight (something called "The Champions League", apparently...), so is about to get very busy indeed (little do they know what will befall them later in the day...) but we manage to get the bowser to brim the tanks before we pre-flight.

It's tempting not to manually check the tanks as the driver has certified them Full but that way Danger lies so out with the ladder and not only check the brimmingness, but that the smell is AvGas and the caps are on the right way round and tight.

Basil is fascinated by the small of AvGas from my fuel drain. He likes the aircraft, gets in and goes to sleep. To him it's a noisy car, basically. God knows what he makes of the view when he looks out mid-flight.

I don't follow football, but it seems a hell of a long way away from Cardiff to land and have to drive. The NOTAMs are full of RA(T)s and flying restrictions around Cardiff, so we won't go that way today. Also the Red Arrows will be doing a display in Torbay, so we will need to be careful in that area.

It's surprising how little we remark on the utter revolution in flight planning wrought by PC / iPad based flight planning tools such as Skydemon and Runway HD: when I started flying we had to trawl through packs of NOTAMs containing Latitudes and Longitudes and try to work out where on the map they applied. Now you join the dots in SkyDemon and it shows you all the relevant NOTAMs on the map. It even shows the GAFOR routes across the Alps (you can see where I'm contemplating going) with a Live "OK / Moderate / Difficult / Closed" status not only now but for the next two 3 hour blocks. I refuse to underestimate what a huge improvement in situational awareness that gives.

My friend Ann is learning to fly at the moment and the mantra is still "Turn/Time/Distance, GPS BAD!". Grow up, guys: turn/time/distance never works, VORs are easier and GPS easier still. The PPL Syllabus should utterly abandon detailed manual flight planning using the whizz wheel in favour of structured VOR/DME usage and really good GPS training. It's 2017, not 1968 any more.

We start up, taxy out and Hold for the JCB jet taxying in. You looking out of that Gulfstream window don't realise it but I know your daughter-in-law, mate.

Finally we get to taxy out for for R01 and I must be rusty because I ask for (and get) a left turn outbound. As we wait for take-off permission I realise I'm going to need to turn right to get Southbound or roll with the mistake and get a Zone Transit off Brize. No, I'll 'fess up, cancel the left turn and go over Oxford. Soon we are climbing out and turning around the bottom of the Brize Zone (we'll see more of that later...) for Swindon and Frome.

Strangely, Bristol is NOTAMed "No LARS due workload" which must be Cardiff football-related but we do a Listening sqauwk (5077) and it all sounds pretty quiet to me: the odd airliner but no scrum, and we can see Bristol from where we are and it all looks quiet.

Eventually we pass beyond Bristol's airspace and swap to Exeter: I could speak to Cardiff but I suspect they may not be interested in a VFR C182 going nowhere near them.

Exeter are less stressed and happy to chat, giving us a Basic Service after a shaky start due to range. But now the weather is deteriorating: the clouds are coming down and rain showers are coming through. I hope it gets better later, I want some decent pics of Lands End.

A Student Pilot on his first Solo Nav comes on, sounding a little shaky, saying he's Lost. How lost can you get in Devon? He can see the sea so he's not far off identifying where he is on the map, but we all know that overloaded feeling when nothing will click in to place, he's probably using 99.9% of his brain keeping the aircraft shiny-side up, and I do sympathise. Exeter pass him to D&D (121.5) which is of course Distress and Diversion but I always think of as Dungeons and Dragons. Am I showing my age?

Then Exeter starts talking to the Red Arrows, who are transiting down from Scampton. Exeter know about us so they won't vector the Hawks this way.

Soon a Jabiru appears going the same way as us: he's doing 90Kts and we're doing 140Kts so we cruise past like Royalty in a limo. He's going to Bodmin too, it turns out, but we'll be there a little earlier than him...

The weather worsens more as we approach Bodmin Moor and we're almost IMC. I can't see the airport until we're virtually on top of it, so we slow down, fly a rubbish, tight right hand circuit between the clouds and a short, very high vertical speed Final with full flaps. Pulling the speed back to 60Kts the aircraft feels like it's standing still; loads of time to line up, get down and slow down but we're still high on the approach to 480m of wet grass. A protracted session of no throttle at all (with full flaps that gets interesting and even Nessa gasps) finally drops us in to the "I can get it in from here" cone with the speed (and thus the kinetic energy) right back and the aircraft hanging on the prop.

If we're not down firmly by 1/3rd of the way down the runway then we'll abandon. The shadow of Steve totalling Tango Golf looms heavy in the air: this is exactly how he did it. Over the fence still going down at 7-800ft per minute, power off again, one big heave to flare, the stall warner goes on and stays on, we simply fall out of the sky but we're only 6" off the grass, so it dumps the weight straight on to the wheels and we're down where I want us to be. Now we've just got to stop....

The grass will slow us eventually but I reckon (and a small experiment proves it) we have no braking whatsoever available at this point. If we're still rolling the last 50m I'll go left off the runway in to the grass sideways and the long grass will stop us before we hit anything big. Reverse thrust would be useful.

But the grass does slow us as expected and by 400m we are stopped and backtracking to the apron. Just a bit more exciting than I would have preferred...

We're the largest aircraft there by a considerable margin: these are all microlites and no one else is flying today

Yet another virtue of a high-wing aircraft is that we can exit the aircraft and not get wet as we put our raincoats on and extract Basil from the back seat, where he has been asleep since Frome.

I go upstairs to book in and the guy running the (very well equipped) tower reckons the C182 is the most competent go-anywhere aircraft there is. I tend to agree, even though my hands are still shaking from the landing nerves. Actually they often shake a bit after landing, I think it must be the adrenaline rush.

Downstairs Basil is welcomed with open arms and a dog bowl, they do a damned good cup of coffee here and 20 minutes later the Jabiru turns up (the rain's gone now).

I meet Pete White who believes I should buy an Aeronca.
My old Vulcan-flying friend Tony Blackman would say "the middle wheel is at the wrong end!".
They have the local Scouts camping on-site and actually (Oxford, hide your eyes) touching the aroplanes.

They get to plan a Nav outing, then go out in an aircraft and fly it. A better way to excite young people about aviation I could not imagine. These kids are learning that aircraft are real things normal people fly, not shiny thngs locked away behind a fence only rich people fly. This sort of exercise should be obligatory at all schools, not just self-selecting Scouts.
At 14 I would have killed someone for this opportunity. We keep our aviation far too locked-away in a Health and Safety bubble, the Americans have it better but it's getting bad there too. No wonder the civil aviation community is increasingly old, white men (and I'm an old, white man!). No one young is enthused by aviation any more.

But maybe they were saying this in 1975 as well.....

Pete also says Lundy is the place to visit. They have a 400m strip and you can fly in. Sounds interesting...

The rain has cleared by the time we start up for departure and gently ease down the wet taxyway. No brakes here, either, it all needs to be done on the throttle. Line up, 20° flaps and we're off the grass in 250m climbing out for the sunnier-looking West. Once clear of Bodmin Moor we realise it's only horrible there: everywhere else is bright sunshine. English weather, ay?

As we track down the Cornwall peninsula and swap to Newquay then Lands End the weather improves dramatically until we are passing over white sandy beaches looking like The Caribbean. Cornwall can be wonderful, but I know from long experience how fickle the weather can be here, stuck out in the North East Atlantic. The weather gets a clear run up all the way from Brazil.....

Lands End ask us to report at Pendennis Lighthouse on the North coast, then join Right Base for runway 25. Sometimes in these situations it is so unclear where the actual airfield is you have to just go with the map and the runway resolves itself. Ah, here it is.... looks long after Bodmin, and it's dry tarmac.

Luxury: when I were a lad all we had was wet grass to land on, and we were glad of it.....

So we drop on and brake, at which point they ask us to backtrack then turn on the grass runway at the yellow line.

Er.... what grass runway exactly? All I can see is a yellow line pointing in to the weeds. There's no runway here, the grass is 3 foot high and I'll risk a prop strike if there are any lumps.

We gingerly proceed on to what resembles the rough on a golf course and following what I hope are other aircraft tracks but could be rabbit tracks leading to a large hole that my nose wheel will drop in to, at which point the engine will stop. Quickly.

It is rough, but on the map it does appear to be a runway, just a very unkempt one. This C182 has a 2-blade prop which is longer than the old 3-blader and I am paranoid, so we will proceed very cautiously.

At last we we emerge from the jungle on to another piece of tarmac and the apron is in sight so it's all tarmac from here, thank goodness. Grass I don't mind, but the jungle has got all wrapped around the spats. The Skybus Islanders and Twin Otters surrounding Whisky Lima don't seem to have the same problem, but then they don't make them taxy through the jungle.....

All three of us need some lunch and a stretch after that, so an excellent Cornish pastie, some souvenir pens and a walk up the road is in order.

As we walk in the beautiful Cornish countryside our friend Pauline Whatsapps us to ask if we will waggle our wings as we fly over them on our way to Compton Abbas, our proposed tea spot. And we look at each other and both say "well, let's drop in and see them instead (they live near Yeovilton)". Within 30 seconds it's all agreed: Compton Abbas will lose two tea customers and a dog bowl customer. They won't even know....

Then we walk back and check-in (just like normal Scilly Isles passengers) but unlike normal passengers we get to walk straight out through the door to our own private transport.

That gets a few strange looks from the other passengers: "Where are they going? We aren't boarding yet?"

The rather flimsy pretext for this extended bimble is to get some low-level shots of Lands End, so we request (actually it's outside controlled airspace so I can do it anyway, but just to be polite....) a low-level pass around Lands End via a left turn out, which is duly approved and off we blast remaining at 600ft as we turn past the tourist hotel and (worryingly) a RNLI lifeboat for the South coast and Penzance.

St Michael's Mount and more bright white beaches appear, the weather is absolutely gorgeous here, but it slowly worsens as we go up-country until as we approach Torbay we're in and out of the scud, we need to stay above 3,000ft to avoid the Red Arrows transit path. In the distance we can see under the scud them doing a low-level limited display. It's such a shame: 30 miles to the West is in glorious sunshine but here it's grotsville....

We twist around the big lumps to remain visual, then they clear away just outside the RA(T): typical! We've got ahead of the rain (although it will catch up with us later) and having double-checked with Exeter that the South Coast Danger Areas are inactive we cruise towards Weymouth then North East towards our next destination: Melbury

I've been in here a few times now: James keeps a really tidy strip and has given us carte blanche to use it, which is bloody good of him, so we'll find the L-shaped lake, look East a couple of miles and there it is, freshly-mown.

A low pass oves the cows away and shows the wind is right down the runway, so a left hand circuit, drop all the flaps and get the speed right down.

The C182 is a great short-field performer but the secret is to get rid of all the kinetic energy and have it hanging on the prop all the way to the threshold at which point it becomes incredibly sensitive to throttle, and if you roll it all the way off it will stall sharply, which is exactly what you want 6" off the grass.

Stalling it on means the lift goes straght to zero, so all the weight is quickly on the main wheels and if you keep the nose up you get maximum aerodynamic braking as well, so it slows down amazingly quickly.

By half way down the strip I've got the throttle back in, the strobes off, the transponder off and the flaps up. We roll in to the parking area and disembark for tea: Basil needs a wee and so do we.

By the time tea is over, we're back at the plane and have backtracked the rain has caught us up again. I can see and the aircraft flies OK in the wet so we'll just Go: yoke back and it lifts at 42Kts, the moment the wheels clear a sharp push forward on the yoke gets it accelerating in ground effect without the grass drag and once it hits 52Kts it goes in to helicopter mode: the further you push the yoke forward the faster it climbs. Counter-intuitive but almost magical. There's a reason there are so many C182s around.

The GNS430 goes in to "TERRAIN WARNING" mode the moment the weight's off the wheels: there are hills here above us briefly but we're well clear and climbing now. There is little forward visibility but I can see out of the side window OK.

Positive rate of climb, speed above 1.3x clean stall (75Kts) so we'll bring up the flaps, turn and climb out to the North East, do the Bristol listening squawk thing and soon, helped by the South West wind, we're near Swindon within range of Oxford's ATIS.

"Airfield closed until further notice"

What? Huh?

No response from Approach, and a passing aircraft says he can't get any response from them either but can hear us so it's not us: it's them.

This is an interesting little "what-if" scenario I've played over the years. I like to Have a Plan, and I do have one for this scenario: speak to Brize Norton.

They have a huge runway and don't use it that much, they're professional and usually know what is going on. Option #2 is Enstone, where you don't need to ask to land (and I have landed there, which is a bonus), Option #3 is Wycombe, Option #4 is turn round and go back to Melbury. I've got 2 hours of fuel left, so no panic, but I'd prefer to be on the ground on the phone rather than orbiting.

They say if you don't ask, you don't get. So one quick radio call to Brize Radar later we're cleared VFR for their Runway 25. Wow: that'll be one for the logbook....

We're in to the sun a bit and for such a big runway it's surprisingly hard to see: the various GPS and ILS DIs I'm using all say I'm on the extended centreline but it's not until I'm about 10 miles that it snaps in to focus.

And it's huge: I'm staring down 3050m x 56m of MoD tarmac and I'm cleared to Land.

Time stands still: I've done all my checks, slowed to 95Kts and popped the flaps, we're on height and on centreline but it's just not getting any bigger....

The Human League's "Black Hit of Space" comes to mind: time stops when you put it on (allegedly).

They must be so bored waiting for me to finally land.

Half way there they ask if we have retractable gear so we confirm that our gear is down and welded....

As it finally does get slowly larger, thoughts of the laughter echoing around Brize if I bounce it concentrate the mind, so eyes on the end of the runway and thankfully it goes well, we're just past the numbers, no brakes required (!) and we exit at Delta for the world's largest ramp full of A400Ms, C17s, a Merlin and a couple of paradropping Skyvans. We're marshalled in and for the first time in my life I get to report shutting down. Now that's big boys' stuff...

Getting out, I see the C182 is dwarfed by the scale of it all: we are by some considerable margin the smallest thing in sight. So today we've gone from Bodmin where we were the largest aircraft on the ramp to here at Brize where we are the smallest. I feel like Gulliver.

The RAF reception committee take a shine to Basil (who, inevitably takes a shine to them: tummy rubs all round) and we are ferried to Ops where, surrounded by military paraphernalia, we find out that they actually don't know any more than we do! They know Oxford is closed, and the Oxford Mail tells us it's a bomb scare evacuation, but they're happy to gve us a cup of tea and Basil some water, so we could stay here all night if necessary, or get a taxi home.

An hour later I get through to Ops who explain that Oxford is now open (apparently everyone else went to Enstone), so we are escorted back to Whisky Lima, call for start and are marshalled out for power checks at Delta, the midpoint of this behemoth of a runway. A momentary thought of requesting a backtrack for a laugh is quickly quashed: they would probably have complied and I would have been taxying half way back to Oxford!

VFR clearance given, right turn out approved, they then ask for our Transition Altitude, which floors me for a moment. Ah hah, I know what they want to know but that's not what they're asking for. So I explain that my Transition Altitude would be 6,000ft (that's the height above which you should swap to 1013mbars and start flying Flight Levels) but that my Transit Altitude back to Oxford will be 2,000ft.

I learned to fly at Oxford: we do our radio properly there....

We're in the air in 300m, a smart right turn at the end of the runway and we leg it to Charlbury before they start shooting at us. A big thank you to Brize Approach, get the new ATIS and a Right Base approach for R19 and cruise down in the evening sunshine for a smooth arrival.

Local 13 Jun 17

Whisky Lima has a different set of Nav/Com instruments from Tango Golf and I have been working hard over the last few weeks to understand how to really drive them with confidence, partly because when flying I dont want to be flailing around, I just need them to perform, and partly because I need to renew my IMC Rating, now known as an IR(R).

WL has a different style of DI: a semi-automatic HSI, that I am unfamiliar with. I can drive it comfortably as an HSI but the Localiser and glideslope indicators are just plain weird, so I really need to go and use it in anger.

On a sunny summer's evening Nessa will be my Safety Pilot and we will fly outbound to the DTY beacon for some VOR tracking inbound and outbound, some manual and some on autopilot, then come back for a long "visual" i.e. actually ILS approach for R19.

The secret to IMC flying is to fly the aircraft straight; otherwise you are not flying the correct heading. WL like all C182s has a rudder trim which means thought-free straight flying, one less thing to think about. Now I'm reasonably happy with the GNS430W I can bang in a Flight Plan reading EGTK-DTY-EGTK without having to refer to the manual, whch is a novel experience.

On take-off I simply ask Nessa to tell me about any traffic (I've taught her the clock code) and get my head down. Left turn outbound, D129 is now Inactive (it was Active earlier) and they've stopped throwing people out of perfectly good aircraft over Little Rissington so we can work off the DI which is saying "steer left".

Given we are headed for the 020 Inbound radial we will steer 020° minus 30° or 350° for a 30° cut until we are 1 major mark away from the middle then reduce to 005° for a 15° cut. That's the theory and it works beautifully.

We have a 240° wind which is blowng us right of track so we find 010° works as a maintenance heading. Slave the DME to RMT and NAV1 (the 430W), check the beacon Ident morse and watch it count down. We'll descend to 2,700ft around the beacon: people tend to use these beacons like we do for IMC training and a collision could ruin everyone's day.

As we approach 1 mile the display goes all hyper-sensitive and silly. We're on GPS so the whole "zone of confusion" thing shouldn't apply but it does still go into wonky mode below 1 mile from the beacon so in practice stay on the known good track, don't try and chase the needle and you don't need to be within inches (unless you're in a competition). Practicality wins every time, we're just trying to fly somewhere safely, not win awards here...

Outbound tracking works, so we self-position to the South West of Daventry and try a couple of instruments-only climbs and descents, turns and speed changes. You should be able to do a manual Rate 1 turn within +/- 100ft; with a couple of practises I can do it reliably within +/-20ft, so that's OK, and we can move on to interecpting the Localiser for OX-I.

Satisfyingly, this goes exactly as per the simulator and for this bit I can use the autopilot and height-hold which makes it much more like sitting at my desk at home with a cup of tea as opposed to sitting at 3500ft and doing 140Kts. Confidence buildng stuff, I can do this...

Asking for, and receiving, a long "visual" approach for 19 we trundle off and re-establish the Localiser from the other side before settling down for some proper glideslope stuff. The new HSI is just different from what I'm used to, but I can see the glideslope OK. I still don't think it's as accurate as the other crossed-lines type but let's work with what we've got...

At 1,000ft QNH (so 200ft above Minimum) I look up and there's the runway, so we'll pop the flaps.

I'm concentrating on dissipating more energy on approaches now, so "lower and slower" is the name of the game, and we drop on nicely soon after the threshold, keep the speed up and roll out.

Rust nicely removed, and the Revalidation booked....

Local 24 Jun 17

My IR(R) needs revalidating. My first try, the day was just too windy: we were seeing 18G28KT across the runway. I'd be happy to give it a go, but probably not with an Examiner on board!

The problem with Oxford is that they really need a 24/06 runway for the smaller aircraft.

The old grass 21 runway was great (it was also wide, so you could gain another 10° by landing diagonally across it a bit) but that is now closed and 19/01 is always out of wind.

You could fit an 1100m 230° or 240° runway in to the West of the main runway and even allow use of the 19 ILS to gain access to it: raise the MDA for a 24 approach and basically "turn right" on visual (or, probably more appropriately, simply add an RNAV approach to it...)

Anyway I digress: the following day it's still surprisingly windy, but inside limits this time so we'll give it a go.

They've moved the aircraft back to Slot 20 which is a bit of a shock: once again I'm playing "where's my aircraft?".

My examiner arrives as I'm pre-flighting and we brief for a trip out to Daventry. I can do this: I've got todays' Wind Correction Angle up my sleeve so there should be no surprises (hah!). We roll on R19 and I try a little experiment: giving it plenty of into-wind aileron to counteract that horribile "sliding left off the runway on take-off" feeling. But I give it too much and we roll in to wind before I catch it. Note to self: you've got more control authority on take-off because take-off speed is higher than landing speed, so use a bit less aileron.

Still, we switch to head-down mode and climb out keeping West of glider flying at Weston on the Green, then tracking up towards Daventry, which works fine apart from a little confusion over which line/DI to follow (this didn't happen the other day!). Use of the Heading Hold and Height Hold removes all the stress from this: just shift the bug around to track the purple line and not only does it satisfyingly zero out the DI error but it holds height while you do it. Having a stable IMC platform like the C182 helps, I suppose, but this is easy.

Once over DTY we need to come back, so this time I'll show off and do it manually: Rate 1 and hold the height to within 100ft. Bit of a balloon, then we get it nailed all the way around to head back, flip the a/p back on and load "Vectors for the ILS" on the G430W which is the lazy man's way of finding the Localiser. All that work with the simulator was worth every minute because the DI says "steer right", I can see the Localiser and here it comes at 13 miles. Nothing like situational awareness inside a bumpy cloud.

Oxford has instrument traffic already so they won't want us for a bit: let's show off and do some manual IMC orbits. Just to complicate things we need to descend at the same time (kind of the point of the revalidation: can I do this stuff?) so we do just that and roll out at 1800ft.

Now this is interesting and worth noting for all you Turn-Time-Distance fanatics: the forecast wind at 2,000ft is 240° at 20Kts, giving a WCA at 100Kts of 10° for a heading of 193°. So I'm assuming a heading to hold the Localiser will be 203° (193 plus 10).

But I keep drifting right: it transpires the correct heading to hold the Localiser is.... 193°. The wind must be on the nose. So much for the Met Office and if I had used that to fly turn-time-distance I'd have been in someone's Zone before I knew it. Remember: Radio Beacons don't move!

Report Localiser established, watch the glideslope coming in from above, let it wash down past us (well, that's how I visualise it), then tip forward to float on it and watch the height wind down. At 900ft call "100 above" and check visual, there's the runway very slightly off to the left but 2 whites and two reds, reachable from here, so go visual, pop the flaps and in my current "concentrating on not being high and fast" mode get the speed and height right back.

The Tower are giving 240° at 15Kts so we can expect a very sideways approach but actually apart from some medium-sized bumps at 500ft it's all very smooth and we drop on nicely and quite short; we could if we wanted pull up and use R29/11 to taxy home but they've got traffic behind us so we'll roll fast with plenty of into-wind aileron and flaps up. All considerably less dramatic than I was expecting.

Melbury 25 Jun 17

The UK's weather is notoriously fickle: even the Met office with their multi-£billion computers cannot get it right a surprisingly large percentage of the time. Rarely is the UK entirely cloud-free, and even when it is flyable at your end, any long-distance (so more than say 30 miles) trip involves a high risk that the weather en route or at your destination will be cloudy.

When learning to fly this is a bit of a problem, as often they won't let you fly because the weather is rubbish, but it becomes more of a problem when you are licensed and want to go somewhere, because although the weather where you are is good enough, the weather en route or at your destination may or may not be good enough to fly in. In practice, with a bit of careful scud-running (flying low, below the clouds) and realising that the aircraft doesn't mind getting wet, you can increase your percentage likelihood of getting there safely, but it's reaaranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: you need to be abel to fly in the clouds.

The authorities in the UK a long time ago realised that an achievable Instrument Rating that does not require you to take 14 exams, hold a Class 1 "I'm going to be flying a Boeing 747 with 300 passengers" Medical and undergo 50-100 hours of additional flight training was a Good Idea.

Of course Europe being Europe doesnt recognise it, despite there being an equivalent Rating in Germany....

Apparently the rest of Europe does not have clouds that affect GA.

The thing about having an Instrument Rating, whether Restricted (to the UK) or not, revalidated or not, is that you fly differently. It makes you more procedural, more accurate, more in control of what you are doing and gives you a greater understanding of how flying really works.

Today is a typical example: the weather is good at Oxford and good at our destination, but between the two is an unknown combination of cloud and rain. It could be fine, or it could be horrible.

We take off from Oxford with scattered clouds at 3,000ft, but by the time we have reached Swindon we can see the clouds lowering. We descend to a bumpy 2,000ft but as we progress the clouds are reaching downwards. If we scud run we are in danger of hitting rising ground. A VFR-only pilot goes home at this point.

We will, however, simply go IMC and climb on top.

A bumpy climb ensues all the way to 6,000ft at which point not only do we pop out on top in brilliant sunshine but we can see ahead of us that the cloud bank ends with only scattered puffy bits left, perfect for an approach and landing to our favourite Yeovil strip.

A low approach and go round shows the windsock fluttering between straight out and across the strip and along the strip. Gusty, ay? Let's give it a go.

The last 200ft are pretty bumpy but there's no consistency to the wind and it evens out as we flare for a pretty good arrival, taxy in and park.

And as we climb out the wind just drops, flat. Weird.

After a damned good lunch (but no booze for the pilot, boo hoo...) we climb back in, looking at a serene post-4:00pm weather landscape, start up and backtrack, power-check and roll: bump, bump, fly....

Climb out and head homewards, avoiding the Glastonbury RA(T) and try some VOR-tracking with NAV2, which is a little weird as it gives a readout of what bearing you are to the VOR without estimating it from the display, as well as distance and a confirmation of which beacon you're looking at: very cool.

Once that gets boring, we swap to a bored-sounding Oxford Approach/Tower combined who tells us to do basically whatever we want and we descend. There is still quite a crosswind but land on the upwind side of the runway, kick it straight at the last moment and we drop on to the centreline neatly. Very satisfying.

Kingsmuir - Fife Aug 17

Last time we tried to take Nessa's Aunt to Scotland the aircraft broke down halfway there and we had to limp in to Humberside and then home again, which was disappointing.

We have some cabling work to do for Nessa's Uncle so we will try taking her again now we have an aircraft that is less of a hangar queen, and hope the curse doesn't strike again.

The trip is set for Wednesday morning but for the entire week preceding the weather in Oxford is just tragic: drenching showers, high winds with low cloudbase. Where's the summer?

By contrast, the weather in Scotland has been fantastic.

Yorkshire seems to be the dividing line between good and rubbish weather today.

Normally I just use my IR(R) to get me to where I need to be if the weather turns rubbish, which is quite common in the UK (and, dare I say it, Ireland...), but I've never deliberately taken off to fly in rubbish weather (training flights excepted, of course...).

Let's think about take-off Minima: if we exclude the possibility of needing to come back in to Oxford the "recommended" minima are a 1.8Km visibility and a base of 500ft AGL. In practice if you can't see runway lights from 500ft AGL you're in mist, and remember these are only "recommended".

That's the legal position, which is neatly worded (thank you, the CAA) to allow you to actually do whatever you want so long as you don't fly in to anything. Remember, since the IMC was introduced in the 1970s not a single controlled-flight in to terrain accident has ever happened to an IMC-Rated pilot...

This is similar to my Firearms Licence that allows me to shoot "Vermin", without actually ever defining what vermin is. You've got to love English Law...

But what are my personal Minima? Oxford is at 330ft AMSL so 500ft AGL is 800ft which is the ILS minimum for an IMC Rating, so basically so long as the base is at 500ft on the ATIS we can go. We don't care about rain so long as the viz is more than 1.8Km (most rain showers have a 4000m viz).

Well, that's settled.

Today's weather is as bad as it has been all week, with the Southern England Low Level Forecast also showing embedded thunderstorms (TCUs) which, owing to turbulence, you want to avoid if you can.

This, along with ground mist and really strong crosswinds is one of the few bits of weather that really will stop you from going somewhere.

But none of the airfields we will be going anywhere near has forecasts of any TCUs; they seem to be confined to Norfolk and Suffolk, so that's clear.

Oxford's ATIS is giving (surprisingly) a base of 1,000ft with a viz of 4000m in rain so even though I will get wet pre-flighting the aircraft we can fly.

Wow, that's unexpected. I hope I'm right......

I do indeed get very wet pre-flighting and my passengers and tools get a good soaking as well, but we take off just fine and at 1,000ft the world below turns grey and disappears so we're on our own in the grey room. A/P on and monitor the instruments as we climb, then pop out between two layers at 4,000ft.

Most IMC flying is done in VMC conditions on top, and here we are.

The weather gets worse as we pass Doncaster and Humberside (where we stopped before) but brightens as we cross in to Yorkshire, so we try an experimental climb and at 5,000ft we pop out in to bright blue sky.

Ah, that's better.

The cloud slowly thins out and as we pass Durham and reach the coast we have a wonderful view of the North Sea spread out beneath us as we turn for Newcastle.

I'm concerned about a strange NOTAM relating to a military aircraft Holding Zone for the Edinburgh Tattoo that has appeared in our path over the Firth of Forth. It doesn't say you can't go in so I'm a little mystified and when we do swap to Scottish Info I ask them and they have to go away and request further Info before declaring it Inactive, so we descend through some wispy bits towards Fife.

A wind check from Leuchars confirms a 06 approach for Kingsmuir is most appropriate, so as Kingsmuir is virtually impossible to spot we'll use the GPS to line up for a Right base Join and descend to 1,000ft before even trying to see it.

I always pull carb heat as part of the pre-landing checks and never, in this or the previous C182, have I ever had so much as a cough... until now. The engine coughs, splutters and runs very rough for a few seconds before returning to its normal carb heat slight sulkiness. I think we might repeat that...

The second time it's clear, so we definitely had some ice there. It must have been when we descended through that wispiness. Carb heat can occur on warm sumer days when the dew point is high. The temperature drop in the carburettor venturi is around 20°C so a descent in cloud at 20°C, as we are today, is the prime risk point for carb icing. Further proof that good procedures make for safer flying...

Some airfields are incredibly elusive and as I haven't done 06 before it takes a while for everything to click in to place. It's doable from here, so full-flap and aim for just above the trees at 65Kts, then drop in neatly on to the grass for a bounce..... and settle, roll out and taxy to the clubhouse to shut down and park.

2 hrs 30 mins door-to-door and we've escaped the clag: the weather is fantastic here, a little windy but warm and sunny.

We unload all the cabling gear and off we go....

Later in the afternoon I get Oxford Operations calling, apparently they are expecting me back at 1:00pm. I ask them to look again at the Booking out form and give me the return date? A long pause is followed by "ah, OK, that's for tomorrow" which goes to prove my old theory that no one ever reads the instructions!

Wiring complete and a good dinner and night's sleep had by all, we're up and about Kingsmuir at 9:00 ready for departure. Whisky Lima is a great ship but won't get back to Oxford on the fuel we have. We need fuel and Fife has the closest pumps.

We depart 24 and are off before we are half way down Kingsmuir's 600m of beautifully-maintained grass. Down to the coast and along for Glenrothes, then approach from the South East and listen out. There are two PA-28s evident: one is doing circuits and the other is descending dead side. The circuiting one is turning Left Base so a quick orbit for spacing and we'll follow him in down the wonderful curved approach that takes you low (how low can you go?) over the golf course. To get the aircraft in the right place a really low approach is useful, if you can make a golfer duck they don't charge you a Landing Fee...

I don't do as good a job as I did last time and have to backtrack a little but it's safe and in seconds we are at the pumps for a wallet-lightening session.

The other PA-28 turns out to be a Student Pilot on his first solo land away from Dundee. Ah, I remember being terrified on my first solo land away when they changed the runway.

Having transferred most of the contents of my bank account in to the wing tanks we then roll on 24 for a suitably "shock and awe" short-field take-off and climb out over the Firth South to St Abbs Head VOR, then South via Newcastle in sunshine with fluffy clouds, all aong the coast down to The Wash before turning inland for Peterborough, descending below the clouds and running in towards Oxford.

Bicester is very active today and we see loads of gliders up along the cloudbase. Strobes to ON and a good look out gets us past them, then we're slowing, descending and lining up for a Right Base join for 01, over the A44 and down neatly on to the now-dry tarmac. Job done in 2hrs 29 mins.

Shoreham Aug 17

We've been invited to a party in Shoreham (on a Thursday night?) so we will take the still-warm C182 down there tonight and come back early in the morning for work. Try that by car.....

For some reason once it's gone past 5:00pm everything goes really quiet, and we are the only aircraft leaving Oxford, which makes for simple radio communications...

A Farnborough Listening Squawk gets us to Goodwood, then we descend in towards Shoreham for a right base for 02. We are the only aircraft on the radio, where is everyone?

Descend over the sea, over the beach, over the houses and over the railway for a nice arrival, taxy round, shut down and we're there in 45 mins. Mmmm, nice....

I didn't know that although Shoreham opens at 8:00am for the first hour it's an A/G Service, so our radio comms are very simple and within 5 minutes we are away off R02 up the Adur Valley and over the hills for Goodwood. There is literally no other traffic with Farnborough (normally it's mayhem) so we'll chat to them today. They arent very interested as we don't want anything from them really, by the time we've done all the "pass your message" stuff we're half way to Basingstoke and lining up for Compton. A Bit of "what if the GPS fails" VOR tracking later I think I'm probably current on that and we're listening out for Oxford's ATIS (which is not working this morning) and swapping back to Oxford Radar who are equally uninterested as we are the only ones on frequency. Where is everyone?

At 4 miles and still doing 145Kts over Port Meadow we swap to Tower, ease up and slip in to Downwind for R19, BUMPFTCHH, pop the flaps and swing in to Final, drop on and taxy home, back in the office for 10:00am. What a nice commute!

Sandown 25 Aug 17

We often read these articles in the newspaper: "what would you say to your younger self?".

At 15 I was a mass of teenage angst and unfulfilled ambition, I didn't know what I wanted and was certainly not going to be told anything by my long-suffering parents... I knew I wanted to be a pilot, as did a few of my mates (all of whom made it to the RAF and flew in various front-line roles, then became Captains with various long-haul airlines, the insufferable bastards. You know who you are!).

I had to do the pilot thing the slow and expensive way round, but I've got to the age when I can give a little something back to the next generation.

Sam is our "Work Experience" guy (he's not really... he has worked for us paid in his holidays since he was 13, has more brains and natural IT talent than I do and has just dug me out of a big hole with one of our more exclusive clients....). So I owe him.

He is me at 15 and in the Air Cadets, that wonderful organisation that taught me to glide (remember, a Cessna 182 without a working engine is just a big glider...), shoot and, er.... march around big squares in step (what on earth was that all about?). But they didn't do enough real flying then, and in the years between they have been progressively emasculated from real aircraft with real RAF pilots that do aerobatics to pathetic motor-gliders to occasional (very, very occasional...) Grob flights from Benson, so he's obviously keen. My 15 year old self would have given his left arm for a couple of hours flying a real aircraft actually going somewhere...

It's payback time.

The joy of running your own company is that you can actually do this sort of stuff.

We're so busy it's actually pretty rare a lull in work and decent weather coincide, but the Friday before Bank Holiday it all lines up and I nonchalantly tell the boys I'm going out, and would they like to come? A chorus of "Yes!" means we're off to Kidlington on a warm, sunny afternoon.

After playing hunt the aircraft (it's around the corner), doing a W&B then getting the tanks filled, we can get in and start up. Sam asks a lot of intelligent questions and slots in the right seat which we adjust so he can get to the controls. I've also got a new suction mount for my iPad so we can stick that to the windscreen and see how that goes (very well in the middle of the coaming, but it's rather in the way there so will experiment with putting it elsewhere). His smile is encroaching upon his ears as we start up and taxy out... he's absorbing it all like a sponge.

Take off, head South, do a turn around Oxford to show him the sights and head for his house in Longworth. Slow the aircraft down, pop a stage of flap for safety and orbit over his house a couple of times for photos, then we're off for some general handling.

I've thought carefully about how we do this: I'd like him to get as much yoke time as possible, so we'll start with straight 'n level (just let go...), work up to turns, then climbs and descents. We won't do both at once for now.

Actually he's clearly been practising in Flight Simulator because he's pretty good, so I line up his DI and we head South, climbing over Odiham's MATZ, doing the listeing squawk thing for first Farnborough then Solent, descend gently to stay under their Control Zone and head out over Hayling Island for Sandown.

I haven't been to Sandown for years, but it's easily visible from the mainland: a large patch of green. We swap radios, confrim R23 in use and slide down the Approach cone. I take back control at about 5 miles and we do a straight in with full-flap on to the bouncy grass. I hate grass sometimes, your pax think you are bouncing it, but it's the bloody lumps on the runway. Anyway, we slow and exit on to the even bumpier taxyway and get marshalled (that's a bit posh, but every microlight in Southern England seems to be here for their annual Spamfield Festival, so that's why it's so busy...) in to a parking slot for shutdown.

Booking in the tower, we get chatting to the controller:

"It's lovely out there today, very smooth and great viz"

"Yeah, I'm off out myself soon"

"Anywhere nice?"

"Just anywhere I can!"

I can understand that: sitting in the tower watching everyone having fun, flying in and out, I think I'd get pretty jealous too...

Starting up, we taxy down to the Hold. A Spitfire comes on the radio asking for a run and break, which (of course) he gets, and it's pretty impressive from here. Sam loves the entertainment, I dont think he can quite believe this sort of stuff actually happens in real life.

Turn on to R23, pop some flaps and roll. Bouncy-bouncy-bounce-bounce-bounce, that's why I don't come to Sandown very often! We're off eventually and climbing out straight ahead for noise abatement, lose the flaps then round to the North and we'll let Sam fly it all the way home from there.

Very nice, but where are the aircraft?

Poor Kieran feels a bit sick so he goes to sleep in the back and I do the radio while Sam holds a heading and keeps us climbing over the top of the Odiham MATZ once more, then on towards Didcot where we start to descend for Oxford. I'm not quite sure when I'll take control back, let's see how far he gets....

And he gets a lot further than I thought he would: with me doing the throttle and trim (and thus the height and speed) he gets us all through Downwind and Base Leg, round on to Final and down to the flare.

"I'll take it", a quick flare and we're on and rolling out.

Nice job: one day he'll make a good pilot.

The smile is very big and I suspect will last a long time... That is exactly what my 15 year old self would have wanted: more flying than he knew what to do with. I reckon he flew for about 1½ hours in all, lots of intense concentration, and a good story for all the other Air Cadets (who will be very envious!).

Shobdon 11 Oct 17

My friend Ann is training for her PPL. The CAA Medical guys have made her jump through hoops but she now has her Class 2 Medical and is working up to her first Solo.

It is interesting seeing the PPL process through a different pair of eyes; she has experienced some of the issues I did, including that maddening pre-solo period when you probably are ready but they are deferring you: "just a few more circuits..." which is partly revenue maximisation on their behalf, despite what they might loudly proclaim, and partly an accurate reflection of your woeful landfing skills!

We spend time hangar flying, as you do, and she is enjoying (as I did) achieving her long-deferred goal of a PPL. We've discussed the fact that, because she is older, that 1st solo doesn't arrive at 15hrs but more like 20 or 30 hours, and that you end up a more analytical and careful pilot, and she is always trying to understand the process rather than learning by rote.

I know she would love a non-instructional flight in Whisky Lima, which she intends to fly after achieving her licence, and I have held off because having flown her when she was a non-pilot, I now want to see how different her reactions are.

The day starts with dreadful weather: blowing a hoolie and a solid overcast at 600ft QNH (so 400ft above the ground) and driving to the airport I can believe it; but it's forecast to clear so we sit in Ops and chat about where we'll go. The weather is clearing to scattered at 2,500ft from the West so we decide on a trip to Shobdon and I get her to draw it on the map.

According to Turn, time, Distance 30 mins at 290° should get us to Shobdon, if the wind is as forecast at 3,000ft (hah!).

She'll be my checklist co-pilot, navigate and fly us to Shobdon direct, so we pre-flight, fire up and depart from R19 over Blenheim's gardens and Charlbury, climbing to just under the cloudbase. It's interesting to see that she can't keep a heading for long; I struggled with that until long after my PPL, in fact I only really learned it during my IMC, mainly by learning to trim the aircraft out then letting go!

Inevitably the 30 minutes she has plogged at 290° doesn't get us close enough to Shobdon to recognise it, another defeat for Turn Time Distance and another reason to use GPS or a VOR cross-cut. Sorry, all you flight Instructors, it doesn't work...

I have thought long and hard about how much leeway to give in terms of letting her fly the approach, and I reckon (like Sam) I'll play it by ear. We have had the normal "You have control / I have control" discussion so I dont think we're going to fly in to the ground locked in mortal combat, wrestling for control, but it is a concern.

Cleared for a straight in for 26 Ann gets us slowed down and pointed in the right direction but I reckon we're a bit low at 900ft, so I take it and drag us in for a gentle arrival and braking for the exit, a pulled pork sandwich and a cup of coffee.

During lunch her instructor calls to tell her that the wind is now straight across the runway at Oxford at 22Kts, so has to cancel her lesson. He obviously doesn't know she's flying with me!

Both her and I know the wind is more like 10-12Kts and he just wants to go out to do some shopping: I think that's poor judgement on his behalf, frankly.

We taxy out and take off, and I hand it back to Ann who does an excellent job of getting us back on course at a sensible height; it's interesting that she finds Whiskly Lima massively complex. I suppose I did when I first flew it; but now I know exactly what all the kit does and the heavy elevators and rudder-sensitivity-to-power comes naturally. I understand what people say about "wearing" the aircraft.

I let Ann position us for a Right base for 19; she's thinking now about where we would go if they told us to join overhead or crosswind, so that's a huge difference and the control inputs are now positive and correct, but again we're a bit low so I'll take it, pull us up a bit and turn Final. Wind is NOT 22Kts: it's given as 12Kts at 250° which the windsock agrees with; it's bumpy coming down but smooths out at runway level and we land smoothly, but not on the centre-line (bugger!). Still, Ann's impressed and that's good. I've done better....

She's coming along and will soon Solo, she's done all her exams and got the medical so it's circuits, circuits, circuits. I remember the endless circuits thinking "I'm ready, I'm not getting any better...". With hindsight I think I needed to move on to Nav and perfect the landings later: they were safe, but it would need another 100 hours or so of experimentation to really tame the Landing Monster. I look forward to flying with her in the other seat: that'll be an experience!

North Weald 9 Oct 17

Today I have a business meeting in Epping around the junction of the M25 and M11. Essex, mate!

Rather than risk life, limb and my appointment driving round the M25 twice on a Monday morning I think I might fly over.

The meeting is midway between Stapleford and North Weald: I’ve been to Stapleford before, so North Weald it is today. The weather is not looking too great but then that’s the great British weather: my attitude is that provided it’s not absolutely on the deck or blowing a hoolie it’s probably flyable.

I always struggle with flying to any kind of schedule, so today I have built a proper plan with plenty of dwell time built-in. I’m at Oxford by 9:30 for a 10:00 departure which, even with the airrcraft in a known good fuel state, is pushing it. I am not going to skimp on the pre-flight checks (that way danger lies), so don't manage to roll on R19 until 10:08 - we're behind schedule thus far.

At 1,000ft on climbout we go unforecast IMC, so a Rate 1 left turn out to a 30° cut on our 090 track which gets us clear of Beckley mast, but soon the clouds recede so we climb to 1500ft to transit the Chilterns. A recent accident in this area has reinforced in my mind the absolute reqauirement to fly above MSA if IMC, but today we're visual and there seems little point in climbing any further as the bottom of the London TMA is 2,500ft so we'll scud run today around the bottomn edge if the Luton zone and on Eastwards.

The Chilterns recede and the M25 appears slow or blocked in places as usual.

Oh look: pretty blue lights at the head of that 10 mile traffic jam. Lovely...

By 10:30 I’m swapped to North Weald radio and on a tight right base for R20. This week I seem to be mainly flying extremely tight approaches. I may have cut this one a little fine in fact: I don't complete my Right Base roll until nearly at the flare, which is an interesting application of my patented Approach Cone methodology. Still, a nice smooth arrival is expected at the stable flare.... except that it isn't and I bang on to the battle-scarred 1950s concrete a little more firmly than expected. Not disastrous, but not up to normal "no bump" standards.

North Weald has a proud history, being one of the airfields that harboured Fighter command during the Battle of Britain and then onwards to 1979 when it became a civil airfield owned, interestingly, by the local Council. Today it is a typical GA airfield with a mixture of re-used hangars and workshops being storage areas for non-aviation activities as well as a lot of GA movements, part run-down and part brand spanking-new, but the important bits, like ATC, work well.

I am guided to the WIngs Café and find out, to my surprise, that there is no Landing fee payable. That's a first! I will return, most defnitely. Shoreham, I hope you're watching.

And as I taxy in I can see my taxi arriving; by the time I close down and grab my laptop bag it's exactly 10:45. I'm on Time! It's taken 37 minutes by air.

After my (successful) business meeting Nigel my super-efficient taxi driver drops me back at the café and as I have paid no landing fee I feel I should at least have lunch, so a traditional bacon sandwich, done to perfection, is in order. The café is busy with pilots and non-pilots, always a healthy sign.

They're filming a Harvard outside, so trendy film types keep appearing with hipster beards and clapper boards. I could be a film star!

Start-up and prgressive taxy around to the run up area to join the post-lunch queue: a Diamond, a PA28 and a C182. Line up, call "rolling" and roll, use up 300 or so metres and we're away, back in to the low cloud and intermittent showers today is offering.

A client who is also a pilot was saying last week that he has now stopped using his autopilot for most legs as he felt he was losing currency at height and direction-keeping, which is an interesting point. I tend to use it when busy with radio and within controlled airspace, but today we'll fly manually, and actually it's easy becasue the C182 is such a lovely stable platform provided you keep the ball in the centre.

Farnborough are so quiet I begin to suspect my radio: where is everyone? I see 1 helicopter and a PA28 and that's it all the way back, but they have a PA28 at my height outbound White Waltham to Turweston that may affect (strobes to ON, landing light to ON), but he's in front of me and soon the Chilterns recede and it's time to switch back to Oxford, perform the requested orbit at 5d (good practice at height-keeping) and plop back on to R19 37 minutes after take-off. But for the orbit it would have been faster, so I must have an Easterly wind today.

Our apron slot is filled today so a marshaller directs me around to a parking slot and I shut down there - we'll leave the brakes off and they will move us later.

That was a lot easier than fighting the traffic on the M25... Some day all business trips will be made like this, with the advent of electric flying cars. I've been saying it since the 1960s, now it looks like the technology might finally be catching up.

Leeds Bradford 4 Nov 17

When I was young there was a Yorkshire song about "Ilkley Moor"; I've always wanted to go there ever since.

Ann needs to visit a client in Ilkley so now is our chance: by the miracle that is aviation we'll be there in an hour.

People complain about mandatory handling at large airports meaning being charged ludicrous fees for virtually no service but in my experience handling agents are helpful, give you free coffee and WiFi and will do anything to make your life easier. It's easy to be hair-shirt about the whole aviation experience but we all accept this hobby is not cheap and frankly the extra £30 is neither here nor there in terms of the total flight costs. Anyway, we're on business today.

Multiflight at Leeds Bradford are efficient and helpful: I ring the night before and they explain all the procedures, I then confrim times just before we leave.

The day starts cold and damp, pouring rain and low, low clouds. But it's forecast to clear to scattered at 2,500ft so we'll drop Basil off with daughter and boyfriend (she'll take him for a 5-mile run so he'll be exhausted later...) and drive up to Oxford, where it has just finished raining and the cloudbase is breaking up. We do, however, appear to be the only ones flying today: everyone else has written the day off!

I'll let Ann taxy and do everything above 1,000ft, I'll do the radio and the nav, the landings and the take-offs; let's see how we do.

At 1,000ft Ann takes over; after some shenanigans with Hinton in the Hedges, which is parachuting today and we have to avoid their ATZ, things become calmer. She can hold a heading but not a height, or a height but not a heading, as we thought. Also the DI on her side is drifting quite badly and is effectively unusable, so she ends up using mine. The best thing in these circumstances is to let her learn how it all works without interfering too much and she settles in over the next forty minutes as we cruise North East around East Midlands then North West towards Leeds. The clouds are thinning and it's turning in to a beautiful day.

She is struggling to fly straight and we finally conclude it's because she is resting her feet on the rudder pedals and one foot is pushing harder than the other, so she is always flying out of balance, plus when she is turning she is using the rudder as well which is appropriate but she's using far too much. So we try "feet off", use the rudder trim to centre the ball in the cruise and things settle down.

We'll ignore Doncaster Intergalactic as we're nowhere near their Zone and go straight to Leeds Radar. As we approach there is an absolutely huge radio mast we steer off to avoid - don't want to meet that IMC!

Changing to the promulgated Leeds Radar frequency as per the VFR Operators guide published on their website, however, elicits no reply.
Radio Failure? Try COM2.
No.

Try Ground? They are a few miles away, and maybe the hills are preventing reception, so we climb but it's no better.

What's going on?

We are approaching the suggested VRP of Dewsbury (not that there's anything especially notable on the ground, if it wasn't for GPS you'd never spot it!) so we'll orbit and gather our thoughts, rather than bumbling on in. Let's just check the Pilot Log on SkyDemon... ah, different frequency required.

It's nice to have a handling pilot flying the plane at moments like these: flying single-pilot does increase the workload. I can calmly swap frequencies and negotiate with Leeds Radar whilst ensuring we don't bust their Zone, safe in the knowledge that Ann will bumble round the orbit all day. Nothing like Multi Crew Cooperation...

Leeds Radar are happy to (finally) hear from us, give us a squawk and send us off for a left hand downwind join for 32 which pretty quickly transforms in to a left base join for 32. We're already visual with the approach path having watched a 737 on the approach a few minutes beforwe so we call visual and Ann BUMPFTCHH's for left base, slows the aircraft down and turns Final. Nicely done, I'll take it at 1,000ft.

It's interesting to see the C182 from a PA-28 driver's perspective. It feels slow, because of course we were cruising at 135Kts before, and pulling the flaps apparently feels weird (it's the centre of pressure difference between a low-wing PA-28 and a high-wing C182 means the drag is appearing in a different place), and of course everything is heavier: the famous C182 arm muscle workout...

Leeds Bradford airport is the highest commercial airfield in the UK (Dunkeswell is higehr but it's GA only), it's on the top of a hill and is always windy, so the gusts chucking us about on the approach are to be expected; we've got quite a crosswind as well so I'll fight it all the way down. Sometimes it does feel like wrestling a wild animal but the little secret is that it's always smooth in ground effect, so by the time you flare it's really not going anywhere quickly, and we plop on smoothly. This week I am mainly landing absolutely on the centreline, so we slow and exit, as instructed, left to Lima, which is very badly signposted and I miss a trick by not having my geo-referenced SkyDemon plates on display. Use the technology!

Multiflight efficiently marshall us in to the apron (yes, I'm allowed to use the split infinitive now...) and we shut down. It's cold and windy here, truly "grim up North..."

After a successfuil business meeting and a drive across the famous moor we sign out with Multiflight and start up, contact Leeds Director (sounds grand), get and repeat a VFR take-off clearance, swap to Ground and taxy out for power-check, being especially careful not to taxy anywhere near the extremely nice Dassault Falcon next to us on the apron.

Power-checks complete, we're cleared to backtrack 32. Well, as the runway is 2250m long I thnk we can probably make it from the intersection.....

Depart, turn South at 500ft and "cleared not above 2,000ft" for Dewsbury we climb out. Ann takes it at 1,000ft and we have a bit of a struggle: she can't seem to track for Dewsbury successfully and as we sort that out she drifts up to 2,000ft. Not cool, only immediate assertive action (a big push) saves the day and we track out to Dewsbury. How embarrassing.

Glad to be rid of us, Leeds passes us off to Doncaster who are, of course, entirely uninterested as we are miles outside their Zone.

I am rude about Doncaster but in my experience, even if they have no confliciting traffic, they will make you go all the away round their Very Important Intergalactic Traffic Zone instead of giving you a Zone Transit, so there you are. A word to the wise ATC: when there is only 1 aircraft on frequency Zone Transits may be given....

Once clear of them we settle down and watch the sun setting over Birmingham. It's smoother now as evening comes on, and as we pass Daventry I can point out a clump of lights 35 miles away: that's EGTK for sure. We track West a little and there, amazingly from 30 or so miles away are the lights for 19 and the PAPIs so we can do a very long straight in approach.

I've worked out why Ann is struggling with approaches: she's trying to do them too high and too fast. I take over at 1,000ft, chop the throttle and let the speed come all the way back to 75Kts and the height to decay. She reckons we're way too low but we're not, and by way of proof I can finally deliver what I've been trying for: a "no touch" landing, on the centreline, mains only, a chirp from the stall warner the only indication of our arrival, let the nose wheel drop gently on and we're down. That's what you aim for every time (and mostly don't get!).

Taxy in and park up, put the aircraft to bed and pick up Basil (who is exhausted), home for tea (and biccies, of course).

North Weald 29 Nov 17

Bloody Hell, it's cold: Autumn has finally turned in to Winter and today's little business trip to (bleeding) Essex (mate) will be a cold one.

A couple of years ago I bough a 45 gallon plastic drum of aircraft de-icer. I've never had to use it before, it's sat in the garage waiting for the right moment, one of those impulse moments we all have in aviation: you know the "now I'm a serious pilot I need to have my own de-icing fluid and a pump sprayer"..... It duly arrived and I never needed to de-ice, being a cold - weather wimp.

Well, today it earns its keep: we are to take Dan, Rod and Kieran to north Weald to look over a cabling job, and frankly the standard of driving on the M25 is such that I would prefer to fly, thank you. I don't know where some of these people got their driving licences, but it certainly wasn't Oxfordshire.

So I fill the pump sprayer with enough de-icer to clean a Boeing 737 and lug it through Ops to Whiskey Lima, which is out on the cold ramp looking festive. While the kind bowser man is lightening my wallet I can spray....

The leading edge and the wing tops are where we need to be, plus the horizontal stabilisers of course. The first minute goes perfectly, then the bloody nozzle blocks.

No amount of reverse blowing will shift whatever is in there, and now I'm covered in de-icer and pissed off. OK, we'll take the bloody nozzle off and glob it on. Actually that works a lot better, the big globs splatter on impact and spread out. I do the whole wing with the nice long wand I've got and have plenty left for the tail plane.

I've got to go and pick up the guys at Security, which turns out ot be a complete faff: next time I'll drive them through in the car on my pass. But the good news is that by the time we get back to the plane it's completely frost-free, so we can all pile in and boogie.

Now we have the new battery we start with alacrity and I give it a good few minutes to warm up, then off we go: "no turns above 1,000ft" and Airliner mode as Rod and Dan have never done the GA thing before.

Rod asks what he does if I die in flight and I suppose the answer is "panic", but I'll teach him how to control a C182, which ain't hard. The trouble with flying is that once you know how to do it, you can make it look easy and be nonchalant; it's easy to forget the panic you felt when first confronted with this out-of-control, writhing bucket of bolts that would *not* go where you wanted it to go no matter how much you pushed and pulled and twisted. And as for crosswind approaches.....

So Rod does a good job of keeping a heading or a height but not both and we trundle off towards London.

I've been experimenting with iPad placement and have found that a long double sucker mount above the coaming seems to work quite well. It obscures the Comms panel a bit but is certainly within easy access and doesn't obscure your view too much.

Having both SkyDemon and the 430 makes nav a breeze. I like the 430 but putting VFR waypoints in is ludicrously painful and it will not give you ETA at next waypoint, only distance. I always add entry and exit points in to and out of controlled airspace and across FIR boundaries as waypoints so I can do ETAs; ATC often ask for them and if you can reel them off "ETA Strumble Head minutes two seven" it makes you sound really professional, even if you don't know what you're doing.....

The weather gets worse after the Chilterns: we lose the sun and the clouds lower. Snow is forecast, this could be interesting. It's a bit bumpy but not too bad, and we'll stay at 1500ft so we can see the Chilterns, radio masts etc.

Soon Hemel Hempstead and the A1 are behind us and we enter the land of hotted Subarus and the white stiletto. Essex, maybe The Only Way...

Over the Lea valley we can see North Weald and I know they're on 02 with a left hand circuit so we'll set up for a left base join and swap from Farnborough North (all very proper and CAP413) to Norf Weald Radio, innit? Who have no other traffic (where is everyone today?) so tell us to do whatever we want (stalls, steep turns, wingovers!).

Turn Final over our destination and fight the blustery 320° crosswind all the way down to the displaced threshold for a tidy and bump-free arrival, maybe a little long but very passenger-friendly.... back track to the junction and thence to the Wings Café to await our Essex taxi driver (8 kids: bloody hell, how does he afford the school fees?)....

After a very successful sales trip we get ferried back to the airfield and stop for a bite. The Wings cafe stops serving hot food at 3:00pm, so arriving at 2:45pm seems a reasonable bet, but apparently he thought he'd clear up early so we opt for cake and crisps.

I think I'll make him feel bad about it by telling how I always come here because the hot food is so good (which is not a lie), then we start up again and taxy out.

"No other traffic to affect" means I can enter and backtrack and bugger about as much as I want, but we do need to get home so SPLAT check and let's roll, left turn at 800ft and swap to CAP413-land for a Basic Service under the Stansted stub TMZ.

Miss CAP413 clears us West "not above 1,500ft" then fails to cancel it all the way to Bovingdon (even Farnborough North gets it wrong sometimes), but actually the clouds are at 1600ft so we'll stay at 1500ft.

Following a fatal mid-air collision recently over Waddesden everyone is mad keen to make see and avoid work, so we get virtually a deconfliction service for the small amount of opposing traffic which, in this poor light is really helpful.

But today NATS is not really earning its keep, they're bored because it's a cold weekday in November and no one is out!

Why do people not fly when the weather isn't bright blue skies? I love flying in inclement weather, it's much more interesting. We get rained on over the Chilterns, then suddenly it clears and the base lifts, the Thames Valley is much nicer.

Cleared for a right base join for 01 we ease down and turn Final, and here's the crosswind, we fight it all the way down. Rod videos me at this point, and manages, amazingly, to get me looking nonchalant as I wrestle with the controls. It looks easy, but it wasn't!

We do finally flare and drop on tidily with only a slight bump which, given the crosswind is a triumph.... Rod announces that not only did he enjoy it but he can understand the fascination: 30 mins to Essex is good in anyone's books. And we made enough money today that the flight costs are a drop in the ocean. That's what I call using your aircraft for business.

Shoreham Jan 18

It's the first weekend of 2018 and we have been asked down to Shoreham to a friend's house to celebrate their engagement.

The weather, however, has other ideas.....

Once free of Flight School constraints, you really do have to think properly about personal weather minima: there is no point in going to the airfield "for a look-see": you can't really tell what's going on, and modern weather websites and tools are so good you can now predict much better what's going to happen during your flight from your desk at home.

Today the various weather tools say Oxford is going to be VMC all day with occasional light rain and massive North East winds at some point. It will be VMC all the way down to Shoreham and Shoreham will remain VMC all day.

However, as we drive to the airport a huge rain cloud appear and floods the place, which doesn't bode well. When we arrive, Bryan and Ross are there looking glumly out of the window, and no one is flying. It is, however, forecast to clear, and the massive NE winds are simply not here, so we'll fuel up and go. The aircraft doesn't mind getting wet....

Bryan has many, many more hours and qualifications than me and he's undecided about going out; who am I with relatively little experience to second guess him? But he is wrong: the weather is improving and in the end even he decides to commit aviation today.

We first need to fuel up, so we get the AvGas wagon out and he fills both sides. It's cold, wet and windy out here. Am I completely mad? I am the only person on the ramp.

The aircraft has stood for a month in rain, wind and snow, so the battery may well be flat. I'll turn it over by hand a number of times (with mags off and keys in pocket!) to easy any oil stiction. I'm not going to strain it with flaps checks until it has done that one start, and I have the ground crew with their whizzo jump starter on standby, so we'll prime it well, then Master On and immediately crank. I reckon it'll be good for one shot before it goes flat.

One blade creeps past arthritically, then amazingly it fires and runs. Feed the extra primer in to stabilise it, then run it fast for a couple of minutes to make absolutely sure it's warming up and won't stall. We'll hold it on the ramp for a good long time to let the oil really warm up before taxying.

I reckon everyone else saw us out on the ramp and thought "well, bugger it, if they're going we will" and there's a flurry of activity with Cirruses and Mooneys all jockeying for runway 01. Bloody Hell, wish I'd kept quiet now....

I haven't flown (myself) for 2 months (commercially I have been to France, Guinea, France, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kho Samui, Bangkok, Hong Kong and home again, but that's another story) so I have had to mentally rehearse a few things before take-off. The ATIS is giving broken at 900ft which is about right: we'll be mainly IMC today.

Roll on 01, swing round to the South and at 1,000ft the grey room takes over as we climb out South for Compton. Cruise climb to 4,500ft and we break out (freezing is 5,000ft today so no ice) on top between two layers of cloud, it's very pretty.

Up here you have absolutely no indication of location whatsoever, which is what radio beacons and GPS are for. How did they ever manage before? With 3 separate GPS units telling us exactly where we are, life is easy and accurate. Compton comes and goes, Lasham comes and goes and just before Goodwood the undercast thins, so assuming there is cloud over Shoreham we'll descend and see if we can get under it VMC. I don't mind descending in cloud but a VMC descent is always preferable.

However, it turns out the clouds are sitting on the hills here, so we'll climb back up IMC, which of course messes with my middle ear something rotten. This is really when IMC training is so vital: disregard the inner ear ("we're descending to the right, really badly!!") and watch the AH ("we're in a smooth cruise climb going straight ahead") instead, as we pop out of the top the inner ear goes "ah, oops, sorry, maybe you were right...".

And, as forecast, the cloud simply stops at the coast. Now I know why people live on the coast, the weather really is quite often much better. Shoreham is in fact in sunshine, and the massive forecast NE winds simply haven't materialised, so we join Left Base over Worthing Pier where they hold us at 1600ft until we are virtually over the coast, then it's "Clear Land!". Bloody hell: what, from 'ere?

Glide approach, flaps out, we'll j-u-s-t make it. I'm high on the PAPIs until we're past the threshold, but I can do it from here, rubbish ATC isn't going to discombobulate me....

Smoothly down, a little long but totally safe, and taxy round to the Eastern Atlantic hangar where there is no one, and.. it's blowing a hooly out here!

After an extremely boozy weekend and a very delayed departure due, basically, to lunch, we're back at the hangar and it's already full dark. I haven't flown for 2 months but one of the last acts I did 2 months ago was a night landing, so this should be OK. However the forecast NE winds are howling around the hangar and the winds back at Oxford are forecast as 050 18G25Kts, which might be interesting...

Fire up (no battery worries now), turn on all the lights and taxy out, wait for the night inspection Land Rover to finish and roll on 02. A hefty NE wind hits us as we exit the lee of the hangars and keeping on the centreline becomes interesting, but we're at rotate speed so a suitable chunk of right aileron and we're up and tracking the centreline as we climb out.

And it's beautiful tonight - we can see all the way to London and the airliners descending in to Heathrow as we track West then North. I love night flying, and of course above 2,500ft it's smooth as silk.

North of Compton Farnborough releases us to Oxford and we start our descent at 10 miles, gently down to circuit height, then Right Base for 01. The wind is now 05011Kts, so we won't even notice it. The wind always reduces after 4:00pm, no one can explain why, but it's a fact.

But what's going on? I can see all the light on the A44, the apron, the green flashing airfield indicator and I know I am lined up for 01. I'm at 800ft and there are no runway lights. Am I going completely bonkers?

I know they have these funky new LED runway lights that you can't see from the side, but surely by now I should be able to see them? I tell Oxford Radar/Tower I am having trouble acquiring the runway and there's a pause..... "Ah, that should be better", and the lights come on. They had them pointed the other way....

So now I'm high (having not descended below 800ft as I looked for the lights), but I reckon we can do this, even if I am long. Flaps, glide approach (again...) and we slowly get a better picture as we float over the starter extension and down, down, and... ooh, that was really nice. Let's do that every time.

Taxy in and fuck me, it's cold putting the plane to bed.

I do feel I've had a good work out, though: IMC, night and strong crosswinds.

I reckon I'm reasonably current now....

Stapleford 15 Feb 18

I need to go to Essex (again) but today there are Strong Wind Warnings in force: for the majority of the day it will be 27015G28. That is beyond my crosswind limit on runway 19, but (and here's the point of the tale) a) the warnings are current from 9:00am so if I get off at 8:00am the wind won't have risen yet and b) coming back I can use runway 29 where the wind will be well within limits.

So the moral of the tale is: just because there are strong wind warnings doesn't mean you can't fly!

I do get a squirrely wind on the approach for R21 at Stapleford but I think we can cope with this now.

Coming back, the strong wind simply never materialises: by the time I return to Oxford's ATIS zone they are giving 23015KT so we can ignore that and slide in for a left base. All the way down and.... well, let's say I've done better landings. A tiny bounce, I think maybe I wasn't concentrating on the *end* of the runway at the critical moment. Still, it's safe, and I'll beat myself up about it the next time I go out.

Dundee 17 Feb 18

Nessa's uncle is very poorly and we don't think he will last the week.

Nessa, myself and Nessa's aunt would really like to go and say goodbye but we're all busy on Sunday so maybe, just maybe, we can do up and back in a day.

Saturday is forecast to be CAVOK all day all over the country, so I'll go de-ice the plane while Nessa drops Basil and picks up her Aunt. We're aiming for an early departure so are at Oxford at 6:30am.

And it would work, but for the fact that as the sun rises the mist rises with it and we are delayed for 30 minutes while it lifts and evaporates.

Still, 8:12 off blocks is good, we get to power check at Delta (that's a new one on me...) then roll on R19.

As it's cold the front two cylinders are reluctant to warm and fire properly, so I have to do an extended oil warming session at 1400rpm to bring them up and get the oil pressure down a bit before we take off.

The weather is as forecast until we get North of The Humber (past Doncaster Interstellar) where what looks like showers turns in to low crud. I'm not scud-running over the Yorkshire Moors in reduced visibility so we'll climb over it.

It turns out to be solid clag to 8,500ft, where we finally pop out on top almost at Newcastle. And it's beautiful up here again: where was that on the forecast?

Past our normal Kingsmuir strip: we need a car today and we have done this at less than 12 hours' notice so Dundee it is. Leuchars are happy to have something to do so a MATZ transit then we pop out descending over the estuary, looking at the infamous Tay rail bridge and the less infamous Tay road bridge (50 years old this year!): a dour, characterless concrete structure with terrible expansion-joint thump and a bloody 50 limit....

(As an aside, motoring in Scotland is dire: the roads are poor, badly maintained and rife with speed cameras, overly-restrictive speed limits and poorly-designed junctions; the drivers are inadequately trained, poorly disciplined and drive terrible cars too slowly).

Over the football fields and down on to the beautiful runway by the bay, a tidy arrival (better than last time...) and we taxy in for fuel, which would be easy if some silly sod wasn't blocking the pumps with his Grob.

Apparently he has to wait for the oil to warm up "before he can move". He is there when we taxy in, he is still there when we park, he is still there when we return to the fuel bay having paid the landing fee, and he is still there when we taxy up his arse to get some fuel. This is the equivalent of doing 50mph in a 60mph limit: there will be no more stress on the engine taxying than sitting there....

Anyway the fuel guy (very helpful!) kicks him, grumbling, off the pumps and we can fuel, then park at the back (we're the only visitor!) and pick up the hire car (by the way, don't buy an Insignia 2.0d Turbo SRi. A lot of torque steer, a lot of noise from the diesel and frankly not much real performance...).

Walking in to the office is weird: there are all these fresh-faced students staring at the Sky God who has just flown all the way from Oxford and now just wants fuel and a taxi, whereas they are barely at their 1st Solo and deep in "Air Law" and "Meteorology". Been there, done that.

Yes, I am well aware that in a year or so's time one of these teenagers will fly me to Greece in an EasyJet 737, so for now I'll savour my brief superiority.....

Dundee is weird: they shut at 4:00pm on Saturdays, so we will need to be back and taxying by 3:30pm.

At 3:25pm we're booking out, we start at 3:30pm and are at the Hold at 3:35pm.

There are lots of landing aircraft to accommodate who want to get down before 4:00pm, so we're a bit delayed but it lets the oil warm up a bit more. Then roll on R27 and left at 1,000ft to Leuchars and onwards.

It's VFR all the way home and the weather has improved so we get Zone Transits through Newcastle and Durham, then do listening squawks for Doncaster Hyper-Galactic and East Midloinds.

The ATIS is out, so we ask for wind (nothing, basically) and get a straight in for R19

Sunset occurs as we pass DTY and I think I'll do a Night ILS. The Indicator on the 430W is very twitchy: you get maximum deflection, then about 4 inches from the Localiser it suddenly comes off the stop and if you're not careful it blows straight through. I've found the only sure way is a 30 degree cut until it twitches, then a 15 degree cut until half-scale, then go straight for the runway heading with assumed wind correction without any delay, which works beautifully. The glideslope comes in and we follow it down, pre-landing checks and slow to 100Kts, and there are the lights right where they should be, so we float down and plop on. I think I could have done that in the clouds (probably with the strobes off...)

Stapleford 9 Mar 18

As you learn to fly you develop aviation reflexes that eventually stand you in good stead as you meet situations where you need to act quickly, decisively and correctly. You can’t think about landing an aircraft, you just have to do it.

There are 2 sorts of aircraft controls: three-axis, which is what everyone from microlight pilots to 747 captains use (push forward to go down, pull back to go up), and weight-shift Microlight control, where you push forward to go up, pull back to go down.

Mixing and matching can be extremely dodgy, because of the opposing reflexes required.

Rupert, who now works for us, is a weight shift microlight pilot, and today we must go to Essex to finish a job.

I’ll do the takeoff then let him free to see how he does.

And it’s very interesting: he can keep a course OK but he simply cannot hold height: he keeps pushing when he should be pulling and vice versa. We proceed via a series of massive pilot induced oscillations, as he at first fights it and then giggles at his own inability to actually do what the rational control inputs should be.

I’ll leave him alone and do the nav and the radio, we’re at 2,000ft so he can’t break it, and soon I take it and join crosswind at Stapleford.

Turning downwind, we report (no other aircraft on frequency) and turn base at which point we realise there is a C172 on very very very long Final. He’s not called on the radio but his intentions are obvious so we climb above his final track and do a 270, slowing the aircraft down so we are above and behind him, then follow him down.

He says he's doing a touch and go so we can follow him quite closely, do a glide approach and be careful not to overtake him, we can always go round him if necessary.

But he is down and accelerating, we’re low over the last trees, flaring behind him and slowing for a backtrack and there’s nothing behind us so we can stay on the hard and park up.

A front is projected to arrive around 2:00pm so we finish up our VLANs, jump in the taxi and we’re soon booked out and climbing out.

The visibility is fine here, but as we climb out it gets slowly worse until we’re barely VMC over the Chilterns at 1800ft. I actually don’t care if we go IMC but Rupert finds it hard to maintain an even keel without a well-defined horizon, which combined with his dodgy reflexes leaves a corkscrew track in SkyDemon.

As we get to Beckley at 1,000ft in the murk I finally put him out of his misery, take it back and crawl in barely visual. It’s safe, and we can always climb and use the ILS if we struggle but eventually I see the radar dishes at the end of left base for R19, turn at 900ft and we’re spot on for Final, so following a PA31 we get a land after and drop gently on for a wet taxy in. No point in putting the cover on as we're out again tomorrow....

Lands End 10 Mar 18

Dan has decided to cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats, just to say he's done it. The choice is either 11hrs on the train and cycling in from Penzance, or.... I'll fly him down.

I've been experimenting with a pukka bike bag which only requires the wheels to be removed. I reckon it will fit in the plane if I recline the rear seats. If this works I can get a second one and Nessa and I can go cycling around the Ile de Re.

The weather is pretty grotty at Oxford: overcast at 1200ft in light rain, and it's currently OVC001 in heavy rain at Lands End...

However, careful reading of the weather has it clearing from the West around 11:00am, and experience has shown how quickly the weather can change in Cornwall, so we put the bag in the plane... it goes in absolutely perfectly.... and take off in to the murk. If we can get there at around 11:30am it should be clear.

Climbing out over Oxford we are asked for our target level, which is 3,000ft or "just above this crud" which prompts an approaching American to tell us the tops are at 2,800ft, so we lift in to the murk and turn around the edge of the Brize Zone for parts South West. At 3,000ft we pop out in to bright sunshine until deep in to the West country where we go solid IMC in heavy rain.

Dan is just loving the challenge of flying it, but it's a bit much to ask him to fly it hard IMC the first time. He's keen not to let it go, though. I get him to sit on a cushion: it's the last time he wont have a sore bum for the next month!

Swapping to Exeter for a Deconfliction Service (it's raining really hard up here) a regular FREDA check reveals slowly dropping power, so a burst of carb heat reveals.... icing! The first time I've experienced it in the cruise. The engine runs better after that, and carb heat applied every 10 minutes or so keeps it at bay.

It's very useful getting 3G in the plane as the Aeroweather app (never travel without it) updates us - we can watch the Scillies going VFR, shortly followed by Lands End. When we first speak to Newquay it's just clearing them, and as we pass Bodmin the cloud suddenly breaks up and we're in the sunshine again with little fluffy clouds below us.

The wind, however, has really picked up and we're bounced around a bit. It's 22G28Kts and a good 30deg off our landing runway so this could be interesting.

It's a bit murky, so we'll capture the Localiser for R25 and follow the glideslope down: we are technically VMC but there's a lot of moisture in the air and I only see the runway about 2 miles away.

Reflexes are great things: I don't really consciously think about crosswind landings any more, I just do them: we approach very crabbed and a little wing-down, kick it straight at 10ft and hold the left wing down, and unbelievably we get an absolute greaser in the gusty conditions, roll out and gently backtrack in. What was I worried about?

We unload the aircraft, refuel and Dan assembles his bike in the baggage hall. Then I wheel him through the terminal (much to the amusement of the staff) and we part company.

I'll hopefully see him in Wick in a month's time...

With the empty bike bag in the back I can call for start.

The Tower is now taking an interest in us and asks where my passenger has gone. I explain he's left by bike instead of coming back with me, and they ask if it was maybe something I said?

I think they get a bit bored with Islanders and Twotters back and forth: some maniac with a bicycle coming in through pretty rough conditions from Oxford is a little light entertainment...

A gusty taxy is followed by a gusty take-off and a gusty climb, then it all settles down at 4,000ft above the fluffy bits and the big front has gone mainly Northwards. Eventually over Dartmoor I can see the tail-end and I catch it near Exeter, going briefly all IMC and Deconfliction before popping out in to the sun on top again.

Oxford is giving OVC1000 so it's out with the plates, I've got a big tailwind so we're soon preparing to turn the corner past the Brize Zone and ask for the beacon, but a huge hole opens up so we nip down to 1500ft for a VFR recovery, being lazy and wanting to get home.

At just-about 1500ft we scrape around the circuit sort-of VMC and then realise I'm chasing a PA31 in, so do a big slowdown, come all the way back to 75Kts on Downwind to give him some room and by the time I turn Final he's virtually landed, so get a Land After (this is becoming a habit).

The wind is now straight down the runway so let's do a nice one.... oh, yes, maybe I can do nice landings after all!

Local 30 Mar 18

Annie has come from Hong Kong to see us (it's a long story involving an African country) and would like to see Oxford from above. The weather is just not cooperating: we've had a very wet spring indeed (most of which we missed by going to Martinique, but that's another tale...).

But on the way to Blenheim Palace I reckon the weather's just about good enough for a low-level whizz around Oxford...

So we do a quick pre-flight, fire up and take off.
Oxford is giving overcast at 1200ft which is more than enough so long as I don't overcook the climbout, and we are free to sightsee over Oxford unencumbered by other aircraft because no one is flying (as usual).

She loves it, and we go see Abingdon and our house before turning back for Oxford and R01.
A squirrely crosswind means a less than perfect arrival: just when I was trying to impress!

Perth - Wick - Perth 8 Apr 18

Dan has now cycled all the way from Lands End, where I dropped him, to John O'Groats: pretty amazing.

The nearest airport to John O'Groats is Wick, which is the farthest you can fly North in mainland Britain without running out of land and going all nautical, so let's do a trip up there. The aircraft's AOC runs out at midnight so I need to be back before then. No pressure....

The weather at Oxford is yuk but just flyable, and forecast to eventually clear for a VFR return just before sunset, provided the schedule is adhered to....

There are many concerns about the weather on this trip but we have agreed that if it really is impossible to get to Wick he'll go back on the train, so that reduces the stress levels a bit.

I am (inevitably) the only silly bugger flying today, and have got a long way to go: Perth, then Wick, rinse and reverse 2 PoB. Wick is only open 3:00-5:00 on Sundays so that narrows our time window somewhat.

Depart on 01 with full tanks (you can never have too much fuel) and at 1,000ft go solid IMC (carb heat every 5 mins). In the initial climb my manual IMC manoeuvring abilities fail me for a moment and I manage to turn 30deg off heading before realising what's going on and getting my act together for a climb towards Daventry.

It's the grey room until near Leicester where the clouds clear a little to the forecast clear layer at 4,500ft and slowly it improves until at near Scunthorpe they reduce to sunshine with fluffy bits and the odd avoidable shower. Weather worry no 1 resolved.

I'll go to Perth today as I've not been there before and it's a bit further North than Fife.

Scottish hand over to Leuchars who are, amazingly, operating a LARS on a Sunday and being efficient about it, and I descend to try and find Perth (which is not as easy as it seems). They're on a rather short runway 27 today, so I'll need to concentrate, and the circuit has 3 aircraft in it by the time I join crosswind, so we'll need to slow right down to let them land and vacate first. The weather up here is absolutely beautiful and just not cold at all, which is surprising given the Latitude.

Perth have a very efficient fuelling system allowing you to pay for your fuel and your landing fee at the pumps using a card. Why don't all airfields do this? They say I must be back from Wick by 4:50pm for more fuel. Following that I park up on the grass, leaving divots in the wet bits. Ugh....

Stop for 10 minutes for lunch then fire up, power-check (the left mag is getting worse, the Annual is tomorrow. It will fly on one mag even if a little roughly) and enter, backtrack and depart 27.

A right turn outbound gets me slap bang in to the middle of a rainstorm and as I am IMC already we may as well climb over the Cairngorms to 6,500ft on top immediately and before long we can see through gaps the ski resorts and snowy tops. Engine failure here? Find a hole, MayDay and try to land uphill for a short run.

Within 20 minutes (The Cairngorms are high, but relatively small in area) we are over the lower slopes and heading for Inverness, where the weather is absolutely gorgeous. I should not be surprised at the huge range of localised weather over Scotland but I still am. This does, however, bode well for Wick which is not too far up the coast now.

Coasting out over the Moray Firth, watching the oil rigs moored in the harbour we'll descend to remain under the high level cloud and head off up the coast for Wick.

But as we swap to Wick the weather really starts to close in; Wick are open but have told us the mist is beginning to roll in and we shouldn't hang about, suggest a Right base join for runway 13 and tell us to report Right Base.... which is over a hill.

Coasting in, we head for as tight a Right Base as I can make for speed and the ground starts to come up. Over the top of the hill, and squeaking in under the cloud, I reckon we're no more than 100ft above the pine trees, but we're VFR and the ground drops away, there's runway 13 and we're Right Base, checks done and we're Final over the end of the mile long runway.

Scotland may be remote, but by gum they've got good infrastructure: I've got 4G in the air over the Cairngorms and the runway is absolutely huge. Being strategic in the Cold War I suspect helped a lot, but boy is it bleak up here....

Neat landing, bang on 3:10pm, roll out to Charlie, the geo-referenced airfield map in SkyDemon means you just can't get lost, park up and we're here.

With Dan and the bike safely in the plane (we're well within W&B even if we had full fuel) we start up, backtrack Runway 13, turn and roll. Wick are concerned about the wall of mist rolling in from the sea, as am I, so we try to get above it on take off but as we cross the numbers it all goes white. IMC obligatory!

Following a smooth climb out and gentle turn back towards Inverness our calculations are that we will be one minute early for the pumps at Perth. The tide is beginning to turn in our favour.

We climb clear at 2,500ft and the weather improves as we come down the coast followed closely (it seems) by a HeliMed helicopter. Wick keep asking us for height and position and I can't work out whether they are worried about us or the HeliMed helicopter hitting us, but eventually we swap back to Inverness who ask us to hug the Cromarty Firth coast so as to avoid an EasyJet 737 on approach. We must be going too fast because eventually they ask us to orbit as well which isn't going to help our time getting back to Perth!

At length the 737 appears, we are cleared South so its back to 6,500ft to go over the Cairngorms again, then as we can see the lower ground far ahead we can do a 150Kt dive in to Perth to make up some time. No other traffic to affect, a short Right Base and we're on runway 27 again, backtracking and pulling up at the pumps at 16:49. Perfect!

The pump man is waiting, we water the grass behind the hangar as he fills us up and we are away again after a staggering 10 mins. I have never done such a quick turnaround. EasyJet would be impressed.

Now we can relax a bit because Oxford's weather forecast has improved: apparently the crud is beginning to clear through...

Cleared by Leuchars over the Firth of Forth it's smooth and sunny at 4,000ft as we track down the East coast through Newcastle's Zone. Durham is shut so we just transit through not talking to anyone, then it's back to Humberside Radar as we turn the corner and the weather deteriorates. It's not too bad to start with but as we get further down it becomes pretty solid IMC. We can fly through it OK but I am worried about getting back to Oxford.

We've agreed a divert to Gloucester who are VMC if necessary but let's see how we do. This is a finely-tuned game: I am not going to risk flying in to anything but with GPS you can be very sure of where you are so we track past Coventry and descend to 3000ft from where I get tantalising glimpses of ground. Oxford is sounding depressed and giving "mist in the vicinity and clouds scattered at 300ft", but let's get on to the 19 track where MSA is 2300ft, get down to 2300 and see what's going on. There's no wind so this is all pretty smooth and Oxford agrees to let us try a low-level circuit for 01, if we can find the airfield.

At 4 miles the clouds part and there is the runway, so rather than track all the way round for 01 I simply ask for a straight in for 19 and they agree, pop the flaps and float down for a gentle arrival. We made it.

Was it dangerous? No: it was exploratory but I had 3 hrs of fuel left, a legititmate divert and I never descended below MSA. And we got the aircraft back before the AOC expired.

But what a trip!

Bournemouth 13 May 18

Whisky Lima has passed it's Annual (phew!) and our in-laws-to-be are here for the weekend.

A combination of Hen night spiked drinks and over-consumption have rendered Lucy unwilling to drive them back on Sunday afternoon, so over lunch we hatch a plan to get them back to Bournemouth. I can drive them down (imagine the traffic jams coming back on a sunny Sunday night...), we can put them on the train (hot, sweaty, change at Reading, Engineering Works etc etc) or, er...... I can fly them down.

No contest there, then.

Charlie is very pregnant and I'm a little concerned about taking her, but she is very relaxed and happy to go, so we'll go in full Airliner Mode: a/p on, climb as high as possible to avoid thermals, and no violent manoeuvres.

It's a beautiful sunny day and we can see the A34 traffic jams from 4,000ft, a few bumps but nothing spectacular; 20 minutes later we're over Stoney Cross and entering Bournemouth's Zone for a Right Base Join for Runway 26, establishing the Localiser then descending on the glideslope and trying for as smooth an arrival as possible, which almost fails as we catch some rotor off one of the hangars and balloon a little.

OK: a bit of power, smooth it out, we've got plenty of runway here and have another go, gently on just a bit long so a small backtrack and off around the complex taxiways.

SkyDemons's georeferenced airfield diagrams make short work of the complexity and the long grass hiding the various junctions (I grow more in love with SkyDemon every time I use it), then we park up at Bliss for a wallet-lightening session.

Quite why they charge £81 whereas Oxford (similar size, better facilities) charge £16 is beyond me, but I take the attitude that we accept GA is an expensive hobby, there are more important things to be stressed over.

No in-flight births, no need for the sickbag, and they'd go again, so we've succeeded.

30 mins door to door, versus probably the better part of 2 hours by car. Personally, I know which way I'd prefer....

Pasengers safely disgorged, wallet and bladder emptied, it's time to start up and navigate out. Bournemouth has a great runway, and no one else GA is out and about, so we're cleared for take-off after a landing business jet (expect wake turbulence, but it doesn't happen), get cleared for a right turn outbound North East for Stoney Cross once more, mind the conflicting helicopter and depart North. Boscombe is not Active but we'll avoid their ATZ and Middle Wallop's ATZ and bimble home in the sunshine.

Now I'm on my own and not in a hurry I want to document some standard power settings for IMC work, to make life easier when manoeuvring.

Some experimentation later I work out:

Flapless

For 100Kts level 2200rpm, 15 in Hg

For 100Kts, 500ft/min descent 2000 rpm, 13 in Hg

With 1 stage of flaps

For 100Kts level 2350rpm, 175 in Hg

For 100Kts, 500ft/min descent 22000 rpm, 15 in Hg

At Compton the Autopilot can go to OFF for a bimble home at low level at 100Kts and a Downwind join for 19, which will mean a quartering tailwind. Now this is a new one, and useful experience.

The approach feels fast, even though we're back at 75Kts and of course flaring is further down the runway than expected, even having turned Final deliberately low. It just won't go down!

Drifting on and drifting on we eventually touch a little abruptly (not watching the end of the runway again!) about halfway down having missed a staggering 600m of runway. I could lie and say this was deliberate (minimise taxy time on the runway to accommodate following aircraft, blah blah blah...), but it wasn't.

A useful lesson in strip work: even small tailwinds have a big effect on landing distance.

Wash and brush up May 18

It's always worth keeping the aircraft clean and tidy, so one Saurday morning we all convene in a hangar at Oxford and clean and polish for all we're worth. It certainly looks better afterwards...

Local 24 May 18

Every 2 years all pilots do a Revalidation, which basically means an hour with an Instructor. We can do whatever we like in that hour, and provided the Instructor is happy we aren't a danger to anyone at the end of that hour they sign-off that we can go off and fly unencumbered for the next 2 years.

This is mainly a backstop to ensure no one goes for years and years with no supervision, but I like to do stuff I would be unhappy with doing on my own the 1st time.

Aeronautical science has moved on in the last few years (although the CAA PPL Syllabus has signally failed to catch up...): we now have things called RNAV approaches. No ground infrastructure such as NDBs and ILSes, this is purely performed by reference to GPS using a sophisticated nav system like a Garmin 430W. So it is very cheap for airports to implement and they are becoming increasingly prevalent.

But I have never flown one... until now.

Gloucester have implemented RNAV approaches on both 09 and 27 runways (Oxford, where are you?). A good use of an hour with a tech savvy Instructor such as my friend Pete would be to do one.

A quick phone call to Ops at Gloucester gets a 4:00pm slot booked - no one is flying today because it's really hazy, most airfields are marked as IFR so it's the perfect day.

We prep for the 09 approach but keep the 27 approach chart handy for if the winds change, and take off VFR, which by 1,000ft turns in to milky nonsense: not really clouds but just the "no horizon, no ground" semi-IMC we seem to get a lot of in the UK, hence the IR(R).

We climb out to MOVEN, one of those randomly-placed IFR waypoints dotted around the globe: invisible to all but pilots, then try to load the EGBJ approach. But it will only give us EGTK (Oxford) approaches, until we manually force it to use EGBJ. I dont know what that's all about. Get radio clearance for the 09 RNAV approach via UVNOP and turn for Gloucester all fat, dumb and happy.

About a minute later Pete asks me where we're going, with that annoying smile on his face that says "you've screwed up...".

"Gloucester, of course".

"Not via UVNOP then?"

Ah, yes, it's sending us direct to Gloucester, not via the approach. *Activate* the Approach on the 430W (as I should have done 5 minutes ago...) and it sends us off towards UVNOP instead.

So the lesson here is that you LOAD the approach before you get clearance to fly the approach, then ACTIVATE it.

We slow the aircraft to 100Kts at our preselected power/prop setting that we know gives level flight, perform pre-landing checks (get them out of the way) and turn on command of the 430 at UVNOP. This seems to be working!

We descend and maintain 2500ft and expect a turn command at BJ090I the Intermediate Fix but none is forthcoming from the 430 so we manually turn, report and commence our descent towards the Final Approach Fix (FAF) at 1700ft.

The 430 is giving lateral guidance only at this point but as we pass the FAF the glideslope indicator comes alive and we commence our descent. Go Missed is at 680ft QNH (so 579 ft above ground at Gloucester) for an IR(R), that's pretty low and I get Pete to call out the 100s of feet as we descend. A few twitches but we're OK to 700ft, then Pete suggests "as we are doing so well..." that we simply continue to the IR minima of 480ft and here it gets *really* twitchy.

Up until this point the view outside has been uniformly patchy grey but now finally the houses appear....and Oh Bloody Hell they're close. And here's the runway, nice and close with the lights shining, we can easily get it in from here even if it is slightly off to one side.

The only parameter that has slipped outside constraints is the speed: we're up around 120Kts, I should have reduced the power on descent. I'll work on that.

At 480ft (406ft above the houses) we go Missed, a/p on and pull for height, this is all doable: not easy, but doable.

We recover to Oxford at 3,000ft on top and the clouds are clearing so we can opt for a VFR join back to Oxford: left base for 01 sounds good. I'm mentally knackered and so manage a bit of a thump on landing (bugger!), but that was really worth doing.

Bournemouth-Haverfordwest 1 Jun 18

Nessa and the girls are going away for the weekend to Wales. To join them Lucy (who works in the industrial Estate behind the airfield at Bournemouth) needs to go from Bournemouth to Haverfordwest while the other two are driving down (5 hour Friday afternoon drive, anyone?). Johnny is coming along as well as coincidentally his family will be in Haverfordwest and he is after a lift.

The weather has been just awful all week: low cloud, mist, rain and thunderstorms that has even prevented my friend Simon (who will genuinely fly in anything) from flying up to see us in his helicopter.

Careful persual of the weather forecasts has it clearing on Friday afternoon for the weekend, and on cue it begins to clear at Oxford and Bournemouth. But it is impossible, I find, to get any accurate cloubase information at Haverfordwest because they don't have a weather station and BBC Weather doesn't include cloudbase information. By the time I get there it will be out of hours so there will be no one there to ask, this is a quandary.

In the grand spirit of always having a Plan B we'll go and see what we can find.... this sounds carefree and dangerous but there is method in my madness: I'll have enough fuel to go back to Oxford (which will be VFR and anyway has an ILS) if necessary, and a little trick I was taught by an instructor a long time ago says "there are no mountains at sea", so provided there is some gap between the sea and the clouds a careful cloud break over the sea will see you under the clouds, then you can scud run as much as you want. Well, it's a theory...

Oxford is finally VFR (there is a thunderstorm warning in force but that is for scattered CBs, which we can fly round) and flying down to Bournemouth it's VMC at 2,000ft so that's OK. Bliss Aviation are happy to see me (again...) and my wallet ('nuff said), so I pick up Lucy and we depart North West.

At 3,000ft we are happily on top in the sunshine and it's smooth but the cloud closes up pretty soon and as far as the eye can see it's overcast, no holes. We see one hole over Minehead which looks stunning (and I dont grab my camera fast enough) but then it's a flat plain all the way over the Bristol Channel.

Cardiff are giving overcast 400ft, scattered 300ft which is just horrible and if it's like that at Haverfordwest we won't be landing, but Nessa messages me a photo taken from the airfield that looks like a 5-600ft cloudbase, so we may be OK.

Feet dry over Tenby we head North West and overfly the airfield at 2,500ft looking in vain for a hole.

OK, it's the overwater cloud break for us, then....

6 miles from Haverfordwest is St Brides Bay and as we go feet wet I let it sink gently in to the cloud.

My minima for this is 1,000ft and I have very carefully checked our QNH so I know how high I am.

The light dims as we sink gently in and at 1300ft I can see vague shapes that could be coastline, or just cloud.....

At 1100ft we suddenly glimpse a ship below us and drop in to the clear at 1000ft, I can then roll us VMC back towards the coastline, let's see how high the cliffs are... perfect, they're a hundred foot high or so, there's loads of room between them and the clouds and we can scud run easily back in to Haverfordwest for a Downwind join for R27 and a smooth arrival to the completely empty airfield.

Well, that's something I've not had the guts to do before now but it is very effective, and in fact completely legal: the Golden Rule is "do not descend below MSA unless on a published approach". But MSA over the sea is 1,000ft.

Mission accomplished I can drop Lucy and Johnny, fire up, backtrack and depart on R27, climb and do a nice Rate One turn in the clag at 600ft back East. At 2,500ft I pop out on top and it's amazing the difference in light levels between the murk below and the bright blue above. Something only instrument pilots know...

The light is starting to get interesting as evening draws on, the clouds are inevitably thicker over the Brecon Beacons (aren't they always?) but then they start to break up over Abergavenny and by the time I'm over the Severn it's crystal clear with only a huge thunderstorm to the North visible, moving away.

It's smooth descending past Gloucester (who have long since gone home), get the ATIS from Oxford as I go over the escarpment and join Right Base for R19, let's see if we can make it three out of three greasers... oo yes.... (as Mr Jazz Club would say)... nice.

Local 2 Jun 18

I hated it when I was learning and every flight was an opportunity for Instructors to teach me stuff: I just wanted to bimble about once in a while.

So today is my opportunity for a non-judgemental, non-instructor bimble with Ann, who is nearing completion of her PPL. It's a beautiful "perfect aviation" day (and for some reason her instructor refuses to take her out claiming it's not a good day for navigation! He has shown poor judgement a number of times so we'll wean her off him pretty quickly once she's passed...), so we'll go out instead.

Ann has a good plog we can modify to suit WL's speed and today's wind, and we'll do Evesham, Kemble, Compton, home.

I can do the take-off, Ann will do everything else. We get a right turn out over Woodstock then it's time to hand over control. Ann is hugely better and much more confident and capable than last time, she pretty soon has us lined up for Evesham with the clock going and whilst I end up doing the radio I reckon she's doing OK......

Of course the issue with Turn, Time, Distance is that the wind is never as forecast and once you're off track, unless you consciously correct you're never where you think you are. We end up going in the right direction but several miles off course. It's a good theory, and let's face it the RAF bombed Germany using it but accurate it ain't, and with Brize and Rissington so close relying on it is just dangerous, so I have a back up copy of SkyDemon on my phone I'm cheating with....

To give Ann enormous credit, she gets us to Evesham although the time element bears little relation to the plog. I remember being like this and getting frustrated over just not being able to do everything at once: if one thing goes wrong the whole Navex goes out the window.

But then we turn for Kemble, and it all goes to pieces - she is 20 deg off track and although she ends up parallel to her required track eventually she is in fact heading to bust the Brize Zone so we have to agree to take a manual right turn to repair the situation, and once that is resolved there are two identical looking airports ahead of us. They both look like Kemble!

In practice we dont really want to be bimbling through Kemble's overhead, they won't thank us for that so we route between the two and outside Kemble's ATZ, turning back round for the East towards Compton and I can get Ann to fly a VOR track (much more accurate, Navaids don't move about).

She has a client in Leckhampton that has offered her use of a strip and finding it is an interesting exercise. Of course it doesn't appear in SkyDemon and we end up using Google Maps to guide us in. Google Maps gets indignant at us "driving" straight across fields but shows us where we need to be and Ann does a really nice job of slowing up the plane and doing a low pass for a look-see, then climbing out. She's rapidly becoming a good pilot, now we just need to get her away from this instructor with his bad decision-making skills before he teaches her too many bad habits...

We climb out back towards Oxford and I can just sit and look out the window as Ann brings us back in. Overhead Oxford and probably 4 miles from the airfield I have to gently suggest that maybe 130Kts and 2,500ft may be *slightly* inapprorpriate for a Downwind Join for R19, which prompts a flurry of activity and, to give her credit, we slip in to the Downwind spot on speed and height. She does know what she's doing.

Even at a Controlled airfield like Oxford, you are responsible for your own spacing in the circuit. We are #2 to a PA28 who is flying the widest Base Leg I have ever seen, he's clearly all over the place and very slow, I take it from Ann and we do a neat orbit at the top of the Base Leg to let him sort himself out, or we would have been right up his arse. Drop in to the approach groove, do a perfect approach....and get a little bounce as a result. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't.

Haverfordwest - Bournemouth 3 Jun 18

Today it's Haverfordwest and Bournemouth to take Lucy home, and the weather is once more perfect for aviation. Giving plenty of time and with full tanks I taxy out to the Hold, get stuck behind a School PA31 and we wait.... and wait.. and wait....

He has several goes getting his clearance right, then there's a glider in the overhead (safest place, I reckon), then there are 3 PA31s doing missed approaches and 2 jets. I understand the whole "landing aircraft take precedence" thing but she really could have let us go several times in the 20 minutes (yes, 20 minutes) we are at the Hold. And now I'm late.

Note to Oxford ATC: if a plane is downwind, it's OK to let people take off as they will be in the next county before he's on Final. And if for some reason they stall on the runway he can go round or use R29. These sorts of delays are entirely avoidable and unnecessary. End of rant.

Anyway, we finally do get cleared for take off so it's shock and awe time: a short field departure has us off the ground at 55Kts, best climb is at 65Kts and we'll hold her there all the way to 1,000ft by which time we are just about clear of the airfield boundary: not bad, out and go hell for leather for Gloucester then Brecon, and 55 minutes later Haverfordwest actually do answer the radio (well, there's a first...) and we slide round for a time-saving very short right base for 03 (the one where you're still turning over the threshold) and a decent arrival (ah, I can do these), a quick taxy and shut down and... they're late, so that's wonderful.

A quick (but decent) burger and we're away on 03. I love Haverfordwest, it's uncomplicated. All the Danger Areas are inactive so we can simply head straight for Minehead at a smooth 4,500ft talking to London Info, turn for Bournemouth and 20 miles out call for a straight-in for 08 which we get so Activate Vectors for the ILS 08 and slide down the ILS visually for a smooth arrival and taxy in. Lucy jumps out, Bliss gets to see what's left of the inside of my wallet once more and we're off on the final leg.

Middle Wallop has exercises scheduled and Red Arrows transits are imminent, plus every aircraft in Southern England is flying today. On a listening squawk with Farnborough I hear them warn of high levels of traffic from Lasham and Popham to Farnborough: I see only 2 aircraft but apparently there were at least 50 in that area.....

Swap to Oxford and a 01 arrival precedes a satisfying tie-down of the aircraft on a warm evening, listening to the metal cooling and smelling that wonderful warm aircraft smell.

Shoreham 16 Jul 18

Britain has been basking in a heatwave for the better part of a month and I have been too busy with daughters wedding preparations to go flying, but this morning Ness needs to go to Shoreham.

Today the NOTAMs have Shoreham closed, but a quick PPR phone calls reveals that in fact they are not closed.

The normal Towered service has been downgraded to an A/G service (which actually I prefer as Shoreham Tower is officious and fussy...).

I'll take Sam with me as he needs experience in flying, and its more fun flying with someone else.

Today we'll teach him climbs and descents involving "Power, Attitude, Trim", and that works well except that then he can't hold a heading. Octopus and string bag! I remember it well.....

After wrestling with Oxford's ever-changing 8.33KHz-compliant radio frequencies we change to Farnborough who tell us we are about to bust some airspace. 4,000ft I said, Sam! Nose-dive and apologise, oops....

Donald Trump has departed Oxford but many SBAC Farnborough RA(T)s exist and we keep well clear of them to the West. Farnborough West are surprisingly quiet for a display morning, although we keep hearing "Display 003" on-frequency which, judging by the NOTAMs, are the Red Arrows screaming around the countryside....

Sam is doing a great job: so good we arrive at Shoreham before I am really ready, so pull the throttle, get Sam to descend it (this apparently involves a nose-dive at 150Kts) to 1,500ft from where we can do a left base join for 02. The A/G is remarkably quiet and a gentle arrival is followed by much taxying as we go right around the track almost to the take-off area again before parking outside Eastern Atlantic.

After coffee and water (so an hour later I badly need a pee) we start up again and taxy out. A/G tells us no one else is flying so we do a short-field take off and at 100ft Sam can fly us out Eastbound towards Dover, which very rapidly appears out of the murk, so we descend over the Channel Tunnel terminal and out to sea for a good look at Dover harbour. I see they've finally filled in the hovercraft ramp: I remember the SRN4 sliding sideways in to the water many years ago. They were cool...

There are surprisingly few ferries today: Brexit may be having an effect? Or is it a case of "Fog in Channel, Continent cut off"?

The famous white cliffs ("there'll be Cessnas over, the White Cliffs of Dover...") loom up and we fly around the corner, seeing France in the distance before turning for Detling and London. This journey takes an hour by road, but 10 minutes later we are descending towards Detling and the London TMA, swapping to Farnborugh East and snaking between Rochester's TMA and the behemoth that is the new Southend Galactic Airspace grab. Wow, there isn't much room here.

Around the North of London we go, until at Bovingdon we start to see the Chilterns, slip under Luton's airspace, swap back to Oxford Radar and aim for the gap betwen Oxford and Weston on the Green.

I'd let Sam land it but there's a helicopter I just can't see ahead of us on Final for R19 so we'll need to slow the aircraft right down for spacing...... ah, there he is, turn Final, slide down the approach and roll out smoothly.

Now I suppose we must go and do some work!

Goodwood 17 Jul 18

Nessa needs picking up, so a return journey is required.

Shoreham is today not NOTAMed closed, but a quick PPR phone call and a chat to the guys on the ground confirm that it is actually closed.

They must be too close to France, where everything is always "Fermé" for "le early closing", siesta, Sunday, Saints Days or strikes. If you don't believe me, spend some time in France...

So we'll go to Goodwood, where I've never been before. I have an aviation map of England in my office where most of the airfields are coloured blue, for where I have visited. Goodwood is one of the few blank airfields, so we'll fill it in blue today. Just like stamp-collecting, really: get the whole set.... (maybe not Gatwick at £1,300!).

Approaching Goodwood I can see a C172 already downwind but 300ft above me at the *Correct* circuit height (I'm at 1,000ft, oops...), so we have a little chat: "You first". "No, you first...". Anyway, I get to go first as I'm lower, so I head for the race course up on the hills where the wind hitting the ridge lifts me up to.... 1300ft. Hang on, I'm meant to be going down! Somehow my speed has decayed so a firm push has me low over the hills but heading in the right direction for base leg, then final.

Now they did warn me earlier R24 was bit rough, but let's just say we hit all the bumps until finally slowing and turning off on to the (much smoother) taxyway.

"Park to the South of the Tower" says the A/G.

The Tower is a pimple by the hangar so I head for the clubhouse which has a much larger "C"; only later do I realise I have parked in completely the wrong area. Never mind: lunch beckons.

A very long lunch later Nessa and I taxy out past the tower and along the bumpy grass towards the Threshold of R24.
I've got the window open as it's hot and manage to forget to close it for the take-off run, but I've read the PoH and it says the window is good for 140Kts, so I'll just stick my elbow out on the window sill and adjust my shades on the climb out, for that extra cool look.....

20 minutes later we're descending over Compton and 10 more minutes has us neatly on the ground at Oxford, where we taxy the aircraft in to the Maintenance bay for its new inertia-reel seatbelt fitting. I look forward very much to it!

Local Sep 18

Flying a plane is a learned skill, like playing a musical instrument, and if not repeated this skill decays. The musician Jascha Heifetz once said "If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it".

Pilots like to fly regularly to perform "rust removal"; I have not flown for 2 months so I dont feel sharp at all. Domestic commitments (marrying off the eldest daughter and being best man at a lavish London wedding plus a holiday and a lot of gardening) have meant no spare time, but a windy Saturday afternoon in September allows for a trip.

A "Strong wind warning" is in force which when I was learning used to terrify me, until I learned that a) it doesn't matter if it's almost straight down the runway, b) it's only landings you really need to care about so a take-off can be made in just about any conditions, c) the "Demonstrated Crosswind Limit" set by the aircraft manufacturer and stated in the Pilots Operating Handbook is not a maximum crosswind limit: that is set by your own skill level and should be part of your general post-PPL envelope-stretching exercises, to increase that level of acceptable crosswind and to set your own personal Maxima in this regard. I have demonstrated I can land in 18Kts gusting 22Kts directly across the runway in a C182, so anything above that I might attempt but will always have a Plan B (usually a more into-wind runway).

Today it's giving 24018G24: we'll be using R19 so that's 50 degrees off so 2/3 of 24Kts is 18Kts, we can fly in that. So long as I'm not too rusty...

Pete has recently lost his beloved wife so is need of some distraction. He flew in helicopters in the Army so he is not scared of a bit of aviation, but has never seen his house or, indeed Oxford, from the air so we plan to give him some fun.

The first thing I notice are the whizzo new inertia-reel seatbelts: quite different from the car-like ones in Tango Golf, these are padded, centre-coupled and supremely comfortable.

Settled in our new belts we start up and depart to the South VFR for a turn around the Oxford ring road before looking at the colleges in their matching sandstone in the centre of Oxford glistening in the afternoon sun. I still get quite a buzz out of the fact that there are no limits to me being able to do this....

We then head South West to photograph our local vineyard who are having a sculpture display. It looks very busy from above.

That done, we can climb out down the Wantage Road. Traffic jams: what traffic jams? Some swivel-eyed wonk set the speed limit on the A338 to 50mph and introduced the Frilford lights, but this is a much faster method, taking about 3 minutes...

I'm experimenting with giving better views to my passengers by sideslipping the aircraft so they can look down; it's good practice anyway for crosswind approaches. It does require a tad more power to maintain height as the drag is increased but feels quite normal.

We circle over Pete's house in Grove, marvel at the simply massive numbers of (tiny) houses being built in Wantage and Didcot, and turn North for Oxford via Abingdon, flying up the river and back over central Oxford for a Downwind rejoin. Oxford is quiet today, as it's windy. No one ever seems to want to fly in anything resembling challenging conditons; it's not very bumpy up here.

After a space-generating Downwind orbit we turn Final; this is where my lack of recency may tell. The windsocks are straight out and straining and we are headed up into wind so angled to the runway as fly the approach, the wind is squirrely and gusty. Keep the crab on in to the flare, eyes on the far end of the runway, then kick straight at the last moment and we drop on with not even a squeak right on the centre line. Maybe not so rusty after all......

Spanhoe 3 Oct 18

Dan is on Work Experience and may be amenable to a flip up to Leicestershire to connect a fibre link and set up a WiFi unit.

I have bought a RAM Mount iPad yoke mount to see if that is a better solution. The coaming solution works well, but I worry about it obscuring part of the forward vision.

For some bizarre reason, these are impossible to source in the UK: I had to import one from the US. They even called me to ask if I wanted it landscape or portrait.

Its system of straps is bizarre and unfathomable, even with the instructions, until Dan explains I've got it upside down. Ah..... Now it works really well: good and solid. And tilted up so I can see it properly.

Dan and I buckle in to the new, comfy seat belts, start up and taxy out.

Oxford is completely manic: for a weekday I just can't believe there are so many aircraft flying. The radio is wall to wall Instrument traffi, I'm expecting a delay but they've obviously read this blog and responded to other complaints: our VFR departure is speedy and there are no stupid delays. It's a beautiful VFR day and once I can get a word in edgeways we leave the maelstrom of the new Oxford Radar 8.33KHz frequency the silence of Wittering's Approach frequency is deafening. They are there, but apparently the MATZ is not Active until 12:00 (although I dont know whether that is Llocal or Zulu time), so as I don't intend to enter the MATZ stub anyway (MATZ stubs dont reach down to the ground: a very useful fact you can use to your advantage) I can just use SafetyCom.

Inside 30 minutes we are in Leicestershire. Now: let's see where this strip is. Announce joining left base, then realise it's right below us so chop the throttle, swing round and join right base from the North.

It's short-ish at 500m so I'm determined to do a tidy, short field approach and not be burying the nose on the last few meters of runway having floated in late. So full flap, speed *right* back to 60Kts, and aim for the grass just before the threshold.

The stall warner blares as we touch right on the start of the cracked concrete runway and the drumming rapidly diminishes as the speed bleeds off. Textbook short-field job, we're stopped in 280m. I haven't lost my touch.

Spanhoe is a great little private airstrip: small, informal, cheap at £10 a pop and very friendly. No facilities, but run for the benefit of the local pilots. There are assorted Cessnas and Pipers parked on the grass, no complex arrivals routine, absolutely wonderful. Just self-announce on SafetyCom, you are responsible for your own spacing, what could be easier?

Our work only takes 45 minutes. An hour later we are back at the airfield and ready for start. A quick power-check, then roll on, backtrack to the grass starter extension (you'd probably need this with a C172....), pop out some flap, rotate at 55Kts and we're off in 300m. Gotta love a C182.

Back to the maelstrom, which has only abated a bit: Oxford is definitely getting busier these days.

Weston-on-the-Green is inactive but we'll stay clear and join left base from the East, turn Final and plop it on.

The iPad yoke mount worked perfectly: I can even charge it there.

Back on Slot 1: all oher slots full. Oxford is getting busier, definitely.

We'll be going out again in a couple of days.

Perth Oct 18

We've been asked up to Perth for a long weekend.

If we leave on Friday the weather will be just about bearable in Oxford, solid IMC all the way up, then beautful for the last 50 miles. Let's see how that works...

Our plan to depart at 10:15 goes out the window; Oxford is too foggy for even me to want to fly in it and the bowser is delayed by having to fuel a jet, then 3 other GA aircraft. We keep spying him whizzing between hangars, but he never comes near us!

By 11:15 we are finally fuelled and started and the sun is peeping through, so we power-check behind a lurid green Mooney (*why* would you have an aircraft that colour?) who then just sits there.

Well, I don't want to be rude, but let's go!

So I pass him and pull up to the Hold.

He gives me a filthy look as I go past, but what can you do?

He is only delayed by a few seconds as the moment I'm cleared I'm gone: SPLAT checks, then Ts & Ps good, speed registering, right rudder to hold the centreline, rotate at 65Kts, check forward as we leave ground effect and maintain 75Kts and runway heading to 1,000ft then left for 030 and we're IMC at 1,100ft, push up through and clear in to the sunshine at 2,000ft.

Ah, that's more like it......

There's a front between here and Newcastle we need to get through.

It's too high to get over (and of course "too low to get under...", thank you Michael Jackson), so as we reach Daventry the white room envelops us and it's in and out of the rain for 90 minutes via Humberside, Durham Tees Valley and Newcastle.

We do actually see Sunderland briefly in the pouring rain below us (eeh, but it's grim up North...), and then as we pass Berwick upon Tweed it just, well, stops.

We can see the crud behind us, but we're now in bright blue sky with fluffy clouds and can see for ever.

Scottish Info helps us with coasting out at North Berwick, in at Bonnybank and then we're descending in to Perth, who are busy so while joining Crosswind for 27 we hear another aircraft already downwind.

I can see him and he is truly doing a bomber circuit, so we'll clear to the North for spacing. One leisurely orbit sees us back Downwind and turning Base when suddenly.... he calls "turning Final". Bloody Hell, is he still out here? I thought he'd landed, had a cup of tea and and refuelled!

And there he is, below us and leisurely running down Final. One smart extra right hand orbit coming up.....

And even after that he's still on the runway when I turn Final, and I've got all the flaps out now for a short roll. I suppose I was like that once, not the sort of high descent rate, short circuits I do....

Still, a nice arrival and a short roll gets us off the runway and parked up.

£15 landing fee seems reasonable.

Saturday was a picture perfect day in Scotland (unlike the rest of The British Isles) but Sunday dawns cold, cloudy and windy. The forecast is for 28G35Kts at 210deg. Perth has a 21 runway, so that's fine.

It's freezing here! We start up, taxy to the pumps and fill up, pay by iPad and taxy out.

It's 1,000ft overcast now so flyable, but it will be bumpy IMC.

The cafe is full of glum looking pilots peering out at us as the light rain patters down. I just love going out in this sort of crud, everyone looks at you as if you're mad...

Backtrack 09, turn on to 21, backtrack, power check and roll. In 21Kts of headwind we're off in 300m or so.

At 1,000ft we go IMC but I know we're clear of terrain along my planned path so even though it's pretty bumpy it's safe. Once a C182 is at 90-100Kts you're good for more or less anything. This is good practise for manual IMC climb and heading maintenance.

Evry aircraft has a "Manoeuvring speed". In a C182 this is 111Kts. It is the speed designed for rough weather: the furthest away from the stall and the furthest from the maximum wing loading. We'll fly at this today through the bumpy bits.

At 4,000ft the bumping ceases and the skies brighten but we don't actually become VMC until 6,000ft by which time we are over the Firth of Forth.

Scottish Info are bored because there is just *no one* out today but us, so are very helpful with getting weather for our journey, but they don't realise we've got 3G up here so can get everything they can.

The weather clears North of Newcastle and becomes CAVOK as we cruise South.

I'm experimenting with more aggressive leaning and can now get it back to 13USG/hr, which really affects your flight planning: over a 4hr flight that saves enough fuel for an extra hour's flight. Wow....

We route down West of Durham Tees Valley and under the big trans-Penine Airway then West of Doncaster and round East Midlands before turning for home.

Oxford are busy and ask us to orbit just South of Banbury, so I crank it round in to a nice steep turn, which is definitely not appreciated by Nessa in the passenger seat! Oops.....

Back on track, back on the ILS, get to 6 miles and they ask us for another orbit, which I do more gently, then they slot us in and we descend for a gentle arrival and taxy in.

Local 3 Nov 18

Ann is in a strange limbo that I remember going through: she has passed her PPL but does not yet have the paperwork to prove it. She calls herself a "Baby Pilot" and can fly solo but cannot yet take passengers. She is mad keen for us to fly together but can't actually P1 with me as a passenger. I would have thought me being a qualified pilot would mean she could just take me out but that's not how flying schools work, as we discover one sunny but blustery Saturday morning in November.

I have to be "checked out" on a PA28-161. This could be interesting.

It is easy to forget the horrendous faff that is the world of renting an aircraft from a flying school: they have to see ID, licence and medical, you have to tell them how many hours you’ve flown in total and within the last 90 days, whether you’ve ever flown a PA28-161, etc etc and that’s even before the very nice Instructor wants 3 landings to sign you off.

Hmm, never flown a Warrior.

Getting back in a PA28 is an experience: it’s cramped, unrefined and basic after a C182, also it’s slow: ....so......slow......

I ask the instructor for a checklist and some reference speeds, that seems to raise her confidence level when I write them down. That and not entering the Runway before checking the approach path for non-radio traffic, looking for strobes for the SPLAT check and clearly current radio technique, although the risk of me saying "Whiskley Lima" is high...

It’s bumpy today and the PA28 has smaller breakout forces than a C182 so a lot of “bloody well stop jumping around” input is required, we reach circuit height eventually, without the wobbly prop the poor little engine is doing its nut all the time. Throttle back, and it's very draggy so you need to keep a fair bit of power on, and of course the trim wheel is in the wrong place. Call downwind, have to worry about this bloody fuel pump thing. On and off like a whore's drawers...

Pull some flap at the end of downwind, trim for hands off and we descend nicely in to the approach cone. The Instructor seems to want carb heat on all the way down which is all a little pointless as a) there isn't much moisture in the air today, b) carb icing doesn't come on that quickly and c) if you need to pull up quickly full power is not immediately available. But she's the Boss, so fly the approach and in the flare find it floats and requires a lot of back pressure. Mental note: keep slower next time round and trim it back a couple of generous turns at 300ft or so. Eyes on the end of the runway and.... ooh, suits you Sir.

Flaps away, bloody carb heat off, bloody fuel pump on and we climb out. She decides she's satisfied and we can stop after the next one so I must have done something right.

Round we go again, this time we have to extend North to accommodate a Seneca doing a missed approach, then keep the speed back, two turns back to remove the pressure, and that floats less and is much easier. Another "suits you Sir" and we're taxying in for a running crew change. Friendly Instructor hops out and we're away. Minimal power checks and we're back in the air heading North West to experiment with Foreflight and just bugger around for a while.

Ann's flying is just like mine was 400 hours ago: it takes a lot of her effort to keep the aircraft stable meaning she has less mental capacity available for radio, Nav, looking out the window, checks and just generally enjoying the miracle of flight. I remember it well....

She flies us from the right seat while I doodle around with Foreflight, which turns out to be pretty good. The lack of vertical flight planning still concerns me and NOTAMs are not in visual format but beyond that it's OK.

I suggest she tries a right seat landing but as she is struggling even to find the airfield from Banbury I think that might be optimistic, so I'll take the radio and fly the approach.

We are asked to orbit once over Barford St John for spacing from some Instrument Traffic then bimble in via Upper Heyford, join Straight In and cruise down Final.

We're just passing Kirtlington (I've cabled that house, and that house, and that house...) when the Tower ask us to go around so a Challenger Jet can land.

We can do that, sure.

Bloody carb heat away, fuel pump (no idea), go round and whip round the circuit for a tidy approach, two turns back and this time not only a "Suits you Sir" but on the centreline as well.

I'm so glad I don't have to rent from a Flying School every time I go flying. I really do appreciate the "have a key and go when you want" arrangement we have.

Local 10 Nov 18

We have Nick and Jess over for the weekend and I know they'd love to go flying, but the weather forecasts today cannot agree on when the heavy rain showers will arrive over Oxford: Oxford's forecast says 13:00 but Benson's says 11:00. It looks sunny at the moment so we'll go out; if it gets bad we'll either go through it or round it.

Oxford looks great in the November sun: the buildings shine and the trees are turning autumnal. It's rained a lot and the sky is scrubbed clean.

Nick has a go at flying it, and he's pretty good. Like many drivers he tends not to keep the turn in for long enough, but he's unfazed by leaning the aircraft into the turns ike a motorbike.

As we turn West at Abingdon we can see a huge storm approaching from the South West. We've been up long enough, we ask for a visual re-join and head back.

As we join Downwind the sun disappears and we can see a front of quite heavy rain approaching slowly, marching across the fields. Flying in it is not impossible, but these guys haven't flown before so let's not frighten them.

Halfway along the downwind leg Tower decides to get all other aircraft flying to rejoin in front of us so we are sent in to what feels like a perpetual right hand orbit while they recover Seneca after Seneca (frankly these guys are meant to be practising Instrument approaches; what they are doing joining VFR I don't know...).

Nick does an excellent job of keeping height and not corkscerewing us in, but Nessa's feeling sick in the back, so eventually I have to remind them we're still out here and we are asked to extend North behind 3 Senecas.

Weston the Green is Active so I'm a little concerned about this and ensure we are clear as we head North but I think the gliders are all on the ground by now....

The Senecas are beautifully outlined against the dark grey approaching storm clouds so we head North and slot in behind.... at which point the rain hits.

Visibility slams down but the runway lights are on full and sort of visible-ish at 600ft through what is now the side window, we now have quite a crosswind and it's chucking us about. All sorts of fun.

Slow it right down to give the line of Seneca's time to land, get a land after and cruise down, kick it straight at 10ft and plop it neatly down on the centre-line.

That wasn't as bad as I expected, actually, quite smooth considering the gusts and rain.

We sit in the plane for 10 minutes after shutdown not wanting to get wet, then take advantage of a lull in the rain to make a run for the terminal.

Still: they enjoyed it and it wasn't dangerous. Nick might do his PPL, he really enjoyed flying it.

Local 30 Nov 18

I hate people who, the moment they have a few hours under their belt, get a Class Rating Instructor Rating and are instantly experts on how you should fly. Especially if they have fewer hours than me.

So I am extremely cautious about giving advice to Ann: I may know how to do stuff but who am I to be generous with my advice? There are 1,001 ways to do aviation things: my way may not be the right way. There may not even be a "right" way!

She is migrating across to the C182 from the PA28-161 Warrior, so she needs to get used to the higher speed, larger speed range, heavier feel and greater complexity of the C182. The temptation to say "needs to get used to actually having some power" is strong here, but actually the 161 feels OK..... She is having formal lessons, today is a bit of fun to evaluate Foreflight, iPad yoke mounts and the Garmin 39 ADS-B box. We will be flying together in Florida next week so need to shake down in to multi-crew cooperation.

I'm not yet happy enough for her to left seat, even though I can still be P1 from the right hand seat and I am happy doing right seat landings, so she can be "Handling Pilot" while I do the radio and Nav, and play with the iPads and Garmin 39.

This is an interesting device: we in the Uk don't (yet) do ADS-B. Europe doesn't either, although politically that is about to be less of a driver. I've always been an advocate of things American, especialy aviation. The FAA way of doing things makes more sense than the CAA way. If it was up to me I would simply scrap the CAA and join the FAA lock, stock and barrel - move all G-Reg aircraft on to the N register and simply adopt FAA rules. Duplication of effort is very expensive and the CAA, as we all know, gold plate everything.

ADS-B is about electronic conspicuity: basicaly if all aircraft, gliders included, have ADS-B Out (transmit) then all aircraft with ADS-B In devices can see them. As a bonus you get Live weather and live NOTAMS (although that often mooted advantage is rapidly disappearing as 3G aloft becomes more available....).

Mandating them for all aircraft with minimum paperwork and a large CAA subsidy would pay for itself in lack of accidents pretty quickly (as the CAA Aware box did for navigation), and would massively improve awareness and safety.

Our experiements show that in the UK at present many aircraft do show up (lots of airliners, all Oxford's Seneca fleet and most bizjets) but many do not (light aircraft, gliders, helicopters). It's interesting to spot an aircraft in Foreflight and look around to see him in real life, I look forward to an ADS-B world.

Ann and I work out that she gets overloaded easily so we conclude it's best for her to fly from the right seat and for me to to do the radio and Nav plus the approaches and landings.

After some whizzing around between Tewkesbury and Wellesbourne we decide to go back in for an approach and this time I'll let Ann do the slowing down and getting down without me interfering. Each time we do this she gets better and this time I only intervene when she starts winding the prop out instead of in for the final approach. She flies a creditable and accurate approach, I spoil her fun at 200ft and we plop it on gently.

Stapleford 14 Nov 18

A client in Essex needs a small cabling job done. It needs 2 people for less than an hour, so Rod and I will whizz up to Stapleford, grab a taxi and go visit with some tools and a box of Ethernet cable.

Google Maps says it will take 2hrs 15 mins each way.

It's a beautiful day as we lift off runway 19 and turn left for London. Stay below the cloud base at 1700ft, swap to Farnborough North and intersect the M25 at Hemel Hempstead, swap to Stapleford at the reservoirs on the River Lea, spot the airfield and cruise in for a short landing on runway 21, backtrack on the grass and park up bloody miles way from our taxi in the visitors parking slot.

36 minutes brakes off to brakes on.

To underline the "safer by air" principle our "cheeky Essex chappy" taxi driver then nearly kills us on the way to the client....

For once the cable goes in and tests good, we pack up and in to a different taxi we go, this one at least drives more slowly. In fact he never goes above 28mph.

Rinse and reverse: we do a short take off from Stapleford for height (it's uphill and without flaps it feels marginal, so 2 stages and rotate at 58Kts: it goes up like a rocket), back over the lakes and then over the Chilterns, slow down and get down for a sightseeing run over Summertown so Rod can assess the builders' progress on his house, then climb in to the Downwind leg for R19, extend North to accommodate a Seneca doing a touch 'n go and as Rod will be videoing the landing I'm bound to cock it up...... ooh, I didn't!

38 minutes brakes off to brakes on. And back in time for lunch.

And the client thought we drove there!

Dunkeswell 5 Jan 19

The post-Christmas high pressure cell that has been plaguing us since the 27th December is still around on the first weekend in January producing a kind of windless murk that defies description and the weather forecasters who breezily state that it is "broken at 2000ft" which it isn't: more like "OVC2000 and yuk".

Oxford is marked as "Marginal VFR" and I'm sure there is some complex rule which decides whether that is true but we'll go out and take a look. A Dunkeswell lunch is on the cards.

Ann needs more practise in the C182 before they'll sign her off to go off solo so that's what we'll supply, but there is only so much she can do from the right seat so we agree that whilst I will be officially P1 for both legs she will fly the outbound leg from the right hand seat then the inbound leg from the left seat. There's no wind at all so I can, if necessary, land it from the right hand seat.

We have had a discussion about "heat of the moment change of authority" and indeed in Florida had to do one so "I've got it" is the codeword: non-threatening and certainly not shouted.

The famous violinist Jascha Heifetzold is quoted as saying "If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it". I haven't flown since guiding N829FA on to the tarmac at Marco Island Executive in November (in shorts and Hawaii shirt!) so I know something will go awry, even if only I notice it.

The art of becoming comfortable with an aircraft begins with the pre-flight and Ann has finally got the hang of loosening the bloody ratchet straps we use to hold the wings down. We pre-flight together in comfortable harmony and completely manage to miss exercising the trimmer so as we roll for take-off I have to give a hell of a heave to get it off the ground as the trim is wound too far forward. Who the hell managed to land it like that?

It's pretty murky up here but up to 2,000ft the ground is visible, beyond that it's IMC. The temptation to get up on top in the sun is there but for today we'll stay down in the murk. At 2,000ft we're clear of any bits of granite and radio masts between here and Dunkeswell (The Mendip mast will be well off to our right).

At Wantage we swap to London Info as Bristol don't do LARS any more and wend our way smoothly South West with every possible light on for conspicuity. The radio is quiet today: in anything other than bright blazing sunshine no one ever flies. We do see a PA28 tracking West across the Somerset levels where some quite serious mist has settled in the hollows, but Dunkeswell is the highest public airfield in the UK so that's not going to be a problem.

Dunkeswell give us runway 22 as in use and from here we might as well go straight in. There is traffic but it's only just called Downwind so won't affect (or "No Factor" as the Americans might say). We don't actually see the airfield until about 3 miles away but the trusty GPS steers us in, we switch to their QFE and work off that for the approach angle. This was so much more difficult in the bad old analogue days: my old CFI would have shot me.

Descend over the parked aircraft on the undershoot, flare.... and nicely down, a bit long but there you are, a quick backtrack, exit on to 35 and down the link taxiway to park for lunch. Not too rusty.

It's weird to be in the right hand seat, trusting another pilot.

Ann starts up (struggling as I do with the starter springs and my big bunch of keys) and we taxy to the other side of the runway for power-checks, then roll on 22. Nicely done, we climb out and turn left for North East, climb to 2,000ft and swap to London. At this height we are struggling to hear London: they keep cutting out halfway through the squawk instructions so I reach right in to the bottom of my mental Garmin grab bag and push the on/off volume control to turn the squelch off. It's noisy but at least I can hear them properly when I ask for a radio check.

Ann struggles with slowing the aircraft down from the cruise configuration to the landing configuration, so as we fly back we do exactly that loads of times. I'm sure anyone watching us from below would think we were weird but it's good practise and after 4 or 5 goes she's pretty confident and as we clear the hills to the East fo Swindon she swaps to Oxford Radar and we cruise in over Oxford. She's got it down to 100Kts and 1500ft by Port Meadow and does the whole approach flawlessly; I dont know what she was worried about.

The landing is of course key and I do keep my hands and feet near the controls for a panicked grab but she lands it perfectly; couldn't have done it better myself. Worrying, really: my landings were just rubbish for the first 200hrs or more, but Ann has them nailed already at less than 100hrs....

Lee-On-Solent 23 Feb 18

Nessa 's birthday usually coincides with some pretty rough weather (often snow) but weirdly we now have a huge high (QNH 1034) resulting in more hazy, misty weather and it's really warm. Indeed, it starts out too foggy to fly but by 11:00 it's breaking up at Oxford and Lee-on-Solent are reporting clear, so we'll go. Tom and Lucy will come with us, which makes for careful weight and balance calculations.

Annoyingly, the fuel bowser turns up before I have finished dipping the tanks and doing my calculations, so I have to slow him up a bit to ensure I do get it right. This is exactly the situation a pilot recently found himself in, got it wrong, crashed the aircraft and wound up in court stating "I forgot to add my own weight". So danger lies here....

Only aviation could have the tanks calibrated in US Gallons and the bowser dispensing fuel in Litres. What could possibly go wrong?

Eventually an additional carefully-calculated 90 Litres puts us at MAUW, I re-dip the tanks twice to make absolutely sure I've not done anything daft and do a little... pause for reflection with the numbers. Have I been stupid? No.

Flying is a series of evolutionary experiments, advancing by small increments. I've been reading John Farley's "A view from the hover" and whillst you might ask "what could you in your spamcan possibly learn from a Harrier test pilot?" he actually does have some quite relevant thoughts to GA. He's definitely the thinking man's pilot and some of the book is worth reading a couple of times (it's all worth reading at least once).

So when I was in Florida (Ha! Sounds posh...) my checkout on the later C182 had us using 10deg flap habitually on take off, something I don't normally do back here in the grubby UK. This seemed to work better so I'm going to try it today. I'm expecting a crisper response on rotate so we'll line up, advance the throttle, give it compensating right rudder and check Ts & Ps plus speed. At 60Kts it goes light, and just unsticks without any of the normal pre-stall airframe whistle I get when flapless. Well, that was easy. Climb out nailed at 82Kts, lose the flaps at 800ft and push for 90Kts, trim and swap to Oxford Radar. Of course no one is out today, it is quite hazy and we lose sight of the ground by 2,000ft and climb on top at 2,500ft. I'd prefer to be up here where it's smoother and clearer for maximum conspicuity.

Swap to Farnborough over the M4 and get a MATZ Transit for Odiham, then descend to 2,000ft to slip under the Solent Zone on a listening squawk via New Alresford and Wickham VRPs, then swap to Lee-on-Solent radio and join downwind for runway 05.

On turning Final we do seem to be crabbing a lot - there is more of a crosswind than at Oxford. It calms down as we descend then as we flare it picks up as we clear the hangars and the landing is untidy, shall we say. Can't have this! Nothing dangerous but certainly not perfect.

On my previous visit we went all the way to the end and on to the taxiway but now that's closed and we exit mid-runway.... which I've just gone past.

Slow down, turn round, backtrack and exit then pass the end of the runway and park on the grass.

Lee-on-Solent is a very cool GA airfield and deserves our support as they rescued what was about to be yet another bloody housing estate and created a really nice, friendly GA airfield. The runway is immaculate, landing fees are reasonable, the loos are clean..... and the beach is 200 yards away. They have a cafe and a keen pack of spotters, who post some really nice shots of us landing (fortunately without the messing around on touchdown!).

After lunch and an ice cream on the beach we return to the airfield, start up and taxy out behind a PA28. Good manners says I wait for him to power-check, but he thinks he's a 747 and takes ages before he finally pulls on to the runway and departs. As he is obviously a 747 maybe I should give him some wake turbulence separation?

Again, 10deg flaps gives a cleaner take-off and we climb out behind the 747, banking to avoid Fleetlands ATZ then Tom takes over and flies us back North. He's funny: he heaves it on to course then the moment he's got there he rests his right hand on the yoke and gently drags us off to the right before realising, swinging us back 30deg on course, then doing the same thing again. I reckon it's because he's not resting his elbow on the door handle. Or something.

Farnborough are, as they often are, completely overloaded with GA who have come out now the haze has receded, so it's not even worth talking to them. Listening squawk, turn on all the lights, climb over the Odiham MATZ stub and keep a good lookout. We do see a couple of planes but as always the skies look empty until suddenly there's an aircraft about to fly in to you.... Electronic conspicuity is just around the corner and it can't come too soon.

Swap back to Oxford Radar near the M4, then as we pass Didcot they have jet traffic departing South so we'll descend to remain below them. Weirdly, as we start our descent they ask us to descend to which I'm happy to reply that we've already started and they are surprised that we're thinking that far ahead. That's what an IMC will do for you: think ahead.

Tom would like to fly us around Oxford so does a very neat orbit of the ring road, performing a near-perfect circle on the GPS log before we head back to the circuit. At 4 miles, as requested, we tell Radar and they release us to Tower, who haven't heard anything about us at all and suggest we speak to Approach (I think she'd been in the loo...). Time for Best CAP413: "Golf Papa Oscar Whisky Lima, with you from Approach for a downwind visual join for runway 19, with Victor and QNH 1033". That puts her in her place....

Less wind here, slow down and get down, turn Final and get the flare right, just a tiny squeak and we're rolling. Vacate, get marshalled in to a spare slot and shut down. Lovely.

And we've got the plane back in time for Ann who plans to go out with her instructor, but he cancels claiming "it's too hazy". So I send her a picture showing crystal clear skies, what was he thinking? She needs to get clear of these instructors and get to making her own decisions, today was lovely and perfectly doable for her.

Wellesbourne 10 Apr 19

It's a breezy spring day in Oxfordshire, and WL is just back from its Annual. This of course means a double-thoroughness A check as who knows what they have done to the control cables, oil pipes, engine electrics etc etc. Many a fatality has occurred due to unspotted Annual issues.

Adopt a David Attenborough voice: "here we see the lesser-spotted GA pilot emerging from its hibernation, stretching and scratching its arse, performing the Annual ritual of rust removal after a long winter".

Actually I don't feel all that rusty, but some circuits would be good and rather than embarrass myself at Oxford I'll take Ann up to Wellesbourne and we'll bounce around up there.

But first there's the small matter of photographing a new strip at Charlbury that looks delicious - unfinished as yet (some trees and a power line need to come down) but the indications are that permission to land will be granted by the owner. So let's take a look.....

We queue for ages at the Alpha Hold, but I don't care. Warm the engine up, double-check everything. Can't get Ann's P2 microphone to work properly. Try all possible squelch settings but it seems to be either on constantly or won't come up until she's said three words. Bugger.

Left turn outbound, stay low and head for Charlbury, Ann gives us a low orbit while I photograph from as many angles as possible then we climb out North.

Wellesbourne does a great multiple touch 'n go landing fee, allowing you to do as many as you want for £40. I rarely do more than 5 at a time as I get bored but they need all the support they can get at the moment: the landowners want to close the airfield to build (yet more) houses.

Despite that fact that they have already sold half the airfield for a business park, dangerously placed at the end of 05 and (famously for my 1st solo land away on the approach to 23) they want more money for houses rather than this ramshackle here-today-gone-tomorrow aviation thingy.

Britain is a bit like that: deep in our representatives' psyche is a desire for the country to be some 16th Century rural idyll, so spending money on new-fangled things like roads (pooh! Dirty, smelly, noisy, smacks of Trade...), airfields (noisy, dangerous things, prone to plummeting on schools), broadband (why on earth should we invest just so people can watch porn faster?), railways (don't even get me started on the "just slighty faster than normal" HS/2 white elephant. Look, if you're going to build it build a bloody maglev right in to the Bull Ring, run 1000 people trains every 10 minutes at 350 mph. That's 30 minutes including accel/decel times) seems like a terrible thing. Unlike the US and France where GA infrastructure is seen as important and welcomed.

So airfields become just another brown field site ripe for housing development. What idiots are we?

But more to the point: if they close the airfield, how do they get the resident Vulcan out?

I've never landed on 05 before, it's not used much but when the wind is from the East and 15Kts that's what you need. I have the noise abatement diagram on my kneeboard with potential 05 circuits inked in avoiding the red bits, so I am at least prepared.

Ann joins us neatly Downwind for 05 and I take over for Base and Final. We are high over the final hedge, but plonk it down OK despite the gusts coming over the tops of the business park buildings.

But for some reason it just won't slow down: we seem have little braking action but if I push just a tiny bit harder it feels like the wheels locking. Eventually the speed does come down, along with some dreadful rumbling and bouncing noises, so I begin to wonder if we've lost a tyre. I use the whole of 05 to stop and I'm sure it looked awful from the Tower. Rust, Rust and more Rust...

Backtrack and the rumbling is still there, magically it disappears as we turn on to the taxyway so it must be the runway surface. Yuk!

Taxy in, park up. The tyres are just fine, so we have a can of Coke and pay the "all you can eat" landing tariff before setting off to try and improve things.

The runway sounds better on take-off and we get the hang of the weird 05 circuit, the touch and go's get progressively better each time until after 5 we do a perfect one and I reckon I'm back in the groove so ask Ann to take us home via Banbury.

I'm so rusty I'm wondering why the NAV2 display isn't coming up having Activated "Vectors to the ILS" for Oxford on the 430. Of course, it's on NAV1 - Doh! - and I get a steady steer left message until we finally hit the Localiser just East of Banbury where it flicks across viciously but we're turning for it anyway and we can see the runway in the far distance. Or at least I can: Ann can't seem to see it?

She flies us closer and then suddenly seems to want to take us over Woodstock at 2,500ft rather than Kidlington at 1,500ft. Not quite sure what that's all about and she's not sure either so I'll take it, drop it in to the circuit and roll Final on 01. Now we've got a gusty right crosswind, so we'll crab it in all the way down, then expect to kick the left rudder at 6 feet as we flare, eyes on the end of... and that worked well.

The trickiest bit is trying to get the cover back on, which today is definitely a 2 person job! It is actually really windy out here.

I do feel I'm back in the groove, though.

Local 7 Aug 19

The Northern European weather is doing its best to be unsettled so we have a breezy, cloudy, showery day: perfect for an IMC refresher trip. Depart Northbound, come back in for a teardrop entry to the Hold, do a couple of Holds and then out for a Full Fat ILS to Minimums.

It's nice to be flying with IR Steve again: he oozes IR confidence and makes me feel I can do all of this without my head exploding. He's flown more hours IR than I've been alive so I'd better polish up good.

We brief for the Oxford Procedure and ILS, I've got the instrument chart geo-located in SkyDemon as a backup and I'm pretty sure I can drive the 430W to do the procedure.

We depart and head North East, right in to the middle of a nice cloud. Deliberately leaving the autopilot off this is good IMC hand-flying experience, and we go about as far as Barford St John before asking Oxford for the procedure, turning round and heading for the beacon.

The difference between doing this using the 430W, the autopilot and the height-hold versus hand flying it via an NDB, especially in the Hold, is that situational awareness is so vastly improved it basically becomes if not easy, then certainly doable even for a rusty pilot.

Stable at 3,500ft we can aim for the beacon, report taking up the Hold, turn 30 degress off to make a teardop approach in to the inbound turn and even the whole 4 minute stopwatch rigmarole becomes unnecessary; we can see exactly where we are: absolute bloody Luxury.

It's bumpy and actually doing this, in and out of clouds with a strong and varying crosswind is great real world practice.

We do 2 turns around the Hold and then head outbound, with Approach asking us to remain at 3,500ft while they pass a helicopter under us, then we're allowed to descend... at 4 miles on a 6.5 mile leg.

Dump everything, get a 1500ft/min descent and head for 1800ft while doing the pre-landing checks. This is a complete head rush, and we reach 1800ft and 100Kts just as we need to start the turn for the Localiser.

Completing the turn we pass through the inbound track, as I thought we would so continue the turn to compensate, make the Localiser and call Established, drop a stage of flaps, watch the glideslope come in, push and trim for the descent and it's all going well until I start to swing left and right through the Localiser. It never gets more than half scale deflection but I'm not responding correctly, I'm rusty.

At 800ft QNH we go visual and there is the runway where I expect it so we'll slow to 85Kts, pull the second stage of flaps and flare. There's a gusty crosswind which makes my landing messy but actually I was happy with that.

Local 13 Aug 19

So this is the real thing: my 2-year IR(R) refresher. A reasonable VFR day to do it but quite gusty, so we fire up and sit at the Hold for ages waiting for landing aircraft. We like to lean at the Hold so I'll do that and leave my hand on the mixture so I don't try to take off with the mixture leaned. What sort of an idiot would do that?

Well me as it turns out.

Distracted by something I manage to turn on to the runway, take off and climb to 500ft before spotting it. I thought we were a bit down on power and the EGT was very high. Slam it in, vow never ever ever to do that again. Rusty Rusty....

We climb out NW then turn to track to Daventry: Direct To DTY, spin the DI and get the autopilot on, avoid Hinton-in-the-Hedges parachute drop zone (of which more later...) and do a nice track job inbound.

He asks me to track back for the ILS so I'll spin it round on the bug (never more than 180deg or it starts to turn the worng way!) and head back.

Now it starts to go pear-shaped because he starts vectoring me around to avoid Hinton again and then asks for an orbit. That I can do but I'm losing situation awareness.

We get down to 1800ft for the Localiser but for some reason I can't get lined-up, I keep thinking I need to go right whereas I need to go left. Eventually I get it and the needles drop in but now I'm below the glide slope and panicking..... STOP panicking, that's the glide slope coming in form above, you dope.

As it comes down I drop on to it but it's a bit unstable and I just feel overwhelmed at this point. If I was alone I would go around, collect my wits and have another go, but we'll persist and in fact by the time we get to the MDA it's not too bad, he suggest we continue to 300ft (a good sign, actually the oscillations were not as bad I had thought), we look up and there is the big, beautiful runway, ready for a visual drop on in gusty conditions, nothing wrong with that.

So I'm good for another 2 years in the clouds, but I do feel I need to do more ILSes. It's not the theory, it's just ensuring I use the aircraft kit properly.

Dunkeswell 20 Oct 19

Ann has finished her PPL and asked to fly me. It's apparently all my fault she restarted her PPL! Oh dear, I am in real trouble...

So we turn up on a beautiful day, agree to go to Kemble and she pre-flights and taxies out. At the Hold we suddenly realise that I've interfered - I assumed we would go clockwise aorund the Brize Zone via Compton, whereas she assumes we'll go anti-clockwise. Even though she agrees to go my way I really shouldn't have interfered.

She takes off and flies us faultlessly (apart from forgetting to put the flaps away: hey, we've all done it!) to Kemble and we have a cup of coffee in the late summer sun outside the newly-refrurbished AV8 restaurant before she fires up once more and we depart via the North Leach roundabout. Apart from aiming at first Little Rissington, then at the Brize Zone, it's a smooth return for a right base join for 19.

Dunkeswell 20 Oct 19

My old friend Steve has asked for a tour.

Today we have a RA(T) over Brize Norton and North, youngest daughter is running in a race in Portsmouth, lunch awaits at Dunkeswell and there is a reservoir in Wales needing a buzzing. Adding all those together gives a square tour. Steve goes in the P2 seat, Mandy and Nessa in the back and Basil in the boot. He immediately goes to sleep.

The weather departing Oxford is pretty dull and overcast but the forecast is for scattered at 2,000ft so we will depart and get Steve flying.

He does a pretty good job, not overcontrolling it and even managing to handle climbs and descents so we head South and around the South Downs the weather finally improves.

The aircraft is for some reason going really fast today - sometimes it won't fly above 125Kts but today I can't seem to get it to go below 140Kts. I think it's because winter is coming and it's cooler.

We do a listening squawk for Farnborough as they are busy but we will actually speak to Solent as we need their attention. As we descend Southbound for Portsmouth seafront another pilot, who clearly doesn't know what he is doing or where he is, is descending in to their Zone by accident. They guide him gently to the outskirts of their Zone but he says he is IMC which I find hard to believe as I can see the whole Zone from here and it's entirely CAVOK. His um-ing and er-ing gives all us GA pilots a bad name...

Turning above the run we can see the procedings in the sunshine, turn West and head along The Solent for Lymington and then Hengistbury Head. Steve lives in Poole which is under their Zone, so we will ask for a VFR Zone Transit, they can only refuse us.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing they fnally become convinced we do know what we are doing and allow us in, soon Poole is under us and we're visual with a RyanAir 737 on Final.

Departing West at 1500ft the ground slowly rises under us as we head for Dunkeswell. I've never approached it from this angle before, we not have to descend very much to call Right Base for 04.

As I call Right Base the parachute drop Cessna turns on to the runway, which is a bit cheeky. I judge him too close to be able to fit behind so we'll go round and do an early turn / low level abbreviated circuit / orbit as there is no other traffic to affect, by which time he has departed and we can smoothly descend to a nice arrival on the rather bumpy runway, taxy to the end and stop for lunch.

After lunch we start up again and taxy out. The wind has shifted round so we are on 35 which I have not used before, we enter and backtrack then depart North for the Bristol Channel whhich is almost immediately visible. The weather gets worse here; looks like rain but we're off to sunny Wales via a cloudless Bristol Channel, a listening squawk for Cardiff and coasting-in at Porthcawl.

The hills rise in front of us and soon become the Black Mountains, the dappled sunlight proving their name. Topping out we can see the Usk Reservoir in front of us, glistening in the sunshine. Checking for wires we descend and do a Dambusters run, all singing the Theme as we roar over the dam and accelerate up the hill on the far side and depart Eastward.

London warn us of an Active Danger Area to the North but we're departing East for Great Malvern.

As the ground flattens over the border we can see the swell of the Malvern ridge ahead and we turn there for home, remaining at 1500ft and watching the Cotswolds ridge climbing up towards us.

The RA(T) expires as we pass North of Little Rissington but we are well under 4,000ft anyway and soon Enstone appears and then Oxford. Aligning for a Crosswind join for R01 Oxford suggest a Left Base join instead. Stev and Mandy's smiles have been getting broader and broader all day so I reckon I can get away with this and crank it round for a run down Blenheim Palace's driveway. Checking smiles still in place we can descend for a nice, smooth arrival on Runway 01 and a taxy in.

Local 10 Nov 19

November has been unremittingly damp, dark and really not worth taking passengers up in but finally a clear, low wind day arrives and we'll take Rich out for a look at the local floods.

I love flying in the winter: fewer thermals and less traffic makes for a more relaxing flight, and flying during the week is always more relaxing.

Something always goes awry when I've not flown for a little bit and I manage to forget to turn the NAV beacon on. Which is typical, because it's on the checklist.

Fire up, taxy out and wait....and wait.... and wait at the A1 Hold.

I know landing traffic has priority but really!

At least I can get the oil warm while we wait.

We see one plane do the tightest left base join I have seen since I last went in to North Weald: wings not level until after the threshold..... Cowboy stuff.

Take off, depart South over a very wet Oxford and, via the ring road, to our house then down to Ann's house for a buzz then up in to the clear air above and after a couple of clearance turns I ask Rich to fly it.

He enjoys it: he's light on the controls and not frightened, so we'll leave Oxford, squawk VFR, switch to Brize Zone and ask for a Zone Transit over his house in Witney. They ask us to squawk which we do but they can't see it because, it transpires, I have turned Transponder accidentally to STBY not VFR. Oops....

They clear us North 1 mile East of the ATZ but as we fly it we keep drifting East: we have some wind up here which is drifting us so we'll actually steer 350 to keep them happy.

As I have got older the appeal of blasting around the countryside at 145Kts, whilst still there, has waned a little and for trips like this I am happy to bimble along at 110Kts, feeling the air across the wings and relaxing a bit.

You can take a C182 anywhere, from a big airport like Bordeaux down to a little grass trip somewhere and not feel ashamed of it. Truly a universal flying machine, but I suppose anyone says that of their selected aircraft.

Rich wants to see Blenheim Palace so we'll drift down the approach for a left base for 01 and fly past the huge buildings, which look magnificent in the late afternoon sun. Turning Final over the hill we are a little high so I'll drift it downwards, then flare a little further down the runway than I would prefer but hold it off... hold it off..... and we kiss, the wheels spinning up nicely and, for once, actually on the centre line.

He'd love to come again so I haven't scared him (too much).....

Kemble 25 Jan 20

The General Election, Christmas and New Year have come and gone. Nessa and I avoided it all by going to Australia for December.

A planned Sydney cross-country fails to materialise due to the forest fires so I now haven't flown since mid-November. I need time on my own to scrape some rust away and get current.

On the first free Saturday in January the weather is fantastic but domesticity must take priority (and you won't learn much on a nice day), so this Saturday is more challenging: 1400ft base, marginal VFR and it will be 800ft IFR by later.

So we book circuits for 9:45am.

I am really concentrating on trying to slow down and get down to my landings: I think my inconsistencies are due to too much energy left in the wings when the mains touch, so instead we will aim at the numbers and slow to 70Kts, then 65Kts over the threshold. This works so much better I'm not sure why I didn't try it before. The touchdowns are more consistently barely audible: hmmm.... food for thought. I know the airframe well enough now to recognise the pre-stall whistle and we're just getting it as we touch.

After 2 circuits I'm planning a short-field and go in for a pee but the tower has other plans for me: first a right hand circuit over Woodstock then she asks me to orbit at the end of downwind which will be partially IMC anyway as the clouds have started to descend. Ah, this will be fun. Orbits are best done without reference to the horizon anyway: a Rate One orbit can be carefully monitored to be maintained +/- 50ft and after 3 I glance at SkyDemon which tells me I'm drifting slowly North with the wind, as predicted.

The big jet lands and I am released for a right base join and this time we'll do a short field landing to a full stop. From the end of the tarmac to the old 11/29 threshold is 350m, so we'll slow right down, full flaps and aim for the threshold. More power required as we have drag flaps, down to 55Kts over the threshold, airframe whistle, touch..... and slow. Not much braking required, an easy 350m, but this was dry tarmac. Wet grass is another matter, dry grass better as the braking effect is good.

And they let me taxy "backwards" down to the apron.

The coffee has gone through......

The weather is closing in and it will be IFR by lunchtime. But Kemble awaits so we fire up, depart for a right turn out bound and head for Charlbury. As the ground rises in to the Cotswolds the cloudbase drops and I'm not going to scud run in to rising ground so we'll climb towards MSA. There's actually a nice VMC layer between the 800ft broken and the 2800ft overcast so we creep up on Kemble, getting enough glimpses of the ground and a bit of SkyDemon to maintain situational awareness, spot the old airliners inside the perimeter fence and call tight left base for 08, the runway appears but I'm over it so I could orbit but I might as well land long and backtrack a bit, then park on the muddy grass.

Booking in and paying the randomly changing Landing fee (£13 today, apparently) they say I'm their first arrival of the morning. The instructors standing around the Ops desk clearly think I'm a lunatic but this is measured madness: planned and thought through, and this is exactly why we have an IR(R) Rating.

Coffe and bathroom visit sorted, we can fire up, rev a lot to get out of the ruts then 180 backtrack and on to the tarmac, roll from the intersection and climb into IMC at 800ft, maintain the climb and turn North.

A momentary lapse of concentration: ignore the inner ear and use the AH.

Ah, that's better.

A climbing turn is always hard when you've not done this for a while but we're in a 500ft per minute climb and turning, so straighten up, head NE and level out at 1500ft in the solid clag that has formed: it is definitely getting worse.

The fall back plan is to shoot the ILS but as the land drops away visibility down to the ground returns and we can call right base for 19 with surprisingly good visibility from 5 miles. Unlike the earlier madness the airfield is now deserted but they've just departed a big jet so recommend a 4 mile spacing for wake turbulence.

I ain't messing with wake turbulence after last summer's little mishap at Jersey so extend North and turn long final for a gentle flapless landing (just to ensure we've covered all the options), and even that is a gentle arrival so my 3 landings to a full stop are now done and I can take passengers again.

I also feel current, just as important.

And I've just completed my first logbook. That green-paged FAA logbook I've had since 2001 and contains my first flight is now full of memories. 541hrs, loads of blood, sweat and tears towards the front of the book, one real-life engine failure and a lot of fun.

Now I'll need to get to grips with this weird CAA logbook-thingy...

Sturgate 14 Feb 20

Storm Ciara has battered the country and Storm Dennis is coming in, but there is a morning's lull in which careful reading of the weather runes might allow a morning trip out.

So Ann and I are going up to Sturgate to see what's what. I've flown over it many times but never landed there. I'll fly up and Ann will fly back.

I don't like sharing the A check responsibilities with anyone: it's too easy for stuff to fall between two stools. Each person assumes the other has checked the chocks / pitot heat / flaps etc. So WL gets effectively two A checks but neither of us remember to check the alignment of the fuel caps after the fueller has filled the tanks up. They're fine, but the holes in that Swiss cheese can line up pretty quickly.

The wind is calm now but will perk up later: all sorts of strong wind warnings and dire threats pepper the TAFs but as we depart to the North it's pretty smooth and clear.

We climb out North between the inbound ILS track and Hinton in the Hedges and head for Daventry, then Melton Mowbray VRP. Every day is a school day: Ann is doing the radio and has never given a concise message to London Info before. She makes a fine job of it, though.

Sturgate's Pooleys entry advises we speak to Waddington and arrange a MATZ Transit for arrival, but they are just not awake so we will swerve around their MATZ stub and talk to Sturgate Radio, who advise the Red Arrow RA(T) is Active (this wasn't on the NOTAMs...) at Scampton, however with a little judicious manoeuvring we can avoid that.

They want us to join for runway 27 with a right hand circuit so a bit of mental juggling gives us a crosswind join, and a right turn. It's interesting how distances are deceptive: I'd mentally assumed we had a bit to go but suddenly realise we are virtually on top of the airfield, so chop the throttle and slide down for a pretty-much 1,000ft crosswind arrival, a turn and report Downwind and a smooth turn to Base.

It's not untill I realise Base is taking an awful long time to line up with the runway that I become aware of the strengthening South wind: as I turn Final I am having to fly quite a lot into-wind to maintain the centre-line. This is fine and expected, maintaining the correct speed and attitude until the flare all goes well, flare and kick it straight and.... just as we expect a nice arrival we pass abeam some trees to the North of the runway and the interaction between them and the wind picks us up and starts throwing us around. This is weird: I'd expect it if the trees were to the South of the runway, but they are North.

Maintaining the flare allows the aircraft to settle and we arrive a little untidily and well off the centreline - if we'd gone any further across I'd have gone around, but it was untidy. I'm not sure whether I should have expected it, but it is clear that my crosswind skills are a little rusty.

I assume the entrance to the cafe is via the crosswind runway, so backtrack and am about to turn when the Tower tells me it's not there, it's at the end of the runway, so another 180 and back the other way. That would have looked very weird from the air. Off at the end and park up for an excellent coffee and bacon butty. Recommended!

And we are the only people there.....

Ann will fly us home, with me on the radio. I immediately select Smooth Jazz. Nice......

As there is a direct crosswind we can't be arsed to depart on 27 so request 09 for a direct-from-the-taxiway take-off from the very nice people in the "Tower" (a very comfortable room on the Ground floor with no less than 3 people in it. This airfield must get very busy, they don't have 3 people at Kemble!). This is granted and Ann rolls.

As we accelerate past the trees we get a repeat of the landing experience: some quite severe turbulence. Ann controls it well and we're soon past it and accelerating in to smooth air for a 270deg climbing left hander to the South but there is a lesson to be learned here: downwind trees can affect your landing and takeoff rolls. It doesn't seem right but there it is.

The strong Southerly has arrived in force now and our speed over the ground is considerably less than it was on the way up. Halfway back a broken layer appears and as Ann has no IR(R) we elect to descend below it. It is not forecast to be lower than 1,400ft which is fine but it is a lot bumpier down here, with intermittent rain. Good experience for her, not always flying in smooth CAVOK conditions...

Swapping back to Oxford they are giving 22Kts gusting 30Kts straight down the runway, so it will be rough but doable, as forecast.

We can hear them talking to prospective pilots asking for taxy: "you do realise it's 22G30 out there?".

Silence.

Then: "OK, cancelling detail".

Very sensible.

Overhead Banbury we can hear a jet coming in from the East being vectored for the ILS so we assume they will ask us to orbit but they instead ask us to stay West of the ILS.

At this point Ann and I have something of a difference of opinion. I feel she has lost situational awareness as she drifts first towards the ILS, then towards Enstone before she elects to orbit almost off the end of Enstone's runway which makes me feel uncomfortable. Then once the jet is passed and she is cleared for a right base join she flies straight through the approach path and starts heading quite seriously East.

She believes that she had not lost awareness, was "avoiding the jet's wake" by flying East and was planning to rejoin the approach path closer to the runway, which is a weird manoeuvre I haven't heard of before. No damage done and she lands the aircraft superbly despite a possibility of wake turbulence but when we debrief afterwards we both agree she needs to verbalise what she is doing in these situations to reduce my stress levels....

The wind has really got up now and flying will be off for the next few days: the cover makes a pretty determined bid for freedom as we put it on. But we're better than that and soon it's buttoned down tight. A good morning's experience.

Local 7 Mar 20

When I was a small boy there just wasn't anyone we knew who "did" aviation, so I never got the chance to go out for a morning; this is why I'm always keen to take young people out.

Today is one of those "work the weather" days: it's actually going to be OK this morning but is scheduled to get really windy this afternoon so, like normal, no one is going flying..... But we've got 1,000ft of clear air, we're not doing aerobatics and this is Britain - the weather is never going to be perfect.

Ben and Charlie are at the age where they are susceptible to the sounds, the smells, the very atmosphere of aviation: the fuel, the oil and hot metal, the vibrations of the airframe, the views and most importantly the opportunity to actually fly the thing yourself.

Following a Safety Brief in Operations: stay with me, don't wander off, stay away from any other aircraft, stay outside the prop arc, keep looking for stray bits of kit lying around on the tarmac, when I say "I have control" let go, where the sick bags are; and a decision on where they want to go and who gets to fly first, they are as keen to help me pre-flight as they are to get flying, so I'll pump up the P2 seat with cushions and try to answer their many, many questions as sensibly as possible.

Depart South over Oxford, the clouds are at 1,300ft as forecast. This for some reason makes the airfield symbol go IFR in SkyDemon, but actually it's a good clear VFR day and the lower clouds are beginning to disperse so we can climb up to 2,000ft.

Charlie quickly gets the hang of flying it so soon we are wending our way down the Thames in search of their houses then he sets up some nice steep turns to orbit around them while I keep a wary couple of fingers on the yoke and a good lookout before wending our way back towards Oxford, over the now de-chimneyed Didcot power station and back for a visual recovery for R19.

Oxford are busy and we get to orbit on the downwind while a bizjet shoots the ILS, then we're left base and Final for 19. Typically, with the first landing of the day it isn't perfect: there is a squirrely little crosswind and maybe I've got too much energy still in the wing: it takes a second or so for the aircraft to settle properly on the runway. Can do better....

A pee, a crew change and we're off again: this time East bound for Westcott and Waddesdon. Coming up the Hold point we are number 3 for take-off. We may be here some time... Nah, they're all awaiting IFR clearances from London so we can blast past for an Immediate departure VFR. Just occasionally, you do get ahead. In a few seconds we're cleared and off - they are still copying clearances. Flying IFR is actually not all that difficult, but learning how to do it... ah, that's the tricky and time-consuming part.

Ben is a more measured pilot: quiet and competent he eases us around North Oxfordshire and in to Buckinghamshire and then Northamptonshire before swinging us around Silverstone. He has the knack of holding a heading and a height already, something I took ages to perfect: one or the other always seemed to be slipping away from me.

We return for a left base, get another orbit then head for final. There is a bizjet awaiting our pleasure so with everyone watching we need to do a decent landing. Although we have more of a crosswind this time: the wind has picked up as forecast, I have the measure of it now and we do a proper crosswind "have we landed yet?" job. That's how it's done!

Both boys are happy (Charlie reckons it was "the best day of his life so far"), and Ben wants to get his PPL before his drivers licence. As we are now not be EASA his will be a CAA PPL, possibly not recognised in Europe....

Local 22 Mar 20

At last the March weather has turned truly gorgeous after all that damned rain.

But now the COVID-19 CoronaVirus is threatening to stop all aviation.

Before the inevitable lockdown happens (and with due regard to social distancing) I am going to get some crosswind landing practise in. Oxford says they are still open so I reckon I can get by touching nothing but the aircraft (can't avoid touching that...).

It's a blustery East wind that threatens to take the cover away across the runway before we've even started so this might be.... challenging.

There are a few aircraft floating about, some doing circuits, so we'll take off and depart to the North West for some general handling. The bumping about abruptly stops at 3,500ft so we'll mooch about up here for a while, doing some steep turns (I love doing steep turns), stalls and some careful documentation, as suggested by my Instructor, of what throttle settings give straight and level, and a 500ft per minute rate of descent at 100Kts with and without 1 stage of flaps i.e. ILS conditions.

He reckons you shouldn't be bothering with jockeying the throttle to get level flight or an ILS descent in IMC, you should already know what they are for your aircraft so you can bother about other things. You can preset what you know to work and the aircraft will carry on without you having to fret.

A Good Plan.

So, for reference, in a 1982 C182:

Approach power settings, prop/ mix fully forward

Flapless 100Kts level = 15in Hg

Flapless 100Kts, 500ft/min descent = 13in Hg

1st stage flaps (max 140Kts) 100Kts level = 16in Hg

1st stage flaps (max 140Kts) 100Kts, 500ft/min descent = 15in Hg

Then we head back for some bumpy circuits.

Changing to Tower, the very nice but slightly harassed gentleman clears me for a Downwind Join for Runway 01. Fair enough, I can do that...

But as I cross the Take-off numbers I get "What are you doing over there? I cleared you for a Left Base Join for 01".

Er, I'm sorry but I would have remembered. I even read back your instructions....

"Tango Golf, apologies, will re-position". Maybe I mis-remembered

"No, go on and join Downwind".

I'm sure the tapes will explain what actually happened but one of us was wrong, that's for sure. No one got hurt.

I'm number two to a Diamond DA-20 in front with a Student pilot who keeps forgetting to use the prefix "Student" but looks like she is doing a better job of the landings than I am: I get it all correct, then it floats at the last second and won't settle properly on to the tarmac for a while. Yuk.

Power-up and climb out, watching for the Diamond who is going further North than I am on the crosswind leg (I always stay South of the Bletchingdon Road because this marks the Southern limit of D123 which is not Active today but it's a bad habit to get in to) so I am catching them up.

Slow right back to 80Kts to let them get away, then the next time I try it faster, with only 1 stage of flap and that seems more settled but on the 3rd time I go back to 2 stages and because we're slower we are more affected and the wind has picked up, I can't actually get it to settle at all: I get little skips and bounces.

I'm on the upwind side of the nice wide runway so I'm not bothered about hitting anything but it just feels really unsettled. The wind is coming over the hangars and the rotor effect is really unsettling the wing.

A quick check of the strength as we climb out and they are now giving 06018G22 so maybe it's time to abandon the unequal struggle and go in: the Diamond has.

On the last circuit I am alone, so I'll try for one last real good one but despite the normal "bit of wing down, lots of crab then gently straighten it at 4 feet" we're all over the place, the mains skittering across the surface and bouncing us back in to the air a few inches. Several skitters later we finally get both mains on, now it won't track straight and we wander all over the centreline before fnally it settles as I lose the flaps.

Thoroughly unnerved by the experience I am too fast turning at the end of the runway and get a squeal from the tyres: very unprofessional...

As I exit the aircraft the wind hits me: now I know why it was unsettled on landing. This is quite a gale.

Putting the cover on is a whole new level of difficult: I can get the prop end done OK and the sides draped across the struts but try as I might I can't get the roof section to lie flat across the top of the aircraft long enough to grab it from behind the wing - it keeps blowing back over the cowling. I imagine the guys in the Tower are having a good laugh at this idiot...

I only prevail by borrowing one of the belly straps and sliding it between the flap and the fuselage to hold it, then allow the wind to blow the loose end over to the windscreen, go round and clip the end of the roof section of the cover to the other end then go back around the rear of the wing and heave the now clipped section back over the wing against the wind so it can be velcroed and clipped against the sides. Gotcha!

Bournemouth - Oxford 30 Jun 20

Post-COVID lockdown and the freshly-painted aircraft is ready to pick up.
The weather driving to Bournemouth is truly awful: driving rain and 200ft clouds. Is this a good idea for a first flight after lockdown? I haven't flown for 102 days so a little rust is inevitable, but an immediate climbing low level IMC transition (possibly in a turn) will be challenging.

I take 5 minutes to quietly think it through and make an honest appraisal of whether I think I can do it safely.

I actually think I can, being acutely aware of the potential loss of control issue. I have had my trial by fire with The Leans, I know what to feel for and the importance of disregarding the inner ear "feel" in favour of the AH, ASI and VSI.

By the time we arrive at the back of Bournemouth (via a track that could well be described as "off road") the rain is easing and the cloudbase lifting (a bit).

I phone ATC for a departure discussion: it's not going to be VFR all day so we can either file an IFR Flight Plan (never done one of those, I'm not even sure I'm allowed to?) or depart "Special VFR".

I've flown Special VFR before, but only to allow VFR access to The Channel Islands in the days when it was Class A. I have no idea what the rules are for a "Special VFR Departure" but they seem happy and I'm happy (maybe a bit nervous) to accept a clearance that will most certainly include me going IMC within their Control Zone as the clouds are 1200ft at best and won't actually clear enough for a "proper" VFR departure all day. I'm confident if I can get it off the runway visually we'll be fine, and we can then argue about whether I'm visual with the ground for the rest of the departure. It's certainly safer to be higher-but-IMC rather than scud running in to rising ground. Once I'm clear in to Class G I can do whatever I want and get a Deconfliction service from them, Solent or Farnborough.

Following any maintenance my big concern is that something has been assembled wrong so Steve and I double-check the control sense for all surfaces, ensure the throttle actually does what it's meant to and so on. The Alternate Air control is really stiff from lack of use, but gives a satisfying bump in the VSI and identical altimeter readings in and out.

An exhaustive pre-flight is followed by a long, gentle taxy to the Hold, where I am suddenly told I face a "very long" wait as they have traffic on the ILS.

So what? I'm not departing anywhere near the ILS, but apparently they have to have a clear zone for me to depart Special VFR so I don't conflict. I can hold a heading IMC you know?

The airfield is littered with BA and other airliners furloughed for the duration. It's apparently cheaper to park them here than anywhere else. Some of them I suspect will never fly for BA again.

Twenty minutes and several aircraft landing and doing low approaches later, the engine is thoroughly warm and power-checked; I'm actually not that bothered, I can do e-mails and WhatsApps and check the weather at Oxford (OK until 1:00pm and my alternate of Gloucester is clear, I have 5hrs duration so why worry?), I'm cleared on to the runway in the increasing rain and cleared for take-off.

Despite the long lay-off I think I can show them an accurate departure regardless of the conditions, which have cleared to 1200ft anyway.

I suspect I simply wasn't aware of what a difference having a highly polished aircraft makes. Despite having full fuel, by the time I've reached full throttle, checked Ts & Ps and speeds rising we're airborne. I do nothing, I don't even rotate. We just slip in to the air. Wow.

Push for 75Kts and by the end of the runway we're suddenly IMC so Rate 1 to the right, round to our planned 030 track and maintain climb to our cleared "not above 2,000ft". Good hand-flying IMC practise and I'm even getting better at that transition, I've got the A/P primed if things get tricky but no, we can do this. Concentrate on the scan, get the ball in the middle and why did I ever think this was beyond me?

Bournemouth Tower clears us for a swap to Radar and at Stoney Cross (according to SkyDemon that is, I haven't seen anything but grey since the end of the runway) they release us to Solent who are so quiet it's me and one other aircraft on frequency.

I state "climbing to 3,000ft" then climb further to 4,000ft to get on top as we cruise up towards Compton. What is strange (and it may just be me) is that a couple of times we suddenly get a lot of airframe whistle as if we were going terribly fast. We're not: my scan says we are settled in a cruise climb at 100Kts with wings level but the airframe says it's doing 150Kts. You could easily get disorientated without experience. It then stops as suddenly as it started.

At 4,000ft we are finally clear of the crud and it's actually quite pleasant up here. Farnborough are quiet too (just me and a Cirrus doing some VOR tracking around Compton on frequency).

Suddenly the ground (in the form of Greenham Common) appears and we are clear of the undercast so can descend VFR to 2500ft, below the Cirrus and the high level clouds.

2500ft seems very low and I suspect this is the long layoff talking. I am deliberately doing all the checks twice and not flying particularly fast to give me more time to think and respond to anything that occurs.

To keep in practice with the radio I tend to practise when I'm running in the mornings (the wife thinks I'm mad but it helps), that way the radio becomes second nature and one less thing to worry about.

Swap to Oxford Radar who ask us to report 5 miles South (this used to be 4 miles), then at 5 miles swap to Tower, get "No 3" for landing behind a Diamond which I just can't seem to see in the ground clutter.... ah, there he is. He is extending Downwind as they have a large flock of birds on the runway and have asked the Land Rover to go out and scare them off. We'll follow as there is no D129 today so we extend North, then when I see him turn we can turn Base Leg then long Final.

The aircraft seems reluctant to slow down (it's not just me being ham fisted): the paint is so smooth the speed doesn't want to come back. Finally I have to drop the throttle right off and trim back: only then does the speed creep back to our target of 85Kts.

He's doing a low approach and go round so we can continue our approach. Nicely set up on 2 red 2 white, stable approach, slow to 75Kts, flare at 70Kts and see if after 3 months I can remember how to land it.

Kick off the drift at 10 feet, roll the throttle off, eyes on the end of the runway, hold her off..... a little squeak and we're down, hold off a little more and the nosewheel touches gently, pop the flaps, maintain the centreline and roll to the end of the runway. Mmmmm, that feels good....

Back on Slot 1, let the engine idle for a few minutes then shut down, take some numbers and open the door. Blimey, it's really windy out here?

It feels really good to be back, exactly a year to the day since I flew out to North Eleuthera.

And the aircraft looks amazing.

Enstone 10 Jul 20

I want to go to Earls Colne to get my necessary take offs and landings to a full stop required before I can take Nessa out, but the IT job I have been doing this morning has taken a lot longer than I had hoped, and I have to be back by 4:00pm for a Zoom meeting.

So we need a closer destination...... quick, what's the closest airfield? Enstone, of course!

Usually overlooked because it's literally on climb out from Oxford, I've flown a Tiger out of there but never been there in a C182.

A quick PPR and book out by mobile phone and we're off to preflight the aircraft. The weather has finally cleared but as I step out of the car I realise the wind is not as forecast, and it is in fact really blustery. This will, I am sure, show up any rustiness....

Plenty of fuel in the tanks so start up and taxy out, depart from 01 and it is pretty gusty and bumpy even though the ATIS and Tower are saying "8Kts". That's not 8Kts....

Climb out to the North, swap to Enstone and join Downwind right hand for 26. The wind is from the North East today, over the hangars and gusting, which makes the approach interesting. A lot of yoke movement, a lot of correction and just as we touch down a bit of a gust that tries hard to discombobulate. A lighter aircraft may have been in trouble, and the touchdown is a bit skittery but we're down and backtracking the hard, departing at Oxford Sport Flying and parking in the Visitor slot.

Enstone is an interesting airfield: much in the news because of a potential motoring museum currently working it's way through the Planning system, to be built on the South East corner of the current airfield. What they don't mention is that it will have very little affect upon the aviation use of the airfield. Why on earth anyone would object I don't know (apart from CPRE obviously, who simply object to any Planning Permission on principle...).

It is very friendly, keen to expand the numbers of visitors and based aircraft (I get the hard sell but with no ILS, no lights and not being open 6:30am to 10:30pm it's hard to justify). I must visit more often.

A very short taxy from my parking space and a blustery take off roll (short field, let's show them what a C182 can do) gets us back to the North of the airfield. Back to Oxford Radar, cross the outbound track well North but clear of D129 and head for the Downwind leg.

Now when I departed there were many aircraft in the circuit but it's now gone suspiciously quiet: I think the wind has picked up down at ground level. The Tower is giving 350 at 8Kts but the windsocks are stiffly out at right angles to the runway. It's another big crosswind day.

Much up and down and left and right on Right Base and Final, then we're over the threshold, eyes on the end of the runway and kick off the drift for a gentle arrival....

It's hard to know what happens next but we bounce the mains and the aircraft tips forward to bounce the nosewheel, then back again. I know what this is and where it leads: increasing oscillations and a bent firewall and/or prop strike. They call it "wheelbarrowing" and I have not done this for a very, very long time.

Instinct says "Go Around" so immediate full throttle (a satisfying bit of grunt that re-energises the wing), aim for the sky and trim for 75Kts, call "Going Around" and climb out clean.

Round the bumpy circuit again, a bit unnerved to be completely honest and back to the flare once more; this time a tad less speed and a lot less vertical speed. We'll accept a bit of lateral movement after kicking off the drift but we *will* grease it on this time. And we do, if a bit skittery on the mains but we're down firmly and I do feel more confident now.

Rust removal at its best.

Exit the plane via Coronavirus measures: non-water sanitiser wipes on all controls we have touched, working backwards out of the aircraft as we exit. This is 2020....

Lee-on-Solent 12 Jul 20

With 3 landings to a full stop under my belt and my passenger carrying capability (and some of my confidence) restored I can take Nessa down to the beach.

It is the most beautiful day imaginable: if you're not flying today you've got a problem, but Oxford is surprisingly quiet. There is enough fuel to get us there and back so we fire up and taxy out. We are behind a Tecnam twin: call sign "Bio2" which I am guessing means it is running on Biodiesel as we depart on 01 which gives us a small tailwind component as the wind is 350 at 5Kts.

On a 1200m runway I dont think its going to be a big issue and in fact we are away in 200m or so, slicing up in to the blue.

It's quite bumpy today, which I hate wth passengers, but getting above the scattered fluffy bits would involve going above 4500ft where the Airway is here approaching Compton.

As Compton is on our track we will fly at a peculiar height to try to avoid any "looking at their VOR" tracking fiends watching their Zone of Confusion as they pass overhead, then we can change to Farnborough who are busy but manageable.

Tracking South above Odiham's stub we can descend for Lee on Solent. I'll do a listening squawk for Solent, oblivious (until someone on the radio mentions it) that they are in fact closed until 12:00.

I wonder how that would work? One could whizz about over downtown Southampton unimpeded.

Wish I'd thought of that.

Descending for Runway 23 we hear other traffic joining Downwind and rather than barge in front by joining Right Base we opt to go in behind them, but by the time we spot them they are literally just joining Downwind, so slot in behind then they faff about slowing down and turning Base Leg to the point that by the time we are on Final behind them and they stop on the runway we end up having to go round.

Wish I'd gone in front now...

On the second attempt the stars finally align and we plop on gently.

After a walk on the beach and a well-deserved ice cream we can fire up and taxy out, across the Active then all the way up to the far end via the meandering (and quite rough in places) taxyway, power check at the end then roll on runway 23 for a climb out over the Solent. Solent Radar are happy to talk to us this time (we seem to be the only traffic on frequency) and pass us to Farnborough who are also quiet.

As we approach Oxford Radar's area, our DME won't lock on. We have SkyDemon's DME so we know what we have left to run but the DME simply remains "--". I ask Oxford Radar if they have any known problems but they don't and a few minutes later it springs back to life (maybe they switched it on?), but we'll need to keep an eye on it going forward.

Descend for a Downwind Join for 19 and we actually get a decent arrival so maybe I'm getting my eye back in. It still takes a second to settle though, which makes me wonder if I'm landing it squiffy or there's something amiss with the undercarriage?

Limited opening Hours

The Coronavirus lockdown has had some strange effects: one of which is that Wellesbourne (my favourite landing practise ground) has gone down to limited opening hours. They are closing at 4:00pm, the Tower tell me, but the cafe is open until 5:00pm and I can pre-pay my landing fee by credit card. Weird, but at least we get to go. The difficulty of course is getting there by 5:00pm....

The plan is to take Alice's Golden Retriever Freddie out to see if he's OK ahead of any extended walkies outings that may happen in the future. Most dogs are just fine with noisy cars that work in 3D but a few don't like them, so if we have any issues we'll abort and come home quickly.

Cover removal, pre-flighting and taxying out just take so long we don't even depart until gone 4:30pm, departing North West via a right turn out. Kieran flies us towards Wellesbourne finding that it's almost impossible to turn and retain height or retain height and a straight course, or not to porpoise in 3D; something it's taken me 500 hours to learn!

Freddie couldn't care less about the aircraft, so long as a walk is in the offing at the far end...

Wellesbourne is deserted so, as discussed, we make blind calls for a downwind join for R18, turn Final and get blown about by the squirrely wind on short Final before it all smooths out at 10ft and we arrive neatly and firmly.

The cafe is firmly shut at 4:58pm as we arrive, the lady already locked up and waiting outside for her lift. No out of hours tea here, then, she is obviously working to rule....

Sadly, we have bypassed her by bringing choccy biccies and drinks so we can sit outside and have our tea free!

Back to the plane, check the oil and start up, taxy out of the deserted apron and up past the the taxy-worthy Vulcan (how the hell do they get that out of here if the airfield shuts?) and up to the Hold. All is good so "G-POWL taking runway 18 Wellesbourne" and we're off, at 500ft before the end of the runway and up over the trees.

Alice hasn't flown for ages so she settles down to some straight and level stuff, then a couple of very good Rate One orbits and flies us all the way to a right base join for 19 before I take over.

The approach is gusty, then starts to smooth out as we pass the threshold but at the last moment, just as we flare it floats (that 290 at 15Kts getting us), intermittent airframe whistle and a quick buzz of stall warner, we bounce a little....and bounce again.

No, this is not right. We're not wheelbarrowing but we're not settling either.

Big blast of power to re-energise the wing, stabilise at 10ft and flare again for a proper non-bouncy landing, this time with eyes on the end of the runway.

But why is this happening?

Being a landing perfectionist (as all pilots are, even if they don't admit it: you're only ever as good as your last landing) I am ashamed of that mess.

Squirrely wind, rain showers, crosswind on the demonstrated limits, a slight tailwind, all excuses.... it simply wasn't right. Not dangerous (although it could have been if I hadn't taken Action) but not right either.

Post-flight analysis reckons eyes not locked on the end of the runway, not enough wing down and not enough back trim to take the energy out of the wing. It's a work in progress...

Local 20 Aug 20

Not much flyable summer this year: each day is different and worse for aviation. Finally we get a decent day: sunny with fluffy clouds and no massive crosswinds, so maybe I can get some circuits in and try to lay this stupid nonsense to bed. But Fate decides otherwise.

Oxford have decided to clear their main ramp of those pesky privately-owned GA machines so they can have a clean sweep of airliner-pilot trainee aircraft, all in matching logos (and presumably consecutive reg marks). We've been moved to behind the bike sheds, basically. I wonder if it's OK to smoke back there?

It's tight: there is a building behind the aircraft and no proper tiedowns so they have provided concrete tiedown blocks that are just heavy enough to be little bastards to lift but just light enough not to be able to hold a C182 down in a gale. We need some proper, rawlbolted recessed tiedowns, I have the kit to do it but I can't see Oxford Airport's management allowing it, or managing to organise doing it themselves this side of 2025..

It would be nice to go down to Membury and land. I haven't been to Membury before and it's reasonably close. But I have to be back by 11:00am as Steve and Willie are booked to go out to Gloucester. By the time I have found the aircraft, pre-flighted, discovered that there is insufficient fuel to get to Membury and back, taxyed to the pumps, struggled with the pumps, fuelled the aircraft, taxyed to the hold point, had a headphone battery failure and had to swap headphones for spares, there is insufficient time to land there, so I'll just fly down there, take a look and bimble around for a while.

Once airborne Oxford gleams in the sunshine and it's time to buzz our house then that of our IR(R) training friend (who will fly the plane later in the day) before cruising down to Wantage then over the hills low level to Lambourne from where we can see the Membury Mast, services and the airfield.

Watching a Tecnam taking off from the grass runway makes me think I should have landed, but it is strict PPR and I just don't have the time. So a circuit around, staying clear of the Tecnam and the ATZ before heading back North.

Time to throttle back and enjoy the scenery, play with the clouds then climb up on top to 4,000ft where it's smoother. By the time I reach Abingdon I feel more relaxed so it's back to the surprisingly busy Oxford circuit for a visual recovery. Stabilised on short final we should be able to grease this.... but no, we get a little bounce then settle. What am I doing wrong? No time for a re-match, so taxy in and meet the others at the aircraft. This needs a repeat session.

Popham 11 Sep 20

It's Friday afternoon, early September and the office is quiet (at last), the weather is good and Nessa and I need tea. Membury and Chiltern Air Park look like possible candidates but neither has tea so both get crossed off the list.

But I haven't been to Popham since 2007, so now is a good time to reacquaint myself with them. No PPR so easy entry, and not too far to go. Poor Basil (left at home this time) will be crossing his legs otherwise.

Plenty of fuel in the tanks so we can fire up and taxy out, progressive taxy via Juliet and we're off to Charlie to wait for ages in a queue of 3. Oxford's insistence in landing any aircraft within 10 miles of the runway before allowing any take offs is quite frustrating, but at least we have thoroughly warmed the engine up and as our financial regime means we only pay for flying hours I don't care!

Finally cleared for take off we depart South in to slightly bumpy but good visibility conditions and transit at 2,500ft for Popham.

10 miles North clear the Farnborough Listening Squawk (they are so busy there's no point in trying to get a word in edgeways), swap frequencies, call and ask for airfield info.

They are on runway 26 which has an angled approach. I've not flown this approach before and whilst I am aware of the sensitivities of the service station directly in front of the threshold it's only now I realise the other reason for the angled approach: the service station is on a damned great hill and runway 26 slopes down from it. I've actually lined up by mistake directly on the runway instead of coming in at angle, which is a bit stupid but recoverable: I'll simply fly round the hill whilst maintaining the approach angle, which is a bit unconventional but perfectly doable and should amuse them. The runway is 750m so I've got plenty of room to stop and if I'm not down in a sensible place I'll go around and have another go.

Ensuring the left wing doesn't actually go in to the trees on the hill that is exactly what we do: looks funny but actually works perfectly adequately and we line up on the runway, let it run out of slope and this time hold it off.... hold it off.. and touch gently. Positive braking and we're stopped in short order. Next time I think I'll follow the approved approach route and use all the flap but it was fine.

And we didn't bounce. Was it having a 2nd person on board?

An hour and a cup of really good tea later we line up on the same runway, at the top of the hill, give it short field flap and roll. We're off at 55Kts in about 200m and at 500ft before the end of the runway, where we turn the approved 15deg North and then just keep on turning North.

Farnborough is unbelievably quiet: we're the only people on frequency. An hour ago they were talking about "controller workload", now it's so quiet I wonder if the radio is broken.

In these scenarios you wonder if there's something weather-related you missed in the TAFs or some NOTAM saying you're about to fly in to the Red Arrows but no, it's just quiet.

Swap back to Oxford Radar at Didcot and they're quiet too, but it's only 4:30pm. Where is everyone?

Join Downwind for R19 and we're number 2 to a Diamond that's just landing so this will be unhurried. Winds 250 at 11Kts so it might be a bit bumpy on short final but must...not...bounce....

And this time (perhaps buoyed by the good landing at Popham) we're on speed, on the centreline and a tiny squeak from the mains as we kiss the tarmac. Just the once.

Ah, so I can land it. Phew....

And I even manage the sharp turn to spin the aircraft round for parking without having to resort to the towbar. Grand stuff, so it's home to feed Basil and a couple of Bloody Mary's.

Sandown 11 Oct 20

A second national lockdown beckons but a sunny Sunday afternoon needs a trip to Sandown.
I haven't been there for a while and I want to try their new all-weather surface.

We now have the plane in a location where access at the weekends is very easy: we can park the car outside the EADS hangar and go through the side gate. I'd get shot for parking there during the week but no one cares on a Sunday...

As Sandown is not PPR I am not in any great hurry and there's plenty of fuel in the tanks so soon we are booked out, started up and taxying out for R01, watching the oil temperature coming up and enjoying the gentle rhythm of the checklists. Cleared for take off I'm keen to try a climb out nailed on 75Kts: usually I relax the back pressure and let the speed rise to 85Kts to get me further away from the stall if it's gusty but it's interesting that if you pull and trim it to 75Kts on the climb out you hit circuit height remarkably quickly: almost before turning crosswind.

Climbing South to 2,500ft over Oxford we settle in to cruise mode: 23.5" throttle, 2,350rpm, trim it forwards and the speed builds to 135Kts IAS, lean it 14gph and the EGTs settle at about 360-380deg. Pretty much on book values for a C182.

Swap to Farnborough whio are normally wall-to-wall on a sunny Sunday but are surprisingly quiet today, so I will talk to them instead of just getting a Listening Squawk. Odiham is inactive today so need for a MATZ Penetration, but they advise we are headed in to an area of intense activity, so we need to ensure eyes out front: there are gliders out there I can see but its the ones you can't see that worry me. Air-to-air collisions are rare but often fatal and we are soon to have a SkyEcho2 fitted that will massively improve our Electronic Conspicuity (EC): we'll be able to see the little buggers via FLARM.

Just South of Newbury I realise we can see the coast: visibility is really very good today so we stay clear of the bases of the clouds and within a few minutes are signing off Farnborough and on to a Listening Squawk for a very quiet Solent then as cross the coast over Portsmouth switch to the maelstrom of traffic that is Sandown on a sunny afternoon........... nope, no other traffic.

Where is everyone?

Join Downwind for R05, descend neatly on Base leg then manage to not turn early enough for Final, sweep wildly out to the East and struggle to correct, finally achieving a stable approach on short final. It's hard to work out whether to land on the hard or the grass next to it so I opt for the hard and here's the fun bit: the damn runway is downhill all the way. I remember this now, as I float and float and float (last time I came in on R23), eventually touching down just at the end of the hard. Fortunately the C182 stops pretty damned quick once it's on grass and we are able to take the last but one exit up the taxyway for a well-deserved cup of tea from the socially-distanced cafe.

I can go straight home from here but where's the fun in that? The clouds have dispersed and the sky is washed clean by the recent rain. I watch an arthritic PA28 take all of the hard runway and most of the rest of the grass runway to ease in to the air, obviously heavily laden and for some reason with no flaps, and barely clear the tree line to the North. As he approaches the tree line I can see him raise the nose in panic - will he crash? But fortunately the PA28 responds and slowly climbs out Northbound. Phew....

When my turn comes I think I can do better. Half tanks one-up in a C182, short field take off gives me lift off long before the end of the hard runway and I'm at 500ft before the tree line. That's how to take off...

Turning out over the South coast of the Isle of Wight the light to the North is fantastic. Bournemouth give me a Basic Service and offer another aircraft a run up the coast which is an offer I think we might take up. They say it's a Zone Transit but we all know it's outside their Zone and I need no permission to route Hengisbury Head and down the front but let's be nice. Apart from me, one other and a VOR/DME training flight they are quiet, so we ease over to Swanage to see the cruise liners in the bay and turn North for the run up past Compton Abbas, swapping to an even quieter London Info.

The visibility is so good we can see Portsmouth in one direction and the old Severn Bridge in the other. Rarely is it this good.

Past Keevil (watch for gliders) and around the Salisbury Plain corner we can head North for an inspection of the Oaksey Park and Charlton Park runways, ripe for future visits.

I can see a C172 alongside me and roughly parallel. We're both in the cruise but I'm going a lot faster than him: he's doing about 110-120Kts and I'm doing 135Kts. He slides backwards, it's like being in the fast lane. And there is Kemble, with a couple of BA 747s parked ready to be scrapped. I've probably been in the back of a couple of those many years ago on the North Atlantic run....

We need to be above 2700ft for an equestrian event north of Kemble (I do read the NOTAMs) so climb to 3,000ft and pick out the North Leach roundabout as a VRP ahead, turn East, mind Little Rissington and swap to Oxford Radar. I'd told them I'd be back at 5:30pm and it looks like I'll be right on time.

New on the chart is a Kingstanding runway: this is a 480m grass strip created to allow restored warbirds to fly from a hangar located at the end of the runway. I know rather more about this than meets the eye as I did the data provision for the hangar. Should be interesting in years to come and of course I'll be aiming to visit.

Just North of it is another more private strip I'm hoping to visit as I know the owner. Coronavirus-permitting, watch this space...

Oxford are on R01 so we'll join Left Base, orbit once for spacing from a PA28 ahead and as he is not yet clear slow right down, turn Final, get the speed right back, flare, hold it off.....hold it off.... rumble of the wheels speeding up but no perceptible landing at all so maybe that's one of the really good ones pulled out of the mixed bag of landings every pilot gets to make up for all the bouncing earlier in the year....

Wellesbouirne 18 Oct 20

I'm a huge believer in the "get them while they're young" school of aviation inspiration. Today my friend Barney is bringing his boys Reid and Finn for a whizz. We'll go over their house and up to Wellesbourne for a crew change.

I've already pre-flighted and got the bowser to fill up with fuel, which in itself is an interesting exercise: I don't know how old the boys are or what they weigh so I have to assume they are both rugby-playing 15-16 year olds, add in Barney's weight and run the W&B. An additional 40L per side means at worst we'll be MAUW on take-off; anything less than that and we'll be erring on the right side but will have plenty of fuel for a couple of legs and some reserves.

It turns out they are considerably smaller than that so we'll have no issues.

I've forgotten just how many questions small boys ask: some sensible and some downright weird. I want to give a considered and accurate response to each of them but risk standing by the plane all afternoon! The questions continue as we don ANR headphones, start up and taxy. Lots of questions about the ANR to which eventually I have to say "try switching the ANR on then off again to understand the difference". Then they get it.

Oxford surprise me by without warning giving me the full departure clearance at the Juliet hold, before we've even properly begun taxying. A good short term memory test and no clearances I didn't expect but with the cacophony in the back certainly unexpected extra workload...

It's not that nice a day but with lots of cloud it's not thermally and we can depart over Woodstock. I always do a noise abatement throttle-down and prop-down at 800ft then turn at 1000ft but having done that Tower admonish me for turning below 1000ft. I'm not quite sure how they can tell from there but it was 1000ft QNH so 700ft AGL, maybe they wanted 1000ft AGL?

Depart to the North West avoiding Enstone's ATZ and well above their approach path we clear for some general handling: Barney like most first-time pilots can hold a heading or a height but not both at the same time. It's an acquired skill I kind of take for granted but if you're not used to it very disconcerting - you keep thinking the aircraft is getting away from you.

We orbit over his house near Hook Norton then head for Wellesbourne and here we make a bit of an error, it must be said.

They are giving runway 18 right hand circuit and we are joining from the South. Viz is not all that good and a bank of low cloud is just off to the West.

I descend to 1000ft as per the circuit height and see a Cessna 172 climbing out, obviously having just departed.

As he is climbing above circuit height I assume he is leaving the circuit so pass carefully under him and immediately call early Downwind (yes, I should have called earlier to announce "manoeuvring for Downwind"). He then immediately calls Downwind and says he can see us below him which prompts the Tower to admonish me for not calling earlier. So everyone is slightly to blame: the C172 shouldn't have ballooned his circuit (but this is easy to do) and I should have called earlier. No harm done, but my Bad.

As the viz is not too great here I elect to keep the airfield in sight and turn Base early, turn Final and find myself still quite high over the threshold, but there's plenty of runway here (long enough for a Vulcan) so a gentle let down and we're on smoothly and braking for the exit, taxy in and park on the grass.

An interesting wrinkle here now is that rather than take your Coronavirus-risky body in to the Tower to book in you pay over the phone using your debit card. The Tower is pretty harassed doing the normal Tower-type stuff as well as taking payment...

More questions later we swap so Reid can fly (Finnn says he doesn't want to and actually he's too small to see over the front anyway), boost him up on a couple of cushions and fire up for departure. As the ground is quite wet it requires a really good burst of throttle to get us moving; I'm always amazed at how much the aircraft digs in to the grass when parked.

Once on to the tarmac taxyway we head up past the Vulcan (many, many questions relating to that), power check and depart South. The low cloud bank sitting just to the West of the airfield is stationary; I was expecting it to drift over but no, we're fine. Swap back to Oxford and explain that we're going to track East past Banbury then down to Beckley for some pictures.

Reid flies us tidily over to Banbury as we all keep a good eye out for gliders near Shenington/Edge Hill and I keep an ear out for Instrument traffic for R19 on the radio, then we skirt around Bicester (still not quite sure what the big row is about the glider clubs there) and Brill windmill comes in to sight.

Beckley mast serves Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire with radio and TV, is 544ft high and has guy wires. Whilst the main mast is pretty visible and thus avoidable I am concerned about the spread of the guy wires and whether they are visible. I plan to remain to the North of the mast by half a mile at all times and make all turns to the North away from the mast. Setting up an E-W racetrack just South of Beckley I can see the guy wires and we are well clear, there is no wind to drift me in to the mast and we do a couple of photo runs over the village at 800ft or so before clearing to the North and requesting joining instructions from Oxford Radar.

They swap me to Tower who ask me to orbit which is difficult as I am trapped between Beckley and the Otmoor Bird Sanctuary which I'm not allowed to overfly below 2000ft. I'm at about 1800ft so just manage to fit in a tight orbit before Tower releases me for Downwind R19 which rapidly becomes "Join Left Base for R19" so we descend to 1500ft, pre-landing checks and turn Final; stable approach, keep the speed under control and we plop on tidily. Imagine the embarrassment if I'd banged it on...

Earls Colne 4 Nov 20

It's the day before the 2nd Lockdown and the weather is predictably fantastic, so the plane is booked - let's go to Earls Colne. I've not been there before, and it looks friendly and far enough away.

We have a new Electronic Conspicuity box: a SkyEcho2 stuck to the P2 side of the windscreen. It appears dead at present. We're late because of overrunning work commitments, and I want to get going. Oxford is so busy today they have reinstated the Ground frequency to handle ground movements, I haven't heard this for many years.

The plane is now hangared for the winter and Ann has flown it this morning so it's warm and full of fuel, and the preflight is quick but Oh my God the radio is so busy: taxying out we join the queue for departure and we've really got to be quick, there must be 50 aircraft on frequency. They are feeding aircraft to both ends of the runway and by the time we are ready to depart we are cleared only to backtrack 01 then turn and report ready. Never done this before......

Departing to the East Tower is hugely busy and quickly pushes us off to Radar who are equally busy. The entire GA community plus every bizjet in the country is flying this afternoon.

Let's try the SkyEcho. Ah, it's run out of battery. Brilliant. Who broke the 12V socket?

Fortunately I have brought a power bar and once we've found the power lead in the glove box we can get it lit.

It takes forever to get a GPS signal for some reason, both of our SkyDemons (once connected to the WiFi) telling us it has yet to get a Fix but once it has the traffic duly begins to appear and... ah, it's pretty busy. I have yet to subscribe to FLARM in Skydemon which will show me gliders but even with powered aircraft the returns are immediate: one is coming our way 500ft below us....

Avoiding Action taken, Bloody Hell I'm glad we've got this gadget.

Oh shit, here comes another one and he's not on the display. That was 100ft or less, I'm not happy about this.

Swapping to Farnborough North is, unbelievably, even worse. They are so busy it takes us from Wendover to Watford to get a word in edgeways and even ask for a Basic Service. "Reduced service due Controller Workload", apparently. Not bloody surprised, everybody is out making a last dash pre-lockdown.

The gap between Stapleford and North Weald is predictably the busiest and we are all eyes as we fly through at 2250ft but once to the North East and on a Stansted Listening Squawk the skies become completely clear and amazingly North Weald is not that busy. Ask for and get a Downwind Join for runway 24, lie about having read the noise abatement stuff but I have SkyDemon showing me where not to fly over so I follow the dotted line to the inch for Base and Final. As we turn Final the sun is full in my face: this will be interesting.

It's unclear whether the narrow black strip to the left of runway 24 is actually a taxiway or a very narrow hard runway so we'll opt for the grass, flare as we pass the trees and drop neatly on to the surprisingly noisy grass runway, squinting in to the sun. I reckon they've got mesh or something under this grass.

Taxy off the end on to the tarmac and park up on the non-mesh grass. Ooh, the aircraft has really sunk in here.

They are glad to see us, very friendly and the snack wagon, just about to close, relents and gives us tea and a Twix. Apparently they're about to swap ends due to the sun and I reckon that's a good idea, there's no wind at all today.

Coming back from the loo I spot an Instructor confusing yet another IMC Student with a flip chart diagram of "How to do Holds", calculating "20 degrees off here, add it back here but only if the moon is in the third quarter and it's a Wednesday...."

The poor bloke will tie himself up in mathematical knots and finally realise, long after he's passed, that a) in real life you'll never do one without a GPS to help you, b) you don't do Holds on the IMC Skills Test (!), c) you can't do mental maths like that while flying in a bumpy cloud unless you're an Instructor with 5,000 hours and d) the Hold area is sized for business jets doing 3x your speed, no one cares if you're a bit out on the outbound leg so long as you can hit the beacon somewhere around the 4 minute mark.

Start up and it really does take a burst of pretty much full power to get the mains out of the ruts. Sorry for the mess...

Back up the tarmac taxyway and on to the magic narrow road (I can't even describe it as being wide enough for a taxyway) past the Hold.

The PA28 ahead simply uses it to take off so it must be the world's narrowest runway: no markings, probably not even officially classified as a runway but if he can then I can so we roll, hold the approximate centre (there are no markings) and we're off Short Field in about 200m before we can drift in to the weeds and climbing out, sharp right turn to abate the noise and climb clear, swap to London Info and head for Ipswich.

This is the time of year when light is at a premium - the shadows are already starting to get long across the fields and it's only 4:00. By the time we are out past Beccles heading for the Wash we can see that to the North of us a bank of cloud is rolling in off the North Sea so a quick decision is made: we'll forgo the wonders of the North Norfolk coast and turn back for Oxford cross-country. The bank is still slightly to our North but comes over as we turn West: scattered at 2,500ft but thickening. The worry on days like this is always unforecast fog and I suspect the viz over North Norfolk would be bad enough to make it not very interesting. Another day, maybe.

The sun sinks lower as we head west: past the small piece of America in a foreign field that is "RAF" (USAF) Mildenhall and Lakenheath: KC135 tankers, Ospreys and F-15s operate here, but it all seems quiet today. South is RAF Wattisham, full of Apache helicopters, so it's "keep your eyes open" time again but the SkyEcho remains blank. I have no idea if the military transmit ADS-B.

Past Cambridge the clouds recede and it's going to be a lovely evening here. In the far distance we can see Cranfield's runway lights - we are well above the ILS here and well off to the North, then with 25 to run we swap to Oxford Radar. It's past sunset and things have finally quietened down but we are no 2 to a PA31 who I assume is a CAE based aircraft but surprisingly does not appear on the SkyEcho. We slow right down but it's not enough so a leisurely left hand orbit and we join Right Base for 01 behind him, slide down for a gentle flare and... thump it on. What the Hell was that? I think it wasn't quite straight when I touched. How annoying, I was doing so well. But at least no bounce....

Irritatingly that touchdown was 28 minutes past sunset so doesn't quite qualify as a Night landing but was in all but name. This holds no real fears for me now but I can remember rushing home before sunset when I was first flying. Those days are long gone.

We don't really have to put the aircraft away now, we just leave it by the hangar and nonchalantly wander off. How posh is that?

Both Medical and SEP Renewal have been postponed due to the COVID but a few days later I do get a new Medical and with 560 hours I am now apparently in the top 20% of GA pilots. I suppose I ought to start acting responsibly...

Local 20 Nov 20

COVID has forced the CAA to extend our Single Engine Piston (SEP) Ratings beyond the normal 2 years but only until 22nd November; if I am to avoid having to take another Skills Test I will need to fly an hour with an Instructor during Lockdown2.

The Lockdown2 rules from the DfT are that recreational flights are discouraged, but the engine needs exercising weekly and that is allowed so we have some leeway and have together as a group assigned weeks to everyone for exercise. This is not my week however, so I suppose to an extent I am bending the rules a little, but it is training so I would argue exempt.

For the first time I call Ops and ask that the aircraft be "made ready with full tanks for 1:00"; I feel really guilty about getting other people to do the menial stuff but it is so nice to turn up at the new hangar right next to the car park and find the aircraft with no cover and full tanks right ready for the "A" check. There: I've just knocked 10 minutes off my "home to sky" time. I'm loving this!

"A" check dealt with, Charlie arrives just as I finish. The forecast strong crosswind has died down and it's cold and a little breezy but otherwise a perfect flying day.

Circuits are in short supply as they are busy so we will depart for some upper air work over Chipping Norton. As we line-up Charlie suggests a soft-field take-off, something I've not done as a distinct technique before.

It differs from a standard short-field take-off in that with 2 stages of flaps once lined-up against the back fence and standing on the brakes you apply 1700rpm, pull the yoke back in to your stomach, push the throttle all the way open and release the brakes. The awesome power of the C182 will immediately by itself yank the nosewheel out of the mud thereby removing your most draggy component from the take-off run, drastically reducing the amount of time (and thus distance) you spend on the ground staring at the approaching trees in growing terror....

At around 40Kts at about 100m (and long before the ASI moves) the aircraft simply takes off. The stall warner immediately blares and unchecked you will simply settle back on tail-first (yuk!) but if you pitch hard forward so you can see the end of the runway the aircraft will fly in ground effect with zero mud drag and immediately start to climb out over (or around) those beckoning trees which will be cheated their feast of C182 paint today. I have no idea what sort of speed this is at because I am flying by feel but when I next look we are accelerating through 55kts so we must have been off the bottom of the ASI scale for the whole intense procedure. Wow....

I'm beginning to really appreciate the huge power in relation to its size a C182 has: 2-up even with full tanks it's a bit of a beast.

We depart to the North West, set up in the cruise and Charlie asks what I'd like to do today? I do have a few goals: some short-field stuff and to learn how to sideslip properly. But first (inevitably, I suppose...) Charlie pulls the power and says "your engine just failed...".

The biggest field a way away and in to wind looks smooth, long and achievable so we keep it in sight, once we know we can make it and it looks long we can start bringing in some flap, look up.... and it's a glider field. Hah, that was a bit of luck. Throw it away at 500ft and climb sharply away to avoid traffic and cables. Charlie reckons I should pick the field immediately after the "Trim for 75 best glide" and before trying to restart the engine and tell the Tower which is probably good advice. He would probably have added "and don't for Gods sake change your mind at the last minute" which is exactly what I did when I did my real forced landing.....

Next we try some stalls and to make it interesting Charlie suggests a stall in a Downwind to Base turn so we'll whack in some flaps and reduce to 85Kts, pull on some turn and keep pulling all the way to the stall. Much airframe whistle and a lot of pulling later it finally, reluctantly stalls but a good bunt away and some power restores normal equilibrium with a 50ft height loss: Charlie is keen we roll level at that point but in reality I'd probably continue the turn but not pull as hard, which in fact we do later on...

And so to sideslipping: line up on a muddy field, set up for a 1000ft Downwind leg, roll Base then Final, with full flaps and 60Kts but we're too high. We've already used up all the flaps and need something we can switch on quickly and then off again to kill the excess height without gaining speed.

Full right rudder (really push it over) and hold it, then counteract the roll with aileron, keeping the aircraft level and looking out of the side window at the muddy field. The VSI goes off the clock and we drop out of the sky as the approach picture comes good once more, ease it all off and we're perfectly placed for a short field landing. Ooh, that's really useful. It feels like we're drifting a rear-wheel drive car with the tyres smoking, but without the noises and the smell of sacrificial rubber. To my generation this recalls "The Sweeney" in London's Docklands before they knocked it all down but to a younger generation maybe "Fast and Furious" or "Baby Driver" is appropriate. I cannot resist a "Yee Hah!"; this is cowboy stuff...

That would have been really useful on my Checkout in Florida, yet another useful technique for the toolbox.

I'd like at some point to do some spinning but the C182 is not cleared for intentional spinning. Maybe in another aircraft, just to get the feel...

So we head back: Oxford is on R01 and we will request a Touch 'n Go. Joining Left Base we can see a Seneca coming in through the Brize Zone presumably for an IFR approach: he's not going that fast so we'll roll in to a left hand orbit. Concentrating on the Seneca and the entry in to the orbit I let the speed get quite slow: we're on 2 stages of flap so we're not really in a great deal of danger but by the time I notice and push away we're down to 65Kts. This time I simply loosen the turn and put on some power, the airframe whistle is a great early warning sign and we had at least 10Kts in hand there, but Charlie is right: this is exactly where things can go wrong.....

Turning Final we get our requested Touch 'n Go so pull full flap, slow to 65Kts, 60Kts over the threshold, a good pull as we roll the power off, hold it, airframe whistle and...... buzzzzzbump. Stalled it neatly on and with a modicum of braking we'd have been stopped in a few meters.

Lose the final stage as we accelerate, maintain the centreline and we're back in the air in 100m or so and climbing out. One more orbit for spacing to avoid a PA28 on Base leg and we're back for a second short-field approach. Charlie is pretty silent so we must be doing about right. Buzzzzzbump again so that was OK, maintain the speed as we roll the remaining 1Km to the exit and it looks like I've finally stopped bouncing it...

All signed-up and I'm let loose upon the unsuspecting UK Airspace for another two years. The COVID vaccine cannot come soon enough.

Local 12 Dec 20

Now we're all posh and keep the plane in a serviced hangar we just send an e-mail the previous afternoon asking for the aircraft to be "made ready" for the following day, and not only do they get it out and fill it up with fuel but they book you out too! This is luxury: no more taxying to the pumps, no more wrestling with the cover on a windy day or de-icing.

Due to the (massive) new building works at the far end of the hangars the old car park has been dug-up and we have been moved outside the security gate, a solution no doubt intended to make life more difficult for GA pilots but actually it drastically shortens the walk as we can use a closer gate and and is much more convenient. But don't tell them, they'll move us back to the building site...

Charlie gave me a good tip a couple of weeks ago: on cold mornings like this keep the Cowl Flaps closed whilst taxying and the engine will warm up much more quickly. Obviously open them before take off.

We depart for Compton Abbas in light winds amidst scattered fluffy clouds: getting on top of them at 2,800ft means a nice smooth ride and we pass through Farnborough's Area before swapping to Bsocombe Down (no answer).

Half way down we work out that if for any reason you can’t get SkyDemon on your iPad to work with the SkyEcho even though it says it’s connected to the WiFi turn your WiFi off then back on again.

Swap to London Info briefly before Compton Abbas, who have no other traffic (blimey, there's a first) so we can do a straight-in for 26. As usual, I really struggle to identify the runway in the hills from the East but this time I have nailed the approach path in SkyDemon and, more importantly, slowed down.

The winds up here in the hills are strong: 18Kts gusting from the North West and we're crabbed quite far over and getting roll-over from the trees. The Tower requests that we land to the right of the centre line and use no brakes to protect the muddy grass: on previous form given my propensity to land long I might have to abort....

But Charlie's help makes it easy: full flaps, slow down and trust the C182 wing, despite the gusty conditions giving us airframe whistle and the odd stall warner chirp we flare over the numbers and with a couple of hops and skips we're down and slowing, using only about a third of the runway. As we power-up to taxy off the side I can feel the aircraft sliding around. I can't quite work out whether this is wet grass or mud but it certainly keeps the feet busy as we park up.

It turns out we are their first visitor for 3 days: I didn't think things were that quiet?

After a socially-distanced Latte and mince pie we're ready to depart. Plenty of power to unstick the wheels (I love not having spats) and we're sliding around up to the Hold point for R26 and watching a Chipmunk give a Master Class in short field landing technique: he flares at virtually zero feet and virtually zero speed before the numbers, planting the mains gently on the little concrete lumps. I'm humbled, especially as it's a taildragger and there is a considerable crosswind component to those gusts, given as 22Kts.

Now is my chance to try Charlie's soft field takeoff technique: start at the absolute beginning of the runway, yoke fully back and go full power. As before, the engine and nosewheel lifts straight off the ground like at one of those monster truckfests and we accelerate like we're on tarmac, not mud. Almost immediately the wing starts to fly and we start to skip so I let it come off, hear the airframe whistle and push hard forward in to ground effect. We're off in what SkyDemon later tells me is around 300m so clearly that works better than the techniques used by the various PA28s we have been watching from the cafe struggling to lift themselves from the mud.

Climbing out via the official Compton Abbas noise abatement route to the North West we pass to the West of The Park glider airfield and they are gliding today. Now I have the SkyDemon FLARM subscription the SkyEcho tells us all about the gliders which is impressive if a little scary: we can see two but there are about a dozen within 2 miles. Definitely worth having, I love this Electronic Conspicuity stuff.

We return North and North East towards Oxford through a few fluffy clouds and scrubbed-clean skies. Oxford for once appears quiet as we approach, then having reported Downwind they ask us if we can do an early turn to get in ahead of a PA28 who is closing Right Base and a jet on the Procedure for the ILS.

Of course we can: early turn on to Base before the quarry, maintain 85Kts all the way to Final, turn Final and drop the last flaps, stabilise the approach and all this finally results in my first absolutely textbook crosswind landing ever: flare over the upwind side of the runway, unwind the crab a couple of feet above the tarmac, pull on a little into-wind aileron to reduce the sideways slide and we touch smoothly on the centreline, deft footwork to keep it there, hold the into-wind aileron as you lose the flaps then maintain the speed because the PA28 has been given a land after behind me followed by a jet on the ILS calling 4 miles, leave the runway and SPLAT check before taxying in. Very satisfying....

And thus ends 2020: Tier 4 Lockdown and a threatened full Lockdown, so that will be back to essential maintenance (both aircraft and pilot) flights only. I've had the vaccine so by the end of January my risk will be reduced but what of other people....?

Local Jan 21

The weather just won't relent: we keep booking engine test flights and the fog just keeps coming down again, even when it's forecast to be clear. But finally a short window of a couple of hours of barely flyable weather appears, so we'll go for it.

The weather reports still say 4Km Viz in Fog when I leave to go to the airfield but it is clearing and as I drive in the reports update to MVFR: Marginal VFR flight possible.

I am happy to fly an ILS to get back but this bloody fog reached all the way down to ground level and I'm nervous about being caught out by it.

Alternates are Brize and Gloucester: both have good weather, so we'll fly.

Ann is P1 today as it's her Engine Maintenance week: we're both vaccinated and have had Negative tests in the last 24 hours so being in the same plane is a very low risk, but we'll leave the plane sanitised anyway.

Surprisingly they have opened the hangar but haven't pulled the plane out, so we'll have to do it. Pop the tow bar on and pull; having a wing walker on each side demonstrates its value as we nearly hit and decapitate another aircraft's winglet. Push back, turn and pull; this time we're clear and we emerge symbolically in to the light of 2021. Phil and Charlie have been polishing the outside and it gleams; I'm sure it goes faster when it's clean? Along comes the bowser and pours 178L of AvGas in to the wing tanks.

Oxford is incredibly quiet today. We are one of only 3 aircraft flying: a PC-12 on the ILS, a PA28-140 doing circuits with a 12-year old female pilot (or at least that's how she sounds...) and us.

My original plan was South to Compton VOR for some practise then West to Kemble, North towards Little Rissington and back to Oxford. But now we're here we find two things: they are using R19 so we can use the ILS to come back in from the North, and it's still really misty to the South (the weather is clearing from the North West) so instead we will go North East to the Daventry VOR then SW towards Little Rissington then cut back to Banbury for the ILS.

Ann departs neatly and we do a circuit and Touch and Go before departing. Our flight plan (now installed in the 430W) has us departing 030deg so I would have left via the Downwind leg of the circuit but Ann chooses to do a right turn outbound, nearly over Blenheim Palace before turning North through the ILS track (always bad form); never mind. Clouds are overcast at 1600ft so we'll remain below them.

The issue (we find later) is that she can't hear me properly because she's got the volume on her ANR box turned right down. Because she's fixated on that she loses situational awareness and takes most of the Daventry leg to get on the right track inbound to the VOR. By the time we are locked on to that we are only a couple of miles from the beacon and too late to do a pre-emptive sharp turn to 228deg outbound for Little Rissington, even though the ever-patient 430W has been giving use a "turn now" countdown (I love that). At 1 mile from the beacon we get a Rate 3 turn (we are visual, though) and not only blow through the 228deg outbound leg but get back on the leg back to Oxford. Huh?

Eventually we get settled on the right leg and abandon all this serious stuff for some fun: I've been compiling a chart of standard throttle settings for 1 and 2 PoB for straight and level and 528ft/min descents, 100Kts no flaps and 1 stage of flaps for ILS approaches and descents. This completes my chart and will reduce single-pilot IMC workload in Procedures, always a good thing. Then I get to fly it for a bit around the cloudy Cotswolds.

There is no one else around so we'll shoot the ILS. Load and activate the procedure on the 430W, tune NAV2 (I prefer that instrument layout - the NAV1 instrument will, however soon be gone in favour of a couple of G5s. Yippee!) and let's see if I can do a right-seat ILS. You never know when you'll need to do one in anger.

The ILS instrument in this aircraft is very sensitive even at long ranges and simply doesn't move at all until you're 10ft from the Localiser, then it shoots across like a madman; you have to pre-empt it a bit and use the 430W's map to see how close you are.

Suddenly it springs in to life and my 30deg cut has worked: swing it on to 195 and we're within 1 dot. A couple of minor adjustments and even with the parallax from the right seat we are sitting pretty with 10 miles to run. We can actually see the PAPIs from here (all red of course because we are under the glideslope here, it extends above us and you always capture it from below) but not the runway lights (which it transpires aren't on), but we can just let go completely and watch the glideslope come down, reduce the throttle to the prescribed amount for the descent and monitor it. Lovely.

At 4 miles I give it back to Ann to land and watch the picture at 800ft QNH (DA). If you can't see the runway lights at all from there you've got thick fog and/or heavy rain, and a really big problem.

As an aside, I was checking out the approach in to Vagar in the Faroes last night. This part of the Instrument approach to runway 30 is *curved* with 1000ft cliffs to both sides. I pray I never have to do an ILS in to there...

As we put the aircraft away the fog starts to come down again. When will we ever fly again?

Local 10 Feb 21

The fog has been replaced by bitter, bitter cold and whirling snow, the freezing level is on the deck and we are not certified for FIKI so we need to limit cloud flying.

We're allowed to fly the aircraft once a week as per Continental's maintenance recommendations: minimum 30 minutes at cruise speed. So as there are 6 of use we each get to fly once every 6 weeks. Barely enough to retain skills but better than nothing...

Today is sunny spells and whirling snow flurries but is remaining clear enough to fly. Thick jersey plus coat, scarf and gloves means I'm toasty even in the NE wind howling between the hangars.

Pull the engine through a few times to try to ease the load on the starter motor then prime, wait, crank and Bloody Hell, it catches first time. With the Steve Patented push-the-primer-keep-the-engine-alive method we're soon fast idling nicely and the temperature is coming off the bottom stop.

Keep the cowl flaps closed as we taxy out past all the earthworks (looks like new taxyways for the GA grass parking), turn in to wind and run a fast idle for a while to get the oil temperature up. OAT is -5 deg so this takes a few minutes, then suddenly shoots up: looks like we're ready for power-checks.

Depart a few minutes late for a run around the Brize Zone: depart the circuit to the South and immediately in to broken snow shower clouds: good IMC hand-flying practise and although we don't see much of Oxford I think I'll leave the A/P off and use the 430W to drive the HSI then follow that manually. A bit wobbly at first but soon we're locked on to the DI with a 5 deg wind offset and headed for Compton.

The 430W has us turn West before the beacon (I love the countdown) and we roll out through the broken clouds which then clear as we head further West.

But what's this? My Brize Listening Squawk needs to be upgraded as SkyDemon tells me Fairford is Active, which was not on the NOTAMs this morning. Call up Brize and ask them: no they say, the MATZ is cold so if we do mid-air with a B52 or U2 it won't be my fault. But worth checking.

Turn before Kemble, and a fair number of SkyEcho contacts come up so I'm not entirely the only person out here in a toasty warm cabin enjoying the sunshine on top. What is interesting is that I never see the other aircraft, even though I'm looking. Quite scary, but I love this Electronic Conspicuity...

At Moreton in the Marsh we turn South East, swap back to Oxford and spiral down in a hole through the snowy gunk (looking for airframe ice but it's too cold) to the grey base at 1,500ft over the Cotswolds before swapping to Tower and reporting Left Base for 01, let the aircraft ahead on Final for a low approach get ahead, slow over the woods near the A44 and drop on; bit of a clunk, maybe not the perfection we all strive for but as it's my first landing since December maybe I shouldn't beat myself up.

Very impressive looking earthworks for the new hangar at B3, looking at the video that will be business jet heaven when they eventually release us from lockdown!

Shut the aircraft down: very reluctant to exit the nice warm cockpit for the icy, draughty outside. And of course I manage to forget to put the control lock and pitot cover back on. Not too much of an issue as we're in a hangar but of course I had to forget something!

Local 22 Mar 21

Six weeks since the last flight and my turn for the engine maintenance flight has come round. The weather is warmer, so an afternoon trip promises smooth aviation.

The aircraft has actually flown today because one of the other group members is doing IR(R) training, so we know the tanks are nearly full and we need do little warimng-up.

Depart West and today we will just keep climbing: through the thin cloud layer at 3,000ft and on up in to thinner air.

Beyond Little Rissington we can swap to Brize for a listening squawk and we are clear of the Airway here so triple check SkyDemon, the GNS430W and the actual map (blow the cobwebs off...) before moving to 1013 HPa, climbing through FL80 and continuing up... and up.... and up... through FL100 and FL110 near Cheltenham. I've never flown above 10,000ft before, so we'll just extend the envelope a bit here.

The world is huge up here: I can see the Bristol Channel below and most of Southern England stretching away. If anyone doesn't believe this is beauty then they have no aesthetic sense whatsoever.

The aircraft is good for FL160 apparently but due to worries about a lack of oxygen (although I feel fine) I bottle out at FL115, close the throttle, close the cowl flaps a bit to avoid shock-cooling the engine and turn East then South for a descent.

A little Googling says the highest skiable bit of the Trois Vallees is 11,500ft and I've skied from there without ill-effects and that's reasonably serious physical exercise; a little more Googling says a reasonably fit individual (I'm a non-smoker) can fly at 15,000ft no worries for short periods. Without wishing to push the envelope too hard a little more Googling shows no limits on VFR altitude outside controlled airspace. And pulse oximeters are £16 on Amazon.

SkyDemon shows EC contacts near Gloucester as "-8.5" or 8,500ft below. There is no one up here.....

My ears pop as we descend at an increasing rate to get under the airway near Kemble, then we turn East still descending to 3,500ft where we will sit just above the clouds over Swindon.

Time for some proper VOR tracking.

It's terribly easy to use GPS all the time for route planning but in reality there are times when you need to be able to use the old ground-based radio beacons. I'm not talking NDBs here which, despite managing to get Lancasters to and from Berlin 77 years ago, are really not fit for purpose. VORs are the preferred tool here, with an extra splash of DME for ease of use. Once identified (by Morse code, can you believe that in 2021?) you can home in on them via any radial.

But I am damned if I can get the HSI to do any form of sensible VOR tracking. I seem to have the instrument but not the right knob for the job.

However NAV2 works beautifully amd with a bit of see-sawing I am on the 090 inbound radial, then round 270deg and outbound on the 360 radial, bit I'm still concerned about NAV1. I'm sure I am being stupid so I will ask the other members of the syndicate.

Declare inbound VFR to Oxford, descend inbound and swap to Tower at 5 miles, join Downwind and orbit at the end of downwind as requested, then follow a DA20 on Final for a low approach and go round; he goes and I'm cleared to land. Of course, here my lack of recency shows: I'm too high and too fast. Throttle right back, and we finally get a stabilised approach at about 700ft.

Using the old adage "you won't get a good landing out of a bad approach" it should have been rubbish but actually we grease it on thanks to the light winds and a bit of luck, roll out and taxy in.

More practise required! But from next week we can get back to some proper "go somewhere" aviation.....

Lasham Diversion 9 Apr 21

Lunch at Sandown, I think. Nessa and I will head off down there and test out their pizza.

Fire up, taxy out, everything good.

Depart South, textbook stuff.

A little VOR tracking with the HSI (works better when you disengage the CDI from the GNS430W), easy.

We'll get a MATZ Transit from Farnborough through Odiham, fine.

Just change the next frequency to Solent Radar, no gliders on the look out, but what's that? A bird?

BANG!

The windscreen disappears, a huge blast of cold air comes in and there's blood on my glasses.

Bird strike....

OK: so first check if Nessa's OK. She's looking at me, frightened, no glasses, no headphones. But she's alive and I can't see any blood. Let's keep her that way.

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate....

Are we going down? No, we're slowing but that 's due to the massive drag caused by the ad hoc cabriolet conversion. Can we maintain speed/height? Full throttle says "yes" so no need to pick a field yet. The engine sounds lumpy but that's mainly because we are now receiving the unmoderated noise. It is certainly generating power. Full rich anyway, don't want problems.

Where are we? Just South of Popham, so that seems the logical place to land. Can we make it back to Oxford? If it was just me I might be tempted but with a non-pilot passenger not a great idea. Turn left for Popham and a huge runway hoves in to view. In my befuddled state I think "Odiham" (actually it's Lasham) but that's where I'll go.

I can't hear anything in my headphones over the airflow but we'll make a blind Mayday call (not my first!) and tell Farnborough where we're headed. I hope they hear (they do, and tell Popham, Odiham and Lasham to expect us).

Give a reassuring nod to Nessa (who looks less frightened now), and start descending for a left hand downwind join for R27 at Lasham. I don't know what the extra drag is going to do to the stall speed so we'll stay fast, pop a stage of flaps, roll final, roll the throttle off gently and monitor the speed.

Actually it all feels OK and we flare, still at about 80Kts and let it down gently using lots of tarmac, plop on gently and slow very quickly with all that drag, turn off the runway on to the grass, note the 4x4 fire engine tracking us (so they knew we were coming) and park up by some glider tugs, carefully turning everything (including the fuel) off.

Closer inspection reveals a wrecked windscreen, no bird, no bird blood, Nessa's glasses on the floor behind my seat, lumps of windscreen all over the cockpit and the whisky compass on the floor undamaged.

Lasham find us a hangar and suggest we taxy over there. Start the engine, get half way and it conks out because of course I turned the fuel off. Select "both", crank and it comes back to life, taxy over to the hangar, shut down and we can push it in.

Lasham are fantastic: our (minor) cuts are swabbed, we're given tea and biscuits and even a lift home. These are seriously good people.

Local 11 May 21

Cessna are very slow at providing replacement windscreens and they have to come from the USA. It is on it's way but will be a few weeks. I want something to fly!

Our maintenance organisation has a PA28-180 they are happy for us to fly but obviously we need a checkout first, so Tuesday morning in the face of imminent thunderstorms and strong winds I meet up with Gill, an amiable Scots lady who will find out if I really can fly.

All aircraft actually fly the same way (like all airfields are basically the same) so swapping about is mainly a question of working out where everything is in the cockpit. There is no standard and this aircraft has been thoroughly tinkered with: it has a Garmin 430W and 530W in the centre stack and a big Garmin G500/600 right in front of you. Today we will be working off the steam instruments as I don't fully understand the central display yet. What I am going to struggle with is the radio - I know I'm going to forget to be "Yankee Zulu" at least once today...

Start up (what's with this fuel pump thingy, then?), taxy out and follow my old PFT checklist prior to take-off. It all goes well until I rotate at which point it becomes apparent that the ASI outer dial is in mph, so I have rotated at 65mph, not 65Kts. The poor thing staggers in to the air and needs a hefty dose of forward yoke to establish positive rate of climb. Still, now I know...

Depart to the North West and the clouds are scattered and quite large; rain clouds are in the vicinity but for the moment we will skirt them and find some clear air for some stalls. Interestingly, the stall warner is just completely inaudible to me. I'm not deaf, although I have some high frequency roll-off and I cant be the first to have issues with this particular aircraft as it has a visual stall warner as well, right where the low voltage light is in WL. Still, once this is pointed out we can reliably stall it with minimal height loss; all aircraft fly the same!

I actually really enjoy flying a low-wing aircraft again: you feel you're sitting more on top with a better view. It's not a huge deal, and variety is everything.

So: a PFL - turn vaguely in to wind, trim for 75Kts, simulated MayDay, pick a nice big green field and head for it, keeping it in sight; we'd make it in to there OK so we throw it away and do some VOR tracking. The wind is not doing what I thought it was: although the surface wind is 200deg the winds at 3,000ft are from the South East, but once we've identified our radial and set an offset it all comes together (the bloody DME box is in the wrong place!) and we have fun tracking it inbound before breaking off for an ILS.

This should be fun: unfamiliar aircraft, bumpy clouds a lot more than scattered now, flying it manually as there is an autopilot but I haven't used it yet.

Overhead Banbury we do a diversion to the West to avoid some parachuting at Hinton (really, on a skanky rainy day like this?) then an orbit for spacing then we can descend to 1800ft, intercept the Localiser (so easy with the EFIS) and we'll fly the nice familiar ILS display I learned on.

The Localiser keeps slipping a notch or so left - we have a sneaky crosswind from the South East, but the glideslope comes in and we'll reduce power to drop down the glideslope, we're still mainly IMC in and out of the clouds and we certainly can't actually see the runway yet. I love doing this! We're pretty stable, slightly above the glideslope as we change to Tower and get cleared for a touch 'n go, hold the cross on the ILS all the way down to 800ft then look out, confirm visual, pull the flaps and drop it on as the stall warner flashes, then release the 3rd stage of flaps, accelerate and this time rotate at 65Kts, which feels more stable.

Climbing in to the visual circuit in somewhat deteriorating atmospheric conditions we can hear an increasingly worried student pilot talking to the Tower unsure of his location and about to go IMC in the approaching rainstorm. We're happy to move over and if necessary let him land first but as we turn Downwind he suddenly appears 400ft below us going the wrong way down the Downwind leg. Whoa!

Tower demands an immediate right hand orbit to get us out of the way and I think his instructor takes over at that point because after a bollocking from the Tower it all goes quiet, we turn Base and Final and now we can hear him behind us. As we land and keep the speed up to expedite our exit Tower clears him for a Land After behind us which he then refuses - I don't know the circumstances under which he cannot accept one (Student pilot maybe, but surely he's got an Instructor on board?). As we depart the runway the rain starts but I have to say it is not a heavy shower - I'd fly through it....

It feels better having flown post-birdstrike, I feel more comfortable now.

Wellesbourne 26 May 21

I'd feel more comfortable with some dual practice with this Garmin G500 so ex-757 Captain Steve (who has long ago lost count of the number of hours he has flown, but reckons he has fewer GA hours than I have...) and I will go up to Wellesbourne and play.

We have both downloaded and experimented with the G500/G600 simulator on the PC and that has really helped: the G500 is basically a larger, integrated 6-pack designed so you can fly with your scan on the main screen, plus a larger G430 display with Electronic Conspicuity bult-in (and audio warnings, as we shall hear).

At long last the weather has relented and we have some sun...

Steve will do the first leg up to Wellesourne and we can pool the knowledge we have gleaned concerning the aircraft and the G500.

He wasn't aware that the steam gauge ASI reads in mph on the outer part of the dial.

We roll from R01 and his familiarity with the EFIS becomes apparent - he knows what all the little symbols mean.

I can understand why there was concern we would "chase" the flight path predictor (which shows you in real time where the aircraft is actually headed) but now we know about it we won't.

It's interesting doing a little Multi Crew Cooperation as I have plenty of mental space to do the radio while Steve flies; like me keeps forgetting to turn the fuel pump on and off at various points.

The inbuilt electronic conspicuity shows its worth as we approach Wellesbourne - a Beechcraft passes pretty close above us and I certainly wouldn't have seen it without the EC...

We join Left Base for runway 36 at Wellesbourne, nice and low over the hill and down neatly if a little long, we both struggle with the landing view as this is a low wing aircraft and we tend to flare a little high and hang there, feeling for the ground as the speed dissipates, but we're fine. Tea (and cake) beckons.

Fuelled by tea and cake I can take charge for the return journey. Sadly, as Oxford are using R01 today they have turned off the ILS so we can't track that but we can certainly play.

We'll try a shot of flaps for take-off as both of us are struggling to get it to actually rotate properly without flaps - this works well and feels more stable as we turn to 030 for noise abatement on climb out then turn South West for some general handling.

With Steve as lookout I can fly up, down, left and right "head-in" and once you get used to the G500 giving you all the info you need the steam instruments stop being part of your scan; the only bit I can't get is where a Rate 1 turn is indicated on the display, I have to refer to the steam AH for this which can't be right.

A little post-flight Googling shows I've been living in the Dark Ages; clearly when I did my IR(R) dinosaurs ruled the world - the G500 has an automatic Rate 1 arrow based upon current speed. Good to know where to look for next time.

The flight path predictor is very good for doing steep turns keeping the nose on the horizon; I'm unconvinced of its usefulness for anything else at present but watch this space...

Nearing Oxford for a rejoin they ask us to join downwind left hand for R01 (over Woodstock) which I haven't done in a very long time and after a rather woozy left base we settle on Final; I'm unconvinced we need all 3 stages of flap for a long runway landing at 75Kts so we'll use just the 2, flare and keep it coming down. A twitch from the stall warner and we're down on the mains, let the nosewheel come down and we'll vacate and taxy in. Nice aircraft, we'll fly it more.

Dunkeswell 1 Jun 21

The weather has finally become summer-like and I want to use the opportunity to get some decent aviation in rather than just banging around close to Oxford. Dunkeswell is an appropriate destination and my friend Andy has asked for a ride so we'll toddle off.

As we approach the aircraft the bowser turns up to fill it with fuel which neatly answers my questions "how much fuel is there in the tanks?" and "how do we get fuel?".

I notice they have fixed the port wingtip light (ha! see later...)

I assume it's flown already today so don't use the primer but it won't fire so it must be cold - 5 slugs of raw AvGas, primer locked and she still won't fire so rock the throttle to get the accelerator pump working and off she goes, settling down to a steady 1200rpm. These 4 cylinders sound really agricultural compared to the 6 in the C182.....

Avionics on, taxy out and enter R01. Cleared for take off we accelerate and at about 40Kts the nose rises a bit. This is weird and unprecedented, check forward to keep it down as the aircraft I know is not ready to fly until 65Kts (at least!) but it feels very skittish even with a bit of into-wind aileron. Rotate at 65Kts and we climb OK but that was odd.

Turn left and avoid Enstone and Little Rissington, I realise after much joggling of the throttle that unless you absolutely thrash this aircraft it doesn't cruise above 100Kts. I see 110Kts at one point, but it's much happier burbling along at 100Kts. Compared with a C182 this is slow stuff: I'm used to a 130Kt cruise. Everything passes more slowly at 100Kts...

Also there is slack in the aileron linkages and the aircraft is unstable in roll, it needs constant correction to remain level. I remember this from learning to fly on these and it is normal for a PA28 but it does make you appreciate the rock-steady handling of the C182.

It's hazy as we pass Nympsfield well to the North and there are certainly gliders out here but today - no birds...

We descend to pass over the Severn Bridges and then further down the Bristol coastline past Avonmouth and Weston Super Mare which looks busy today. The haze lifts as pass further South in to the cleaner air of Somerset and we can climb over the hills towards Dunkeswell. I was going down the North Devon coast but we've taken ages to get here so we'll go direct.

This aircraft will use 10gals/hr versus 14 for the C182 which goes to show you use the same fuel per mile whatever aircraft you fly!

Dunkeswell is hard to spot from the North, they are using R17 today which I haven't used before and they don't like Direct joins so we'll work round to the East then join left base, mind the displaced threshold and drop it on gently to the big tarmac runway, brake before the intersection then turn left up 04 for parking on the grass, tea and a big bit of home made flapjack.

I like Dunkeswell: it's a big, honest airfield with usually lots of paradropping and a nice cafe but today there's no dropping so they're not putting on a full menu, but the tea and flapjack are good.

Start up, taxy out to to R17, backtrack and roll, no skittishness this time. It could have been a stuck oleo leg clearing itself, I don't know.

Andy takes over as we head for Middlezoy and does a damned good job - he's done this before.

A quick scan of everything post-circuit and.... the Low Voltage light is pulsing.
Well that's odd.

It's not on solid and the ammeter is not showing discharge, in fact it's showing 28A charge. Everything is working OK so no need to panic, but it's not right.

As I'm not Handling Pilot I can tinker and it turns out if I load-shed the avionics it makes no difference, if I turn the strobes off it reduces but if I turn the beacon lights off it stops immediately. Knowing they've just changed the port light I suspect there's a short there. Ah, we can fly without lights for a while.

Chippenham comes up, then Swindon and before long we are over our house and Abingdon Airfield where they are filming at present. There on the ground is a mocked-up B17 bomber (I wonder if it was constructed by my friend James?).

Turn the corner back towards Oxford, they've changed runway to R19 so join Downwind and they are quiet this afternoon - it's just me and a DA40 in the circuit. Lights back on, voltage light now flickering again. Fuel Pump goes on, and we've been told to use continuous carb heat in the circuit so that goes on too.

Call Final, got a little crosswind from the left, flare, a squawk from the stall warner and.... it's a bit of a bump, I've not quite got the flare height visual picture right yet. I've done better landings (in this, even...). Still, I've done worse.

Andy has had a fabulous time and I've enjoyed flying the PA28 so Mission Accomplished!

Local Jul 21

It's time to tackle using the G500 to perform a proper RNAV procedure: Steve and I are going to shoot the Gloucester Runway 27 RNAV procedure via REKLO. I've done the R09 procedure before but not the R27 and not in this aircraft with it's whizzo electronics.

Both Steve and I can fly the aircraft quite happily but this is about integrating the various systems and it needs two pilots.

We have a Gamrin GNS430W, a GNS530W, a G500 and 2 NAV radios plus a separate DME and ADF; we are pretty sure we can use them all but it's more than one person can do safely.

We fully brief before flight and agree that Steve will fly and I will knob-twiddle, do the radios and look out of the windows.

At a later date we will swap and repeat.

At power check time we get a very rough running mag. I've never had this, and we both agree we won't fly with it like this, but I am told it's usually a fouled plug so lean the mixture to try and clear it... and it works! Every Day's a School Day.

Departing from Oxford on R19 we leave the right turn outbound very late indeed, to the point where we actually infringe Brize by 50ft or so. Not a great start but it's a beautiful day to be flying on instruments!

Steve gets the autopilot working after initially getting no response... because it's not switched on..... then we load the approach to the 530W, get clearance from Gloucester to fly it and Activate it.

We fly to REKLO and following some confusion about whether we are actually cleared for the Approach (we are) we fly onwards West then swing around North for NIRMO. This works better, with the G500 telling us when to turn, Steve spinning the heading bug and us hitting the Localiser spot on, hitting the FAF and here comes the glideslope. I hate the G500 glideslope display - it's a single green light off to the right of the DI; I'm much happier with the conventional cross-lines job but we have that set up too.

It's a high workload with changing radio frequencies, that bloody fuel pump needing to go on and off and cross-referencing between the various bits of kit. It is possible to do it single-handed but it's hard work and easier with two. I am beginning to appreciate the limits of the single pilot model...

With a stabilised approach we hit Decision Height, agree we "can't see" the runway so call missed and depart VFR to the North East to get out of the way.

We re-position back to the North of Oxford to get an ILS in and the EC tells us we have another aircraft following us 300ft below. I don't like this (I am hugely aware of other objects in the sky at present); I can't see him and he is very close indeed.

He could be an echo of us (this does happen) but I'm keen to find out so I ask Steve for a gentle orbit and he duly appears right behind where we were: a PFT PA-28 headed for Hinton.

We will leave him be and set up an interecption for the ILS: 60deg offset till it twitches then 30deg to bring it in. This works well but Steve gets very slow at one point and of course there's that bloody fuel pump. Still, at DH we are spot on so we both agree we can see the runway this time and Steve plops it neatly down, we're back on time. We're both exhausted!

But that is not the most important news of the day: the new windscreen has arrived.

Local 15 Jul 21

Nessa's Godmother lives in Ramsbury, down beyond Membury, nestling in the lush green valley of the River Kennet (famous as one half of the water source for the Kennet and Avon Canal).

Sitting in her garden before lunch last week saw a parade of low, slow-flying aircraft either in transit to or from Membury, or just bumbling up the valley on a nice day, who knows? This sounds like an excuse for a bimble so we'll book the backup PA-28.

Poor Whisky Lima is still languishing in the hangar at Lasham, even with the windscreen available apparently more damage has been discovered above and below the windscreen and also on the elevator. Loss Adjusters have been consulted.....

I have come to appreciate this old PA-28 with it's 180hop engine and mismatched prop, it's a bit of a gent. The Hershey Bar wing makes it easy to fly and land, if a little twitchy in roll with lower break out forces than the C182. Variety is the spice of life and whilst the take-off performance is leisurely due to the fixed pitch cruise prop once you get used to the lumpiness of the 4-cylinder engine it trogs along quite nicely.

A scheduling cock-up by the person prior to me using the aircraft (you know who you are and exactly what you did...) trashes our scheduled 2:00pm departure.

It's close to 2:30pm by the time the aircraft is even down and past 3:00pm by the time we get going, so the plan to go to Shobdon gets trashed.

Despite forgetting to turn the bloody fuel pump on for departure we cruise gently South at 2,500ft, a quick whizz round the house then down towards Membury, and avoiding their overhead descend towards Ramsbury.

I like flying low: at anything above 2,000ft only serious hills and mountains are visible, the rest looks like Google Maps. I can do that from my desktop....

Set up for a West-East transit at 1,000ft, swing around at the end and come back East-West. Despite it looking a long way away from the photos I am plagued by "Terrain..... Terrain......" from the Garmin kit until I throttle up and pull away, let's not annoy the locals and head back home.

Transiting over our local 560m grass strip (tempting to be based there, but with no AvGas you'd have to keep going to Oxford!) I can see 3 Gazelles clearly based there, one with engine running. How cool is that?

A final quick whizz over the house then back for a visual for R01 via Right Base. A spirited East wind has blown up (airfields always the windiest places in the world...) and my flare drifts us to the left of the centreline but we're down tidily, taxy in and shut down.

Windscreen delays Summer 21

It has taken from April to July to order and have delivered a new windscreen, and to attempt to fit it.

This is a 3rd party replacement, not agenuine Cessna replacement part, so maybe some tolerances have been exceeded somewhere?

It's now half-fitted but the rear won't sink down in to position.

This is either some parts of the previous windscreen that have not been removed from the slots (to be fair, unlikely), some misalignment at the front, posibly due to seagull damage (although it looks OK) or it just needs leaning on at the top.

I'm not a licenced A&P Engineer, although I suspect that in another life I could have become one.

Maybe if I had learned to fly in the US in the 1980s I may have stayed there and moved across to Aviation Engineering, I don't know.

It would have been a very different life, for sure.

It may need a third party, more experienced at C182 windscreen replacement.

Then we've *only* got to persuade the CAA to let us fly it back to Oxford because the Annual is now overdue.

Repairs in the Certified GA world are long-winded and expensive. Oh, for a less-regulated FAA model!

Later on, the engineers try once more to fix the windscreen and manage to crack it in the process, so another (this time genuine Cessna) windscreen is ordered and eventually fitted by the guys from Oxford, then the aircraft is flown back (with speed tape) to Oxford for final fettling and return to service.

But of course this all takes ages.

Fortunately the insurers are happy to pay (probably glad I managed to get the thing on the ground so not a total Hull Loss), and no expense is spared getting it all back to normal.

Shobdon 4 Aug 21

Fortunately, we've got a PA28 to fly and this morning I'm finally going to Shobdon. It's sunny and warm, we'll keep the door and the direct vision panel open as long as possible....

The experience of aviation is entirely unique: the smells, the sights...

From the moment you step, hi-viz-clad, through the security gate it's a different world.

Whirling props, the yellow tips staccato in the sunshine.

Sudden washes of noise: the rough rumble of air-cooled piston engines, the smoother whine of turboprops, the thrumming of helicopter blades, the hiss of jet engines as they pass between hangars, echoing around the apron.

The hot concrete and tarmac smelling of AvGas, AvTur and the burnt remnants of both.

The danger from scything propellers, sucking jet engines and moving wings, rushing fuel bowsers and fast-walking groups of Airline-pilot students and their associated Instructors, from Day 1 of their training kitted out in the ubiquitous and confidence-ensuring airline uniform of white shirt, epaulettes, dark trousers and tidy haircuts.

Watch out: that 16 year old you've just passed will be flying you to Ibiza next year, that 14-year old sounding girl on the radio getting her calls wrong will be flying you home again....

In the Despatch office, deep in the hangar which is full of arcraft parts, half-assembled GA airframes and jigs: lots of jigs, are racks of paperwork. Aircraft maintenance generates a lot of paper. I used to work for an aircraft parts manufacturer making wiring harnesses for er... assorted military aircraft, let's say. The paperwork that generated had its own department just to ensure traceability, this is similar-looking.

Here is the The Tech Log: full of incomprehensible numbers and times, but all we're looking for is a place to sign the aircraft out, and an empty "Defects" box. Yes! It's empty, phew....

Once we know we have a working aircraft to use we can call (yes: mobile phones are allowed here - the whole airline ban is bunkum based upon an older, analogue mobile phone used in one particular aisle in a pre-1984 airliner. Phones today are digital, much less powerful and all airliners' nav kit is better shielded now) first the Tower, using the arcane language of aviation to "book out VFR to EGBS, Estimate off blocks 0915 Local, 1 PoB, return 1200 Local 1 PoB", then Shobdon to "PPR, ETA 1000 Local, PA28, G-HRYZ, 1 PoB". It all means something but it's also an effective way of putting off any mere mortal who wishes to get in to aviation.....

Then back out to the hot tarmac, to the aircraft.

The fuel bowser has pulled up and the fuel man is filling up both wing tanks with acrid, chemical-smelling leaded 100LL AvGas. I always make a point of manually checking that it says "AvGas" on the side of the wagon and when he's finished and reeled his Earth lead back in I sniff the tanks and make absolutely sure the caps are back on and in line with the direction of flight.

The checklist (no one can do this stuff by memory) runs through basic stuff like making sure there is no water in the fuel, that both flaps go down at the same time, that the controls move, and in the right direction, all the lights work (I've finally worked out where the switch for the external lights is, it's always been on before now), and we pause to do a fast Weight 'n Balance (in this case: 1 PoB, full tanks, jobs a good 'un) and fuel calc (estimate 2 hours flying time at 11USG per hour makes 22USG, we have full tanks 45USG, so we're good to go).

The seats are 1970's vinyl and have seen a fair few bums, in fact the whole aircraft smells of 1970's Vauxhall Viva...... A hybrid mix of 1970s clockwork instruments and state of the art hi-res flatscreen confronts you. I learned to fly on clockwork instruments so I'm happiest with them, but I do like the navigation and electronic conspicuity parts of the new system.

We'll leave the main door and the little pilots side window open for maximum ventilation - it's hot in here. 1970s seatbelt - no new-fangled inertia reel belts here across the lap and manual shouilder strap, then work down the checklist through what I call the quiet zone, towards the Noisy Zone. Master switch to on and the gyros start to whine up. GA aircraft always have this whine in the background, it's the first noise and it's the last noise to die down after you've turned everything off. ANR headphones at the ready, check no one is in front, yell "Clear Prop" (the Americans laugh at us for doing this) and turn the key.

Wrong key.

Swap to the other key on the ring, turn and push hard.

Unlike a car the starter motor really has to work hard to swing the engine and prop. You can feel the strain and the current through the heavy-duty starter motor leads. One blade heaves itself past the windscreen then the engine fires and the whole things becomes a blur. The airframe convulses as the mass of pistons, conrods, crankshaft, flywheel and prop rotate about the centre line. As the engine settles in to a fast idle the airframe still squirms with suppressed power. It's very noisy indeed until I fit the headphones and flick the ANR on. The rumble ceases, replaced by a whine and hiss.

Many checks worthy of a 1960s sports car need to be made: this is the noisy part of the list. The various electronics all have separate on switches and being an American aircraft they're all up for on. The GPS nav devices bark and complete their self tests in a synthetic American woman's voice along with assorted bleeps. The oil pressure is up, the temperature for now still on the bottom stop, we're ready to go.

We're third in line at the queue for take off - the PA28 at the front and holding everyone up is finally happy (you can usually tell because the last item on the checklist is "Full and Free Controls" so all the controls waggle) and we all taxy up to the Stop Line. You can feel the effect of the aircraft in front's prop wake gently bobbing the airframe. Finally we can line up and Go.

As the aircraft approaches take off speed it becomes nervous on the wheels, then at 65Kts we'll pull back and the nervousness ceases as we become truly a device of the air. An engine failure here is a small possibility but carries a large weight of danger - there is not enough room to bang it back on the runway and stop but have you got enough momentum to get over the A44 above 44-Tonner height and in to the field on the far side?

Right turn at 1,000ft, climb out past Blenheim Palace, past the Wilderness Festival starting tomorrow at Charlbury (I opted not to do their IT this year as I have now retired...) and swap to London Info at Moreton-in-the-Marsh (easy to spot).

It's so smooth today I can steer with the rudder pedals alone: just ease it on to track, let it drift off then bring it back. The PA28 is so much more of a wayward beast than the C182; it requires constant subtle heading corrections and I refuse to leave these to the autopilot, what's the point in going flying if you always use the autopilot?

London Info can't hear me as we pass Malvern, so we'll make blind calls handing over to Shobdon. If they are worried they can ring Shobdon, who we are now in contact with.

Shobdon says they are on R08 so we will join right base minding the C152 doing General Handling, mind the noise abatement bits and line up with R08.

On Final I dont know why, but the runway looks short from here, so we will bring the speed back (it's easy on this to let the speed decay), round out, plop it on and brake, and we're down to walking place by the midpoint exit so it can't have been that short! There is no wind, and this is a PA28, the easiest aircraft in the world to land well, so I shouldn't feel too proud of myself....

Back to the plane, strap in, leave the door for now, Clear Prop and crank. Eeek, what a noise! I have a suspicion the solenoid did not engage properly as a horrible grating noise is all we get. This could be a problem.

Thankfully on the second go all engages correctly, the prop whirls and we get life. Phew! They've changed the runway to R26 so we taxy along the grass to the Hold point. Next to the run-up area they are rigging gliders, so I'll stop at 90deg to them so my propwash doesn't blow all the gliders about. Cleared to cross the grass runway I'll check for approaching non-radio traffic and call "rolling" before swinging on to R26 and booting it. With one stage of flaps we use about half the runway to reach 65Kts and off we go, left turn around the noise abatement bits and climb away

As it is now later in the morning puffy clouds have appeared and below them it's quite bumpy, so we'll climb up to where it's smoother. They are 1500ft or so high and scattered in my path so I'll do what I love doing: flying close to them and occasionally through them. This gives a much better impression of speed than looking at the ground.

Clear once more of the clouds the EC suddenly pings and tells me there is traffic 11o'clock 1 mile same height: collision risk. I can't see it but I think it's wise to descend and turn away. As I start to do so an SR-22 appears exactly where the EC says it was. I don't think I'd have hit him but it would have been damned close.... I vow never to fly again without EC of one form or another.

Once back at Malvern I give London Info a go, then at Moreton in the Marsh swap back to Oxford and join Right Base for R19, fight the thermals over the little lane just before the runway, flare..... and we're down tidily, the tyre noise decreasing as we slow.

Back to the hangar, swing it round for the next pilot and let it idle for a minute before chopping the mixture, chopping all the switches and sitting there listening to the gyros winding down. The rush is over, to be replaced by a post-flight low that usually lasts for the rest of the day.

Then it's back to the hangar past the jigs to fill out the Tech log (no Defects) and back through the Security gate, Hi-Viz off and become just another civilian driving down the A44.

Non-pilots don't really understand the huge satisfaction a well-conducted flight can give, and it's hard to convey but this is why aviation is a drug, as I've always said.

Charlton Park 7 Oct 21

After six months, two new windscreens and a full Annual Whisky Lima is back in service.

I've been in Ireland on holiday, then had a week looking after our grand daughter, then waited a week for the October winds to calm down a bit, but today is the day to re-familiarise myself with flying the C182.

First of all I need to rescue my keys that have languished in the aircraft since April and the bird strike. Of course the aircraft is locked, so I need to ask the maintenance guys to unlock it (they have keys) so I can get my keys. Then I can sit in the cockpit and try to remember where everything is.

Running through the pre-flight checklist I notice the ailerons are really squeaky. I'm surprised, as it has just had its Annual Service, so I mention it to the maintenance guys who will squirt it with WD40.

In the hangar next door is G-FIAT, the very same PA28 I did my first solo on 15 years ago. There's a piece of history. They say lots of people passing the hangar say the same thing, gently stroking the wing and thanking it for putting up with their hamfisted control inputs; clearly G-FIAT has trained many, many sudents since 1973 when it was built...

It's foggy this morning and although forecast to clear by 9:00, by 9:30 it's obvious it's not going to clear until lunchtime at the earliest. I'll come back after lunch, no one else has the aircraft booked and I'm in no hurry, I'm retired...

After lunch the skies have cleared a bit and Oxford's METAR has just switched from IFR to MVFR - it looks flyable so I'll ask Ops to get the bowser to fill up the fuel. I've probably got enough but you know what they say about too much fuel.

I asked Oxford Air Traffic for some circuits as it's been so long since I flew this aircraft but they are reluctant. I'm unsure as to why because there is actually no one else flying bar one departing Bizjet, so once at the Hold I ask for one Touch 'n Go and grumpily they agree. It turns out I am the only one in the circuit, so quite what the fuss was about I have no idea?

Climbing out it just appears more powerful than the PA28 and more stable in roll as always. Apart from repeatedly reaching for the trim wheel between the seats it all seems to be where it should be, and once established on Final it feels the same as always, so we'll plop it on gently, clean up and depart South.

Oxford have no Radar today (it's on maintenance) so it's "Oxford Approach" who presumably are using some Battle of Britain-like plotting table in there with those long rods pushing us around the table when they know where we are....

Departing to the South below a thin layer of clouds at 1800ft I can see a clutch of Brize tankers on the SkyEcho very close but a couple of thousand feet above the clouds as they turn for the Brize ILS, which is disconcerting to say the least.

130Kts seems fast though: I haven't been over 110Kts for a good while and this close to the ground you can feel the extra speed. Brize take us on for a Basic Service, I can hear them marshalling the tankers and before long we're ready to swap to Charlton Park Radio. The AFE Guide would have you use SafetyCom here but in fact they have their own frequency 122.20. Like many small airfields, it's bloody impossible to find until you're very close. Suddenly there it is, I'll Blind Call on their frequency and Join Overhead for a right hand circuit for runway 25.

When in the circuit in the C182 you have to lean right forward to see "round the bend" and as I am turning Final I can hear a little pre-stall airframe whistle. I've let the speed get quite low, so ease the turn by pushing away and roll out on to short final at 70Kts, a nice stable approach just to the left of the big pile.

I'll pull 40 deg flap and as the barn doors open I can feel the initial wave of decelaration then the increased airframe burble. We've got 800m of grass to play with and although my out-of-practice landings tend to be long I think we'll be OK, so ease down the approach, aim for just after the threshold, eyes on the end of the runway and pull..... thumpity thump thump thump and we're stopped in about 400m which is rubbish for a short field landing but quite acceptable for here and today. Call backtracking, call vacated and park up in a quiet corner by the hangar. All is grassy, leafy, well-maintained and there's no one here.

Until the Earl turns up in his BMW and he is exactly as I expect: 70's, well dressed, crusty, very friendly and glad we could drop by. There is an Honesty Box and a sign-in/sign-out sheet by the (empty) camouflaged hangar, it looks like I'm the only visitor today and indeed for the last few days. Very nice indeed.

We'll do a rolling short-field departure: two stages, rotate at 60Kts and push for 65Kts once airborne. This is satisfyingly short (we're off in about 300m) and we roll round to the North West to avoid the local village. Need to keep an eye on Kemble as we are quite close, then Aston Down, so cruise at 1800ft at the base of the clouds to Stroud.

Turning North East towards Stow on the Wold and then East, we'll call Oxford who have no one else on frequency and just want me to report at 4 miles (so much for "fully booked for circuits..."). I can do that, so we'll load and arm the "Vectors for the ILS" for R19, get the autopilot on, pre-load Oxford Tower on the flip-flop, check NAV1 and NAV2 are on 108.35, check the ID, slow to 100Kts and BUMPFTCHH now while it's quiet, get stable at 1800ft and know that 15" throttle gives level flight, 13" gives 533ft/min descent.

From where we are near Barford St John it's a 80deg interception angle for the Localiser so the 430W counts down for the turn, hits 0, I spin the dial to 195deg and we hit the Localiser spot on. There's a first; I love the 430W.

I dont like the NAV1 display. I know Steve raves about it because thats what they have on B757s but I learned on the dollseye cross-needles job and with the loss of EGNOS we cant use the GPS-derived glideslope anyway, so I've prepped NAV2 for 108.35 and we'll fly that.

The glideslope drops down from above and as it intercepts I reduce power to 13", feel the aircraft sink and hands off we're stable, needles exactly crossed as we pass and report 4 miles, swap to Tower who ask us to report 2 miles and watch the altimeter unwinding.

The Localiser starts to drift to the left a tiny bit so come 5 deg left and it stays centered. Follow the altimeter all the way down to 800ft QNH which is my IR(R) limit, look up and the runway is just to the left of the centreline. Interesting, but of course I've got drift on - the needles are still centered, I'm actually aimed just to the right of the runway and the crosswind is keeping me on the centreline.

A/P off, power off, two stages of flap, call 2 miles, get cleared to land (there's no one else they're talking to anyway) trim for 75Kts and just cruise down, flare and....... bump and we're down solidly.

Well, that was satisfying. Now for some serious IFR stuff with Steve, and I'll see if I can keep up.

Leicester 21 Oct 21

The wind has been very gusty right across the runway all week but has finally begun to calm down, so this afternoon I think I might try for some crosswind landing practice.

I have cleaned and re-waterproofed the cover so it needs to go back in to the blow up hangar where we store all the kit we don't use very often.

Stepping in to the cool, shady interior I realise I am alone with not only 2 aircraft I have flown but several million pounds worth of business jet: a matt green Dassault Falcon and a Cessna Citation. Surely one day my single Premium Bond that has been in the system since 1966 must come up trumps and allow me to regularly use one of these beasts? NS&I, come on!

Wiping up the drool from the floor in front of me I'll just pop the cover on top of our cabinet, end my daydream and return to the real world...

Mick has not been able to do his morning session so the aircraft is still inside the hangar. Oxford Operations, despite having been notified that I'd like the aircraft out, have not asked the crew to extricate it. 'tis but the work of a moment to ask them nicely by phone and a man with one of those funky lifters arrives and together we wheel the aircraft carefully out through the doors. I'd have moved it myself but I suspect I'm not covered by the insurance!

They've solved the aileron squeak and the aircraft is as perfect as I've ever seen it. Fuel quantity is marginal so using the theory that you can never have too much fuel we'll get the bowser to fill her up. 1 PoB means no W&B issues so we'll skip the full check for today.

Of course I manage to mis-manage the checklist and taxy half way round the airfield with the NAV and beacon lights off but if that's the only error I make today I'll be happy.

The airfield is busy and it takes a few minutes to get a take-off slot but soon we are ready for departure to the North East "Not above 2,000ft until 5 miles from the airfield". I can do that.

Line up, depart on the runway heading, lose the flap at 800ft, hit some turbulence and depart North East, swing round D123 and the bird sanctuary then try to cross track on to our destination heading of 06deg.

But the HSI is telling me to steer right, which is clearly bollocks: I'm doing something wrong.

A bit of head scratching later I realise the HSI is on VLOC not GPS so is of course tracking NAV1, Oxford's ILS. One button later normal service is resumed, good practice that. Fly the plane, don't get too obsessed with fixing the problem. Airliners have crashed in similar circumstances.

We'll follow the indicated course manually to see if I can fly in a straight line, so roll in to the heading just before the needle centres and adjust for wind as the needle drifts. Ah, that's got it.

I have a tendency to want to identify my destination before slowing down which results in me flying merrily past and having to come back, so today I will slow down and get down before identifying Leicester.

Ah ha: there it is, and we're neatly overhead for runway 28 at 1000ft so report downwind, BUMPFTCHH, full flaps and leave a long enough final this time, bring the speed back to 75Kts and cruise down final.

Winds are 290 at 16Kts. Over the trees we get a fair bit of suck so add power, release it as we get back over grass and flare, a gust catches us but we'll just hold it.....hold it, a chirp from the stall warner and we're down, gentle braking and we're off on to the taxyway. Push back in to a paking space and we're off to book in.

They have an excellent cafe: Tea is £1 and pork scratchings £1, I will go again!

Back in the plane filled with tea and pork scratchings we can fire up and call for taxy. Opposite us is a C152, he will follow us as we wend our way around the various runways to the threshold of runway 28.

Ready to line up, we hear "G-XXXX, long final" so we hold.

And we wait.

And wait.

Eventually the Tower asks him how long of a long final he is really on, he calls "2 mile final" and we wait once more.

A laconic voice over the radio, obviously from the C152 behind, says "we could both have gone....". And probably a half-dozen others!

Eventually a C152 hoves in to view and plops down neatly so I can line up and depart the moment his tail exits the runway. He actually calls vacated as I rotate. It's my responsibilty for clearance in a non-Towered environment, so I have broken no rules here.

It's still blustery and bumpy as we climb out following the circuit for noise abatement, then turn South and climb up to the cloudbase.

As it will be 4:00pm by the time we get back to Oxford some of the crosswind will have died down but hopefully not too much as I need a bit of crosswind landing experience!

With the 430W and autopilot we can bracket our return track with about a 10deg offset and get it really stable. At 20 miles I'll load and activate Vectors for the ILS, let it bring me over to the right and turn in to it.

On the Localiser at 12 miles and letting down to 1800ft Oxford tell me to watch out for some traffic passing left to right which appears on my SkyEcho 800ft below but I have to say I never see. Often aircraft are very hard to see in the ground clutter.

Almost immediatelty they then tell me to watch out for the parachuting jump plane which is climbing out from Hinton in the Hedges.

Not visual, not visual, lost in the ground clutter and is not on my EC (why not?) but he must be close.....

I am outside their ATZ to avoid chopping up parachutists but of course so is he.

I am now very worried as is Oxford Radar, until suddenly he pops up half a mile ahead, climbing up to our level and crossing ahead left to right.

I call visual and I think they're a lot more worried about it than I am because he says "well Thank God for that"; I reckon our radar plots must have been very close. But surely he must have been monitoring Oxford Radar on COM2: I certainly would in his place as he was blasting through the published inbound Approach track....

It doesn't feel like a big drama to me so when later on Oxford asks if I want to file an AirProx I don't see the point but I would have thought it sensible for the paradrop aircraft to have a SkyEcho as they both receive and transmit, that way we would have been visible to each other?

Switch to NAV2, Ident the ILS I-OX and watch the glideslope come down from the top, throttle back and it's hard to get stable as it's so gusty but we're within one dot all the way down, drop the flaps and flare, it's all going so well...

Just as we touch we catch a gust or something that unsettles the aircraft making it not my finest landing but it was safe and good crosswind practice.

It is true to say that you should never relax until the aircraft is shut down and this is evidenced by the fact that I then manage to mislead the Tower in to believing I am taxying in via K not J and ending up nose to nose with a DA20 minus cowling off for engine test. Fortunately there is enough room for me to sidle sheepishly past him and park....

Local 2 Nov 21

It's time for my bi-annual IR(R) revalidation, an event I panic and sweat about but seem to manage to pass every time.

I suppose I feel I'm not really worthy in some obsure way to fly on instruments and I'm expecting someone to find me out. They call it Imposter Syndrome, and I should really know better but there it is.

Despite having asked Oxford Operations to get the aircraft out this morning and them having responded in the affirmative, not only is the aircraft still in the hangar and behind two other aircraft both these aircraft are being worked on..... I am not a popular person when the handler finally arrives to get the aircraft out and fuel it.

It's a beautiful fog free morning everywhere, except for (of course) Oxford, where it is barely possible to discern the runway. It's forecast to clear at 11:00am which it just about does.

Still, it gives me a chance to wander around the other hangars where there two Chipmunks. Chipmunks! I flew these in the 1970s. Maybe I flew this one? A long search of the loft finds my old RAF logbook where I discover my long-hidden stupidity: I never wrote the aircraft serial numbers against the 8 experience flights I took before the RAF tired of my freeloading and chucked me firmly on the medical rubbish heap as "permanently unfit for aircrew". But a bit of Googling shows neither of these this aircraft were ever at RAF Abingdon between 1978 and 1981. Beautiful bits of kit, though; apparently the handling is like that of the early models of Spitfires, although obviously without the shattering torque of a Merlin up front...

Oxford's ILS is out of action and the ATIS is giving the NDB/DME approach for runway 19 which would be fun to try but we don't have a working ADF and the revalidation requires two different approaches to be flown with an instructor. Fortunately I did an ILS with Gill a few months ago and that allegedly counts as one so we are off to Cranfield to fly the RNAV.

Access to information has come a long way since I learned to fly, and SkyDemon on an iPad or even on one's iPhone allows more or less instant access to the entire UK AIP. A fast whizz through the menus and up comes Cranfield's R21 RNAV plate. Mark is impressed that this is possible and we brief on the approach and the missed segment.

Departing to the East I can prove my ability to hand fly "head in" with and without the A/P, retain situational awareness, climb and descend and drive the 430W. Mark negotiates an RNAV with them and we fly to ADSON to inititate the approach, the phone displaying the plate clipped to my kneepad. I dont think this is CAA-approved but actually works really well.

It has to be said that RNAV approaches are easy as basically you just follow the 430W prompts - it tells you when to turn and you drive the A/P bug round, report and when it gets you to the Final Approach Fix you throttle back, hit 500ft/min descent rate and run down the glideslope.

In theory.

In practice, I manage to hold the glideslope OK but someone (maybe me, maybe Mark) disconnects the A/P and it takes me a few seconds to realise the small course adjustments I'm making are not having any effect so I need a manual, larger adjustment then get the A/P running again, by which time the glideslope is still OK but for some bizarre reason I'm now doing 120Kts.

Big throttle back to correct, jockey the yoke to remain on the glideslope as the speed decays and as we hit 700ft QNH look up, identify the runway (I can get it in from here easily), go missed so climb straight ahead to 0d then hit "Direct To", "EGTK" and climb out West, wiping the sweat from my palms. Phew!

Reaching Oxford, set the approach to Vectors to the ILS R19, turn in neatly for a straight-in approach and we're number two to a Seneca on Right base so throttle right back, speed back to 85Kts and watch him turn in ahead of us.

This is good training, as I find I can still fly the glideslope at this speed; in fact it's easier because everything happens more slowly. Eventually we're given a land after and we can plop it down nicely. It is true to say the more you fly the better your landings are and this one is pretty close to perfection.

And I'm licenced for another 2 years 1 month of abusing the insides of clouds. I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!

Local 14 Nov 21

Today I am taking my distant 12 year old cousin Henry out as he is mad keen on aircraft and wants to experience flying. Nothing like trying to enthuse the next generation.

The last few days have seen low cloud and intermittent showers, and today is no exception. The current Form F215 shows two layers of cloud: one starting at around 1000ft AGL and topping out at about 2,500ft; the other with a base of around 4,000ft. Freezing level is 8,000ft so I reckon we can play between the layers with good visibility. It's not the same as a sightseeing VFR day but as he has come a long way I don't want to disappoint him.

Absolutely no one is flying; Oxford's ATIS is giving overcast at 800ft and no chance of it relenting, so IFR it is.

Now for some bizarre reason I have always thought you had to file an IFR flight plan to depart IFR but when I suggest that to the Tower they say I can just depart in a general direction and they will give me a Deconfliction service, so that's easier than I thought. You learn something every day...

The plane has plenty of fuel so the 4 of us get onboard, taxy out and depart with an IFR departure clearance of "160deg and climb to 2,000ft". At 1,000ft on the climb out it all goes grey and as we swap to Radar, opt to continue the climb and reach 2,500ft it all goes VMC again. So far, so good: a flight entirely in the grey room would be very dull.

It's fab up here: the cloud tops look like landscapes and it's much brighter than the troglodytic existence below.

We'll start Henry doing straight and level, then increasing rate turns left and right, climbs and descents and then trying to do one without the other happening. I then ask him to turn to a number of headings and hold them, and he learns quickly. He'll make a great pilot some day.

Time to return to Oxford through the murk via the NDB DME procedure for runway 01. The bad news is that I have not done this approach since my initial IR(R) training but the good news is that we have plenty of fuel and I do have the approach plate printed out in front of me.

A quick self-brief including the Missed Approach Procedure, then "Direct To" EGTK, "Vectors for the NDB DME Approach" gives us an extended centreline on the 430W but for some reason a NAV flag on the DI. Huh?

Ah, the CDI button on the 430W (again).

A quick push of the button and that's fixed.

A/P on, and now we only have to worry about the descent.

Oxford Radar give us a descent to 2,500ft and a vector to close with the inbound track that goes throrugh the corner of the Brize Zone, so we'll need to be accurate.

Once on the Approach track (for some reason Radar want to hurry us; there's no other traffic and I suspect they think we've forgotten or gone AWOL but no, we've only just attained the track) at 11d we can cruise just above the clouds then descend in to the murk to 1800ft for the 6d marker, swap to Tower who ask us to descend on the procedure and clear us to land.

This is a non-precision approach (but in reality the MDA for an IR(R) is the same at 500ft AGL) so there are no crossed needles, we just throttle back for a descent of 500ft/min, trim and hands off for a stable approach then check the 3d marker where I must not be below 870ft QNH. I'm at 950ft so the worst case scenario is that I land long.

Continue the descent and at 800ft the murk recedes and there are the runway lights: 3 whites, 1 red so a bit too high (see above) but I can easily get it in from here. A quick check with Tower to confirm they have cleared us to land (which they have), slow to 85Kts, pop the flaps and slide down for a gentle arrival.

For some reason I have always sworn off non-precision approaches in the past but to be honest this experience has made me more likely to use them in future.

What they don't tell you when training is that you can make what feels like the most horrendous mess of an approach but provided you are less than half scale deflection when you go visual in practice it's a usable approach picture. You don't have to be that polished about it, just don't go below the approach path: always err on the high side.

Everyone had a great time and today simply would not have been possible without an IR(R) so if you haven't got one, get one. It's been described as the most difficult Rating to get but the easiest to use, and I think that is fair comment.

I don't usually deliberately aim to go flying in IFR conditions; I use my IR(R) as a "get you home" Rating but this has made me reconsider - there have been times when I haven't flown because of IFR conditions and probably could have done. Disregarding days where icing would be an issue it certainly expands your percentage likelihood of actually going somewhere.

Kemble - Wellesbourne 8 Feb 22

We took the winter off and went to Spain, traveling around the Southern and Eastern coast, so no aviation there but now I'm home once more I'm keen to get my currency back.

A planned IFR trip to Newquay and Exeter has to be shelved at the last minute due to a positive COVID test (that may or may not be spurious for various complex reasons), so I'm back to a solo VFR 3-landings-to-a-full-stop outing. Now if I can just remember what all these knobs and buttons do?

It's pretty windy today, but I am not going to use this as an excuse not to go - you get what you get in aviation and if I can't do a crosswind landing by now I'm in a lot of trouble.

Depart Oxford: so far so good and we can fly at 2,000ft avoiding Fairford which is active, over the top of Northern Swindon and round to a Downwind join for Kemble's runway 26.

Kemble has a Strong Wind Warning in effect which is a little concerning until you realise it is within 10deg of the runway heading; the approach is rough and great rust removal and with such a big target it ought to be possible to do......a greaser. Bloody Hell - first landing and I got a good one. It can't last.

Taxy on the muddy grass for the AV8 café and a great big mug of coffee.

Kemble's grass is muddy and I feel awful for leaving great big divots by turning but there is no other way back to the runway. At last back on the tarmac and leaving muddy trails I ask if I can depart from the A3 midpoint rather than taxy halfway back to Oxfordshire.... This being a C182 in a strong headwind I'm airborne in 100m or so and climbing away North.

Kemble warn me of an incoming Squirrel which appears, satisfyingly, on the SkyEcho and then visually. All this EC does work!

The West wind is hitting the Cotswold hills East of Gloucester and generating rotor here: it's pretty bouncy and intermittently IMC (which is actually a lot of fun) before finally easing to a higher cloudbase North of the A40.

Wellesbourne are today on their infamous (to me) runway 23, scene of my "fun" first solo land away all those years ago and not revisited since. Let's see if we can do a better job this time. Line up downwind right hand, roll Final and pull the big barn doors, add 5kts for the crosswind gusts and *be accurate*.

I really don't know why this was such an issue before: the crosswind fades at 30ft, there's a nice long tarmac lead-in and I end up putting the mains on the numbers with virtually zero forward motion. I could stop in 50m if I felt like it but I've got things to do so we'll roll to the end and park up.

The Tower suggests as it's muddy that I park up on the tarmac next to the fire engines, which is actually a bit tight with the C182's long wings. I don't really want to clip the fuel pumps.....

A ginger beer and a flapjack later, I can depart back to the end of runway 23 for a backtrack. There is a PA28 on its way in and he turns final just as I spin round at the business end of the runway and roll for a short field take off. I'm long gone and climbing out South East before I affect his approach.

Ah, now let's set up the ILS on the 430W. This works perfectly once I've pressed that bloody CDI button, but I can't get my favourite ILS instrument, the cross-needles job, to work. Ah, that's because it's looking at Norwich's ILS. Reset it and it immediately flicks in to life: I'm below the glideslope which is where I should be here, I can watch it descend until I'm above it then descend on it. Oxford are giving 240 18 gusting 22 which is on the aircraft demonstrated crosswind limit. Oh, I am getting a good rust removal session.....

And it all goes swimmingly until the very last second when I make the fatal mistake of taking my eyes off the end of the runway, judge the vertical speed slightly wrong and bounce. Not badly, and the aircraft then settles on the centreline. But it's not perfection: aaarrgghh, the rust strikes again!

Upon exiting the runway Tower transfers me to Ground, a frequency we haven't used in ages. I guess Oxford is getting busier again.

Park up, shut down, go through the post-exit checklist of "Fuel OFF, Brakes OFF, Master OFF" and place the chocks around the nosewheel. At 6:00pm I then receive a phone call from Ops who ask me if the brakes are off as I had forgotten (doh!) to put the BRAKES OFF OK TO TOW" placard back in the windscreen.

A good start to what could be an interesting and varied 2022.

Membury - Henstridge 23 Mar 22

I've flown over Membury many times, and in fact I used to work for a company based in the business park to the rear of the airfield, but I've never landed there. It would be useful to know what to expect if I ever have to divert there.

It's a funny old place: a mix of based microlites and repair facilities for gliders and composite aircraft like Diamonds, it has a mixture of grass and old perimeter track runways and is one of those wonderful small uncomplicated airfields you could spend your life exploring around the UK and Europe.

The very nice chap I request PPR from reckons I'd be better off with a hard runway so we agree on R05 with a right hand circuit, and I'll pay the landing fee on the web site. He says I should expect there to be no one there to greet me. My sort of strip....

It's a beautiful CAVOK morning and in smooth air like this you can steer the aircraft in the cruise entirely with gentle rudder inputs, leaving your hands completely free. It doesn't work in rougher air though, which is a shame.

Turning Right Base for 06 I suddenly realise there are huge trees pretty close to the threshold and.... it's basically a single track road. Pull all the flaps, come back to 60Kts, motor it in over the trees and cut the throttle as the wheels feel as though they are brushing the treetops, and we're on with a bit of a squeak from the tyres and a slightly overzealous application of the brakes, but there's really no need because we're stopped in 300m or so. I am a bit out of practice with short field small runways but this was fine.

I'll park up on the grass by the hangar and watch a Diamond in from, coincidentally, Oxford landing on R13 which is a bit longer and, it has to be said, more in to wind.

There's a Tecnam warming up on the apron so we can liaise re runways but I'll depart R05 hard; the C182 with 1 person is a short field demon and we're climbing out over the services with the M4 as an emergency under-1000ft EFATO option.

The air is now getting a bit thermally so I can't steer reliably on rudder alone, but it's not far to Frome where I can turn South and pick up a LARS from Yeovilton, then switch to Henstridge Radio who suggest we join overhead for R06 right hand circuit. This all goes OK until short final when I realise I am not as close to the boundary fence as I should be and by the time I'm in the flare the remaining runway is beginning to look a trifle short. I can get it down but can I get it stopped? No.

I haven't done a go around for a while, but discretion is the better part of valour so power on, call "going round" and climb out. Lose the flaps and plan a second attempt.

This time I'll give it all the flaps, get the speed back to 60Kts only a couple of feet over the boundary fence, bang it on the numbers and it's all terribly easy when you do it properly. No reason to become a cautionary tale today, thank you.

The airfield is deserted, the Tower has gone off air and the café is open, but deserted. Huh? Is this the Marie Celeste of the airfield world?

There is no one there to pay the landing fee to so I'll grab a coke, leave an IOU for both (much to the amusement of Geoff, who owns the airfield and lets me off both), then taxy over to the North side to see if I can find anyone.

I am planning to move down to this neck of the woods in the next few months so I'm looking for a share or an aircraft to fly. I find Nora who is trying to find a hangar slot for her microlite, Mike who has a PA28 in a thousand pieces and Clive who has a hangar full of some very old and interesting pieces of aviation including several Tiger Moths. A hangar full of Yaks, a Pitts Special and a C172 plus a spiffiing new AvGas pump are in evidence: this is a proper airfield run by proper pilots. This may be a good place to fly from: it's massively relaxed with some lovely hangars, and a real sense of aviation community. I may get very lazy on the radio, though.....

Firing up the beast once more we'll head down the taxiway which doubles as the access road. I haven't had to avoid cars and vans whilst taxying before, this is a new one on me. The C182 makes short work of this runway and we're off.

The thermals have by now really got up and at 2,500ft it's actually not that pleasant. I'd climb higher but it's just not that far home and I like bumbling along where I can see the hills and the scenery.

Being thermally there are loads of gliders about, only some of which turn up on my EC box so we've got to be on the ball here. Some are over central Oxford which strikes me as a bit dodgy but it's a free country and Class G airspace, I must avoid them.

Oxford Tower clears me to "land only due wake turbulence" behind a departing jet. That's one I haven't had before: one of the things I love about aviation is that there's always something new to experience.

Bolt Head 29 Apr 22

I have long planned to go to Salcombe/Bolt Head, which sounds like a lovely little strip down in deepest Devon, right on the end of the Salcombe Peninsula. Once upon a time (I suspect a very long time ago) it was RAF Bolt Head but has not been left to die like so many unfortunate old airstrips. 600m of quite narrow but extremely well-maintained grass should present no problem to a C182.

Ann and I agree that I will fly the outbound leg while she does the radio as I have flown more recently (she's been away for a while in sunnier climes) then she will fly back. I also want to take some aerial shots of our new house on the way down, so she'll do the radio and fly the aircraft from the right seat while I take some photos.

There is an old saying "Leave your Ego in the hangar" (there are many aviation sayings and some of them are even true), I try very hard to live up to this, so when Ann tells me I have forgotten to turn any of the lights on just before we line up for the runway, this is "excellent advice" as opposed to "interfering". There is no place for an exaggerated command mentality in the cockpit, two pilots in the cockpit are always better than one and later in the flight when Ann can't see the airfield on the approach we do the same thing in reverse. It's an interesting exercise in crew cooperation.

Our check list says "Lean on taxy" which saves fuel and is better for the engine, but carries with it the risk of taking off with a partially lean mixture and thus reduced power and increased temperatures. Having done this once: in the excitement of finally getting cleared for take off and SPLAT-checking it's easy to forget the mixture so now I keep my hand on the mixture when leaned, so I have to push the mixture in before I remove my hand. One more little prevention method.....

The weather is broken at 2000ft and not forecast to worsen, so we'll head South West, avoiding Stephen Spielberg's filming at Abingdon and climbing in to smoother air on top at 3,500ft, swapping to London Info and cruising in the blue sky. It's very beautiful up here, this is the reason we go flying.

At 135Kts we're soon in deepest Dorset and I get Ann to descend to 1,000ft for aerial shots of this gorgeous Dorset village. The workmen are busy having a coffee break as we swing round for a couple of orbits and climb out to the South West, not taking the direct route over the sea as all the ranges are Live, it being Friday. I've no great desire to be a tank target today.

As we climb out we see a PA28 above us and on a similar course. We ease over to pass well to the left of him and cruise past: he is 20Kts slower than us. One more reason to buy a C182!

Soon Salcombe passes beneath us and we can descend. Bolt Head imposes a strict "no fly" zone North of the airfield due, I am sure, to local noise complaints so we will ease in at a high level then descend in the overhead sharp-ish for a right hand circuit for runway 11 over the sea. As it is quite a hazy day turning over the sea loses all horizon, it's easy to become disoriented without an AH. Extending reasonably far downwind so I can get the approach just right we turn Final, drop all the flaps and slow for 65Kts. Coming in over the clifs we get a bit of burble but on the whole this is smooth and I'm determined not to repeat my Henstridge cock-up. I'll go round if necessary but I'd prefer to get it just right and land. 60Kts over the threhsold and make sure we are absolutely, positively sure it's the runway, not the crops next door and a gentle flare has us on the runway and stopped in 300m or so. OK, so I can get it right when I concentrate.

I am painfully aware that the C182 is a better aircraft than I am a pilot and even after 350 hours on type and having explored all (!) the edges of its performance envelope I'm aware that somewhere (maybe even in my future) is a South African who will laugh when I tell him a short field landing in a C182 is 300m and will show me how to ride the raggedy edge of the stall to a 100m full stop landing. But it's good enough for today and £20 in the Honesty Box later we're off for a cold drink and a bag of crisps in the farm next door.

I really like Bolt Head - it's clean, organised and friendly. There is very little faff, very little 4G either but they have WiFi for the pilots and extensive briefing notes in the unmanned "C" hut, covering everything from noise abatement to the local cafés.

We meet Chris who is starting up his Luscombe, having extracted it from the immaculate hangar. The Luscombe looks basic and underpowered, but I suppose you fly what you want to fly and everyone thinks their aircraft is the best. He takes off while we are having our drink and it looks like it is very reluctant to climb out. As most of the climb out is over water I'd be worried but I suppose if the engine coughs you just turn left and you're in Salcombe Harbour, where there are plenty of boats around to pick you up.......

We'll swap for the return journey: Ann will fly and I'll do the radio. A snappy short field take off and we climb out well away from the noise-sensitive areas, swap to Exeter Radar (who seem to have two entirely separate Radar frequencies) and climb up over the broken clouds for a smoother ride.

As we head North East the clouds start to join up: once upon a time I would have panicked at the thought of not being able to find a hole to get back down again, but Ann and I both have IR(R)'s and if necessary can shoot the NDB DME approach to Oxford so our stress levels are very low indeed. By the time we have swapped to Oxford radar we are VMC on top of a solid layer in the sunshine at 5,500ft knowing it's cruddy down there and not really wanting to go back down.

We request a Traffice Service for a cloud break and drop in to the murk, coming clear at 3,500ft but retaining the Traffic Service as it's murky. We've got the NDB DME approach loaded on the 430W just in case, and then the nice lady offers us a visual recovery via a straight in approach through the Brize Zone: effectively the NDB DME approach in all but name. So we just fly the approach even though we are actually visual which saves a lot of messing about. It's really gloomy down here.

Ann pops it neatly on 01 and we taxy in. How else would we have made it to Devon and back in a morning, and had a rest in the sun by the sea?

Fenland - Leicester 12 May 22

We've booked out by e-mail with Ops and they have confirmed the aircraft will be ready, but here we are, on time, and..... no aircraft.

We hunt high and low: in the hangar, on both sides, on the main apron. Has someone else in our group taken it?

A short trip to Ops resolves the issue: they have forgotten to get it out and fuel it.

Being in no great hurry as it happens, it's rather nice to be ferried about in the executive van to the hangar where the plane is via the brand new swanky business jet hangar with the HondaJet pilot who is very friendly and complementary about the C182.

Oxford now apparently has a Spitifre, and certainly has a number of Chipmunks. I'd guess they use them for training potential Sptifire pilots?

Amazingly, we get going only 30 mins delayed and are soon heading North towards Fenlands, climbing above the clouds where it is smoother, although the climb is limited by the Airway running up here so occasionally we whip through the tops of the clouds.

You don't have to go very far North East of Oxford before the East of England flatlands commence, and with the exception of the shallow depression that is the North Sea this goes as far East as the Urals, becoming Holland and then the North German Plain. By the time The Wash appears on the horizon there are drainage ditches everywhere and nothing above 300ft above the sea but mobile phone masts.

An IMC descent is possible through this accumulating layer of cloud but here's a nice hole, it's time to experiment with sideslipping for extra descent rate... whoa, that's off the clock. It is a very effective tool and soon the bumpy beneath the clouds half-light we all live in most of the time re-asserts itself.

Strangely, and I've noticed this before on other aircraft, sideslipping generates a smell of AvGas in the cockpit that rapidly dissipates once balanced flight resumes, but it would be interesting to know why this happens?

Fenland is, apparently, really hard to find but with my well known infallible ability to spot airfields from hundreds of miles away I can see it right there, so can report Downwind for R26 with smug confidence..... but hang on, that's not a runway - it's a drainage ditch.

And that one's not a runway either, that's a road.

And that runway has telegraph poles along it, no that can't be right.

Where on earth is it?

I suspect without GPS and the parked aircraft by the tower it would actually be impossible to find.

Runway 26 is short, bumpy grass so we'll pull full flap turning Final, slow the aircraft right down to 60Kts and ride the thermals and bumps down to the threshold, flare, bumpety bumpety bump bump, hold the yoke back for some aerodynamic braking and to keep the prop up up out of the grass, squeeze the brakes and we're stopped in 300m. Not bad.

Backtrack, then taxy in for a can of Coke and some crisps. Whilst really bumpy, this is a great little strip, very friendly.

The plan today was to go on to Sleap near Shawbury, but things have conspired to delay us and we have to be back by 1:30pm so instead we will go to Leicester, just 30 minutes away.

As this is a short, bumpy strip let's try a soft field take off. Taxy right up to the fence so the tail is over the blackberries, hold it on the brakes, yoke full back, full throttle and release the brakes. With only one up the nose immediately rises and it feels like I'm over-rotating, within a second the stall warner comes on and the aircraft tries to take off. I cant quite believe it's trying to fly, we're barely moving but we do have a headwind so we'll push hard forwards and.... by gum, we're off the ground, the stall warner has shut up and whilst we're not climbing much yet we're above the tree line.

The ASI comes alive at 52Kts and suddenly we're doing the normal short-field "pointing at the ground but climbing like crazy" job. Wow.....

Switch to Waddington Zone which is for some reason not on my SkyDemon plog, for a Basic Service and bounce along in the thermals below the clouds before joining for runway 28 at Leicester, a nice long bit of well-maintained tarmac. Drinking a Coke I can watch a Cessna 150 being landed... and landed... and landed... I remember circuits only too well.

Runway 28 is using a right hand circuit today so we'll take off in to the circuit and climb above it before passing overhead and to the South, watching a PC12 on Final below.

There are many gliders out today so we'll need to keep a really good watch out. There's one on the SkyEcho, he's..... here he is, just above and to the left, diving towards us then away to the West. Good Electronic Conspicuity, but I don't believe for a moment that's the only glider out there. I know he would come off worse in a collision but that's not the point.

Leicester back to Oxford runs straight down the instrument approach for runway 19 so once near Hinton we will bear off to the right to allow any IFR traffic to run down the approach but as we near 6 miles they suggest we just do a normal approach but keep the speed up as they have instrument traffic behind, so we'll keep 140 Knots all the way down to short final then dump the throttle, pop the flaps and land long for a short taxy. This takes a little doing, and we will be landing in full view of a business jet crew who are waiting for us to land before they can take off.

Better not make a complete mess of it, then....

In the event it all works out OK and we vacate pretty quickly for a swap to Ground and a taxy in. Grab some numbers, leap out of the aircraft and I'm home two minutes before lunch: perfect.

Sherburn-in-Elmet - Sleap - Caernarfon 19 May 22

This morning the plan was to go to Midden Zealand in Holland for lunch but the plan did not get beyond the weather-check phase as last night's small but violent thunderstorms and heavy rain have drifted out over the North Sea towards Holland and Belgium and by the time we get there will not have cleared away from Midden Zealand.

So we will do some collaborative flights around the UK instead, the C182 is a great tool for really going places and today we will prove that.

I will fly and Ann will do the radio, then we will swap. We will let SkyDemon do all the Nav and watching out for opposing traffic. It's now a beautiful day in May with those lovely fluffy clouds I like to play with - we'll get on top at 4,200ft and fly around their tops as we track North East.

Avoiding various paragliding and parachuting sites along the way we near Scunthorpe, our turning point for Shirburn-in-Elmet and decide to try our luck with Doncaster Inter-Galactic for a Zone Transit.

Amazingly, we are now considered important enough for a Zone Transit.I have a suspicion that COVID may have trimmed their ambitions a little.....

My exercise for this morning is, without using the autopilot, to fly straight and level through their zone without hesitation, deviation or repetition.... no hang on, that's not right, but let's see if we can keep the height within the accepted Altimeter error of 50ft.

Ah, very satisfying. I love the autopilot but maintaining hand-flying skills is important.

They release us to Shirburn who would like us to make a Standard Overhead Join for runway 24, Mr Cholmondeley-Warner.

OK, it's been a while.....

Over the landing numbers at 2,000ft, descend dead Side and back over the take-off numbers at 1,000ft, call Overhead and then Downwind in a busy circuit, then Final for the grass strip. Whilst this is not a short runway I think I'll use full flaps.

On short Final come right back to 65Kts then 60Kts over the threshold and we're down smoothly and short, keep the speed up and exit at the end, then round to the swish café and flight school for a Coke and crisps.

Nearly a disaster here, as we start up then can't get the avionics to come on. Not even the emergency avionics switch works, there must be something very major wrong.

Yes, there is... Ann has turned the Master switch off following start.

This is an American aircraft, "On" is up, not down.

Power restored, we taxy out and roll on 24 then climb straight ahead South West. It's getting bumpy as the thermals start to gain energy. Soon the gritty industrial conurbations of Pontefract, Barnsley and Sheffield give way to the Penines and Chatsworth House.

From 3,500ft these hills don't look like much, but I've climbed them and they don't look so unthreatening from down there...

These are the less-craggy version of the hills South of Edinburgh and they soon flatten out as we approach the Shawbury combined MATZ and request a Transit.

Worryingly Shawbury are not getting a height reading out of our transponder. We reset it and try again, and it does come back but I think there may be an issue with it.

Sleap is on the other side within the MATZ and we will need to descend within the MATZ but it's just there to ensure we don't hit the helicopters and as there appear to be no helicopters flying today we can cruise through unopposed. I've done RAF Camp at Shawbury and I've been in all those hangars including the one with the poor TSR2 with the flat nosewheel tyre.....

Interestingly, Shawbury and Ternhill are easy to find but Sleap defies us until the last moment. How we ever found these airfields without GPS I'll never know....

Ann flies us a neat circuit and tidy landing, I wish my landings were as good...

Lunch will be on a half hour delay (I'm not convinced that is very well organised), so we opt for cold drinks and a Twix. We have Wales yet to conquer.

As Ann finishes her domestic duties I reckon it's time for a windscreen clean: we seem to have collected most of Southern England's fly collection.

Well-equipped as ever, there is bug spray and water in the boot and before long we can actually see out of the front....

My leg, I think, but before we taxy we wait for a lovely old gent with sticks who walks from his parked aircraft across in front of us to the Tower, painfully slowly.

We can wait for him to pass before we fire up, for we all know we will be him one day.

A swift taxy and departure then turn for Wales. Our SkyDemon now tells us we are in a nest of helicopters, but the staggering thing is we don't see a single one of them, even knowing where to look. Amazing.

The ground rises as we head West in to Wales and a little gentle rotor off the highest peaks bounces us around before we arrive at the biggest one: Snowdon.

In an aircraft it's easy to out-climb these peaks but they are serious lumps of rock to climb. Abruptly we are over the highest via a little fluffy cloud, and easing down towards Caernarfon, a powered descent has us at 148Kts for a straight in for runway 25 over the static caravan park.

As we are so fast and so high a little extra assistance is needed, so a good dollop of sideslip sloughs off much of the excess height.

As always I feel like I'm brushing the static caravan roofs as we hit short final then we're over the fence and down, backtracking and parked.

The restaurant is closed (staffing issues, apparently) but there are drinks and biscuits in the control tower.

Ann takes the last leg and we draw a straight 1hr 10 min line back to Oxford.

Climbing out over the water and that amazing beach she does a nice, gentle, climbing turn up over Porthmadoc and over the hills.

Amazingly, London Info has us all the way back to Worcester (I think they've upgraded their coverage recently) where we swap back to Oxford Radar for a right base visual join for 19. We both play "spot the airfield" from 20 miles out...

Ann and I have so enjoyed dotting around the countryside and actually covering some ground, as opposed to just going somewhere and then coming home again.

And I have enjoyed flying with someone who has different skills to me.

Ann's radio is more hesitant than mine, and she struggles aligning the mental picture of herself and the approaching airfield, but her checks are more accurate than mine and her landings more consistent.

Every pilot is different, and we all have our strengths and weaknesses. We all need to acknowledge them and concentrate on strengthening our weaknesses, quite a simple allegory for Life I suppose....

Charlbury 29 Jun 22

I have been invited for lunch at a local stately home by the owner, who builds aircraft and has a strip. Before I retired I looked after the entire Estate's IT systems and we have bonded over our common interest in aviation.

I take strip flying very seriously indeed: these can be dangerous. The CAA publish a Strip Sense leaflet and it's worth a read. So I have assessed the strip from the ground and from the air and the main issue I can see is that there is a row of trees on the threshold of the strip at the North end with a gap you're meant to fly through to land. I am concerned that passing through that gap could, if there is a local crosswind, push me sideways in to the trees as I pass through.

Do I plan the approach not to descend below the tops of the trees until I am past the gap?

No, there is not enough length available to safely land. My perpetual paranoia about running off the end of the runway will not allow me to even try it.

So I am committed to descending through the gap but any sideways motion and I will abandon the approach.

The strip is dry and level, 680m so not too short but I'll use full flap, half fuel and one-up, and if I'm not down and slowing by half way down I'll open up and do it again.

Ops have managed to forget to get the aircraft out.... again. And there are 3 planes in front to be moved. Despite giving myself loads of time, I am now very late, which is where a rushed pre-flight contributes to becoming a cautionary tale in an avaiation magazine: "the pilot elected not to check the fuel state and at 400ft the engine cut...". So I am just going to be late, but at least I'll get there.

And of course there's a massive queue at the R19 Hold to depart, which doesn't help but finally we're away, a right turn outbound and climb to all of 1,500ft for the short transit, tell Oxford Radar I'm descending in to the private strip, and concentrate......

There's the strip, there's a wood in front, the wind is 15Kts straight down the runway. Full flap, trim for 65Kts and aim for the threshold. A mile out we get some serious sink off the big wood, then a bit of rotor off the buildings, then it smooths out as we come back to 60Kts, drop in to the gap, over the electric fence at 10ft or so, flare and...... we're down, gentle brakes and we're stopped in about half the runway length.

What was I so worried about?

Following a decent lunch and a tour of the excellent facilities including the home-built RNAV approach he can fly on his autopilot to 400ft AGL we're back at the plane: check the oil, start up, power check against the back fence, drop the flaps for a short-field job and roll.

Bit of rotor off the farm buildings as we exit ground effect and we're established in the climb, pop up on Oxford's radar and are invited to rejoin right base for 19, depart at Foxtrot and back to the hangar.

Short but very sweet.

Compton Abbas - Henstridge 6 Aug 22

Ann and I are off for what may well be one of my last flights in Whisky Lima. I am moving to Dorset soon and have given Notice of my intention to leave the syndicate.

But before I fade gracefully in to the sunset I need to find some South West aviation action while I decide what proportion of my time will be spent in Dorset and what proportion in Spain (which is another story entirely).

Ann will fly us down, so we arrive at the hangar at the allotted time on a "perfect aviation" summers Saturday and..... the aircraft is out and fuelled! Impressive stuff, we're even booked out with the Tower. The system works. But where is everyone? All the aircraft are there but nobody has gone out. Sometimes on the crappiest days the skies are crammed but today is a day made for aviation and the ramp is full of based aircraft but no visitors. Weird.

At the R01 Hold, following a a Canadian parachute team headed for the Wilderness Festival, we are held for a Spitfire landing; something you don't see every day. I'll bet they don't have much of a demonstrated crosswind limit...

Ann flies us flawlessly down to Compton Abbas but long after I've spotted it and planned my Overhead Join she still can't see it, and I end up helping her round the descent. It is not as I would have flown it, we are too tight on the Downwind leg and she arrives on Final for R08 too high and over to the right. I would have gone round but to her credit she gets it down OK. Compton Abbas is the original bumpy runway and the first 200 yards are downhill so unless your wheels are down on the threshold you'll float. There's a stiff NE crosswind and of course you always drift in the flare. Would I have done it better? Possibly not.

Lunch is great and the pilots lounge is surprisingly quiet: they have added a huge non-flying visitors outside area with its own barbeque and that is packed. As I've always said, Compton Abbas is an airfield that has got it sussed.

So after a discussion about their Warrior (for hire, just need a checkout) we swap for the next leg and I'll taxy up to the threshold, point the tail at the un-mown grass at the end for power checks, then take the runway and roll short-field.

I've concluded the best strategy with these bumpy runways is to keep the yoke firmly forward so the bumps don't throw you in to the air, then rotate only once you're ready, not the bumps. Climbing out I decide having the P1 side window open is maybe too much air even for me so try to shut it. It's surprisingly dificult to shut it and retain control of the aircraft so Ann takes it and I can concentrate fully on the task.

Compton Abbas to Henstridge is 8 minutes - you can, if you know where to look, see one from the other.

Blind calls are the order of the day, Runway 06 is in use so join right hand downwind and this time let's see if I can make a decent job of it. Last time I had to go round. But I'm still too high and too fast over that last fence for comfort, she floats and we're not down until half way down the runway. It's OK, we actually do stop outside the café, turn and backtrack for grass parking, but I just don't seem to be able to do here relialy what I know myself and the C182 can do. I think I need to spend a morning doing circuits here, possibly with an instructor.

Landing fees here are zero! It's a hot day so we need drinks and ice creams, though. And I finally get to meet Geoff, who I'm hoping will find me something to fly here.

Isle of Flight microlites are here in force, over from Sandown for a day out. Something else to try, I think. Mission accomplished, let's go and have a look at our new house. Backtrack the runway, short field take off and we're off before the café and headed South. Our house is 5 minutes South and tucked away in a valley, but we are amazingly close to Poole Harbour, at 500ft you can see it easily. We could go back that way but I'm worried that poor Basil will be crossing his legs by the time we do get home and let him out, so we turn North instead, climb to 4,000ft to escape the worst of the thermals and slip in to the cruise.

One of the VOR aerials on the tail has come off. It will be replaced soon but I'm interested to know if we can still operate the VOR and also whether we can both do a simulated GPS failure position fix. Tune NAV2 to Compton, wait until the Nav flag disappears then twiddle the dial. 070TO or 255FROM centres the needle, so out with the real, paper (current!) map and the IMC protractor puts us on that line there. Switch the DME to NAV2, we have 32 miles, so ensuring the protractor is the right way round we can tell we are 2 miles East of Keevil, which is exactly where the GPS says we are. A useful exercise in a noisy, hot, bumpy aircraft; very different to doing it in a quiet classroom with a table and a friendly instructor. You get it wrong there and you embarrass yourself; out here you fly in to a Posted Danger Zone which is apparently Active today with Live firing to 56,000ft (or so say London Info). Aviation is a funny old business: very intense even in the cruise, and it is very easy to cross an arbitrary line (as we shall see).

Swap back to Oxford near Swindon; they have instrument traffic headed for the NDB DME approach so ask us to stay low. We'll stay visual today, despite the temptation to simply follow the traffic on to the NDB DME approach.

Swap to Tower over Oxford, get distracted by a helicopter operating over Kidlington and the aforementioned DA40 on the NDB DME approach and end up turning Final at 1,000ft. Hmmm, this is very high. Glide approach job, let's see if we can just land long and make it look like we meant to do it that way.... Misjudge the flare a bit as the vertical speed by this point is quite high, shed the excess energy, keep pulling even as the stall warner goes off, and... plop, we're down with very little forward speed. Could have been better. That will teach me not to fly for 6 weeks!

Put the aircraft to bed and it's not until we do the plog numbers later do we realise that the aircraft has been overdue for its 50 hour service and thus technically unserviceable since Compton Abbas. An easy mistake to make, but presumably we were uninsured for that period. Yuk.

And that's the last time I fly G-POWL P1.
I sell my share to Ann and walk away to fresh pastures......
But we're not quite finished with G-POWL

Aberdeen 5 Sep 23

We're off in the C182 again for another Big Adventure, and having decided eventually against Donegal (didn't float our boats), Campbeltown (nowhere to eat and a boring trip) and Stavanger (long, boring over-water bit) we decide on Aberdeen.

"Too Expensive, Mandatory Handling" is the conventional GA wisdom, but actually Signature are very accommodating and not stupidly expensive, the oil field traffic of the 80s and 90s has receeded so they are not as busy as they used to be.

We plot a course up-country via a route I haven't done before, taking us over the North Yorkshire moors and threading our way between the various MoD ranges before crossing Hadrian's Wall and emerging South East of Edinburgh where the land drops off remarkably quickly in to the lowlands and then the Firth of Forth.

The autopilot and 430W Nav work flawlessly and it's amazing how much ground you can cover relative to driving.

The Firth of Forth has some lovely low-level cloud formations as we pass to Leuchars, over Kingsmuir (an absolute sod to find from the air), past Dundee and I thought Aberdeen was a long way up this coast but it's only 15 minutes or so beyond Dundee.

Aberdeen Approach keeps us offshore and drops us down to 1000ft. I have the VRP approach diagram printed out on my lap but even with this I am stuggling to identify the features. It turns out there are two rivers emerging at Aberdeen, two harbours and two bridges. They make us orbit over one of the harbours then turn in at the second one.

Ann's lack of spatial awareness means we are back to "steer 270 and keep going till I tell you to turn right", we can't see the runway until long after I would have thought we could but suddenly there it is, we're Right Base for 34, then we turn Final and despite it being gusty as hell Ann still does a Bloody good landing. How does she do it?

We taxy in for an aircraft refuel and they take us to a really nice little reestaurant by the train station for our personal refeuelling as the Fish and Chip shop is shut.

For the return journey we're going to go via VRPs so we can't program the route in to the 430W. It's Skydemon or bust.

They're now on runway 16 so we enter and backtrack for what feels like ages, turn and we're off before we've reached our original entry point. I would have just rolled from our entry point but I'm not P1 today so I'll keep my mouth shut.

We need to turn right to make the VFR Exit corridor which goes fine, but then we need to turn left to maintain it and despite my repeated requests Ann just won't turn. I don't know where she thinks she's going but eventually the Tower asks us where we're going and I have to tell him through gritted teeth that my pilot just won't bloody well turn left. He's worried about us running in to his ILS corridor for R16 but at that moment Ann finally decides she should do what I've been telling her to do and drifts round leftwards. It's not exactly Decisive Action but we're not endangering the ILS corridor now; eventually I do get her back on course and we're spit out in to the Open FIR Westwards.

Now at this point it needs to be stated that we are on Aberdeen's QNH - we have copied it down, programmed it in to our 2 altimeters: one G5 and my standby P2 steam gauge.
Also we have double-checked the available NOTAMs to ensure there are no sneaky "Royals in residence - R704 extended to 5,000ft" or similar.

We want to see Balmoral. There is a Restricted ARea R704 with limits SFC-3500 so to ensure we are well above it we fly at 4,000ft. It appears in a wooded valley, we circle once and depart West, job done.

A few minutes later the ever-helpful Scottish Info say they've received a complaint that someone has busted R704. This could be serious trouble. We tell them we were over R704 but very carefully at 4,000ft on Aberdeen's QNH 1022.

"Ah" they say "the Regional QNH is lower than that at 1019 and that's what you should have been using".

The QNH rule "High to low, down you go" has us worried so we wind our altimeters down by (27 x 3) feet but this puts us at 3900ft, a good 400ft above the top of R704. We're OK, but just as well we didn't fly at 3500 plus a bit....

After a bit of to'ing and fro'ing with them we can state that we have SkyDemon logs showing our height. Then they give us a number to call after the flight, which normally means you're in a lot of trouble...

Meanwhile, we head South East and soon the Highlands become the Lowlands North of Glasgow. It's amazing that this land that was fought over only a few hundred years ago can be so easily accessed and passed by air travel. Within a few minutes we are over the Clyde and turning at Greenock, what used to called "Silicon Glen" back in the 80s and 90s until the tech bust of the early 2000s all but killed it.

South now, over the Firth of Clyde and we can see Campbeltown in the distance and beyond that the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland. The weather is perfect with excellent visibility and we can see Prestwick on the coast. Turning to cross Dumfries and Galloway the land is lower and less remarkable

Scottish Info 's area of responsibility in fact stretches all the way down to the Lake District so they don't pass us to London Info until we coast in at Workington. In a previous life I installed broadband to all the fire stations in Cumbria, so I know these remote areas on the coast of Cumbria are shockingly backwards and deprived.

Scottish pass us to Warton but the background interference makes it impossible to communicate so we swap to London and ask them to tell Warton we're safe and with them. London Info (and Scottish Info) really do provide an excellent service.

The hills of the Lake District loom and we pass by Windermere and Coniston before needing to make a decision about the route home.

We can either do a low-level pass of the Blackpool Tpwer then do the Liverpool-Manchester Low Level VFR route (which I think is dangerous) and then back via Shawbury, or head for the Penines behind Manchester where there is a small gap between the CTZ's of Manchester and Leeds around Huddersfield.

Given that we're all getting tired we decide the Huddersfield gap is the least stressful so head up in to the moors where every valley seems to have been dammed for Manchester's water supply.
Over the M62 and it's a straight run past Birmingham and Coventry, turn the corner and pick up Oxford's ATIS at 30 miles. We thank London, swap to Oxford expecting huge quantities of traffic but they're really quiet so we ask for a straight in for 19.

We're just to the right of the ILS localiser but as we close Ann proceeds to perform a perfect ILS approach, needles crossed to Minimums and she drops it on neatly after a 4 hour flight. We've seen a lot today.

After shutting down and the inevitable loo stop we call Scottish Info's number and they say that no action will be taken, which is a huge relief. We didn't actually do anything wrong, but it does raise a few interesting questions:

- Who was ultimately responsible had we infringed: myself or Ann? She was P1 so presumably her but I was doing the Nav and I'm a licenced pilot so maybe me?
- What is the correct height reference you should use when perusing Danger Areas on the map? I've always assumed QNH but would that be Aberdeen's QNH or the Regional QNH?

- Who made the complaint? It's very hard to judge the height of an aircraft from the ground and they got it wrong so it must have been a civilian..... Charles is an ex-pilot so I doubt it was him. My conclusion is that it was either Camilla or the Security guys at Balmoral. Either way: a bit scary.