17th October quickie

Ok. So again, there’s this huge gap between lessons. Not quite 13 years, but it still feels like ages. I have to say. It wasn’t entirely my own fault this time. I’ve been bumped three weekends in a row, as due to work commitments, Sundays is the only real day where I can guarantee being able to turn up. First lesson was blown out a couple of hours before I was due to fly because my instructor caught covid. I booked in for the following Sunday, and there wasn’t an instructor free. And I booked in the following Sunday, and it rained, and when it rains at Bodmin the cloud is in contact with the ground. There’s no flying at all. So, when I got the rain-soaked phone call, my better other half booked me in for the next day and told me she’d do my share of the workload. It’s moments like that that makes me realise why I love her so much.

So Monday dawned, full of sunshine and promise. I worked as fast as I could to get as much done as possible before I was due to fly at 14:00. She dropped me off at the airfield and I went and found my new instructor. I think I’ve had an hour now with pretty much all of the instructors at Bodmin. It’s always a bit nerve wracking to go with someone new, as each person is unique with their own foibles. He asked me what I wanted to do today, and I explained that because this is the runup to Christmas, it’s our busiest time of the year and this could well be my last flight of the year. Even though I know what I need to do is hit the circuit in earnest, I’d prefer to just have a poodle round and maybe just do a bit of actual training along the way in the way of some slow flight and what not. He suggested that we do a few circuits at the end and just play it by ear. I agreed so went off to pre-flight the Vans RV12.

Our flight path taking in Coliford lake on the way back

Runway 21 was in use today which is the shortest runway at just over 400 meters. We took off after doing all the pre-flight stuff and headed towards Liskeard and took a slow turn round the transmitter at Caradon. As we headed north we did some slow flight and played with the flaps while maintaining height. As we turned back towards Bodmin, I said that I really wanted to fly overhead Colliford lake as we’d been there a couple of months ago and it was really low and the last report I’d seen said it was down to less than 25% capacity. It was quiet disconcerting to see it from the air like that. As we approached it, where there should have been a lake full of water, all there was were a bunch of disjointed puddles. The whole lake was really low. I pointed out to my instructor where my other half and myself had been walking when we’d been there. We’d walked down a cobbled road that had been submerged since the lake had been filled back in 1984 and you could clearly see it from where we were. He seemed slightly taken back when he spotted it.

Some dodgy circuit work!

We arrived back at Bodmin, saw that other RV12 doing circuits and turned to the ‘dead side’ to lose height and enter the circuit over the end of 03. Except that there was another RV12, so our crosswind leg was done to slot us in nicely behind him on downwind. Unfortunately he was doing flapless approaches so extended his downwind leg which meant we had to do the same to keep separation. None of this is a problem. However, when I turned to final, the sun was directly in front of us and it become instantly apparent that the canopy glass was not clean in the slightest. I could only just make out the runway! This resulted in arriving far to quickly, ballooning horribly on the short runway and doing a go around. It’s all good practice, but I was kicking myself! Because of the go around, we’d gained on the other aircraft in the circuit and my instructor considered doing an orbit. I on the other hand resorted to slowing the aircraft down and just holding the height all the way along the downwind leg, putting a nice bit of distance between the two of us. Again, coming in on final the runway all but disapeared from view, but this time I kept on top of the speed a little bit better. We landed fine, except we departed the rather narrow grass runway and were just belting across the field. Not a great look for my new instructor! The third, and last landing was perfect. And I felt somewhat redeemed. It was gentle, down the center line and perfectly on speed all the way down. Some of that was due to the fact I’d found a bit of the canopy that was see through and the rest was down to the fact that the sun had a few clouds obscuring it a little. Not one of my better lessons, and I said as much to him.

South coast PFL’s

So, today should have been all about touch and goes. But, it was such a lovely day, with nothing to impede visibility, so it wasn’t hard to be talked into a sight seeing trip down the south coast for a bit of general handling followed by a few touch and goes. And I gotta say, the view over St. Austell bay was stunning. I left the phone this time too, which was a tad annoying, as I actually gave control to my instructor for a few minutes so he could “wag the wings” at his family down on the beach at Polkerris. After flying round the land mark near Fowey, we headed towards Polraun to do some nice slow flight and turns before heading back towards Bodmin for those touch and goes.

On the way we had a low oil pressure warning (practice!) followed by the engine drastically reducing its power (He pulled the throttle right back to idle). I scanned a bunch of likely looking fields, and selected one. As we turned at about 350 foot, we knew we’d make it in one piece so added full power and gained some altitude and headed northwards for Bodmin.

I made a terrible radio call to Bodmin radio on our return, but descended deadside and managed to redeem myself somewhat with my downwind and finals calls. However, this aircraft is a slippery beast, and I’m not getting her set up quickly or early enough so all my landing were at least a little high on approach and a little fast resulting in floating down the runway. My first landing attempt, I ballooned but managed not to stick the nose down and did an alright job. Getting airborne again, and going around I was way too late getting the speed down, and I was high in the circuit. The RV12 climbs like a bugger and just gets above circuit height in what feels like the blink of an eye. The second touch and go was a little fast and high but better. There was no ballooning. The third landing I was high and fast and not going to happen. I realised half way through final that we were never going to get down! Way too high turning final. I went around. The next one was better and much closer to the numbers. The final one, we stayed at about 350 feet all the way round and did a full stop landing.

3 Touch and goes, 1 go around, 1 low level circuit

Next time out, it’s going to have to be more of the same. I’ll get these landings down. The flying bit’s easy. The navigation I can still do. My radio needs practice, but my landings are high and fast and I land up floating down the runway. It’ll come!

A Triangle of fun

So, it’s sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky, and I’ve got the urge to fly. Today I should be doing circuits, but going round and round landing over and over just doesn’t appeal, not with this lovely weather. I had a word with the instructor, and he agreed that we should do a bit of a cross country navigation exercise. Yay.

With that all sorted he suggested we head east, as its too easy heading west, what with all the coastline you really can’t get lost! He suggested Callington, and then changed his mind to Gunnislake, as that’s much more challenging to find. Then He suggested Davidstowe, and I said, “Oh, that’s nice and easy to find, so that got scrubbed and replaced with Boscastle. Both Gunnislake and Boscastle are hidden in valleys and you can’t see them until you’re almost directly over them. Next came the ruler, and the trusty CRP1. I measured off the distances, and did all the angles and popped the numbers on my flight plan. Next came working out drift due to wind and ground speed due to wind too. Now, I haven’t touched my trusty flight computer, a CRP1, in some 13 odd years. Its’s a circular slide rule on one side and a nifty spinney wheel on the other side for calculating wind speed. I looked at it blankly. After fumbling with the dratted thing for a few minutes it slowly started coming back to me, which was just as well, as my trusty instructor couldn’t remember how to use it either. Apparently, pilots these days use an app. Well, I like to be able to do things for myself for those occasions when there’s no WiFi or phone signal or the phone battery is just dead. I try not to rely on technology too much, as it can and does go wrong.

With all the numbers sorted out, ground speed worked out we headed off to the RV12 to get her pre-flight checked. This time I got to do the gurgle test on the oil since the engine was nice and cold.

Triangular Navigation Exercise route taken from FlightRadar24

With no further ado, we got airborne and set course for Gunnislake and it became clear that the wind dirrection we had used wasn’t the reality, but flying looking out the window I corrected our course over Pensilva using Callington as my ‘aim’ which got us right overhead Gunnislake for a leisurely turn over the old bridge which spans the river Tamar.

It was during the assent over the airfield that two things became instantly apparent. The first one was when keying the radio, you can’t hear your own voice which is terribly disconcerting as you immediately suspect you aren’t transmitting. And the second thing was that the touch screen on the glass panel had become non functional, so putting in the transponder code was way too convoluted. It’s just not designed to be used that one!

The route from Gunnislake to Boscastle was nice and easy, mostly because I’d worked out the difference between the real wind direction and what the figures we’d worked with on the ground. Flying VFR is all about looking out the window and not by just blindly following a heading on a gauge, and it’s exactly the kind of flying I love. We followed the coast briefly from Boscastle to Tintagel before heading back towards Bodmin. On the way back we did some ‘what if the engine runs roughly’ and ‘and then dies on you’ kind of questions, followed by a practice forced landing.

We flew a nice far out base leg to radio in to the airfield before doing a longer final approach. I fluffed the approach really, I came in a little high and a little fast so floated and landed long. But we got it in with lots of room to spare, although I did consider a go around, we settled before the mid point and the landing was rather gentle.

All that remained was to hanger the aircraft, pay the man and get a debrief on my Navigation. And my long landing. All is good though, as next time I hit the circuit in earnest!

Davidstowe to the left and Boscastle slightly to the right on the coast.

Knocking off the rust

This is only the second time up in the air in a long time, but this time with the chief flying instructor. Scary. He sent me off to pre-flight the Vans RV 12 by myself and once again I was left to wonder at how easy it was to do the pre-flight checks. No climbing up onto the high wings to dip tanks, just check the fuel gauge. No getting covered in aviation fuel checking the drains. And no sucking on the stall warner hoping there’s no bugs flown in there which you’re liable to inhale!

Without further ado, we jumped in and started her up and waited for the oil temperature to slowly creep up. For reference, its the one that’s yellow and sitting at 110°F. I’d personally like to display the temperatures in centigrade, as Fahrenheit makes no sense to me. While we’re waiting for the oil temperature to rise, its really important to keep the rev’s or Tachometer in that very narrow green band. Which means constantly adjusting the throttle as it creeps up all the time. While we’re here, I’d like to draw your attention to the two green dots marked SAFE and CLSD. The canopy being closed is fairly important, as you don’t really want it flying open. But it’s the one marked SAFE that’s really important. Under the green dot it says SPAR P. You see, the wings are held in by two spar pins to allow the wings to be removed so the aircraft can be put onto a trailer. The manufactures say it can be done in a few minutes. You want to make sure that the little green dot isn’t red!

Anyway, off we went and this time we went over the lakes at Colliford. We did a lot of slow flight and stall practice and then we did some 45° turns and some steep turns at 60°. This is where I discovered another difference between the Cessna 152 and the RV 12 and that’s rudder control. I’ve never really got the whole coordinated turn thing as it’s not obvious in the C152, certainly not unless you’re staring at the ball. However, it’s much more obvious in the RV 12 and a little rudder in the direction of the turn absolutely makes all the difference.

Steep turns and slow flight

We returned to the airfield just as the rain started to come in which was enough time for a couple of circuits, my first being a little on the large side.

Then came the paying and the debrief. Again, the CFI confirmed what I’d been told already. I should be good to go with five hours of training. Brilliant!

Finally!!

After what feels like forever, 13 years to be exact, I finally got myself back into the air. But instead of taking to the air in a trusty Cessna 152, I got to take a Vans RV 12 into the skies. And what a different beast she is. Low wing, bubble canopy and an all glass cockpit vs the C152’s high wing, struts and very aged looking steam gauges.

Ok, so my partner decided that I should get back into an aircraft as none of us are getting any younger. As it was yet another birthday in a long string of the things, she gifted me an hour at Bodmin to start on my journey to revalidate my license. We popped in to the tower and I had a lengthy chat about what my options were and decided that training in a permit to fly aircraft would be the cheaper option. And that’s how I ended up in a Vans RV 12. And loved every second of it. Old G-BNSM, the Cessna 152, was a sedate old girl, never in a hurry to truly gain altitude whereas the new aircraft is loads more frisky. She just climbs and climbs! With complete ease she gets to 4000 feet in absolutely no time at all with full fuel and two of us onboard. But I am getting ahead of myself.

So, before flying this new beast, we got to do the usual walk around it checking to see if anything had fallen off and make sure everything was as it should be. For starters, the fuel tank is behind the seats, and there’s a fuel gauge on top of it. This consists of a circular dial of which a quarter is red. You cannot take off if you don’t have at least a quarter of a tank as the fuel won’t be getting to the fuel pump, which actually seems pretty insane to me! You don’t “dip” the tank in the craft, but instead you rely on this gauge. Next up is the fact there’s no easy to get to fuel drain for checking the fuel to see if it’s contaminated with water. So we don’t check it. I’m not to sure how I feel about relying on a gauge for amount, they lie, and the not checking it for moisture either. But that’s how the aircraft does things and every aircraft is different.

There’s also the control surfaces to look at. As there’s no flaps as such, they’ve been incorporated into the ailerons as a single control surface called a flaperon, we check the hinges and what not. The elevator isn’t separate to the stabiliser either, being an all moving stabilator. The last real difference is the way this thing steers. The nose wheel is fully castering and you steer with the brakes on the two main wheels only. So all in all this makes for a fairly simple aircraft to look after as there’s less moving parts and less to go wrong.

Anyway, once we’re in the thing it takes a good ten minutes or so of engine runup to get the oil up to temperature before we can taxi up the field for our engine checks before take off from runway 13. Applying full power the rudder comes alive and you find you can keep the aircraft straight on the rudder easily. Taking off is fuss free and in no time at all she’s belting into the air. We headed off to the north coast where I proceeded to do some stalls and a practice forced landing before heading back to the field for a few touch and goes.

Our route

I felt that the circuits I did were pretty ok with the first one being a little wide as they’d bought the circuits a bit closer to the field since I was last here. When I got home and looked at the track I was actuarily quite pleased with myself.

Three circuits

So all that was left to do was to pay and have a debrief. Finding out how I did was interesting. He was fairly impressed with my handling and thought it would take about five hours or so to revalidate my license, which pleased me no end. So to next time!

Young Aviators Day at Bodmin

Glancing out the window this morning told me that we’d be good to go today! Brilliant! I had no idea, by the way, that today was "Young Aviators Day at Bodmin", in fact, it came as a bit os a suprise to see lots of bored/excited kids milling around the place. When I got to the control tower, the situation hadn’t improved either, with yet another group of expectant kids loitering therein. I swiftly booked out Fox Zulu, and escaped! Erin, the baby of my brood, was hot on my heals, and I let her sit in the plane briefly while I did a few checks. Everything looked ship shape, so with that, chocks away. With 35 liters in one tank and 20 liters in the other, we could avoid the kids for a goodly while. A good squirt of fuel, and Fox Zulu chugged her way back to life. We threaded our way throught he waiting aircraft, and made for the top of the field. A quick engine check, and we headed for 31. Phill was just about to land the clubs Robin so we got a great view of the Robin from the hold. Before we’d lined up, they we clear of the runweay, and we could go! The flat four had as bobbng down the grass strip and within a but a moment we were at the right speed to lift her off the deck. As we sped into the rather grey sky, I glanced down at 2 and a half miles of tailback on the A30, in each dirrection, and was instantly happy to be flying!

 

Within a very short space of time, we’d chatted to Newquay radar and got our selves a ‘Basic’ service. We got to Rock, and I let my boy have a go on the controls. We did some gently 30 degree turns in the only patch of blue sky for miles! After a couple of them, I figured we could do some VFR course following, and got him to follow the Camel back to bodmin. We crossed the A30 again, the broken backbone of Cornwall, and headed towards St. Austell bay. The whole flight had been limited to 1500 feet due to the cloud sitting not much higher, with the odd tendril sticking down a bit. . We got a bit of place spotting in, before heading back towards the airfield, via the Colliford lake side. All those scouts on the ground awaiting there turn, was causing me some worry, as I didn’t know how many would be in the circuit when I arrived back, hence coming in on the dead side! Desending to circuit hieght, I shed a few hundred feet, joined crosswind and went from there. I was a little lower in the circuit than I am normally, so cut in on final a bit. The landing wasn’t one of my best, as I came in slightly sideways. Didn’t quiet get the rudder in before landing!

 

Well, till the next time, take care!   

Weekend of local flights

Its been a pretty duff summer, as far as flyable weather has been concerned. But this weekend, I managed to get a few flights in, one with my boy Tom on sunday, and a couple on saturday with Chris & his daughter. Saturday had the usall low clouds scudding across cornwall with light rain showers here and there. I arrived at around 1 o’clock with Chris and his daughter, Frankie, in tow, and to be honest, it didn’t look like flying weather. But, having some faith in the met office, I had a pretty good feeling that it would pass and we would be able to get a quick flight or two in. By two o’clock, the weather had moved away from the airfeild, so Frankie and myself made a hasty takeoff for the north coast. The air was pretty still today, considering all the low cloud and drizzle, so it was a pleasant enough trip up to Boscastle before we did a 180 and turned back down the coast. Now it was my passengers turn to gaze down at the sea lapping up against the cliffs. Frankie seemed to enjoy her turn at the controls as we slipped under the blanket of clouds, dodging round the odd bit of white that hung below the others. Once we got back to the estary, I got her to follow the river inland towards Bodmin, which was clearly visible from Wadebridge. IN no time at all, we were joing downwind for a full stop landing on 31. A quick passenger swap, and we were off again. This time the north coast was shrouded in rain, so we headed up towards Davidstowe followed by Colliford lake, Dobwalls, Liskeard and finally back round to Bodmin. I let Chris have a go at flying, again, and this time we porpiosed through the sky. Once we hit nearly 3000 feet, I took control and desended us back down to a mnore civilised 2000 feet, and clear of all the white stuff. In no time at all, it was time to rejoin the circuit at Bodmin for a full stop landing. Chris took this video of our landing, watch out for the noise he makes on touchdown!

 

  

 

 

 Well, sunday dawned, and I had got it planed for Tom and myself to go up to Dunkeswell for some cake, and perhaps meet up with an old friend. The cornish weather very quickly put paid to any thought of going off though, as there was a warm front being chased by a cold front over the Scilly isles, making its way towards us at a steady 30 Knots. So, I abondoned the idea of heading off for cake, and myself and Tom went fo a nice long local flight along the south coast all the way down to Truro, and then back along the same path. Tom took cusions with him this time, so he could see the horizon! That improved his hieght holding no end, although it didn’t help his course holding! Newquay radar had us pinned down to 1500 all along the south coast, which made for a much better view of the south coast, it has to be said! On the way back to Bodmin, we were asked to stay on Newquays radar frequency as there was a Dash 8 some where above us, desending to join final. We did a little orbit over Lostwiethiel as we waited before being told it was ok to rejoin Bodmin’s radio. A quick frequency change to find out that we were no longer using 13 but were now on 21. I’m not fond of 21, as it goes, the runway slopes in all dirrections! Compund that with a strong 20 knot wind and some gusts, and suddenly it was becoming an interesting landing! We turned onto final with just 2 stages of flap, and a heap of power left on. We slowly crawled down to the runway, keepingt hat extra bit of power on all the way down. The landing was supprisingly light, and we ran striaght, so what more could you ask for! All in all, it was a great weekend of flying.

 

 

North coast, just for a change!

Its been four weeks since my last flight, which is an age! So I booked the plane for today with a certain amount of glee! This morning dawned with a nice shower, not the best start. Looking out of the window confirmed it, an ashen, overcast, grey sky. I pulled the Met. Office web site out of Google, and went and looked at what the weather prophets had in store for us. They claimed it would improve, is the short version! Well, Jim arived in due course, and after a small lunch we set off towards the airfield to preflight the ‘plane. BY the time we arrived at the airfield, it was clearing up nicely, apart from one great big blob of dark grey! With a certain amount of haste, I preflighted Fox Zulu, and got us up onto the field. She seemed a bit sluggish to get going down the runway today, but with the Air Speed Indicator hitting 45 knots where the runways cross each other, all seemed good, so off we went.

 

On the way into the airfeild, we sat in traffic for a good 20 minutes while it slowly crawled eastwards along the A30. Overflying that same traffic was magic! Cars backed up in both dirrections for miles! In minutes, we had reached the north coast over the Camel estary, and we turned eastwards. I followed the coast all the way up to Bude, dodging the odd cloud and just admiring the view. Lundy island was clearly visible off the coast through the slight haze. The Devon Strut of the LAA was having there fly-in there today. Maybe next year I’ll make the trip myself, but not this year! By the time we got to Bude, I knew it was time to spin as around and head back towards the Camel once more. And this seemed the perfect opotunity to practice a steep turn. So, back angle of 45 degrees. Check. Add a bit of back pressure. Check. Add a little power. Check. Look at startled passenger. Check! In fairness, he was using his mobile to make a video, and I don’t think he caught what I said about making a steep turn! Now it was his turn to look at the cliffs as we trundled back towards the Camel. We passed the air ambulance and the coastguard, obviously on a rescue, just east of Boscastle.

 

When we got to Polzeath, I went and overflew Rosecarrow golf course and airstrip to point it out to Jim. Its quite a long strip in fairness! We turned inland and set course for Bodmin industrial estate, flying past the Royal Cornwall Show grounds. I pointed them out to Jim, and told him how busy it had looked a couple of months back when the show was in full swing. We quickly made our way back to Bodmin, and joined cross wind for a touch and go on 31. Sloted in nicely today, with a microlight on final and one not far behind me. By the time we were on final, the runway was nice and clear for a pretty good touch down. So power in and off we went for another go. The second one I did with full flap, and a microlight very close behind me. I landed long, and took the last exit from 31, allowing the microlight as much room as it would need. Runway vacated, we took Fox Zulu down to the stand, to wait her turn for refueling.

 

Engine off, keys stowed and everything left as I’d wish to find it, it was off to the big ‘C’ to sign the book, and pay the man. Next stop, the canteen for tea and coffee! Till next time, fly safe.

Trundling round the south coast ..

Well, in a view of getting my hours up in a steady fashion, with no gaps, I figured it was better to do lots of short local trips rather than setting off once every couple of months on some long trip. So with that in mind, I booked one of the club’s Cessna 152’s for a couple of hours or so in the afternoon. With the plane booked on the monday, all I could do was wait for the weather to improve. Well, after a week of sporadic rain, low cloud and just genrally horrid weather, I awoke sunday morning to a total grey out and some pretty heavy rain. Checking the met office website gave me reason to believe it would rain itself out quite quickly and improve as the day wore on. It did! So, a quick check online to make sure there were no red arrows or the like in the local airspace, and it was off to the airfield. Now Chris has been quite excited about this from the moment I phoned him to tell him I’d booked the plane. I got him signed in, and made him sign his life away, before we set off to Seirra Mike to preflight her and check the fuel levels. With a little over 50 litres, I figured it would be better to drag her down to the fuel bay and add a bit of fuel to save time later. I didn’t fill her right up, but rather just added some fuel so I could take her out for a couple of single hour flights. With an Aeronca waiting for me, I started the engine and moved out of the way, and made my way up to the field for some power checks before departing for the south coast.

 

Once out of the circuit, we passed overhead Bodmin before setting course towards Par sands. I got my passenger to put there hand on the yoke and just to follow my inputs while I explained keeping the horizon about two fingers above the engine cowl, before saying ‘You have control.’ His excitement must have matched my own when I was first given control all that time ago, and he held 2000 feet rather well. It was with some reluctance that I took back control so I could position us for an orbit over his house. Chris could see his dog in the back garden as well as Lucy waving up to him. Job done, as he would say himself. And since he seemed to enjoy it so much, I flew round my own house a couple of times for good measure. We headed off further west down the coast to check the surf at Valt, which was fun, and I once again gave Chris control for a while. But time was ticking by, and I should get back to Bodmin to pick up my next passenger, my Father inlaw as a matter of fact! With that in mind, we headed back towards Looe, following the coast all the way up, with Chris handling the plane very well for large chunks of the trip. At Looe, we turned inland and headed back. Now, Bodmin is a quiet little airfield, and even on ‘fly-in’ day, its not that busy. I arrived back to join base to find another one joining crosswind and the Robin returning from an aerobatic sortie. We joined late downwind in the end, letting the plane on crosswind get down and off the runway. The Robin formated with us, to the right on our left hand circuit before ‘buzzing’ the field as we came down on final! Down in one piece, with all the excitement out of the way, I let Chris out, and we went off to find tea. And my in law!

 

Tea inside me, a quick briefing before installing the inlaw and another preflight before we too were under way. There was a horrid looking line of grey raining clouds, just inland from the south coast. We picked our path between them, and headed for the sun along the coast. We did a few orbit around the town center, looking at the building work, and also did some orbits of the Bill’s house, so he could get a picture or two, if he wished. After the obligatory orbits of his house, we continued down towards the Fal estary before turnng inland towards Truro. The plan was to cross over to the north coast for the trip back, but I really didn’t fancy what was ahead, so I turned us around and headed back towards the south coast again. This gave Bill the perfect view now as everything was on his side. We followed the south coast all the back to the bay os St. Austell, before heading inland over the Eden Project. We dodged through the grey stuff again here, and I was pleased to see that we were going to arrive at Bodmin well ahead of the rain. This time I joined overhead, desended dead side and joined crosswind. Much easier, even if it was just us in the circuit! It was a nice touchdown, although there was a fair amount of sink in the last 200 foot or so, but I was already expecting that. We parked up on the hard stand, and shut the engine down.

 

So, all that was left was to pay at the big ‘C’ and grab a well earned brew!

 

 

The river Fal

Mevagissey Harbour

 

 

To the Scillys!

This was quite a trip for me, over the sea and to an airfield that I’d never been too. Add to which the runway is plonked over a hill, making the landing interesting, to say the least. The weather prophets have been chanting about storms for days, but they never really materialised down here in the south west, so it was with some trepidation that I downloaded the met forms and purused them. All seemed to look good. I checked my flight bag, grabbed my boy, and headed off to Bodmin to preflight the ageing Cessna 152, Golf Bravo Mike Foxtrot Zulu. Now, recently, theres been problems with some of the instrumentation on old Fox Zulu, what with the direction indicator being non functional and the artificial horizon having a mind of its own. Today the heading indicator was working, but the compass wasn’t, as most of the alcohol was missing! Setting the dirrection indicator in flight became an absolute nightmare! So I dug my GPS out of my flight bag, the first time I’ve ever had reason to use the thing, and as we were about to head over the sea, it seemed the prudent thing to do!

 

We followed the A30 for most of the way west, at around 2000 feet. Watching the Dash 8’s landing at Newquay was fun from up high. We routed around Perranporth to give the parachutists a wide berth and eventuarlly reached the end of England! Coasting out over the cliffs near landsend was excellent, with nothing but the Atlantic ocean in front of us. And sea mist. And low clouds. To stay visual with the sea, I had to go under the lot, and landed up at only 1000 feet above the waves! But in no time at all, the islands appeared out of the murk and I anounced that we were passing over St. Martins. Air traffic control let me overfly the airfield at 1500 feet to get a look at the place, where upon we decended to circuit hieght to join downwind. Downwind checks done, I cut the power and set two stages of flap. Flying the base leg, I realised I was making quite a small circuit, so dumped the rest of the flaps and did a nice glide approach. As we got low, my speed was decaying a little too rapidilly, so just before touchdown, I put a boot full of power in just to soften the ‘blow’, and had a nice gentle touchdown, albeit on the left wheel first! I bought the plane to a halt very quickly, and backtracked runway 15 and parked up. We visited the tower, which was very busy, and payed for the privilege of landing.

 

The Scilly islands are calm, refreashing and gorgeous. And I shall be returning. Soon. We visited the old town and the new town, stopping off for a bite to eat at the Deli. The beaches there are long and pristine, apart from the obligatory seaweed. The locals were very friendly and helpful too. But, as we arrived at 3:00pm, and had to be off before 5:00pm as ATC closed up shop for half an hour at 5:00pm, we didn’t have too long too dally about. We wandered back up to the airfield for 4:30pm and I made the call to Bodmin telling them I was going to be setting off shortly. The ‘plane was where we left it, on a slight incline. I started the preflight checks while Tom got his life jacket on and settled himself into the co-pilot seat. A guy in a yellow jacket came over at this point and told us that ATC had just gone offline at 4:45PM and woudldn’t be back for half an hour. So, Tom got back out of the ‘plane and shed the life jacket once more. We went and sat over by the main terminal building and got chatting with a pair of GA pilots who had come down from plymouth for the afternoon in there club’s Piper. Sitting in the sun, watching the island going about its business was rather pleasant, and in no time at all, it was ten past five and time to go and warm up our steed. I let our new found friends go first before announcing our own desire to be under way to ATC. In no time at all we were belting down runway 15 and were airbourn once more.

 

With a final look over my shoulder at the islands, we set course for the Cornish mainland once more. This time, though, I went over the clouds and kept to around 2000 feet all the way back. Tom spotted a pod of whales below us, which was pretty cool! In no time at all, we were talking to Landsend tower before changing back to Newquay radar. We followed the A30 to just past Redruth, and then headed for the south coast for a nice scenic route back to Bodmin, passing near to where I live, St. Austell, and past the Eden project. The landing at Bodmin was one of my better landings, and in no time at all, Fox Zulu was parked outside the hanger, and we were off to the big ‘C’ to pay.