May Days
May Days
I can no longer use my
Class Rating Instructor Rating (CRI) here in England and my PPL
has reduced to a LAPL for the second year of my Class 2 Medical.
I understand that after an instructor passed away in flight up
near Blackpool a judge instructed the CAA to require older pilots
to undergo a stress ecg, and the cost of this precludes me
renewing my UK medical at the moment. Whereas I have much more
instructional experience than most CRIs I have not had enough
work to be able to justify the cost, it's disappointing.
Fixing the
landings.
How you aim to be straight
on takeoff and landings depends on what front sights you have on
the cowling. Like a rifle you need a front sight to enable you to
aim straight down the runway.
With many aeroplanes there is a cowl hinge or a particular
fastener that will enable you to find the aiming point: front
sight to see straight and land straight.
Without a distinct front sight, if aiming between the hump and
the propeller boss, the Sling will be at a left deflection to the
centreline... It's not good to be tracking off the runway going
left!
So what you do is take a piece of string, tape it perpendicular
to the firewall and in line with the centre of the pilot seat.
Sit in the aeroplane and confirm you can see straight, and then
get out and put a piece of contrasting tape (black on white) at a
visible position on this string line. Now you have a front sight
to aim straight down the runway
In the picture above you
can just make out a length of blue tape on the top of the engine
cowling.
Paul and I did five landings that regardless of touchdown were
all straight.
Starting
an engine
Sometimes I am asked to
help with technical problems with aircraft; I have a lot of
experience.
The Mikron engine has proven to be difficult to start, and even
other operators of these engines have told David that they
sometimes gave up trying.
But there has to be a reason, and in the Chilton I believe I have
discovered the problem.
With two methods I was able to start the engine three times
without any trouble. One method for 'flooded' and another method
for a normal start.
I am hoping to witness the first flight of this classic little
aeroplane.
Isles of
Scilly.
Cancelling IFR.
I met Jan in Chiang Mai
when we had a Fly-In at Chiang Mai Air Sports field. I flew with
him as a local guide in his Cirrus SR22.
He also flew to Phuket for the Fly-In there this year. Both of
these events have been reported on on this web site.
Now he has flown his Cirrus from Singapore to Biggin Hill, and
now he is enroute around the houses across the North Atlantic to
the USA; what an adventure!
Last week I was invited to
go with him to Le Touquet and back, but this didn't happen, and
instead we flew in the opposite direction to St Marys, Isles of
Scilly.
The Isles of Scilly are beyond the western tip of Cornwall and
are affected by the Gulf Stream, this means many tropical and
semi tropical plants can be grown there, and flowers are the
islands main export.
It took me two and
a quarter hours to drive from Guildford to Biggin Hill.
There was an accident at the junction of the A3 and M25 and so I
decided to drive the normal roads to Leatherhead and onto the M25
there.
Of course the big problem is the increased traffic around
Guildford during the rush hours; the many SUVs delivering school
children, then there are road works, and finally there was
another accident on the approach road to the M25 from
Leatherhead!
So I arrived at the gate into Biggin Hill later than I wanted to,
but Jan was two cars behind me.
All ready to go,
but we were told there would be an hour delay for fuel!
The answer was to stop at Dunkeswell on the way and top up the
tanks there. We did have the fuel to St Marys with IFR reserves,
but a stop off would mean we had the fuel to get back to Biggin
and for a subsequent flight from there.
We received and
read back our IFR clearance and departed on the LYD2 departure
heading eastwards on the wrong way routing IFR requires. We had
several heading changes before we were finally heading westwards
at FL80 along the south coast and above the clouds.
Over Bournemouth we were in contact with Western Radar and
requested a descent to 3,000 feet after passing Bournemouth's
controlled airspace, cancelled IFR, and flew on to Dunkeswell VFR
to land there after 2 hours 24 minutes in the air.
It took only 17
minutes to fuel up, pay for it, and start the engine for the next
leg, VFR to St Marys.
After a further 1 hour and 3 minutes we landed on St Marys short
runway 32... It was now 14:00 local, time for a late lunch.
The one taxi was busy but the airport has a shuttle bus which
costs £6 per person for a ride to Juliet's restaurant/café
where we enjoyed an excellent meal al fresco in the warm
sunshine.
The shuttle bus picked us up promptly an hour and a half later
and we were airborne again at 16:22 on an IFR flight plan back to
Biggin Hill.
IFR in England is a combination of uncontrolled and controlled
airspace and it can not be assumed that on such a flight plan
that you are automatically cleared into controlled airspace,
indeed you may be told to remain clear of controlled airspace,
and not be allowed to enter until you have managed to contact the
next controller.
On this return flight we had five changes of transponder squawk
codes.
The Cirrus easily coped with the upslope crest downslope short
runway.
The rear view as we turned right on the climbout. The runway is
middle centre by the sea.
We flew back at FL90, and were cleared to cross controlled airspace to DAWLY, the waypoint at Dawlish. The weather was clear.
When I learned to fly the grass airfield at Plymouth Roborough
was one of the cross country routes.
As we approached
Bournemouth there was a wall of cloud down to 5,000 feet and the
OAT was +1ºC, so with a risk of icing and turbulence in the
cumulus clouds we descended to 5,000 feet.
Then "remain clear of controlled airspace and contact Solent
Radar..."
We were soon descending over Southampton and then to Farnborough
where we had a Traffic Service and descended to 2,300 feet to be
below the London TMA.
This suited us as we were now able to go directly to Biggin Hill
and join left base for 03 without having to go through a longer
IFR procedure.
We landed at Biggin Hill after 1 hour 42 minutes in the air.
Thursday night was Pub Night; the drive back to Guildford took 55 minutes where I picked up two friends and drove onwards to the Bricklayers Arms in Shamley Green.
Looking
after visitors.
Nick with the Sopwith Pup I flew a few times in the distant past.
I bought the MX-5
for fun and economy, but now I have sold it... Many things have
to be sold to survive on my meagre pension, it's unsustainable!
Never mind, I still have the Honda CR-V, which is a vehicle that
costs too much to run, but which I bought for a purpose. I had
plans for how I would operate here in England including being
able to shuttle visitors around. Unfortunately many of these
plans did not work out!
But the CR-V's purpose was to be able to show visitors around,
and in this role it has been superbly reliable.
Nick was on a
visit to England from Vancouver, and so yesterday I picked him up
from Popham and we went to Middle Wallop to visit the Museum of
Army Flying.
I am impressed by the café at Lasham and so we went there for a
late lunch, dinner... The picture below may be corrupted by the
Safari browser on an iPad, but you can download it to see it
clearly.
Unfortunately Nick
has missed out on Britains' famous meat pies... The one piece
left at Lasham was snapped up by a woman ahead of us in the
queue.
But the sausage roll, and the curried beef soup was very nice.
Nick only managed half of the sandwich he had ordered and so a
box was employed for it's onward travel.
Since the rudder cables are not due to arrive until 12th June with the possibility of a further delay I am considering going to Canada at credit card expense to renew my Class 1 medical and then the Class 2 Instructor Rating. Or should I get a full time job and let go of my global wanderings?
