Wings That Rotate

The weather is still very poor with strong winds today and it is very depressing as I still cannot fly even after taking time off work. Maybe Friday will be better. Part of the problem is that our airfield has been waterlogged and closed to fixed wing aircraft. Even when it is open the sufrace is poor, being very soft and wet. Not ideal conditions for our aircraft. However, if you don't need a runway the airfield is open!

Yes, a helicopter does not need a grass runway as it goes straight up into the air. I do not have a licence to fly helicopters but Stephen does. He owns a share in this turbine powered Enstrom 480 as well as the Piper Arrow.

I haven't yet flown in this helicopter but I have had a few goes in a piston powered Enstrom and found it very enjoyable, though hovering is very tricky. You need many hours of practice to master that art!

We hope to take the helicopter and the fixed wing plane away for some flights soon, again when the weather improves.

Airborne At Last

I was up early on Sunday morning as the weather promised to be favourable for a flight down to one of our local airfields at Welshpool.

All looked good on the Met Office web site and the notams (information briefs for pilots) were clear so I set off to get everything prepared for our flight. On arrival at Barton the sky was clear and blue, the plane had fuel and just needed checking over. So far, so good.

Steve called to say he’d be arriving at 10:15am so as soon as he made it to the plane we were ready to go.

We got strapped in and prepared to start the engine. I pressed in the starter and the propeller just barely moved as the battery struggled to "light the fire". Oh well, try again. Same result! I looked at Steve and we both thought our flight was over before we’d moved. "One more try" I said, with no real hope that the result would be any better. However, this time the engine fired and we were in business. Several weeks of inactivity had almost drained our battery, but not quite!

The weather can change very quickly and by now the blue sky had been replaced with an overcast of cloud and a brisk north-easterly wind. Still, no problem as we taxied out to Barton’s grass runway 09 Left. The headwind component should give us a good early lift off and climb gradient and this was confirmed as I saw an initial climb rate of 1000 feet per minute on the vertical speed indicator.

We routed over to Warrington to enter the Low Level Corridor, a piece of airspace that enables us to transit the Manchester and Liverpool control zones. A southerly heading took us down towards Winsford before we climbed from 1250 feet to 2400 feet and turned on track for Welshpool.

The weather ahead did not look as good as where we had come from and we had to descend to 1500 feet to stay under the cloud. The visibility to the South also looked poor. We decided to carry on for another ten miles and assess the conditions again. Five minutes later we had concluded that to attempt to go on into an area of high ground under the current weather conditions was not possible. I started to turn back towards the southern end of the low level route as Steve gave me an initial heading to steer of 040 degrees.

As we reversed our route the weather improved and we flew back home having been thwarted by the conditions only 15 miles from Welshpool. An overhead join to runway 09 left with a left hand circuit saw us established on final approach but despite my attempt to slow down as much as was safe, we were catching up a microlight ahead and had to go around. It’s all good practice though and another circuit had us again on final approach a couple of minutes later. This time I completed the landing and we rolled off the runway and put the plane back in the hanger. Hopefully the battery had a good charge and will be more likely to hold up for this weekend’s flying.

So all in all not a bad hour’s flying and satisfaction that we at last made it up into the air. We retired for chilli and chips in the clubhouse and met a couple of group members to discuss future flights. A trip to France could be on the cards for May. I’ll keep you posted.

The Aeroplane We Fly and How We Operate

This is the aeroplane I fly and which I will be writing about as the Spring and Summer arrive and the flying "season" begins. I own a share of this Piper Arrow along with several other Private Pilots. We share all the costs of ownership which include hangarage, maintenance and insurance. It cruises at around 130 knots which makes it a good means of getting to places quickly.

My friend Stephen and I share "legs" which means I will fly the aircraft "To" the destination whilst Stephen navigates and communicates with air traffic control. We reverse rolls on the next leg of the flight so we both share the duties and enhance our enjoyment and safety.

We navigate by looking out of the window at features on the ground: towns, motorways, lakes, rivers etc. We also use electronic aids such as the GPS receiver pictured below. This wonderful device "shows" us where our destination is, tells us how to get there, how fast we are travelling over the ground and when we will arrive.

Here our GPS tells us we are 19.21 nautical miles from our destination, we are travelling over the ground at 151.1 kts (approx 170 mph) and we will arrive at 1317 hours, just in time for lunch!

I was hoping to fly today but it has been snowing for most of the day and the airfield has been closed as the grass runways are waterlogged.

Maybe the weekend will bring better weather....we'll see!

Introduction

Soon you will be able to read about my flights in a Piper Arrow PA28R-200 which is a single engined four seat aeroplane. Myself and a flying friend head off in the plane whenever the weather is reasonably good and visit airfields mainly in England and Wales. More will follow just as soon as this awful weather improves...but for now CHEERS!