Evening Flight After Work

I booked the Glass Cockpit C172SP for a flight after work and was pleased to get a call from fellow member Joel asking if I wanted some company. Yes please. It's always more enjoyable if you share with someone of a like mind.

We had no fixed plan in mind, just a bimble around the area. After checking the plane over and refueling I departed runway 27 Left and set course for Pole Hill VOR, a navigation beacon to the northeast of Barton, or City Airport Manchester as it is now called. The visibility was excellent and with a high cloudbase. I practised using features of the Garmin G1000 navigation system and set the autopilot up to fly the plane on heading select and altitude hold at 2500 feet.

After reaching Pole Hill I set off towards Bolton and when south of Winter Hill called Warton Radar for a flight information service. The controller was very helpful and gave us traffic info as we headed to Southport before turning north up the coast past Blackpool which was very quiet for such a lovely evening. Climbing to 3000 feet we headed east and flew down past Preston and Chorley before returning to Barton.

A very relaxing way to end the day and take advantage of the good weather!