Aero Expo 2011 Sywell, Northampton

Aero expo is an annual event that features trade stands selling everything from the latest avionics, maps, training books, flight planning software, insurance services, flying holidays, electronic log books and watches. This list is nowhere near definitive. The products and services available are too numerous to mention in this post. In addition, aircraft manufacturers display their very latest models, all in one place, ready for inspection and considerable drooling over by us pilots!

2011 was the first time this event had been held at Northampton Sywell airfield, a lovely set up I have visited many times before. It has grass runways, a recently completed hard surface landing strip plus lots of space for parking. There is also a hotel on site and an excellent cafe. Both Avgas and Jet A1 fuel is available too. Now the new hard runway is operational I intend to come down in the Twinstar for a visit this summer.

Up until the Thursday of this week I did not expect to be going to the show this year, but Steve rang me to say one of the helicopter partners had pulled out of his trip thus leaving a spare seat. I jumped at the chance to go and met up with Steve and Malcolm, a LADZ co-owner, at Barton, just before 9am on the Saturday morning. The weather forecasts said to expect an increasing wind in the afternoon with 25 knot gusts and probable heavy showers. The visibility, away from the rain, was forecast to be very good.

Steve had done all the planning, on Sky demon software I had told him about, and he was fully prepared with laminated charts and plogs. We fired up the turbine Enstrom 480 and were soon heading South down the low level corridor, turning towards Stoke and making our way eventually past Bruntingthorpe airfield and in to land just over an hour after take-off. If you fly-in to the show admission is free for all on board with only a £10 charge for landing.

First port of call was the busy cafe where we ordered bacon and sausage muffins and coffee. Suitably refreshed we headed out to look at the flying machines and immediately encountered a row of helicopters, including the new Robinson R66 turbine model. Steve admired an Augusta whilst I slipped away from the Sales Manager to look at the Piper Seneca V (five). Having recently checked out on an older model, I was keen to see the latest version. It looked magnificent and sitting in the captain’s seat only made me like it more. It’s just like going into a car showroom and being seduced by the new smells and leather seats, the metallic paint and alloy wheels! Only here it’s the two turbo charged 220HP engines, the glass cockpit and the thought of getting this into the air. The salesman’s patter was heading slightly over my head after I heard him quote “around a million pounds” for me to fly this beauty away.

Piper PA34-220T

Garmin G500 Glass Display

Twin GNS430 GPS

The Diamond DA42NG was there, but as I have already flown that, I did not look again. Instead I made my way over to the new Technam P2006T light Rotax powered, high wing twin. This very aircraft, G-ZOOG, was featured in a flying magazine article recently on a trip down to Alderney. I sat in the left seat and was impressed by the space on offer. There was not enough time to look closely at the cockpit but I did get a feel for it. I would like to test fly this plane to compare it to the Seneca and Twinstar but that would have to wait for another day. The risk of showers in the forecast turned to reality as we were hit next by torrential rainfall with hail, sending all visitors in the direction of the exhibition halls and shelter.

Technam P2006T

Steve, Malcolm and I looked around paying close attention to the GPS devices with a new one ever present on our agenda for HALC, our Piper Arrow. The new Garmin touch screen units were very impressive but they are too expensive for us. To fit the larger of the new units would cost nearly half the value of our aeroplane! When you add VAT and modification costs you come to the conclusion that it would be better to buy a new plane instead of fitting these superb units into an old airframe. Still, it’s good to dream and think of what might be.

SR22 10th Anniversary Edition

We called into the Sky demon booth and met Tim, one of their programmers. Steve and I have been very pleased with their flight planning software and both signed to upgrade our trial versions to the fully licensed ones. A nice saving of £19 over the usual price was eagerly accepted as we both handed over £100.

We all sampled the new BOSE active noise reduction headset and liked it a lot. The new A20 model may be good but it’s not cheap as it will cost between £850 and £950 depending on the variant you chose.

We ran into Joel Tobias who had dropped in with his wife in the Blackpool Twinstar. They arrived pretty late from Blackbushe on their way home. We only had time for a few words but Joel was still awaiting the return from maintenance of his beloved Jet Box (Bell Jet ranger). Still, the Twinstar is a very nice distraction while he waits.

We looked around all the booths a final time before calling it a day and deciding to head home around 3pm. The nice Sywell people sent the fuel bowser over to us and after settling the bill we took off to retrace our route home.

G-LADZ Enstrom: our "ride"

This time there were quite a few showers around but they were easy to see and avoid. The gusty wind was evident in the air as the helicopter rocked from side to side on several occasions, but Malcolm took it in his stride. This was good flying practise for Malcolm as he had a training hour booked for Monday and a test on this type on Tuesday, to add the Enstrom 480 to his types qualified on. The flight back to Barton took about an hour and a quarter and was pretty uneventful, which is how we like it.

The day worked out well as it’s good to keep up to date on all the new things in aviation, even if I can’t afford most of them!