Sleap, Halfpenny Green and Duxford
Sleap & Halfpenny Green
At the time of writing this entry, there are no multi engine planes available for me to fly. The Twinstar last flew on August 14th 2011 when I was in command, returning to Blackpool from Halfpenny Green and the Seneca has been unavailable for a number of weeks, as the starboard engine is away for repair work.
As a result of my beloved Twinstar being grounded, I have only flown single engine so far this year, with just over nine hours in my own grouped Piper Arrow. The Twinstar situation is due to new engines being required and an apparant lack of cash to get them replaced. Although I have enjoyed flying the Seneca, it is not really what I signed up for and I am considering what to do next with my involvement at Blackpool.
Flying the Arrow is a little strange when you have been used to the superb Twinstar, with its advanced avionics and autopilot. Our PA28R has an ADF, two VOR receivers and an old Garmin 155XL GPS which is pretty old, but works well. There is no autopilot. When flying anywhere, I always use Skydemon to plot the route and my CAA map with the track lines drawn on.
Feb 11th saw me at Barton with all day to fly as I wished. The fuel state in G-HALC was sufficient to get me to Sleap where I would refuel. The departure was via the low level route, NANTI, KARNO, then direct. These waypoints are entered into the GPS to give navigation guidance en-route, but only work if they are in the data base. This point will become relevant later. I landed on runway 23 and taxied to the pumps, before grabbing a coffee in the tower cafe.
Next, I planned to visit Halfpenny Green as I wanted to see if any Twinstars were available there. The visibility was not too bad as I climbed away from runway 18 and headed south towards Shrewsbury before turning left directly to Halfpenny Green. I landed on runway 16, following a go around as an aircraft ahead of me did not clear the runway as soon as I thought it would. I called into the old Flight Academy offices and left my contact details as it appeared a Twinstar might become available soon. Another coffee in the tower and it was time to return to Barton. All went normally until north of Sleap when the visibility fell markedly to around 3000 metres for around ten miles. Visual navigation is very difficult in these conditions and the GPS earned its place in the panel. I landed back at Barton on 09R and put the plane back in the hanger. A good days flying completed, all solo again.
Duxford
On Sunday 19th February I had the plane booked all day and had planned a trip to Duxford, to visit the display of aircraft at the Imperial War Museum. I texted my friend Alan to see if he wanted to come along as this had the makings of a good day out. It had been five months since Alan had last flown with me and he said he'd pick me up at 8am on the Sunday morning.
With the weather forecasts looking good all day both at home, en-route and at destination, we soon had HALC at the pumps and then taxied, ready for departure. With the engine warming, I set about entering my planned route into the GPS. My route was Barton-LLRN (Low Level Route North )-NANTI-LONLO-TIMPO-BEDFO-BIGLI-Royston-Duxford for a downwind left hand join for runway 24. Flight time was estimated at just over an hour. However, when I tried to enter LONLO and TIMPO I found they were not in the database. This required a replan at the holding point as I could not now follow the plan I wanted. This problem was created by us not having a current Garmin database, something you take for granted in IFR airplanes.
The new plan required some "on the fly" map reading as we headed to the west of Tatenhill airfield then down past Sywell and onto Bedford, and eventually Royston, to land on runway 24 tarmac. The flight time was 65 minutes.
The day was beautiful, but cold, as we explored this great aviation location.
On a day trip it is only possible to get a feel for Duxford. There is just too much to see to absorb it all in a few hours. We arrived just after 10:30am and taxied for departure just after 3:00pm. So, four and a half hours spent at this wonderful tribute to both US and European aviation. Here is a link to the website to give you more information.
IWM Duxford
The landing fee was £14.95 and the same again to stay for over two hours of access to the dispalys. I believe you can stay for free for up to two hours before you fly out, but I wouldn't bother. Cough up, it's worth it!
The return flight was in lovely clear weather, although the tail wind that got us there in an hour added time to the return journey, which took 1hr 25mins, following the outbound route in reverse. We landed back at Barton around a quarter to five after a great day out.
It's so much better to go somewhere than potter around the same old places.And they don't come any better than Duxford.
At the time of writing this entry, there are no multi engine planes available for me to fly. The Twinstar last flew on August 14th 2011 when I was in command, returning to Blackpool from Halfpenny Green and the Seneca has been unavailable for a number of weeks, as the starboard engine is away for repair work.
As a result of my beloved Twinstar being grounded, I have only flown single engine so far this year, with just over nine hours in my own grouped Piper Arrow. The Twinstar situation is due to new engines being required and an apparant lack of cash to get them replaced. Although I have enjoyed flying the Seneca, it is not really what I signed up for and I am considering what to do next with my involvement at Blackpool.
Flying the Arrow is a little strange when you have been used to the superb Twinstar, with its advanced avionics and autopilot. Our PA28R has an ADF, two VOR receivers and an old Garmin 155XL GPS which is pretty old, but works well. There is no autopilot. When flying anywhere, I always use Skydemon to plot the route and my CAA map with the track lines drawn on.
Feb 11th saw me at Barton with all day to fly as I wished. The fuel state in G-HALC was sufficient to get me to Sleap where I would refuel. The departure was via the low level route, NANTI, KARNO, then direct. These waypoints are entered into the GPS to give navigation guidance en-route, but only work if they are in the data base. This point will become relevant later. I landed on runway 23 and taxied to the pumps, before grabbing a coffee in the tower cafe.
Next, I planned to visit Halfpenny Green as I wanted to see if any Twinstars were available there. The visibility was not too bad as I climbed away from runway 18 and headed south towards Shrewsbury before turning left directly to Halfpenny Green. I landed on runway 16, following a go around as an aircraft ahead of me did not clear the runway as soon as I thought it would. I called into the old Flight Academy offices and left my contact details as it appeared a Twinstar might become available soon. Another coffee in the tower and it was time to return to Barton. All went normally until north of Sleap when the visibility fell markedly to around 3000 metres for around ten miles. Visual navigation is very difficult in these conditions and the GPS earned its place in the panel. I landed back at Barton on 09R and put the plane back in the hanger. A good days flying completed, all solo again.
Duxford
On Sunday 19th February I had the plane booked all day and had planned a trip to Duxford, to visit the display of aircraft at the Imperial War Museum. I texted my friend Alan to see if he wanted to come along as this had the makings of a good day out. It had been five months since Alan had last flown with me and he said he'd pick me up at 8am on the Sunday morning.
With the weather forecasts looking good all day both at home, en-route and at destination, we soon had HALC at the pumps and then taxied, ready for departure. With the engine warming, I set about entering my planned route into the GPS. My route was Barton-LLRN (Low Level Route North )-NANTI-LONLO-TIMPO-BEDFO-BIGLI-Royston-Duxford for a downwind left hand join for runway 24. Flight time was estimated at just over an hour. However, when I tried to enter LONLO and TIMPO I found they were not in the database. This required a replan at the holding point as I could not now follow the plan I wanted. This problem was created by us not having a current Garmin database, something you take for granted in IFR airplanes.
The new plan required some "on the fly" map reading as we headed to the west of Tatenhill airfield then down past Sywell and onto Bedford, and eventually Royston, to land on runway 24 tarmac. The flight time was 65 minutes.
The day was beautiful, but cold, as we explored this great aviation location.
 |
| Lancaster in the foreground, Vulcan behind. |
 |
| Monarch's Old Transatlantic Transporter! |
 |
| B17 "Sally B" |
 |
| In the American Hanger |
On a day trip it is only possible to get a feel for Duxford. There is just too much to see to absorb it all in a few hours. We arrived just after 10:30am and taxied for departure just after 3:00pm. So, four and a half hours spent at this wonderful tribute to both US and European aviation. Here is a link to the website to give you more information.
IWM Duxford
The landing fee was £14.95 and the same again to stay for over two hours of access to the dispalys. I believe you can stay for free for up to two hours before you fly out, but I wouldn't bother. Cough up, it's worth it!
The return flight was in lovely clear weather, although the tail wind that got us there in an hour added time to the return journey, which took 1hr 25mins, following the outbound route in reverse. We landed back at Barton around a quarter to five after a great day out.
It's so much better to go somewhere than potter around the same old places.And they don't come any better than Duxford.
posted by David M at 7:03 PM
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