Twinstar at North Weald
I completed my multi engine renewal at Blackpool on the Thursday and had fixed up a flight in a Diamond DA42 Twinstar for the Saturday morning. Since the Blackpool Twinstar went out of service last August, I have only flown that type on one occasion, (see post: Diamond Twinstar at Gamston (part two) in the archive) and I have missed it greatly.
Trying to find a locally based Twinstar has proved almost impossible, in fact the only one fairly near to me is at Gamston, in Nottinghamshire. This is available to hire, but you have to have an approved instructor on board at all times, so it’s useless for going anywhere in practical terms.
There is a Twinstar available at North Weald in Essex and it was this one I had arranged to fly alongside its owner, Sue, with a view to hiring it for a few flights over the summer. Of course this is a bit silly as it’s based about 170 flying miles from Barton. However, I thought I’d give it a go anyway and see if it could work out.
I did not fancy flying down to Essex, on to the Twinstar and then back to Barton in one day so I booked a room at a hotel in Harlow for the Friday night. Having already flown to North Weald less than a week ago, I was confident of that leg and planned to follow the same route again. I arrived at Barton late on Friday morning, giving the cloud base a chance to rise from the 900 feet it started at earlier. By around 1pm the base was up to 1200 feet, not great but good enough to go. The en route forecasts looked slightly better and so I set off. I had full fuel on board and although the visibility varied from 5km to 7km, I was able to cruise at 1400 feet on the way down, staying just under the cloud base. A radar service from East Midlands and Farnborough helped and there was not too much traffic around, probably due to the conditions.
The cloud base rose as I approached Halton, but here the visibility fell to around 2000 metres for a few miles, and only improved to 5km as I approached the BOV VOR. The tail wind helped my groundspeed and I was soon parked up at North Weald having a coffee and waiting for a taxi to the hotel.
I enjoyed the pool, steam room and jacuzzi in the hotel Friday afternoon and was well rested when Sue picked me up around 8:30am on the Saturday morning. We drove to the airfield where the Twinstar was parked up, fully fuelled and ready to go. This model has two litre engines and an integrated GFC 700 autopilot, along with other nice touches including electric rudder pedal adjusters and very nice seats.
The flight was a familiarisation sortie for me to show Sue I could fly her aeroplane safely, and for that we planned to head over to Manston for an ILS approach and go around, before returning to North Weald, where the plane was then needed for a trip to Paris.
Settling into the left hand seat I soon felt at ease as my 80 hours or so on Twinstars saw me confidently completing the checks ready for departure. I flew us off the runway into a downwind left hand on runway 02 before heading off towards the Detling VOR and Manston. The visibility was good but we were in and out of the clouds at 2300 feet, remaining below the 2500 feet base of the London TMA. Sue demonstrated the autopilot and it looked and performed very well. I had watched a you-tube video on the GFC 700 and this was helpful as I knew how to operate the functions.
Farnborough Radar East gave us a traffic service before Manston vectored us onto a downwind ILS on runway 28. It had been a while since I had done an ILS and it wasn’t helped by Manston vectoring me onto final too late as we went through and back on to the localiser. Still, I managed to get established and flew down to about 350 feet before going around and heading back to North Weald. Two circuits and we taxied in to park up where we started. Sue was happy and so was I.
So this Twinstar is now available for me to hire, the only problem is its distance from where I am in the North of England. After lunch I jumped in the Cessna and headed back to Barton in much better weather than I had the day before on the journey down.
I’m current again in Twinstar, Seneca, C172SP and PA28 Arrow. If only the Twinstar was closer to home I would be well fixed up for the summer. Still, I have a lot to be thankful for as I passed the 30th anniversary of my first flying lesson last Tuesday, April 3rd.
Here’s to year thirty one in my flying “career”!
Trying to find a locally based Twinstar has proved almost impossible, in fact the only one fairly near to me is at Gamston, in Nottinghamshire. This is available to hire, but you have to have an approved instructor on board at all times, so it’s useless for going anywhere in practical terms.
There is a Twinstar available at North Weald in Essex and it was this one I had arranged to fly alongside its owner, Sue, with a view to hiring it for a few flights over the summer. Of course this is a bit silly as it’s based about 170 flying miles from Barton. However, I thought I’d give it a go anyway and see if it could work out.
I did not fancy flying down to Essex, on to the Twinstar and then back to Barton in one day so I booked a room at a hotel in Harlow for the Friday night. Having already flown to North Weald less than a week ago, I was confident of that leg and planned to follow the same route again. I arrived at Barton late on Friday morning, giving the cloud base a chance to rise from the 900 feet it started at earlier. By around 1pm the base was up to 1200 feet, not great but good enough to go. The en route forecasts looked slightly better and so I set off. I had full fuel on board and although the visibility varied from 5km to 7km, I was able to cruise at 1400 feet on the way down, staying just under the cloud base. A radar service from East Midlands and Farnborough helped and there was not too much traffic around, probably due to the conditions.
The cloud base rose as I approached Halton, but here the visibility fell to around 2000 metres for a few miles, and only improved to 5km as I approached the BOV VOR. The tail wind helped my groundspeed and I was soon parked up at North Weald having a coffee and waiting for a taxi to the hotel.
I enjoyed the pool, steam room and jacuzzi in the hotel Friday afternoon and was well rested when Sue picked me up around 8:30am on the Saturday morning. We drove to the airfield where the Twinstar was parked up, fully fuelled and ready to go. This model has two litre engines and an integrated GFC 700 autopilot, along with other nice touches including electric rudder pedal adjusters and very nice seats.
The flight was a familiarisation sortie for me to show Sue I could fly her aeroplane safely, and for that we planned to head over to Manston for an ILS approach and go around, before returning to North Weald, where the plane was then needed for a trip to Paris.
Settling into the left hand seat I soon felt at ease as my 80 hours or so on Twinstars saw me confidently completing the checks ready for departure. I flew us off the runway into a downwind left hand on runway 02 before heading off towards the Detling VOR and Manston. The visibility was good but we were in and out of the clouds at 2300 feet, remaining below the 2500 feet base of the London TMA. Sue demonstrated the autopilot and it looked and performed very well. I had watched a you-tube video on the GFC 700 and this was helpful as I knew how to operate the functions.
Farnborough Radar East gave us a traffic service before Manston vectored us onto a downwind ILS on runway 28. It had been a while since I had done an ILS and it wasn’t helped by Manston vectoring me onto final too late as we went through and back on to the localiser. Still, I managed to get established and flew down to about 350 feet before going around and heading back to North Weald. Two circuits and we taxied in to park up where we started. Sue was happy and so was I.
So this Twinstar is now available for me to hire, the only problem is its distance from where I am in the North of England. After lunch I jumped in the Cessna and headed back to Barton in much better weather than I had the day before on the journey down.
I’m current again in Twinstar, Seneca, C172SP and PA28 Arrow. If only the Twinstar was closer to home I would be well fixed up for the summer. Still, I have a lot to be thankful for as I passed the 30th anniversary of my first flying lesson last Tuesday, April 3rd.
Here’s to year thirty one in my flying “career”!
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| Lovely "Office" of the DA42 Twinstar |
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| On the apron at North Weald |
posted by David M at 9:04 PM
1 Comments:
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