Aero Expo 2012 Sywell, Northampton
The weekend of this year's Aero Expo exhibition at Sywell was one of great flying weather and I was fortunate enough to have available a Cirrus SR20 G3 GTS to make the trip in. I had not planned to attend this year's event but I had an email from a colleague asking if I would be interested in using my Cirrus booking to a share a trip there from Blackpool. Of course I would, and I soon got to work planning the flight, which included reading a briefing document for the procedures to organise a safe and orderly flow of air traffic into the aerodrome. This document was just under thirty pages of notes and diagrams to cater for any possibility that may occur. Further study of a route, airspace and weather followed. And they say flying is freedom!
Aero Expo ran this year for three days, Friday to Sunday, beginning on May 25th and it was this first day that I was attending.The evening before, I checked the weather forecasts and all looked to be good apart from a brisk easterly wind that would give us a significant crosswind component for the landing and later departure from Sywell. The route I planned was from Blackpool, down the Manchester Low Level Corridor to NANTI, then direct to SAPCO which is near Hinckley, and on to Sywell. This track took us between Birmingham and East Midlands airspace and calculated out at 123 nautical miles.
I was in command for the flight out and Kim would fly us home later. I stayed overnight at Blackpool on Thursday and got to the airport early on Friday to preflight and fuel the Cirrus. I was advised that the Avidyne PFD (primary flight display) had an intermittent fault in that it would lose the attitude indicator, percentage power tape and HSI. Apparently sometimes it worked and at others it didn't. When I powered up to go for fuel it all worked fine, but returning to park after, it didn't work at all. It was not a show stopper for a VFR flight and we'd see what happened later.
I had topped the tanks up and had full fuel for the journey, as with several hundred aircraft expected at Sywell, I did not want to wait for fuel and waste valuable time. I started the engine and it was soon apparent that the PFD was not going to work. We still had the autopilot, GPS and a good old fashioned magnetic compass, although the GPS will display magnetic track also. After power checks we departed runway 10 and headed off towards the low level route. I hand flew this leg, only engaging the autopilot when we were established towards NANTI. We step climbed to 3000 feet for the cruise down to Sywell as I played around setting the power to give an indicated airspeed of 120 knots. Usually this is done by setting 60% power, but as I said, the indicator was not working. Around 23 inches manifold pressure worked ok and the fuel flow was set at 8.4 usg hour.
The autopilot appeared to be working ok but the PFD was dead. I had to set the verticle speed on the head of the autopilot. Despite altitude capture mode being engaged, it went through 3000 feet and I had to manually hit alt hold. It tracked the GPS route ok but when we were coming home pressing nav resulted in a track capture cut at 90 degrees which was bizarre. It then flew through the required course heading for who knows where! If you hand flew the aircraft onto track and then hit nav/alt it worked ok.
Nearing Sywell we reviewed the arrival procedures for runway 03L which could have involved holding in a left hand pattern at the Pitsford Reservoir if traffic was heavy. In the event there was just a Cessna ahead of us so we followed him in and positioned on short final for the hard runway. The surface wind was given as 090/17kts and the Cirrus handled well as we touched down nicely and taxied onto the grass to park. Flight time was 75 minutes into the headwind we had on the trip down. There were lots of aircraft already there and we had a long walk to get our passes and pay the £10 landing fee.
We landed at 12:30 and had the rest of the afternoon available to look at the aircraft and walk around the exhibition buildings where lots of goodies were on display and for sale.
I sat in a Baron G58 twin that had been flow across the Atlantic. It felt very sturdy and with its G1000 screens and 315 HP engines, very capable. I also sampled the single Beechcraft Bonanza G36 which felt identical except it had only one engine. The Piper Seneca twin was present again this year although I did not climb aboard as last year. The Technam Twins were also on display but I was a little disappointed at the absence of any Diamond aircraft. I had wanted to see the new DA52 twin which looks to be a very capable addition to their fleet. Overall, there did not appear to be anything new over last year's show.
In the exhibition halls I spent a little time at the SkyDemon stand where the iPad version of the navigation software was demonstrated to me. It looked great and very useable. I also had ten to fifteen minutes playing with the Garmin 695 portable GPS unit. I am tempted to buy my own to use in my Piper Arrow which has a very old Garmin 155 that works ok but is pretty basic compared to the new units available today.
By mid afternoon there was a steady stream of aircraft heading home, perhaps needing to get back to base before their aerodrome closed. Being based at Blackpool, we could leave a lot later and still be back before closing time at 9pm. The strong easterly wind had not subsided by 6:30pm when we left an almost empty parking area to return home. Kim taxied us to the hold for our departure checks and we were soon in the air, reversing our outbound route home to Blackpool. Once again, the PFD failed to initialise and the autopilot misbehaved, but apart from that it was a routine flight back. We landed at Blackpool a little before 8pm.
All in all, a good day out. Having a specific destination and reason for going there certainly gives purpose to the flying, rather than aimlessly ambling around the local area. We are planning a visit to the Goodwood Festival of Speed Aviation Exhibition at the end of June, this time in the Cessna 172SP. An overnight stay could be on the cards depending on the weather outlook at the time. I hope to fly again before that trip and you'll be reading about it here if I do.
Aero Expo ran this year for three days, Friday to Sunday, beginning on May 25th and it was this first day that I was attending.The evening before, I checked the weather forecasts and all looked to be good apart from a brisk easterly wind that would give us a significant crosswind component for the landing and later departure from Sywell. The route I planned was from Blackpool, down the Manchester Low Level Corridor to NANTI, then direct to SAPCO which is near Hinckley, and on to Sywell. This track took us between Birmingham and East Midlands airspace and calculated out at 123 nautical miles.
I was in command for the flight out and Kim would fly us home later. I stayed overnight at Blackpool on Thursday and got to the airport early on Friday to preflight and fuel the Cirrus. I was advised that the Avidyne PFD (primary flight display) had an intermittent fault in that it would lose the attitude indicator, percentage power tape and HSI. Apparently sometimes it worked and at others it didn't. When I powered up to go for fuel it all worked fine, but returning to park after, it didn't work at all. It was not a show stopper for a VFR flight and we'd see what happened later.
I had topped the tanks up and had full fuel for the journey, as with several hundred aircraft expected at Sywell, I did not want to wait for fuel and waste valuable time. I started the engine and it was soon apparent that the PFD was not going to work. We still had the autopilot, GPS and a good old fashioned magnetic compass, although the GPS will display magnetic track also. After power checks we departed runway 10 and headed off towards the low level route. I hand flew this leg, only engaging the autopilot when we were established towards NANTI. We step climbed to 3000 feet for the cruise down to Sywell as I played around setting the power to give an indicated airspeed of 120 knots. Usually this is done by setting 60% power, but as I said, the indicator was not working. Around 23 inches manifold pressure worked ok and the fuel flow was set at 8.4 usg hour.
The autopilot appeared to be working ok but the PFD was dead. I had to set the verticle speed on the head of the autopilot. Despite altitude capture mode being engaged, it went through 3000 feet and I had to manually hit alt hold. It tracked the GPS route ok but when we were coming home pressing nav resulted in a track capture cut at 90 degrees which was bizarre. It then flew through the required course heading for who knows where! If you hand flew the aircraft onto track and then hit nav/alt it worked ok.
Nearing Sywell we reviewed the arrival procedures for runway 03L which could have involved holding in a left hand pattern at the Pitsford Reservoir if traffic was heavy. In the event there was just a Cessna ahead of us so we followed him in and positioned on short final for the hard runway. The surface wind was given as 090/17kts and the Cirrus handled well as we touched down nicely and taxied onto the grass to park. Flight time was 75 minutes into the headwind we had on the trip down. There were lots of aircraft already there and we had a long walk to get our passes and pay the £10 landing fee.
We landed at 12:30 and had the rest of the afternoon available to look at the aircraft and walk around the exhibition buildings where lots of goodies were on display and for sale.
 |
| Beechcraft G58 Twin |
 |
| Cirrus SR22 |
 |
| "Big Twin" |
 |
| £700,000 for the yellow Bentley? |
I sat in a Baron G58 twin that had been flow across the Atlantic. It felt very sturdy and with its G1000 screens and 315 HP engines, very capable. I also sampled the single Beechcraft Bonanza G36 which felt identical except it had only one engine. The Piper Seneca twin was present again this year although I did not climb aboard as last year. The Technam Twins were also on display but I was a little disappointed at the absence of any Diamond aircraft. I had wanted to see the new DA52 twin which looks to be a very capable addition to their fleet. Overall, there did not appear to be anything new over last year's show.
In the exhibition halls I spent a little time at the SkyDemon stand where the iPad version of the navigation software was demonstrated to me. It looked great and very useable. I also had ten to fifteen minutes playing with the Garmin 695 portable GPS unit. I am tempted to buy my own to use in my Piper Arrow which has a very old Garmin 155 that works ok but is pretty basic compared to the new units available today.
By mid afternoon there was a steady stream of aircraft heading home, perhaps needing to get back to base before their aerodrome closed. Being based at Blackpool, we could leave a lot later and still be back before closing time at 9pm. The strong easterly wind had not subsided by 6:30pm when we left an almost empty parking area to return home. Kim taxied us to the hold for our departure checks and we were soon in the air, reversing our outbound route home to Blackpool. Once again, the PFD failed to initialise and the autopilot misbehaved, but apart from that it was a routine flight back. We landed at Blackpool a little before 8pm.
All in all, a good day out. Having a specific destination and reason for going there certainly gives purpose to the flying, rather than aimlessly ambling around the local area. We are planning a visit to the Goodwood Festival of Speed Aviation Exhibition at the end of June, this time in the Cessna 172SP. An overnight stay could be on the cards depending on the weather outlook at the time. I hope to fly again before that trip and you'll be reading about it here if I do.
posted by David M at 5:27 PM
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