Weekend in Newquay

Early in July I reserved a Cirrus SR20 for a full weekend trip away. My intention was to go to Newquay in Cornwall, or more precisely, to Mawgan Porth, a small coastal town just a few miles from the airfield. I began studying the weather several days before the planned day of departure, which was Saturday July 29^th and all looked to be shaping up well for the flights.

I had been told about Mawgan Porth by a fellow flyer who said it was a lovely spot, with a wide curving beach and places to eat. An added attraction was that only a short bus or taxi ride from the airport would be needed to get there. My wife Janet is not a great flyer, and tends to worry about trips in the plane. This would be her first outing since we travelled to Alderney for our honeymoon over two years ago.

One element of flying that I enjoy is the planning of a trip: selecting the route and altitude to fly, preparing the charts with the intended track and studying the arrival airport procedures and rules to be followed. I fly with GPS as the primary navigation source but use VORs or GPS2 to cross check position, along with looking visually for features on the map. This works providing I can see the ground. We would be flying a very similar route to the one I flew when I last visited Newquay a couple of years ago. The only difference was we would be staying closer to land on the initial part of the trip as the Cirrus is a single engine aeroplane. Last time I went in the Twinstar.

I marked up my chart with radials and distances from the STU VOR out on the west coast of Wales, marking the points where they crossed my intended GPS track. If you then select the bearing to display on the HSI it gives you a good cross check that you are where you think you are. Wales is a mountainous area and I had selected FL80 for the outbound cruising level as this would also keep us nice and high over the hills and on the water crossing over the Bristol Channel. A slight left turn to hug the coast when south of Swansea was also an option. I decided I would talk to Liverpool and London Military on the way to Newquay, as both are well equipped with radar and helpful controllers.

The Saturday morning weather did not start too well. We drove up to Blackpool, leaving at 8am, and passed through some low cloud and showers on the M61. This was not good for Janet’s comfort level, but I believed the weather would improve later. On arrival at EGNH I set about checking the aircraft and loading our bags. With Janet in the right hand seat, we went to fill the tanks with avgas. I cursed the weather gods as they decided to make it rain as we settled in to start the engine and Janet said this is the “worst weather I’ve ever flown in”. With the airfield data copied to my kneepad, we taxied to point E2 for our engine checks. The rain had stopped as I back tracked runway 28 for an extra 500 metres or so of take off run. We were heavy and the extra distance is an additional safety margin should anything go wrong.

With a left turn off runway 28, we climbed to around 2000 feet and headed south past RAF Woodvale and on towards the west of Wallasey. I contacted Liverpool ATC who gave me a squawk code. On reaching the land we turned onto a direct track to SWANY near Swansea. The controller was very helpful when I said we were climbing to FL80, advising me of Class A airspace at FL55 to the west. I already knew about this due to the planning I had done, but it was nice to know a second pair of “radar eyes” was watching too.

I expected Wales to be overcast with clouds but I did not know at what altitude the cloud tops would be. The base of the clouds was around 2500 feet and I set the autopilot to climb to FL80 and controlled the track with the heading select function. I was able to climb all the way up without spending much time in clouds. The Cirrus has no ice protection and so it is essential to remain clear of clouds in sub-zero temperatures. At FL80 we were a few hundred feet above the overcast clouds and apart from a few areas where the tops went up another 500 feet or so, were in visual conditions and in sunshine. There was not a lot to see but Janet was happy as the sun was out! The outside temperature varied from -2 to -4 degrees Celsius.

FL80 over Wales

 

12nm north of SWANY (Swansea)

I said goodbye to Liverpool and called London Military and requested a radar traffic service. After a frequency change this was provided and we made our way down towards Swansea, with the Continental engine running at 70% power and a very healthy TAS and ground speed. As expected, most of the cloud disappeared after Swansea with clear conditions and a blue sky as we turned slightly towards the North Devon coast, passing Lundy Island on our right hand side a little later. The transfer to Newquay radar was made after I noted their weather conditions on the VHF radio. There was a heavy shower at the airfield and I requested radar vectors for an ILS approach to runway 13. We descended to FL40 and were turned to the east before further descent to 2500 feet, and intercepting the localiser to prepare for descent. At about 5 miles we entered a rain shower but soon came through it. The glide path indicator suddenly went off the display and as I was pondering my next move I looked up and saw the runway. We landed in light rain and taxied to the general aviation parking area and shut down. It was just after mid day and the flight took two hours from brakes off to brakes on.

General Aviation parking area at Newquay

 

Although I did not need handling by Weston Aviation, the lady came out in her van to drive us to the office as it was still raining. I thanked her but still had some paperwork to do in the aircraft before we left it for the day. Weston arranged to fuel the Cirrus for us and efficiently saw us on our way. I was impressed with their service.

The weather for the hour after we arrived did not look promising with clouds and rain, but it soon cheered up and improved dramatically. I had booked a room at the only place available,having left it so late to decide. The Smugglers Inn/Airport Hotel is just a few minutes’ walk from the terminal. The only reason I got this room was because the guys who run it had just completed their purchase the week before and had not begun to sell the rooms. It was just as well as there appeared to be nowhere else convenient to stay.

We headed back to the airport to pick up a taxi to drop us in Mawgan Porth and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening there. There is a very nice, clean beach with lifeguards and surprisingly, it was not crowded, even though it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the peak season.

"Downtown" Mawgan Porth

A beautiful location in Cornwall:Mawgan Porth Beach

Mawgan Porth in July 2012

A happy but hungry Mancunian in Cornwall

The few people on the beach began to leave around 5pm and we stayed another hour or so before walking to the "Fire" restaurant for a very nice meal. The journey back to the hotel proved more difficult than you might imagine. I rang the taxi company who dropped us earlier but as they were based in Newquay, wanted £12 just to drive to where we were. Being someone who likes value for money, this did not appeal to me. So we headed to the bus stop to find that the last bus that called at the airport had already gone. There was another in 40 minutes but that would involve a lengthy walk from the nearest stop to the airport. Resigned to this walk, Janet told the driver where we wanted to go and amazingly he said he'd take us to the airport. In fact he dropped us right outside the hotel which was a very nice thing to do for us.

Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of rain on the roof outside our room and a vista of clouds on the horizon. The TV weather suggested that the afternoon would be the best time to head home over Wales again and that left several hours to further explore the area. When you have no car it's clearly a little more difficult in getting around to places. So after a very nice breakfast we set off to walk down to St Mawgan, a little village about a mile away, down a hill. Of course, what goes down must come up, and getting back up that hill later,on foot, was a bit of a challenge.

St Mawgan was a very quiet but pretty village and the home to a pub called the "Falcon Inn" where I'd tried to book a room earlier in the week. The church is the only other significant building there, but ambling around and having a drink in the outside tearoom of the post office was very pleasant. The weather had cleared up by now and it was warm and sunny. Time to tackle that hill, pick up our luggage from the hotel, and head for the airport.

St Mawgan's church

We walked over to Weston Aviation's office at the airport and as promised, the Cirrus had been fuelled up and the invoice for the landing and parking was ready. I settled the bill and went out to pre-flight the aircraft. All looked well so I listened to the ATIS for the airfield data and requested engine start. It usually takes a couple of minutes for the avionics to power up and self test before the plane is ready to go, but today the Primary Flight Display would not initialise. I have had the same problem in this particular aircraft before and it leaves you with no HSI or attitude indicator. The percentage power tape is also unavailable. This problem did not mean we couldn't fly, but it did mean no flying through or in the clouds. This could have prevented the flight had the weather conditions not been as they were. As it was, we departed with the problem and I'd rethink our return route as we went.

The cloud base on take off meant we levelled at 2000 feet as we flew up the coast, but it soon became apparent we'd be able to climb as the cloud was breaking up. Later, I could see ahead that the cloud tops over Wales were high, but as they were broken, we'd have a way up and back down again without going into them. I started a climb and eventually levelled off at FL90. Over to the west the weather looked very good and so I decided to head up towards North Wales. The view from 9000 feet was amazing.

On the way home: Cornwall to the east

How high are those cloud tops?

The view from 9000 feet over Wales

The weather was looking much better than the forecasts had suggested and so when I asked Janet if she fancied a stop at Caernarfon, she readily agreed. We started a slow descent as I headed towards Pwllheli, passing a fine, unused airfield at Llanbedr over to our right. I know this area of Wales very well and did not need a map to tell me our position. The descent continued and we soon spotted the high mast near Penygroes, over 2000 feet above sea level. I called up Caernarfon radio and as it was very quiet, joined left base runway 26 and the wheels touced down exactly one hour and sixteen minutes after leaving Newquay.

After a drink and a walk to the seafront, we set off on the last leg of the weekend back to Blackpool. The departure from runway 26 takes you out over the sea before turning right and climbing between the flat island of Angelsey and the dramatic high mountains of the mainland. There are two castles to look at on the way along the coast, at Caernarfon and Conway and the lovely Victorian town of Llandudno with its long pier. Passing Rhyl and Prestatyn and then the mouths of the River Dee and then the Mersey, we turn left spotting RAF Woodvale, then Southport, before landing again at Blackpool.

This trip was probably the last weekend away of the year and as the nights close in earlier as we enter September, the opportunities to go places are reduced. The Cirrus is a very capable touring machine and with its advanced avionics is a pleasure to fly. That's when the avionics are working, of course!

SR20 to Caernarfon

Two weeks after returning from the trip to France, I called in at Barton on a Sunday morning to get into the air for an hour and fly my Arrow. It had been a few weeks since I took my last flight in her, as she had just returned from maintenance in Liverpool. I picked up a few litres of fuel and started the engine. On powering the avionics I discovered that the GPS was dead. The lack of satellite navigation guidance should not be a big problem, but after ten years of having the device on, it was a little disconcerting.

With only me on board, HALC lifted off and climbed strongly into the morning air. After the initial surprise of not having a “magenta line” to look at, I just navigated with my eyes alone. I have been flying in the area for years so didn’t really need a map to see where I was. I flew to the west of Winter Hill and then thought I’d head up past Blackpool Tower to Fleetwood. An hour later I was back at Barton putting the plane in the hanger and snagging the GPS.

See, you can fly without a GPS!

The following Friday morning I drove up to Blackpool to prepare to fly a work colleague in the Cirrus SR20. Earlier in the week I had thought of going to Sywell but, with the weather looking poor in the Midlands, I looked at heading north. There was only Kirkbride and Carlisle I could really think of, but Carlisle is now very expensive and there’s nothing to see or do at Kirkbride and no cafe.

A taste of weather to come in the Blackpool Sky

In the end the weather dictated the destination and it was to my old friend Caernarfon that I turned. I had not flown with Jane for two years, so she was due a trip and it was to the same place I took her last time. The Cirrus is a far more modern, new technology airplane than HALC and Jane was suitably impressed. The golf open at Lytham St Anne’s was in progress and air traffic control was keen to keep us away from the course. The departure clearance was to fly runway 10, left turn out and climb not above 1500 feet overhead the airfield with a squawk number. This all went smoothly and we were soon passing Woodvale and then to the west of Wallasey. The weather here was good but passing Llandudno the air filled with scattered or broken clouds and there was a shower or two near Bangor. We spotted the airfield at Caernarfon and joined overhead for runway 26. A smooth landing was followed by a sandwich in the cafe and a brisk walk to the sea.

Jane and the Cirrus at Caernarfon

"I am not a number, I'm a free man!"

Caernarfon airfield has many things going for it: it’s in a beautiful area of Wales, it’s very near the beach, has a good cafe, an aviation museum and a great coast line to walk, either on the sand or paths. From the airfield entrance you turn right and about 500 metres down the road is the beach. Jane was up for the walk to the shops that are about a mile and a half away, and so we headed that way at a fair pace. Usually this stretch of coast is busy in the summer but today it was almost deserted. Just a few dog walkers were around but no camper vans or cars were parked up and no families in evidence. The ice cream shop at the end of the walk has a huge variety of flavours to try and is next to the great British fish and chip shop. Licking your ice cream whilst smelling the odour of chips is a little odd!

There was no great hurry to get back to the airfield as this weather was blocking our way.

Weather activity on the Welsh coast

  We watched the rain approach our location and at one point I thought a drenching was a real possibility. Luckily, the rain and whole weather system moved into the mountains and left the way home clearer. The walk back to the airfield was cooler as the breeze had picked up, but twenty minutes later we were back at the airfield. For one moment I thought the field closed at 5pm but it was in fact 6pm. In the end we got away with a half an hour left on opening time.

The Cirrus flew off runway 26 and turned towards home, passing Bangor, Llandudno and Rhyl. We had to stay low due to the clouds, but then climbed to 2000 feet for the cruise to Blackpool. Another smooth landing on runway 10 and we taxied in and parked up. Jane enjoyed the flight and gave the Cirrus thumbs up over HALC which is hardly surprising I suppose. Comparing a 1972 airplane and a 2008 airplane will usually result in a win for the new one.

I now had to get home for a night out at a local venue for a retirement gathering. But that is another story.