Date: 17/1/2009
Time: 15:00 - 15:30
Aircraft: Ikarus C42 - G-CEAN
Windy Practice
The forecasts for today were not favorable. My slot was at 15:00 - exactly when high winds, low cloud and rain were supposed to come in. It was already windy. It was looking a bit unlikely, but a quick call to Airbourne and I found that an aircraft was available in the preceding slot, so I decided to give it a go, race down there and try to beat the weather.
By the time I had go the plane out and fuelled and inspected it it was already 15:00; the clouds were building and quite windy, possibly 20 gusting 30 knots. Wouldn't want any more than that, so off for a quick whizz.
On take off, you could immediately feel the plane being pushed around by the wind. I climbed to about 2000' heading north towards Hannington - progress was very swift with the southerly wind and I gave it some speed to give a high speed over the ground. After turning around Hannington mast, I then tried going slowly - not too slow as I couldn't risk a stall due to the low cloud keeping me at 2000'. It felt like I had stopped! Then back on the throttle to give 80 knots air speed, but progress back to the airfield was really slow. My final approach to landing was a little bit wobbly, but steadying it with a little power and got a perfect touch-down.
Probably a more interesting flight rather than entertaining. Looking at my GPS logs I had achieved a highest ground speed of 118 knots and a lowest of 18! A whole 100 different.