Date: 24/01/2010
Time: 12:40 - 13:45
Aircraft: Eurostar EV-97 - G-CEDV
Bembridge
When I got to the airfield I found the Chichester
Film Club were all over the place, making a film involving flying a microlight.
They were also all taking trial flights - John was either elected or selected
to entertain them all day. They even had a script - including lines for John
(known as Andrew) - I think he will be wanting his own dressing room soon.
The other odd thing today, was that I was there
before Colin - not because I was early, just he wasn't as early as normally
is. Once again, I really didn't think that today was going to happen. The forecast
hadn't looked too good, particularly from a cloud point of view, but this morning
the TAF's showed the cloudbase should be about 3500'. We had decided to go to
Bembridge (at my request) by my favorite route.
Who
knows if they filmed when we fueled and prepped the aircraft, or when I took
off (from the intersection due to dampness). We head off to the southwest, but
soon came to a cloudbank that restricted our altitude to 1500'. Once we got
past the CMATZ stub, we looked at climbing up above the next bank, but they
looked a bit too continuous and we couldn't risk getting stuck above them at
the New Forest, where we have a maximum altitude of 2000' - we chose to go back
below them. We crossed the Solent at Hurst Castle, where there were still a
lot of clouds, but reduced once we got to the Needles.
Round
the coast to St. Catherine's and a bit of RT practice to Bembridge (we were
doing our training yesterday). Round the southwest coast and we join the circuit.
Unfortunately, I let myself get rattled by someone close behind me and wanted
to get down quickly and off by the intersection without backtracking - I rounded
out a bit early and resulted in being a bit slow, but OK - touchdown was smooth
and straight though.
Disaster
- they have run out of bacon!!! We had to have toasted ham and cheese sandwiches
instead. No great hurry, so we have a couple of cups of tea aswell.
Colin flies the homebound trip. We cross the Solent
to Hayling Island and have the ability to climb to a better altitude - 4-4500'.
Visibility is also somewhat better flying out of the sun. Up to Petersfield
and then straight back to Popham - deadside join and down. They
are still filming.
Another treat - once again I didn't think we were
going anywhere and we ended up having another lovely flight.
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Who
knows if they filmed when we fueled and prepped the aircraft, or when I took
off (from the intersection due to dampness). We head off to the southwest, but
soon came to a cloudbank that restricted our altitude to 1500'. Once we got
past the CMATZ stub, we looked at climbing up above the next bank, but they
looked a bit too continuous and we couldn't risk getting stuck above them at
the New Forest, where we have a maximum altitude of 2000' - we chose to go back
below them. We crossed the Solent at Hurst Castle, where there were still a
lot of clouds, but reduced once we got to the Needles. 
