Date: 26/02/2012
Time: 10:55 - 12:15 (GMT) and 15:05 - 15:40 (GMT)
Aircraft: Eurostar EV-97 - G-CERE
Husbands Bosworth, Fowlmere and Elstree
Another all day adventure for our usual 4-person
team. For once the weather doesn't look too bad so I take my bike to the airfield.
Despite my attempt to get there in good time, I have no idea what happened,
but I failed. The plan was to go to Husbands
Bosworth (near Rugby), Fowlmere (near Duxford) and Panshanger, but Ian and I
have already been there, so we decide to go to Elstree instead - otherwise I
wouldn't get any Alphabet Challenge points at all.
After
checkout, I take off on 03 with Jac and head north to Hannington Mast. There
is a cloud bank at Overton and I choose to go above it. It is nice, clear and
smooth here and fortunately the cloud thins so I can drop down towards Wokingham
to go below the LTMA airspace. However, the visibility isn't so good at these
lower levels. Then north past Henley on to Aylesbury and here I can climb back
up as it is getting cloudier, but abeam Milton Keynes the cloud gets so thick
that I have to dive under it as I won't be able to see through it - the vis
is poor. Then past Northampton, there are plenty of lakes to navigate by and
we find the airfield. Husbands Bosworth is a gliding site and there are no overhead
joins. 
I
join downwind, but turning base we see a glider that was hanging around has
decided to land - he rightly has priority, so I go-around. We spot another glider
heading in to land, so I extend upwind to give them time to land. Heading downwind
we have another go, but the second glider has landed and stopped blocking the
runway. I elect to go around (again) at circuit height, despite the guy on the
radio, who suggests that I could land over the top of them - I am not comfortable
with this. 
On
the third go round I get to land. We then have to wait on the south side of
the runway for permission to cross over to the north side taxiway Once the glider
on the winch launch is flung into the air, we are allowed to cross and head
off to the parking area. Here we see a rather unusual Tiger Moth that has an
enclosed cabin. We head into the clubhouse - they don't have any bacon, so we
have some baps filled with roast chicken and stuffing - a lovely change.
Jac
flies me in G-DV on the next leg to Fowlmere. The HB runway is quite long, so
we don't need to bother backtracking past the winch point and we head to the
south east. My route was to go via Grafham Water as this kept me away from the
myriad of airfields along the route and gave good visual points. Jac's route
is more direct and weaves in and out of the airfields. Visibility is still crap.
As
we get closer, we have to call Duxford as Fowlmere is so close to them - they
are very helpful and even give us the Fowlmere QFE. We then change to the Fowlmere
frequency and join downwind - this takes us just inside the Duxford ATZ. The
final approach shows the airstrip to be quite wide, with a bit of an upslope.
Even before touchdown I can tell that the runway is really smooth and the landing
bears this out. We then head down the taxiway to the hangers - this taxiway
looks large enough to land on. We park up, sign in and have a chat.
For the next leg it's all change and we are going
on our separate ways - Colin and Jac to Panshanger and Ian and I to Elstree.
The aircraft planning has carefully kept pilots flying the same aircraft. After
check and warmup, we follow Colin down the taxiway, backtrack the runway and
take-off in turn. My first stint was quite long and now this one is my short
leg. We head south and under the Luton/Stansted airspace and it's a bit claggy.
We watch the others drifting to the west on their route to Panshanger. We pass
over Hertford and call Elstree before getting to Potters Bar. Elstree is a little
unusual in that they only do straight-in approaches. After rounding Potters
Bar we head West and call our position at the 4 miles / golf course VRP point.
The
airfield is conveniently just north of a lake, so is easy to spot. Then reporting
again at 2 miles, by the tall tower block - it's strange reporting "at
tall building". Then the final approach which I misjudge a little due to
the perception from the upsloping runway - not a problem though with 3rd stage
flap. After touch down, I do a backtrack and park up.
We
then have surprising amount of trouble finding where to sign in. The building
with the large "C" on it is easy and contains the control tower. On
the west side of the building is a door that is locked and on the east side
is a small vestibule with a signing book labeled "signing in for customs"
- is that really us? There is also a sign saying to use the door on the other
side of the building. We went back, but it was definitely locked. We went into
the cafe and asked there - they said that we are supposed to go into the control
tower. I hadn't wanted to barge into the tower, because these guys can be very
busy, but the controller was very friendly, it was the right place to pay the
landing fee and the signing in book we had seen was the right one. Best to check
though. I went back to the cafe, where Ian was buying some us some tea.
Ian
flies the final leg. We take off and then follow the exit route along the M1
up to Leavesden and the head west on the homebound journey. Around Beconsfield
to avoid the Heathrow TMA and then over Marlow, between Wycombe and Waltham.
At Henley we basically follow the reverse of the outbound route. Nearing the
airfield, we hear Jac landing. She had been given an advisory QFE, but we believe
that it may be a bit out compared to the QNH we have been using - so once Jac
is down we ask her for a QFE and this is much more accurate/believable. We land
on 26.
A lovely days flying and 1.5 points for the challenge
(loads of points for the others).
Return to 2012 Index
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After
checkout, I take off on 03 with Jac and head north to Hannington Mast. There
is a cloud bank at Overton and I choose to go above it. It is nice, clear and
smooth here and fortunately the cloud thins so I can drop down towards Wokingham
to go below the LTMA airspace. However, the visibility isn't so good at these
lower levels. Then north past Henley on to Aylesbury and here I can climb back
up as it is getting cloudier, but abeam Milton Keynes the cloud gets so thick
that I have to dive under it as I won't be able to see through it - the vis
is poor. Then past Northampton, there are plenty of lakes to navigate by and
we find the airfield. Husbands Bosworth is a gliding site and there are no overhead
joins. 
I
join downwind, but turning base we see a glider that was hanging around has
decided to land - he rightly has priority, so I go-around. We spot another glider
heading in to land, so I extend upwind to give them time to land. Heading downwind
we have another go, but the second glider has landed and stopped blocking the
runway. I elect to go around (again) at circuit height, despite the guy on the
radio, who suggests that I could land over the top of them - I am not comfortable
with this. 
On
the third go round I get to land. We then have to wait on the south side of
the runway for permission to cross over to the north side taxiway Once the glider
on the winch launch is flung into the air, we are allowed to cross and head
off to the parking area. Here we see a rather unusual Tiger Moth that has an
enclosed cabin. We head into the clubhouse - they don't have any bacon, so we
have some baps filled with roast chicken and stuffing - a lovely change.
