Date: 25/10/2014

Time: 14:55 - 15:50 (13:55 - 14:50 GMT)

Aircraft: EuroFOX - G-UFOX

Gloucestershire

We decided to go to Gloucestershire Airport today - somewhat for monetary reasons. Firstly, we have free landing vouchers and secondly we both need a new carbon monoxide detectors, which we hope to buy from the Transair shop.

This week, Colin is on night shift, so cannot make it, but Jac has one of her work colleagues with her - a young girl called Amy (possible spelling). It is her first flight in a small aircraft, so this should be interesting. The forecast isn't bad either.

It's Ian's turn for the outbound journey - we take off from 21 and circle into the overhead to wait for Jac - it doesn't take too long and we have to catch up. The cloudbase isn't as high as forecast and seems to be decreasing as we make progress. We creep into the lead and when we go past Cirencester we are down below 1800' and get some spots of drizzle on the windscreen - not too bad though. We also experiment with the dual watch on the radio, which is quite useful and we get the Gloucestershire ATIS. We join overhead and are transferred from Approach to Tower.

Whilst on the downwind leg, we are told to do a left hand orbit (on a right-hand circuit) and then turn final after a Cessna that is on left base. We are desperately looking out for this aircraft and thankfully see it, as it would be embarrassing continuing on it we missed it (viz isn't brilliant). The woman on the radio tells us to taxi following the Cessna ahead, which Ian very correctly ignores as he is right at the point of the final throws of touchdown. She repeats, which he can now acknowledge.

When we get to the parking area, a marshal is parking the Cessna ahead, so we wait and then are beckoned to an area in front of a hangar. We are confused as to where he wants us to park and he seems equally confused - we open the door and he asks us if we have finished for the day. We tell him that we are visiting and have only just got here - then the penny drops. A sister EuroFOX, G-EFOX is based at Gloucester and has very similar colour scheme - the marshal assumed we were it and directed us to in front of it's hangar. We pushed the plane back to the grass area in front of the fire station. Jac joined us shortly and parked next to us.

We went in through arrivals and booked in. Unfortunately, the Transair is only a fraction of it's former self and do not have the CO monitors. Then we went over the road to the Aviator and had some tea and lunch. Some time later we see G-EFOX arrive - when we leave we have a little chat with the occupants - who we had previously met at Compton Abbas.

After a quick checkover and longer warmup, we are off and are directed by Ground up to hold E1. When on Tower, we are then told to line-up and wait on 22 whilst another aircraft is landing on 27. When they are finally down, we are cleared for takeoff - I open the throttle and the acceleration on a tarmac surface always surprises me. I am just beginning to push the stick forward to lift the tail and it is already up. We are in the air in no time and climbing to the south. We are obliged to keep on the same heading until we get past Chosen Hill and I also cannot climb too high until we get past the far threshold. Once on our heading, I slow to wait for Jac. After quite a while, I give her a call and it seems she has already slipped by us and is well ahead - drat!

It's a nice journey back, and pretty much follow the reverse of the outbound journey. We join overhead for 26 (runway has changed) and land.

Another lovely flight and Amy seems to have enjoyed it too.

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