Date: 17/1/2015
Time: 14:30 - 15:15 (GMT)
Aircraft: EuroFOX - G-UFOX
Lee on Solent
There is a very large cargo vessel that is stricken
in the Solent. It was coming out from Southampton, when it started listing heavily
to one side. The captain and pilot made a impressively quick and brave decision
that the best thing to do was to ground it on the Bramble Bank, which is a shallow
area of a sand bank - this would stop it sinking altogether and also take it
out of the main shipping channel, so that it won't block that. Later it was
freed from the bank and parked (still listing) in the middle of the Solent between
Cowes and Lee on Solent, being held by anchors and tugs whilst they deal with
the flooding and ballast. Being nosey, I wanted to go and have a look.
The forecast for this weekend has been changing
every few hours, so has been a little difficult to plan. Even this morning it
rained whist I was at home and again when I was nearly at Popham - then blue
skies. My original idea was to fly down, have a look and then go to Sandown
for lunch, changeover pilots and home. However, Sandown is shut due to the wetness,
so maybe we could go to Bembridge. I call them in the morning and yes, they
are open, but only have 300' cloudbase, so that won't work (the pub and the
cafe are also shut too). Maybe we could go to Goodwood - we call them, but again
due to the wet, they only have one runway open and that is a bit too much crosswind
for my liking. What about Lee on Solent - they are indeed open and have a hard
runway, but we are warned that with all the changes going on there, they don't
have anything in the way of facilities. So we chose to have our bacon butties
before we leave at Popham's cafe.
It's
Ian's turn for the outbound leg. We take off from 21 and circle into the overhead,
then head south east. The visibility is pretty good and there are some bands
of cloud at about 2500'. Over Butser Hill and we can see the Solent and Isle
of Wight clearly. Once we cross Langstone Harbour we turn west along the mainland
coast - the boat is in front of us. There is an exclusion zone around it, but
only of 1nm radius and only up to 1000'. We then turn to the south to go round
the outside of the exclusion zone, which then should put us ready for a downwind
join at Lee.
Yep
- the ship doesn't look too well and is still at a heavy list angle. We keep
outside the exclusion zone and also stay safely well above the 1000' so we can't
be accused of getting in their way. Ian slows the plane down to 60knots so that
I can open the passenger door to take some pictures. Perhaps not as good as
I would have liked, but the auto-focus didn't always want to co-operate and
actually it is blooming cold - I can only hold the camera out
for a limited time. Ah well, a bit of fun. 
We
then do a quick orbit, as Ian contacts Lee Radio and we join downwind. We land
near the threshold of 23 and then are asked to expedite taxiing right down to
the far end - there is only so fast we can safely go. We park on the grass outside
the tower.
We
go inside and mount the many levels of stair before we get to the control tower
room to sign in and pay the landing fee. We chat to the guys there. Lee on Solent
seems to change every time we go there and it is in a state of change at the
moment. It seems the local council have paid for the runway to be resurfaced.
They are hoping to open a cafe in a room down below and open up some more area
as the airfield becomes more privatised. They are also planning to put some
hangars over the other side for GA aircraft. Indeed they seem to be promoting
the GA traffic there. Still there isn't much there at the moment so after using
the loo (amusing sign on the door), we set off back.
My turn and after a checkover, we taxi round the
outside to the threshold of 23 and takeoff. We continue in the same direction
out over the Solent and again, we circumnavigate the exclusion zone. Where before
we were on our own, this time we are joined by two other aircraft who I presume
are also coming to have a look. I then continue to the west, over Beaulieu and
up over the New Forest. It is quite unusual for me to do the west side of the
Southampton zone in this direction - I am usually going the other way. It does
look a little different this way. Back at Popham, we join overhead and land
on 26.
A nice flight to start the year.
Return to 2015 Index
Return to main Index
It's
Ian's turn for the outbound leg. We take off from 21 and circle into the overhead,
then head south east. The visibility is pretty good and there are some bands
of cloud at about 2500'. Over Butser Hill and we can see the Solent and Isle
of Wight clearly. Once we cross Langstone Harbour we turn west along the mainland
coast - the boat is in front of us. There is an exclusion zone around it, but
only of 1nm radius and only up to 1000'. We then turn to the south to go round
the outside of the exclusion zone, which then should put us ready for a downwind
join at Lee. 
