Sherburn-in-Elmet

A Change of Plan

The first club flyout of the year was planned to visit Perranporth in Cornwall, a very scenic airfield right on the edge of the cliffs just west of Newquay. With 3 pilots and up to 9 people, this would be quite a reasonable group and a good start to the annual program.

Our plans went awry when looking at the forecast. Although there was no wind or rain to worry about, low cloud in the south west meant we would at best be flying quite low, especially over the Mendips.

A phone call to Mike, one of the club instructors, provided some helpful guidance. He suggested I rang Newquay (this was before Perranporth had opened), and when they told me about seafog engulfing the runway down to 600 feet until mid afternoon, the decision was quickly made not to go there. Hastily, we replanned for the alternate of Sherburn-in-Elmet, just north of Doncaster. This popular GA airfield has a hard runway and would require good navigation and radio work to get there. The route I planned took us west of Birmingham and East Midlands, then over the Yorkshire moors on the way there, returning to the east over Scunthorpe , Melton Mowbray and Daventry. With an airborne flight time of around 1:30 each way, we’d be looking at about 4 hours total for the day.

Unfortunately one of the pilots, Andy, dropped out due to illness, leaving Bruce – another relatively new/low hours PPL – and myself each with two passengers. We each had one experienced (but out of currency) PPL and one student PPL passenger, so were fairly equally balanced.

Down to our last 2 GPS units

The crew had A-checked and preflighted both aircraft while both pilots had been deciding on the destination. I had already planned and printed out a PLOG for this alternate route using SkyDemon. Bruce hadn’t, so we waited while he worked out his own plan, sharing the details and waypoints I had used. I marked up the flight path on the chart, using for the first time the Northern chart I had bought earlier in the month. Thinking we were fully prepared, we mounted up and got ready to start the engines.

I pulled out my relatively new 7 inch GPS and powered it up, only to find that I had reconfigured it as a SatNav and not restored it to SkyDemon. If I had remembered, I could have been doing this while waiting in the clubhouse. Fortunately, I still had my older model and plugged that in – it wouldn’t have the route, the electronic charts were a few months out of date, but it should be good enough. Without having been used recently and with a flat battery, it took a long time to lock on to the GPS signal and determine a position – we had departed the airfield before it was fully locked on.

Additionally, we still had the onboard/built-in moving map GPS together with another older handheld Garmin owned by one of my passengers. With those, together with good charts, plenty of lookout and a plog to follow, I thought we would still be covered adequately.

Flying North

Taking off from 26, we turned right and climbed out leaving Aston Down well to port. We routed up overhead Gloucester, who gave us a basic service, then Halfpenny Green, then squawked a listening code of 0011 and tuned into Birmingham Radar. Further north, we switched to East Midlands and then Doncaster. It seemed there was low cloud over the moors, but as we approached we found we could fly at a reasonable level with plenty of visibility. There were some downdraughts though that made it a bit uncomfortable at times.

Just north of Wolverhampton

Bruce had chosen to fly much higher, some 4500 feet or so, and later reported it was much smoother up there. We could hear them saying they planned to switch to a Military LARS service north of Birmingham – this surprised us because we understood they didn’t work weekends, and was later borne out. Doncaster was really busy on the radio and we had trouble getting a word in edgeways, but did confirm a Basic Service. As we got closer to our destination, we changed to Fenton Approach – the military controller from Church Fenton. Sherburn lies just on the edge of their MATZ, and you have to ask for MATZ clearance before talking to Sherburn. We were allocated a discrete squawk, and as we reached some 5 miles out, I asked to change to the airfield frequency. I was given clearance and frequency change was approved.

Sherburn Radio were very helpful and gave clear airfield information. The overhead join was to be at 1500 feet, with the circuit active at 1000, so good height keeping was essential. There seemed to be someone flying in a strange direction at circuit height below me as I reached the overhead, but once descending the other circuit traffic became clearly visible.

We landed just as the aircraft ahead vacated the runway. Shortly afterwards, Bruce also landed and turned immediately off onto the grass to clear the runway and allow the following aircraft to land. I hadn’t realised you could do this, but fortunately there had been no-one immediately behind me.

We taxied into parking, and walked into the clubhouse to pay our fees and enjoy a well deserved lunch – Sausage Sandwich.

The crew for the flyout after arrival in Sherburn-in-Elmet.

Flying South

After refuelling – the price of AVGAS was over 10% cheaper there than at our home base – we took off and departed south to ensure we were clear of the MATZ. There is a slight kink in the flight path for noise abatement on departure, but otherwise straightforward. Turning East, we headed towards Goole and got a bit closer than I would have liked to Doncaster airspace – we were under the 2000 feet lower limit so didn’t infringe. Goole was clearly visible as was the view of the Humber (and the Humber Bridge) ahead. Turning south, we overflew Scunthorpe and routed via Melton Mowbray.

The sun was in our eyes now, and despite using sunglasses, the visibility ahead was more difficult because of it. I was glad of the extra pairs of eyes looking out onboard.

I picked up the Daventry VOR and DME signal quite early, and used these to track inbound and outbound from the Beacon. We talked to Coventry for a basic service, then switched to Brize as we got closer to home. Whether my routing was thought to be a bit close to Little Rissington or not, the controller was very helpful in reminding me they were active – we could see various gyrocopters in the circuit – and I routed a little further north to keep well clear.

Approaching Kemble, the sun was in our eyes and there were a couple of aircraft in the circuit. I elected to make a crosswind join over the runway, slotting in between the circuit traffic. The wind must have been quite variable and gusty – I found it sank during very short final and there was a (small) bounce. Where I had been advised of some 10-12 knots of wind, the next pilot was told the wind was calm.

We taxied back to parking where Bob was waiting ready to fly the aircraft away for its 50 hour maintenance check. Paperwork done, it wasn’t long before we were able to leave for home. A good days flying which had made first use of my new Northern Chart, this was more fun with the larger party of six and added almost 4 hours more PIC time in the log book.

The route on Google Earth (missing the start/finish near Kemble due to GPS issues) is shown below:

Flight track Kemble to/from Sherburn-in-Elmet. Green outbound, red return.

Hours today: 3:50
Total Hours: 178:15 (PIC 87:10)

Solo Navex to beat the snow

Almost snowed off

I’d arranged to fly in one of the club Warriors from Kemble with Andy today, with the intention of practicing some IMC approaches. Looking at the forecast, it didn’t look like we could make a full day of it – snow was expected to arrive after lunchtime – so the best that we thought we could do was a short “local” flight around the area. Andy wasn’t keen to do this, so I decided to take the opportunity and fit in a morning navex (Navigation Exercise).

Having decided to do this, I carefully plotted the route on SkyDemon and checked the weather and NOTAMs before printing it out. The route would be to the south west, overhead Badminton, then intercept the ILS and fly the localiser towards Filton (not under the hood because I didn’t have a safety pilot), then south west across Bath south of Colerne. I’d route back via Lyneham to Kemble, but was particularly keen to spot Wadworth Farm strip from overhead – I’d not been able to pick it out before.

Remarkably rapid departure

It was relatively easy to get things organised when I arrived. A couple of phone calls got me  authorisation from an instructor and there were no calls to landaway airfields to make. After taking the covers off, most of the frost could easily be wiped off with gloved hands, so that after 15 minutes I was ready to go. After completing the A check, I was pleased to find the engine started pretty much first time. Leaving it to warm up, I ensured my GPS was all setup with the flight plan and the radios were all tuned in.

But delayed while the engine warmed up

Although I’d taken several minutes before taxing, I still found I needed to wait several more minutes at the hold for the oil temperature to rise before I could conduct the power checks. There was a helicopter practising at the end of the runway, and after it departed I was the only traffic in the zone.

Flying toward Filton

Departing to the south west, I quickly identified the usual landmarks of Tetbury and the Fosse Way. I had time to clearly identify the runway at Badminton with a view to landing there sometime. Bristol radar gave me a discrete squawk code “for conspicuity purposes only” and I was pleased that there weren’t any problems with the transponder today. Flying south to the M4, I was able to identify the Filton ILS and flew towards it checking that I wasn’t about to bust Bristol airspace. Filton is closed at weekends (apart from emergency  lifts by the air ambulance) and their ILS path is outside controlled airspace anyway, so I wasn’t conflicting with anyone.

Badminton House with airfield on the right hand side

Without any pressure to track the ILS closely under the hood, I was able to keep a good lookout while watching the needles converge. I broke off the approach at the edge of the Filton ATZ – although it isn’t active at weekends, I suspect there is no reason why I couldn’t continue down to a lower level, but I had done enough. The view of that extremely long and wide runway on approach is quite something.

I kept marking up my Plog as I routed back towards Pucklechuch, and kept below 2000 feet to ensure I didn’t enfringe Bristol airspace. Once overhead Bath Racecourse, the limit rises to 3500 feet and bearing in mind the glide clear rule, I climbed a little higher. Bristol reminded me that Colerne was active today and I confirmed my routing would be to the south.

I got a great view of the city of Bath and was able to pick out many of the landmarks.

Bath City Centre, Avon river and railway station

Wadworth Farm Strip is just outside the south edge of Colerne ATZ, a few miles east of Bath, and I managed to pick it out this time as I passed to the south of it.

Wadworth Farm Strip - Just below the lower orange field, left to right with buildings below

The Grob Tutors from Colerne were active today in the airspace around Lyneham, and were getting a traffic service from Bristol. It seemed that we were the only three aircraft in the area and well covered by the radar service. Visibility was starting to reduce now, so I thought it sensible to return to Kemble as planned.

Making a standard overhead join for 26, I underestimated the southerly wind (it was reported at 7-10 knots on the surface) and overshot the turn onto final, but managed to recover and was lined up by short final leading to a reasonable touchdown.

Deadside descent into Kemble from the north

Back to the pumps for refuelling and then to parking. By the time I’d finished the paperwork less than half an hour later, there were snowflakes falling outside the club room. I think I had just about timed it right. With the snow forecast to be heavy in the coming week, Heathrow cancelling 1/3 of all flights the following day, this would likely be the last private flight for a few weeks.

Hours today: 1:05
Total Hours: 174:25 (PIC 83:20)

Gamston and back

Flying during the working week

I had a day off in lieu due to me because of working the previous weekend, so with an eye on the weather forecast arranged to take it at short notice. With all three of the club PA28 aircraft either being booked or away for servicing, the only choice left to me was the smaller Robin HR200. I’d completed the differences training on it back in June of the previous year, but never taken it on a landaway. It’s cheaper per hour than the PA28, which was also a positive thought. It has the usual six-pack of instruments including a VOR.

Robin control panel

When considering where I might go, the poorer weather slowly creeping in from the West suggested I should go North or East. Connington, Barton or Gamston sprung to mind and I was pleased to find that my current Southerly chart stretches as far north as these places. Deciding against routing through the Manchester low level route on my own (I’d prefer to have at least one more set of eyes to keep a sharp lookout), I plumped for Gamston. The routing was to be to the East side on the way up, and return via the West side of the Birmingham and East Midlands CTAs.

A slow and cold start

It was -9C outside in the morning, and my first problem was that the car wouldn’t start. After putting the charger on and waiting a little while, I managed to coax it into life and set off for the airfield around 9am.

The club was busier today, with a couple of students and instructors organizing themselves. Roger suggested I should see if the Robin would start before doing anything else, because it hadn’t been used for 2 weeks and had been sitting out in the cold all that time. I did this, finding that while the engine would turn, it just wouldn’t fire up. After a call to the owner, and a pause, I tried again and finally got it to start and let it warm up for a few minutes. The trick seemed to be continually pumping the throttle while turning the starter.

After completing the paperwork and the rest of the checks, I returned and found it started again straight away. I taxied round to the pumps for fuel and filled up to the brim – there being no weight and balance problems with a single pilot and full fuel tank.

Who to talk to

With a plog printed out from SkyDemon, I intended to try and not be so reliant on the GPS as I often am. I used the Daventry VOR as one waypoint, so could track inbound and outbound from there and did my best to visually relate what I saw on the ground with the chart.

Clouds from the warm front in the West

One aspect I wasn’t entirely sure of was which radio controllers I should be talking to on the way up. The instructor who authorized my flight had suggested Coventry, but through that Cottesmore may no longer be providing a LARS service. As it happened, I was able to work the different stations from Brize, Coventry, Cottesmore, Waddington (with a direct handoff from Cottesmore). The only real issue I had was with the transponder which several controllers asked me to recycle the squawk code. Visibility was reasonable, with a cloud base of around 3000 feet. With the cold temperatures, I didn’t want to venture into the cloud if I could avoid it.

There were a couple of NOTAMed areas, and parachute drop areas that would have been on a more direct route that I needed to avoid.

Arriving at Gamston

As I approached Gamston, I requested to change to their frequency – the airfield notes say they like you to call up about 10 miles out – but the Waddington controller asked me to stay with them for another couple of miles while she co-ordinated nearby traffic. It’s pretty unusual for ATC to want you to continue with them – I’ve found that several times they can’t wait to get rid of you – so this made a change. Gamston has its own VOR which makes tracking towards it very easy – the Robin does have a VOR but no DME, so I relied on the GPS to confirm the distance to run. It’s right on the edge of the Doncaster CTA and would be easy to infringe the zone if you overshot. Without having looked up the airfield on Google Maps beforehand, I wasn’t exactly sure where or what I was looking for. As I got closer, the runways were clearly visible with large markings.

By that time I had already made contact with their A/G controller and received the airfield information. A standard overhead join for 03 left hand meant I needed to position myself to the west before descending deadside keeping outside the town itself. There was little other traffic about and wind was calm, so this reduced the pressure and I made a reasonable landing to stop just past the turnoff. A quick backtrack and some taxi instructions had me parked up in no time.

Smart Airfield

With my hi-viz jacket on (this is certainly one place you need it), I walked the few yards to the café and tower area. The airfield has an impressive array of large hangars with an even more impressive array of up market twin prop aircraft inside. There was also some helicopter activity and the more usual single prop GA aircraft around too – a steady trickle of traffic continued while I was there.

Gamston Control Tower Building

Entering the brand new and very modern control tower building, I walked up the stairs and chatted to the controllers – I think a new one was being trained that day, and paid the landing fee. They were very helpful about explaining where I should carry out my power checks prior to departure.

Apron Cafe, Gamston

Returning downstairs to the Apron Café, I had an excellent lunch in what is a very smart and well fitted out facility. The food was upmarket and very well presented – prices ranged from £10 for fish and chips to £15 for a steak, with a range of other choices. It seems quite popular, so I had had to reserve a table when calling the tower for prior permission to land earlier in the day.

Robin with the Control Tower and refuelling truck behind

Returning to the Robin, I checked the fuel and oil. The fuel level isn’t easy to determine – you simply put a long dipstick into the only tank and read off the level. The dipstick level matched my expectation of what should be left after having filling it up to the brim before leaving Kemble, so I was confident that I had enough to return.

Westerly Departure

On departure, I headed off to the South west and routed to the west of East Midlands, receiving a basic service from them. The visibility was poor due to the low sun and murky cloud, so I wasn’t too pleased when the controller asked me to turn my transponder off. He had tried to get this working adequately by having me recycle and change the squawk code several times, and come to the conclusion that the last digit was stuck on “1”. I kept listening out for traffic on the channel and would still have been visible on primary radar.

En route back to Kemble - a thin haze reduces visibility

Tracking further south, I was asked to report my position. Although I could point to it on the chart (and GPS), I hadn’t been expecting this and needed a couple of seconds to think up a good answer. So I just said standby, and shortly after reported it as two miles from a known airfield. I was then asked to leave the frequency and suggested to contact Birmingham or London Info. I guess he was pleased to get rid of me by then!

Low on fuel?

At this point I was looking at the fuel gauge and having some second thoughts about my calculations. It was reading about 1.5 (out of 5) and I had another 30 minutes to go, so I thought that according to that indication there should be enough with still a full hour in reserve. But my calculations knowing that it had been full before departure suggested that this should be an underestimate, so I decided not to stop and refuel. (Validation that I had adequate fuel supplies was borne out later when I refueled after landing)

As I was shortly approaching Halfpenny Green, I elected instead to radio them up and tell them I was crossing their overhead. I messed up this radio call and burbled on for far too long – I should just have asked for “known traffic affecting”. Shortly afterwards, as I reached Worcester, I called into Gloucester and received a Basic Service.

I doubt if there would have been much glider activity at Nymphsfield or Aston Down, but kept to the east of both. With little traffic at Kemble, I was able to join crosswind and make a reasonable approach to land. Again, fuelled up to find there was plenty left after landing and returned to parkup, pack up and finish the paperwork.

This sure beats a day at the desk.