Pre-flight inspection for the Jabiru
The ‘Flying Legends Airshow’ took place at Duxford over the weekend of 7/8 July and Alasdair suggested that the only way to arrive at an airshow was by flying in. I therefore called for a landing slot “You have a slot on Sunday, at 12:54 and be off the runway 15 seconds later, because another aircraft will be on final”, said the friendly ATC at Duxford. Mmm, not my usual, sometime in the morning or afternoon arrival planning, but it would add to the navigational challenge.
The plan was to depart early and fly past Rochester, to Earls Colne. Then depending upon timing, have a coffee or continue to a holding point east or west of Duxford (depending upon the prevailing wind) and try to time a long final for the landing time. We would then return to Rochester, since Redhill would be closed. My wife (read: Ground Support) would bring my camper round to Rochester after the airshow for my overnight accommodation. Finally returning to Redhill, Monday morning.
Pre-flight inspection for the Jabiru
As it turned out, Redhill’s weather delayed our departure until the afternoon, so a rapid re-computation was necessary. I had called Bourn earlier (a little to the West of Duxford) and asked about landing there, my Ground Support, would then pick us up and convey us to the airshow. Unfortunately, and this is another of those little lessons we keep learning, I did not book an actual landing slot. When I later called back, it seems everyone else had beaten me to it. I finally got landing permission at Andrewsfield, on the edge of Stansted’s zone.
We departed at 13:30, just before Redhill went off
air for ½ hour and crawled under the cloudbase, which fortunately lifted to
2,000 ft. north of the Thames. I must admit that flying with another pilot takes
a lot of the stress out of navigation, radio retuning and actually spotting
airfields. Of course, since all of us are so adroit at avoiding Gatwick
infringements, the fact that Andrewsfield was on the edge of Stansted presented
absolutely
no problem ;-). Ground Support arrived 10 minutes later and we did
see some of the airshow. I still think they would not have noticed the Jabiru
dropping down during the show, particularly with some of my approaches, but
perhaps next time…
Calling Rochester to confirm their weather prior to departure was good airmanship and bad timing. Whoever we spoke to stated that we could not land after 18:00, since they went off-air and only resident aircraft could land later. The fact that we have a residency seems to have not been notified to all of their controllers. For future reference, remember the name Paul Richardson, the manager there who is aware of our status. Anyway another re-computation proved necessary and we finally set off for White Waltham. Cruising through an increasingly blue evening we enjoyed a Controller trying (unsuccessfully) to chat up a female pilot at Booker and a brief listen in to Heathrow (“don’t you dare press that button!”). White Waltham went off air at 20:00, just as we landed, so we tied down and arranged to meet and complete our Heathrow circumnavigation the next morning. White Waltham opens at 07:00, but we waited to contact Redhill before departure. The last leg was a mere 45 minutes.
A very enjoyable outing, but we still want to actually get to Duxford and look around the displays. So who’s up for an outing? Jabiru, Shadows, Ground Support. Let us know at the club and we shall try to arrange a date.
Sunset at White Waltham
Click here for a few more pictures from the trip