Spring is in the air! Sunday 26th April 2009

 

 

Weather Divert - Old Sarum

Sunday flying in the sun in hampshire turns into rain in Wiltshire! We were heading for Compton Abbas where the flyin today was for Naomi House, the charity the hampshire club is suppporting this year, but alas we have to divert to old Sarum.

Free landing fees for a weather divert and Sunday lunch yummy!

Big Helmets?

Flying at the weekend with Richard and his Dad I am reminded that I was not adventurous at all..when I first was awarded my license.

I recall a long trip was to the next airfield that was Dunkerswell to Westonzoyland, map reading all the way, getting lost over the Somerset levels while skipping field to field climbing over the hedges.

The talk was of GPS a new device that might cause more accidents as if two pilots took off one from Dunkerswell, the other from Westonzoyland they might meet half way at the same height and crash! No! We really did have that conversation in the club house fearful of these new devices!

Is that how I treat new technology in my life now, with fear? Is that how I approach new flying challenges now?

Bench of Peace

New Bench of Peace

Dave and I sat on the "Bench of Peace" today, the previous bench we had concreted into the ground needed planning permission! We had previously set it in concrete to stop it walking...again!!

To keep the peace with the locals and the local council we have removed the old bench and replace it with one that is not set in concrete, its ok to have a bench but only if it is free to roam.

Do the UK planning laws need revisiting?

Another Must Have of the Season!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Summit-X-Mug-Orange/dp/B001Q3KLU4

You could see the broken branches

So what was the reason? We know what happened, but not why? A couple on route from Hertfordshire to Jersey hit the hill near to our Airfield, Nr Petersfield Hampshire, UK. Its a hill around 700 ft AMSL, the cloud was low and so he was flying in a valley heading to the coast, but why did he hits the hill? Was he flying IFR or IMC? Was he looking at maps or cockpit instruments? Did he know there was a hill close by? We will not know until the report is written, and we may know the what but not the why two thirty something people hit the trees on the hill, crashed and died.

Tonight I flew over the site in near perfect flying conditions and witness first hand the broken branches where the Aircraft, a Piper, first hit the trees. There is a line of broken branches, broken hearts and broken lives.

I feel sick, I feel like a voyeur, but I know what it feels like to be compelled to fly, just to be in the air.

Home Run

The competion finished at 1600hrs last Sunday and while waiting for
the results I get a call from a club pilot who has been fogged in at
Bembridge!

Calls to Charlotte tell me I might get home as the fog stops 1/4 of a
mile in from the beach, something we are used too at this time of year.

I set off at five and rounded Southampton zone an hour and half later.
Smooth clear air all the way, but the last 5 miles were covered by low
cloud tops we at 1000 amsl, without losing sight of the ground I
probed it cover but it was clear I was not going to make it home.

A short 20 minute divert to Colemorr Common , tied down for the night.
The last leg proved to be a greater test of my judgement than any of
the tasks of the competion!

Did I learn the lesson?

Great day - Sad ending

Planning the task today at Redlands airfield a first! Competion flying
is a blast! The task was set to fly a coarse back to Over Farm and to
spot land. Marks along the way to match ground features with a photo
sheet! Of the 9 I spotted 2! That was a lot harder than I thought.

The circuit at Over was as busy as you would want it to be! Two go
arounds before landing over a tape to a dead stop landing.

On the subject of dead... Two of the spectators, friends of the Over
flying club died on the return trip to shobdon.

There friends were sad and upset which took the edge off the event,
and brings everyone up short. I am not afraid to die doing the thing I
love so much, but when I die I don't want my wife and kids to have to
listern to the news.

Dying unexpectly is I suppose better for the dead and worse for the
living, I can imagine dying as Jade Goodie did is agoney to the person
but removes some of the shock for those left behind. I am please to
say that so far I have experence of niether.

So do we face the reality that the next flight could be our last each
time we pre-flight the aircraft, check the weather and consider the human limitation?

As I type this blog from my tent in Glocester, my thoughts are for the
family and friends of "Two men die in Microlight Crash".....

Redlands - Nr Swindon

I have arrived at Redlands and been judged fir my first cimpetition
task! The spot landing..

Low cloud - Rain - Warm bed

It's 0721hrs the plan was to be over Newbury! I am still tucked up!

M: 07595329158

Ready, Steady, Wait!

This is the view from the hanger at Thorny Island at 1730hrs today, mist and less than 3k viz so we packed up the trike ready for competition and waited too see if it would clear...alas at 1830hrs with a track of 95 miles to Over Farm and with an hours daylight left we called it off and took the kids for a Pizza! We picked up Jack Hampshire from Paul and then back home for early bed.

Dawn tomorrow we shall try again! Its the 1st round of the national competitions, who knows will we make it tomorrow morning, I will keep the blog updated...

Fear Of Flying or Fear of Falling?

Since my first flight to Canada in 1978, I have been a little bit afraid of flying. Over the next 15 years I flew more and more as my job as the "Export Manager" for a Southampton based Engineering company meant spending months away from home flying from country to country. I recall on one tour completing 18 flights across India, Asia and Australia. I became more nervous each flight until I recall having to be off my "Gin and Tonic face" to get onto the Jumbo returning from Melbourne. Illogical fear, but then what part does logic play in fear?

I knew I had to do something about it and so to my first flight in a microlight in Somerset 3 years later at the tender age of 29, being scared stiff was part of the plan! I recall looking up at the wing and the wires and thinking it wont hold! What makes those bumps! Do we have to fly the whole hour?

Its odd if I was so frightened why did I book in and have lessons? What is it about fear that make us want more? That is a question I cant answer just now, but gaining my license at a time when fast was 50-mph and most machines went 45 mph. A 45 minute cross country was a huge distance I was still a little nervy... and so I flew until I had 75 hours or so on my log when a flight on the 09.08.1995 went so wrong I stopped flying the minute the wheels touched the ground. My next flight was logged on 17.02.2001 - "P-U-T"

Now when I recall those feeling as I write it makes me think about my fellow flyers now who are so very nervous every time they fly, the ones who don't like the bumps or who are unsure of there flying. The guys who fly the latest hardware but fret about 15-mph winds. Has my attitude to them become a little hard nose? Should I still worry too?

No I don't worry now, and no I don't need too. I have developed a mechanism though flying on Fly UK when hugh distance and fatigue plays a part, that enables me to relax more and more as it become bumpy or hectic, and the worse it gets the less I hold the bar and worry, I relax more!

I think this comes from a solid understanding of the subject, a very though ground inspection and good planning. Add to this a whole bunch of experience over and the knowledge that if I die flying, I will die doing the one thing on this earth that I love more than I love myself. I am not sure I could live without flying now,life would simply be an existence if I didn't have to face my fears, wouldn't it?

;-0