Aviation Tour - Maps on www.bankleft.com

Wednesday 23rd July
Redhill Surrey to Eaglescott Devon
(via refuel at Compton Abbas)

Leg 1: After a quick squizz at the London motorshow, we were underway from Redhill early afternoon. The GPS acted as a good check for some of the tight airspace between Southampton and Wallop. Odiham requested that we not make a MATZ penetration and since NOTAMs showed that there were heli aeros training there, we though it best to oblige. Compton Abbas proved good for fuel and ice creams before continuing West to Cerne Abbas to view the massive chalk... dude...

Performance: Having consulted a guru on the issue, I made a spread sheet to show the practical range and diversion reserve for a range of cruise speeds and tail/head wind conditions. I had been weighing the equipment as I packed it to ensure that we remained under the 15kg limit. This was just possible due to light weight tent, sleeping bags and mats and MSR petrol stove. Clothes were the biggest casualty (along with reading material) of the W&B cull and we ended up with just a few light vapour layers and a single jumper each. The Beacon and life vests were also significant component of the load. With the exception of a fresh stir fry for the first evening, we packed only dehydrated food and jettisoned drinking water before closing the hatches for departure on each stage. The necessary diversion range (or return to departure point distance) was found for each destination and legs were kept at under an hour to allow for a range of possible wind conditions aloft.

Eaglescott: I missed the airfield on initial approach and was altered to the fact by the 'back stop' radio mast to the north west and Helen (who was in charge of the GPS) looking over my shoulder in search of the airfield. Shocker of a landing in a 10 knot gusty cross wind - caught by a gust in the flare which lifted a wing up. Barry, the main man of Eaglescott (lovely club airfield incidentally, highly recommended as a preferable alternative to Bodmin ) sounded as though he had a bazillion hours on their club Eurostar and he offered a few valid tips. He has noticed on several occasions that in a closed throttle cross wind landing, the nose can blank flow over one wing and as the nose comes up in the flare, recovery from a gusted up wing can be tricky due to lack of aileron authority. His technique is to trawl in under power (with 3 stages if need be) and clamp it down with a sizable margin between touchdown speed and stall speed, CPL style. I tried this out for the remainder of the trip but haven't really had a serious crosswind approach to test it on yet. Thought/comments from the group would be appreciated.

Sheep: A few escapees from the adjoining paddock munched grass right next to the tent loudly during the night. At the time this seemed notable but now pales into insignificance when compared to the hard drinking parachutists at Dunkeswell last night!

Labels: Cornwall Summer 2008