Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday 24th July Lands End via Bodmin
When the trusty swiss army knife comes to the rescue and cloud prevents a flight out to Scillies...
Hangar: We were surprised to see the engineer who we had been working until 10pm return before our departure - he was undertaking a C of A inspection on a Luscombe and showed us the Pitts, Tiger Moth, Chipmunk and Lancair that he flies. Cool hangar - he is putting together a crazy Eindecker in the back shed.
Wind: Everything was pretty quiet out in Cornwall airspace. Although the wind was only a 5kt westerly at ground level at Eaglescott, by the time we had wound down the coast to Padstow, we were getting more than 20 degrees of drift and the GPS allowed us to confirm a 40 kt steady wind. Despite this, the flight was dead smooth at 2000'. On first contact Bodmin advised that they had a strong wind warning. I'm glad he didn't tell me at the time, but the guy on Radio went out and got into the fire truck for our arrival. No dramas at all though - after the wing raising incident the previous landing, I wasn't having any trouble from this one and so I bullied it all the way down (what felt like a vertical) descent onto the grass for about a 50m roll out. Funny stuff now, though I was certainly pretty focused at the time. Cornwall is just another world in terms of weather. I need some way to extract the relevant weather data so that I can access it on the web browser on my phone. Calling the airfields and asking them what is happening there doesn't seem to tell even 5% of the relevant story. Again, thought would be appreciated on this issue!
Swedish Physicists: Bodmin was playing host to a Swedish/English family with 5 children taking joy flights one after the other. The pilot taking them was an ex navy old dog in an aerobatic Vans. He didn't seemed bothered about the conditions. I, on the other hand, had RR tied down within about 30 seconds of having jumped out. We pulled out the pic nic rug, made a few cups of tea and vegge out for an hour or so before deciding to push on down the penninsula. We had to bypass the cable junction box to join the perpetually troublesome yellow ignition wire to get the left circuit to work which was no problem. Big thanks to Dave for talking us through the operation and chalk up another victory to the mighty swiss army knife!
Any Runway you Like - Lands End: With 4 runways, and a totally serviceable grass service between them, landing at Lands End is pretty much like landing on a footy oval. ATC are lovely and relaxed down there and the flying club was very hospitable - telling us in the same breath that we were going to have to be locked in at night, and where to climb through the fence to get back in after the pub closes. The commercial operations to Scilly Isles weren't that impressed at me standing on the apron in my board shorts, refueling while they boarded pax and pets right in front of me. I think they need to get over themselves a little. Especially with regard to high vis tabbards. I can't complain about the shower situation though - each of the three places that we stayed on the trip had hot showers that we could use which we weren't expecting. We worked out a non soap cleaner (Cetaphil) that can be used to good effect with a tiny amount of water. Hot showers were a bonus!
St Just: What started as a little walk into town turned into a massive hike up and down the rugged coastline. We were forced to gather carrots for sustenance and were almost in a state of collapse when we finally arrived at the town square of St Just and lined ourselves up some Fish and Chips. Such a good holiday place. I wasn't allowed to buy any of the four magasine titles on offer on the subject of "Cornish Life".
Scillies: Although I was mega keen to don the life vests and head out to the Isles, I had to admit that it wasn't a smart idea when the IMCR rated pilot that was also there decided against it. It would have been a good progression from the Isle of Wight the other week, but will have to wait for another day! We are going to return with time to spend a few days out there.
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