Loops & Rolls in cloudy, hazy and freezing conditions - I really wish that spring would begin!

I managed 30 minutes today, but suspecting that conditions might not be ideal, I had decided to fly to Marham in my Shadow microlight. On landing I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by co-owner Adam which was nice as he was supposed to be otherwise occupied today.
I wish I'd thought to bring a camera because a visiting Tornado GR4 from 617 Sqn was parked in the same rubb hangar as G-AVKI - talk about little and large!

After a quick look around and B/F I strapped in and was away, or so I thought... The engine quit at the hold, so out I jumped and spent a few minutes getting the engine running. Grrr, very frustrating!
Second time lucky and I lined up on 24 at the intersection with 01/19 before climbing away to the NW. There was quite a lot of medium level cloud but I managed to find a reasonable space. Conditions were hazy and I was a little bit twitchy about the engine so only did a few loops and rolls this time. I'd forgotten to wear my lined Craghopper trousers and it was bloody freezing up at 5000', so with my knees shaking from the cold I followed Marham Aero Club's C150 G-JAGS in for a landing after half an hour total. Not thrilling, but at least it was something and the manoeuvres went well. Roll on spring, summer and those long, long evenings! One thing that I found out today, Adam isn't taking the plane away until August, so I'll get an extra 2 months of hopefully decent weather to get myself to a reasonable standard at Basic Aero's. Fantastic!
After Adam did a few circuits, the engine cut yet again as he was backtracking 24! I'll tweak the idle next time I have some time free and we'll see if that sorts it out.
I had a lovely flight back in the Shadow and gave it a good (non-aerobatic) thrashing in Honington's empty skies before landing just before sunset. Not a great afternoon, but not too shabby either.

05 Feb 2010 - An impromptu lesson; spins and loops in a Citabria

Well, the weather in East Anglia today was rubbish, which meant that unfortunately I had to drive to a meeting at RAF Halton near Aylesbury instead of flying (as I usually do). On the drive down though, I couldn't help but notice the skies becoming clearer and the cloudbase lifting significantly. Hmm (think I), perhaps I could squeeze in a lesson after my meeting? A quick phone call to friend and instructor Colin McInnes and would you believe it, he's free and the aircraft is available - result!
I decided to use this opportunity to polish up my spin recovery technique...

Taxiing out to Halton's 'Chipmunk runway' I felt quite rusty (it being 4 months since my last Citabria flight), but Col's excellent tuition saw me lifting off cleanly and then heading for clear skies near Aylesbury. Climbing to 5000' I did HASELL checks and then asked Col to demo spin entry and recovery. I then span twice and did a couple of loops just for the fun of it!
I've said it before, but I really like the Citabria, its roomy and solid feeling and spins (and recovers) very nicely. I had a big grin on my face now, which I promptly wiped off by failing to get the Citabria to spin at all on my next attempt! Full left rudder but without pulling the stick fully back resulted in a mushy descending turn... Yuk! Best I have another go then! Success - I do like to spin it's great fun!
The landing was a little 'touch and go' though as the only available runway was directly into a very low sun. I must say that I was very grateful to have Colin in the back, his excellent advice resulted in a nice landing. I had a great flight of 50 minutes and achieved everything that I wanted from it. Not bad on a day that I hadn't expected to fly!