28 April - A short, sharp flight, making progress of sorts...

I managed to get up after work tonight and once 2 Tornadoes doing circuit after circuit finally landed, I had the airfield to myself.

I took off on 19, climbed straight to 5000', did a quick HASELL check then went straight into a couple of loops and a roll. Back up to 5000', more loops and another roll, starting to string them together. Last thing, back to 5000' again and I thought I'd do a little sequence, so I did a loop followed by a roll to the right, another loop, a roll to the left, then a triple loop down to 3500' followed by a fast sideslipping descent to land on 19. My GPS logged 22 mins flight time, 30 mins overall. Not a bad little session if I do say so myself, and AVKI behaved perfectly; looks like the carburettor gremlins are gone for good - thank goodness!

What I really need to do is have a warm up flight like this one, come down for a cuppa and then have a go at something else, so on the next day that I have more time to spare, I think I'll have a go at stall turns. Not the easiest manoeuvre to get right though so wish me luck!

By the way, I'm still loving it :-)

27 April - no aerobatics but a long held desire is fulfilled...

Well, I've just got back from a brilliant hour flying 69 year old DeHavilland Tiger Moth G-ANFL out of Felthorpe near Norwich. The weather was perfect with a few clouds in a lovely blue sky and excellent visibility. My host was Ian Robins, an ex-RAF pilot, instructor and airline pilot who I'd met at Marham before Xmas and asked the obvious question when he mentioned his share in the Tiger (if you don't ask, you don't get!).

Meeting late this morning, I was quickly enlisted to help drag FL out of the hangar, Ian steering from the rear with a special dolly under the tail skid. He then sorted me out with a bonedome and showed me round the cockpit. So, wearing too many clothes for comfort in strong sunshine, I was very soon strapped into the front cockpit, gently perspiring and ready for the off. My good friend Geoff Ellis had come along to watch and take some pictures for me, and he very kindly volunteered to swing the prop. As luck would have it FL fired up on the first blade - I wish the Tipsy Nipper was as well behaved!

Ian had briefed me on taxiing, take off and circuit procedure, so once he had us under way, I was soon waggling the nose from side to side for all I was worth to make sure we didn't inadvertently run into anything. At the 24 threshold, Ian spun us round to face the correct way for take off and then handed control over to me.

Gulp! Well, here goes!

I opened the throttle smoothly, the Cirrus engine responding swiftly, then compensated for swing with a dollop of rudder before pushing the stick forward to get the tail up. I checked back and waited for flying speed; at about 55 mph she lifted off all by herself and we climbed gently skywards.

Underneath my mask I was sporting a grin from ear-to-ear. What a lovely flying machine!

With a gentle right turn, I aimed us north, settling at about 1300' and we flew off towards Weybourne and Cromer with an IAS of 70 - 80 mph. I tried a few gentle turns, remembering to lead with the rudder (luckily the Nipper and Shadow both need a bit of rudder in the turn so this wasn't new ground for me) and she was delightful. After a short transit, we arrived at the Muckleburgh Collection near Weybourne and I turned us East, tracking the coast to Cromer. Ian stood FL on her wingtips and I had a go too, very nice! So far, I'd found the Tiger Moth to be a delightfully simple machine to fly - I wish I could afford to have one for those warm sunny days...

Continuing inland now, we routed north of Northrepps airfield (although I'd love to have dropped in if I could) and then I turned us south towards Felthorpe.

We'd agreed to do some circuits and so Ian demonstrated the technique for me, before handing over control on the climbout. I must say, I found circuits fairly straightforward despite power cables and trees which had to be avoided (!) although if I'm being honest, I didn't allow the speed to decay enough before rounding out, which meant we ballooned a little on my first 2 attempts. Number 3 was the charm though and I was very pleased with myself I must say - Ian complimented me on the landing too so it couldn't have been too bad! One more go around and then Ian flew a great short circuit, sideslipping us in for a touchdown right at the threshold. With that, we taxied in, shut down and jumped out. What a great way to spend an hour - I absolutely loved flying the Tiger Moth and it was every bit as much fun as I'd hoped.

Many thanks to Ian Robins and also Geoff for hanging around to take pictures and video. I think it'll be a little while before my feet touch the ground properly though!

The throttle body returns; alls well that ends well - after a false start!

Well, I got the throttle body back on 14th April - here's what I wrote in my e-logbook afterwards...

"Nightmare of a flight. Spent 2 - 3 hours refitting the throttle body, did several ground runs with no problem, then taxied to VAP for fuel and back, again with no problems. Had to taxi for 06, then took off from the Hockey Stick entrance. Slight hesitation initially which I thought might be carb ice as I'd forgotten to apply Carb Heat (idiot!). However, the engine quickly started 'hunting' and I was very worried that it might stop. Marham were excellent and let me land straight back on. Quite a pain in the arse, compounded by being 'worked' by Mil ATC. Engine fine on taxi back and shut down ok."

Anyway, that was then and this is now! I spoke to Adam after my flight and explained that I thought it may have been a carb ice related non-fault, asked him to check my installation and then do some egr's, followed by a check flight if he felt all was well. I'm pleased to report that he flew twice today for just over 2 hours, with not a hint of erratic performance. Phew!

Anyway, as I write this, I should be in Portugal on holiday, but following the Icelandic eruption, my flight was cancelled. Naturally, I had to get airborne one way or another so following Adam's text I decided to have a quick flight in the Nipper late this afternoon.

With nary a cloud (or contrail!) in the sky, I climbed to 5000' over Marham, and with gliders launching below me did my first aero's in what seems like forever. After such a long lay-off I took it easy, but it went very well indeed. I started with a loop, then introduced left and right rolls followed by multiple loops. Absolutely brilliant fun and the Nipper didn't miss a beat. I was in bit of a hurry so did a powered side slip to get down to circuit height ASAP.

When I landed I was definitely sporting the famous 'Nipper Grin'. I taxied in to be met by Adam, who'd been watching me from his garden! All-in-all, a very satisfying 30 minute flight.

Let's hope the weather holds :-)

Waiting for the throttle body...

Nothing exciting to report - KI's throttle body has been received by Ellison in Washington State and we should get it back early - mid April or so.

The clocks went forward last night and now evening flying is definitely on the cards; by the time we have the plane back in the air sunset will be around 8pm! Can't wait. In the meantime I've been flying the Shadow a fair bit and would have got up in the Foxbat except for a bloody frustrating puncture on the ORP at Honington last weekend. Grrr!

I've arranged a flight in a Tiger Moth for the end of April and am really looking forward to it - don't know if we'll manage some simple aero's but I'll certainly ask the question!

Hope to have something more to post about learning aerobatics soon :-)

6th March 2010 - Nice flight before a 3 - 4 week lay-up

Had a nice 35 minute flight today; nothing too adventurous, just loops and rolls at the western end of Marham airfield. Managed to cock my entry up on one, too slow and not committed so locked the controls, chopped the throttles and let things sort themselves out! I found the aircraft in company with a Harrier which had diverted in after a birdstrike - remembered to take some pictures this time though.

Spent the best part of 3 hours getting the Ellison carbuerettor off; it will be winging its way to America on monday for a refurbishment as there have always been issues with the engine 'bogging down'. Enough's enough so I hope to be flying the Nipper again in April. In the meantime I should be getting a couple of flights in the CAP soon and will of course keep flying my Shadow.

Clocks go forward soon; I can't wait!

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!