Category: Airports

A Trip to Mid Wales

“There’s only about an hour and a half left” said Will glumly. He was referring to the amount of flight time left before Charlie had to go in for a routine service. This was on the Monday. We’d booked to go out on the following Saturday.

Unlike a car which is due for a service when it reaches a certain number of miles, a plane goes in after so many hours in flight. And also unlike a car which you can continue to drive whether or not the service has been done, there’s no leeway with a plane; if it runs out of hours before its service, that’s it, it’s grounded. The only way around it is to request an extension which is what the committee had done, even though the chances of actually getting it were quite small.

On the Thursday, another announcement: “Someone’s taken Charlie out!” followed a bit later by “There’s only 23 minutes left”.

Friday evening came and there was still no sign of the extension being granted, though Will, ever the optimistic, decided on a non-alcoholic beer “just in case”. At 9pm, the news came through. We had a 10-hour extension!

The next morning we were up early as we only had Charlie until 2pm. Will had already done a flight plan to Welshpool for a trip which didn’t happen, so just needed to check the local weather before we left home.

There were about five planes in the hangar that had to be moved before we could get Charlie onto the apron, but managed that in double-quick time with the help of someone who also needed to get his plane out. It was lovely not to feel rushed and the morning actually seemed quite leisurely. More good news came in just as Will was about to start the engines when we learnt that the booking after us had been cancelled. We could spend longer down route and not have to rush back.

It was a warm day, though hazy. From our cruising height of 4500ft, there was very little definition to the contours of the mountains and the colours were somewhat dulled but, nevertheless, visibility was excellent. With a strong headwind – at one point flying at a ground speed of just 63 knots, or 72mph – it took just over an hour to get there. During our flight, we passed through London control and it made me smile to hear pilots checking in for Farnborough and Blackbushe airports – the local geography of my childhood.

Welshpool Mid Wales Airport sits in the Severn Valley, surrounded by mountains with a long, asphalt runway within a few feet of, and perpendicular to, the A490. With a circuit height of 1500ft above ground level (the standard being 1000ft), and a relatively short approach to the runway, Will cut the power to the engine for a quicker descent and did a glide approach before doing a planned touch and go. By the second time around he’d sussed out the approach and, helped by the headwind, we had such a smooth landing I barely noticed that we’d touched ground. What I did notice, though, was that when Will reeled off the landing procedure as we were coming in, the list included “landing gear down”. The PA-28 has a non-retractable landing gear!! Old habits die hard!

After paying the landing fee (£15), we went to the airport’s Fuel Stop Cafe. Two coffees ended up costing over £8 as I couldn’t resist picking up a jar of local Jam Mafonen (raspberry jam) to take home as well. The cafe was busy but we managed to get seats outside and ordered lunch. Whizzard Helicopters was doing a roaring trade in sightseeing trips that day and their landing site was right next to the terrace. Every few minutes, a heli would land, swap passengers around front to back or load on the next party, then take off again. The food was delicious, but the novelty of seeing (and especially hearing) the helicopter so close soon wore off.

Going back was a lot quicker with a brisk tailwind. Approximately 30 minutes quicker! Altitude was 3500 ft with an uplift of around 200ft every time we went over a mountain.

As we were heading off, Will mentioned that he’d landed at Welshpool during his commercial flight training, but though he’d looked at his logbook during lunch, hadn’t been able to find a record of it.

Later that evening having checked his electronic logbook, he remembered that not only had he never landed there as a pilot flying, he hadn’t even been there as a passenger. What he’d actually done was sit in the jumpseat as one of his fellow trainees flew over it. It had obviously made quite an impression.

Airports Oxford Routes weather

How The Other Half Flies

View through the window of a jet taking off

The day we’d booked to go out in Charlie seemed no different to those leading up to it; that is, cloudy, windy and rainy (you can tell this took place some time ago!). Whether we’d be able to fly was a decision we could only make that morning, once Will had checked the Meteorological Aerodrome Report (METAR).

Fortunately, although the weather wasn’t ideal, it was within limits. Will had already planned a route the evening before so, by mid-morning, we were taxiing down the runway and heading towards Oxford Airport. This was to be a nostalgia visit for Will as he had completed his commercial pilot training at Oxford Aviation Academy, being one of the first to qualify for the MPL (multi-crew pilot licence). It was the first time he’d been back since.

View down the runway with dark clouds above — The weather wasn’t ideal!

The plan was to do a touch and go at Oxford, meeting the requirement for the three landings/take-offs within 90 days required by the CAA. However, we were expecting it to be busy with training fights, if nothing else, with no guarantee that we’d be granted permission.

The flight took around 30 minutes over Tewkesbury, Evesham and Banbury. Much to our surprise, there was no traffic at all in the skies around Oxford and the airport itself was really quiet. After being given instructions to turn left to avoid the danger zone and keeping an eye on some nearby birds of prey, we got the go ahead for the touch and go. It was only then that the surroundings became totally familiar to Will – after such a long time away the only thing he’d recognised up to that point was the nearby tower of a recycling plant.

Rain falling in the distance — Rain in the distance

After landing, we put on our hi-viz jackets and headed for the GA terminal looking forward to a hot drink and something to eat in their cafe. Unfortunately, that was not to be. The turnstile to the GA building was locked and when we enquired, a voice over the intercom told us that nothing was open and to make our way to the Business Terminal to pay our landing fees.

Now, the Business Terminal at Oxford is for the rich and famous, the great and the good – not for the likes of pilots with a 16^th share in an aged PA-28. We were quickly ushered from the hallowed VIP area into the crew room, out of the way of the family who were just about to head out to their chartered jet. A few minutes later, with a fantastic airside view through the crew room’s floor to ceiling windows, we were able to see the jet (a Cessna 560XL Citation XLS) take off for its flight to Geneva. A few minutes later a Bentley, accompanied by an airport support vehicle, arrived at the steps of a Bombardier Global 6000. An elderly man got out of the car and climbed up the steps to be greeted by a uniformed flight attendant. A few minutes later, this beautiful jet with just the one passenger on board, took off for the South of France.

Jet heading towards the runway — View through the crew room window of the private jet heading towards the runway

Having sighed over the amazing experience it must be to fly in such luxury, we came back down to earth and managed to get a coffee after asking at the check in desk. The staff there were polite and helpful to us but I had the distinct impression that someone in the GA terminal was due for a stern talking to once we left. By the time I got back from asking about the coffee, Will was in deep conversation with one of the jet engineers who’d arrived in the crew room waiting for a plane to come in.

We didn’t leave it too late before heading back. The weather hadn’t got any worse, but neither was there any sign of improvement. It was an interesting experience with sights of rainbows alongside the plane, fierce rain which came and went within seconds, and one particularly turbulent patch where it felt as if we were going over one of those hump-back bridges where your stomach is left a few feet below the rest of your body.

View from the plane of a rainbow alongside — Flying alongside a rainbow

Having bumps in the air never makes sense to me. I can feel another weather/air pressure-related conversation coming on!

Airports Commercial flights Heathrow Plane spotting

Plane Spotting

As if putting the Christmas decorations away wasn’t enough to bring on the miseries, the weather has taken a turn for the worse and even opening the front door seems a mission when all I want to do is snuggle up on the sofa with a hot drink and Christmas chocolates. So last Sunday, that’s what I did! The pile of cards were re-read, the new book was started (‘Born a Crime’ by Trevor Noah if you’re interested) and the Christmas presents still waiting to be put away were lovingly re-examined and put back exactly where they were before.

One of those presents was a photo album delivered by Secret Santa which gave me the perfect excuse to spend time going through the holiday snaps from last year, choosing which ones to get printed and, with the rain lashing against the window, trying to remember what a hot summer felt like.

The highlight of 2022 was my daughter and her family relocating to the UK from thousands of miles away. I hadn’t seen them for at least three years due to travel restrictions and planned trips being cancelled, and Will had never even met the youngest. Son-in-law was the advance party having secured a job over here. The rest of the family were to follow a couple of months’ later with the house sold and the dog cleared for immigration. Will and I also had a tiny part to play; meeting son-in-law at Heathrow and transporting him to his temporary lodgings – aka AirBnB.

As the flight was due in at some ridiculous hour in the morning, we opted to find somewhere to stay nearby. We’d often thought about giving the Thistle Hotel at Terminal 5 a try and this was the ideal opportunity.

The hotel itself really isn’t anything to write home about but fortunately we weren’t there for the quality of food (mediocre) or size of room (small, despite an upgrade). Our reasons were much more appealing:

THE AIRPORT PODS

Across the car park, climb into one of the driverless pods for quick and easy access to T5. There are only two routes – one from the Thistle and the other from Heathrow Airport’s dedicated pod parking car park. Ever since they first came into use, we’ve wanted to try them out and they didn’t disappoint. Yes, it was a novelty but it’s also a brilliant way to get from A to B. I had thought that the pods ran on rails but that’s not the case, so how they keep to the route without bashing into the barriers, especially on the curves and the elevated section, is a mystery to me. We also wondered what would happen where the routes merge into a single track, if two pods were in parallel and about to join at the same time. Of course, as we soon discovered, they don’t just carry on oblivious and end up colliding into each other but take it in turns with one stopping, waiting its turn and then smoothly gliding in behind.

THE HOTEL TERRACE

From the hotel bar, take your drinks onto the terrace for ringside seats! The runway nearest to us was being used for take-offs and the Terminal 5 taxiways were right opposite so there was plenty to see.

There’s supposed to be a two-hour limit for people using the terrace but, despite the beautifully warm weather, it was quiet out there with plenty of seats for everyone so we took our time and loads of photos, of which these are a few….