Planning – A Pilot’s Companion

The best-laid plans…

Having found that time goes by very quickly in the ‘crew room’ prior to a flight, we were determined to get to the airport a lot earlier in future so we’d be ready to go as soon as our time-slot started and have more time at our destination.

Our next flight was another short one as bookings were still restricted, and this time we’d arranged to go to Popham airfield to meet Will’s parents for a late lunch. The booking was from 1pm so we left home at 10.30am giving us plenty of time for the 45-minute journey to the airport, all the last-minute bits of flight planning and prep, pre-flight inspection and fuelling, whilst still allowing time for distractions and even a cup of tea if things went smoothly. Our plan was for wheels up at around 1.15pm.

Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans! About fifteen minutes after leaving home, we started to see signs about road closures. Traffic was okay at that point and we knew we could divert. Unfortunately so did every other driver on the planet! Two-and-a-half hours later, we got to the airport, hot, bothered and frustrated that despite all our best efforts, we were no better off. We had wondered en-route whether to cancel the booking altogether but by the time we got through to Will’s parents to explain, they were already at Popham having decided to go nice and early to watch all the comings-and-goings and general bustle of a busy airfield. Fortunately we were able to shift the booking by an hour.

By 2pm, we’d done everything we needed to do and were on our way to get fuel, only to find that just one of the four pumps was working so we had no choice but to join the queue. In the meantime, the wind had changed direction meaning we had to taxi to the furthest runway adding a further 15-20 minutes on top of the delays at the pumps before we were even at the hold.

I can’t remember what time it was when we eventually took off, but suffice to say that by the time we got to Popham we didn’t have time for a drink let alone anything to eat (though apparently the food is very nice there). Ten minutes after saying hello to Will’s parents, we were waving goodbye – we couldn’t even give them a hug due to Covid restrictions.

Looking out over Cotswold Water Park from around 3,000ft

It was pretty gusty coming in to Popham so Charlie was a little all over the place as we started to descend but it was a beautiful landing despite Will’s earlier misgivings about grass runways. The wind was more settled going back and the landing at our base airport was a lot more straight-forward than the last time.

In less time than it had taken for us to drive to the airport that morning, we had left Popham, put Charlie back in the hangar, done the final bits of paperwork and were back at home with a pizza in the oven and a glass of wine in hand.

Where next?

We’ve been enviously watching the comings and goings of Charlie on Flight Radar over the past few weeks, but we’ve been in Tier 3 and that’s not likely to change so we’re not going anywhere. That’s the consequence of living in a different area to the airport.

However, there’s nothing like planning for the future and when the 59th edition of the Pooley’s UK Flight Guide arrived fresh off the press, we were like kids pouring over the toy section of the Argos catalogue, mentally ticking off where we’d like to go first.

With nearly 1000 aerodromes available ranging from huge international airports to tiny air strips, it seems there’s nowhere in the UK out of bounds.

Yes, we can meet up with friends, no matter where in the UK they live
Yes, we can take mum to her cousins’ without spending hours in the car
Yes, we can see all those wonderful sights on our “would love to visit” list

But hold on a minute!

A casual read of some of the pages in the guide started to set off alarm bells and so I took a closer look. As I turned over the pages, certain comments leapt out as if they were written in red ink and highlighted in neon yellow: “Danger areas nearby”, “Powerlines on approach”, “To avoid overflying … [with suggested instructions]”, “Steeply rising ground”, “Undulating runway”, “Railway line on short final”, “Possibility of [insert relevant word here] crossing the runway”, and so on. On top of that, Will has said he’d rather not land on grass and I’m sure he’s not too keen on competing with a load of commercial traffic either.

Bearing all of this in mind and with information provided by the guide, I decided to compile a list of criteria for our next few flights. Here it is:

The page describing the airfield must not include any sections with the heading “Cautions” or “Warnings“
The section for each airfield headed “Remarks” must not contain the word “risk”, or any sentences starting with “A public road crosses …” or “Look out for …”
The airfield map must not feature any buildings labelled “passenger terminal” or “cargo”
The runway must be level, smooth and made of asphalt
There must be no possibility of meeting up with flocks of Greylag Geese or any other type of bird. The same goes for gliders, parachutists and hot-air balloons
Animals of any kind, pedestrians, cyclists or general road traffic must not be allowed anywhere near the runway
Because I always like to break with coffee and at least a snack, if not a full-blown lunch, there must be a cafe or restaurant on-site or within walking distance (unless we’re going on to somewhere else)
Fuel must be available as Charlie is only small and can’t carry a huge amount. Otherwise there must be somewhere to fill up en-route which meets the above criteria

So where does that leave us?

Taking all of the above points into consideration, I think we have a choice of about zero airfields to choose from, or perhaps two really obscure ones if I look hard enough. <sigh> Guess I’m going to have to revisit the list and think again!