Category: wales

Scuppered!

The problem with Wales is that it is full of mountains……

… and with mountains, comes weather!

Welcome news came in the form of the weather forecast, signalling an end to the torrential rain with calmer, high-pressure conditions to come. It was the opportunity we’d been waiting for to go for a highly-recommended flight to Haverfordwest.

Sunday came and we duly set off for the airport. Will had planned the route and completed the out-of-hours indemnity form, a necessity due to the airfield being closed at the weekends (ie without services such as air traffic control). By 11.45 we were taxiing off down the runway and within minutes, had climbed to 2000ft, passed the local village and able to turn onto our route.

flooding near the airport — As we set off, we could see the extent of the flooding near to the airport

It wasn’t long before we saw the Welsh mountains appearing in the distance. We also noticed the layer of cloud which seemed to be covering most of Wales. That wasn’t in the plan! Keeping to the valleys and diverting to Abergavenny kept us going for a bit longer but as we changed heading to get back en-route, our improbable hopes that the clouds might have dissipated somewhat, were dashed. Nothing had changed and the cloud was stubbornly not going anywhere.

Sun breaking through the clouds — Every now and then the sun would break through the cloud, highlighting the mountains and valleys

Ahead of us were the peaks of the Brecon Beacons, mostly hidden behind a screen of white with Pen-y-Fan’s summit (2,900ft) encircled by mist.

Mountain peak surrounded by cloud — Mist around Pen-y-Fan

We had hoped to fly at an altitude of 4,500ft; the minimum safe altitude to fly over the tops was 3,500ft. By sticking to the low ground, we’d managed to skirt under the cloud at 2,600ft so it was a definite no-go for the flightpath ahead of us.

Shafts of light breaking through cloud — Keeping under the cloudbase

We had no choice but to turn back, up to Abergavenny again and through the valleys in a reverse of what we’d just done. We weren’t the only ones – through our headsets we could hear a pilot reporting in that he was aborting his flight to Haverfordwest due to the low cloud base, and returning to Kemble.

Bird's eye view of a town — Keeping to the low ground

Rather than heading straight back to the airport, we decided to divert towards Ledbury and Great Malvern. We’d already seen evidence of the flooding, but seeing the burst banks of the River Severn showed more of the devastating effects of Storm Henk.

Fields underwater from the River Severn — The River Severn with the aftermath of Storm Henk

Back at the hangar we got talking to another couple who’d just returned from a successful trip to Blackbushe. Had we decided to go east rather than west, we discovered, we’d have had no clouds to contend with and certainly no mountains to fly over. Despite that, we had a brilliant day, rounded off by bagging the last table in the busy airport restaurant for the best Sunday roast for miles.

Airports Flights General Aviation routes Routes wales Welshpool

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.

Routes shobdon wales

We’re back!

After months of being on terra-firma, we finally made it back in the air. It had been so long since our last flight, that Will had had to go out with an instructor again. Due to us being unavailable, Charlie being unavailable, the wrong type of weather or maintenance issues, Will hadn’t been able to do the three take-offs and landings in 90 days that are required by law, so before he could take Charlie up again, he needed to prove that he was competent to do so.

A few days after that important tick in the box, we were on our way to Shobdon. Just a short trip there and back. I’d only been to Shobdon once before, on the first ever trip in Charlie with Will as pilot. At that point everything seemed so rushed and we hardly had any time on the ground before having to head back. This time around we knew what we were doing and had planned for the inevitable delays (such as catching-up with people we hadn’t seen for ages).

As we were nearing Shobdon, Will asked for clearance to do a touch-and-go which went perfectly, after which we still had plenty of time to sit outside the airport’s Hotspur Cafe and enjoy a leisurely coffee. It was obviously a stopping point for bikers too – nearly every table, inside and out, was occupied by people in leathers enjoying a late breakfast, while motorbikes of every make and size were lined up just beyond the fence.

The airfield was also busy with gliders with a constant flow of take-offs and tows. More gliders were parked up near the top of the runway surrounded by people presumably waiting to go up.

One of the many gliders being towed that day

Someone had booked Charlie after us so we needed to get him back to the hangar by early afternoon. Due to the proximity of the gliders, we had to stop short of the normal holding point to do the pre-flight checks.

As far as I’m concerned Will can take as long as he likes going through the checklist. These are obviously critical and ensure that the aircraft is in a fit state to fly. The first checks are done before the engine is even started. Once the engine’s on there are more checks, after which permission is sought to enter the taxiway. At the holding point near the entrance to the runway, more checks are done and then, if conditions are safe, permission is given to enter the runway. Inevitably there are times when you have to wait for other aircraft to land or you end up in a queue so it can take quite a while from getting into your seat to the wheels finally leaving the tarmac (or grass). And that’s without getting any fuel!

Anyway, back to the flight….. We cruised most of the way to Shobdon at around 3,500 ft over the mountains, and slightly lower coming back. Visibility was excellent and the weather was calm most of the time. However, there were some areas of turbulence which caused a few bumpy moments and at one point as we started to descend towards home, there was a sudden drop – the type where your tummy feels like it’s been left behind!

It’s not unusual at our home airport to have to hang back or stay in the circuit as it gets so busy, but that day it was surprisingly quiet and we were able to go straight in.

Charlie is again off-duty having an avionics upgrade after which he’ll be due for his next service so it’ll be a little while before we can get up again, but now that summer’s well and truly here we’re hoping there’ll be plenty of opportunities once he’s back.

Sunday morning on the farm – on the descent

Tags bikers, checks, gliders, shobdon, wales