Christmas and our first holiday of the year out of the way, it was time for my first Land Away!
The plan was a flight up to Full Sutton, so a little Nav Ex, then circuits on the short grass strip. I had it all planned from before Christmas, I just needed the latest weather to calculate the heading.
The sun was shining out side and the METAR also looked good:
EGNJ 061120Z 22018KT CAVOK 05/01 Q1007, the TAF was also looking fine.
EGNJ 060903Z 061019 21008KT 9999 FEW030
I downloaded the wind report and did my heading calculations, quickly filling in my nav log, I phoned Sandra at Soloflight and then headed off.
Stewart gave me a quick briefing on over head joins, and short field landings and take-offs, then it was off. As usual we would be taking G-GALB. We were delayed at the hold, to wait while an Airbus full of excited holiday makers landed and back tracked. As soon as it was down we were allowed to line up and wait while the Airbus back tracked. Facing each other as he headed towards us, it was a little like David and Goliath. The Airbus got to with a few dozen feet of us then vacated via taxi way Alpha. As soon as it cleared the runway we were cleared for take-off.
Brakes off, full power and a right foot full of rudder. At sixty knots were were airborne, I let the speed climb to eighty knots, then at 500 feet it was a right turn out. I maintained the climb and at 1000 feet turned of the fuel pump and headed to Elsham, the point I had calculated the journey to Full Sutton from. Over flying my land mark I turned to my calculated heading to start the journey to Full Sutton, forgetting to start my stop watch!
I climbed to 2500 feet and leveled off. Humberside Tower were very busy I normally got handed over to Humberside Radar by 1400 feet, but eventually they handed me over to Radar and I asked for a Flight information Service.
The first part of the journey is quite easy, lots of easy land marks. The wind must have been stronger then forecast as I was continually right of my track but subtracting a few more degrees from my heading kept the distance constant.
Full Sutton was difficult to spot but luckily the prison just north of it was easy to see. As was Pocklington Airfield. I started a slow descent and told Humberside Radar I wished to switch to Full Sutton Radio. They got very busy again, and I had to repeat myself. I was given a new transponder code and switched over to Full Sutton Radio and announced my intentions. Passing over the runway I made a sharp left right turn to bring me back to the dead side of the runway, then announcing my dead side descent, I spiraled down to circuit height and joined downwind for runway 22.
Getting my checks in, Stewart talked me through the landing, at 300 feet I removed the carb heat and came in low over the farmers hedge. As soon as I cleared the fence I removed all power and I made a nice touch down with two stages of flaps. I let the aircraft run on the wet grass and as we crossed the old concrete runway we soon slowed down and I risked a light touch on the brakes to make the turn at the end. I taxied to the club house and parked up. I shutdown the aircraft and headed off to the club house to pay my landing fee, but not before I grabbed my camera and took some photographs.
The little airfield was quite busy and there was a number of people in the club house.
We made our way to the kitchen and made ourselves tea and coffee and payed the land fee.
The sun was now very low so we waited until it dropped behind the trees. With the sun soon hidden it would be much easier to practice our grass field circuits.
Setting off I made four circuits before the growing gloom was making landing too difficult to continue so off the last take-off I turned to my calculated heading to get us home.
It was now officially dark and few landmarks were visible except for the well lit M18 and the river Humber. I was to rejoin at Elsham it has a small tower lit with a red light so it was easy to spot in the now dark landscape. I was asked to wait at Elsham and handed over to Humberside Tower. I switched frequencies and heard a large passenger jet coming in to land. Oh well I would have to wait in the dark. Circling round Elsham I waiting slowly descending down to circuit height. Finally I was given permission to approach to finals, so I headed off and turned onto my downwind leg.
The runway was hard to see at first but the terminal building and the quarry nearby was well lit and turning onto final I found the runway was fully lit.
The approach was difficult to judge and I ended up lower then I should have. I added some power and stopped my descent to hold my height until the PAPI lights showed two red and two white then started my descent again.
Over the threshold I passed and reduced power and touched down. That was 6 take-offs and landings in total and all were spot on, not a bad days work. Now to just put Lima Bravo away for the night.
