Well, I have just got home...
....but then I was distracted by dinner with two lovely ladies last night
Well organised young Craig, look forward to meeting you one day.
I picked up my new(ish) 100hr PPL that I was to mentor for the day, wondering just what mentoring I could do with someone who has flown with The Blades (sulk sulk). A good preflight brief on the way to North Weald and then a good walk round before we set to hauling ourselves into the bright blue sky. With minimal effort we headed west and decided to initially fly above the scattered cotton wool before popping down through a gap so that my pilot felt a little easier about the VFR part.....after all he was P1.
The cloud was gathered in force over the hills near Stokenchurch. Once my pilot had told me this would be the point he would turn back (good decision making for a new PPL) I then talked him through the gap over the hills and under the cloudbase before we broke through into bright sunshine and clear blue skies just past Didcot. To prove that even so called experienced pilots (and that is him talking not me cos I am still green I reckon) with 600 odd hours can make a fauxpas I managed my first ever infringement, albeit a small one clipping an ATZ. So he managed to see how to deal with that (and the phone call to a very understanding sergeant once back on the ground to apologise for a momentary lapse of concentration in 3k viz and low cloudbase
). Lesson learned much to my embarrassment.
So, back in clear air, airframe cleaned up, he navigated us very nicely through Class D and then onward to Wellesbourne. We watched GUTSY land 2000' below us and then descended deadside for a very good landing. A debrief of the flight and then it was off for bacon butties - my word, I want to know where they source their bacon at Wellesbourne!! More like gammon steak
The rest of the day was a flurry of hello, how are you type catch ups with loads of people. I even managed to bump into my CPL instructor who was over from Gloucester on a training flight and was bought a mug of infamous Wellesbourne hot frothy chocolate.....very yummy indeed. Been a long while since I have seen that many forumites in one place and wish I had managed more time to talk to some of the new faces, but at least I will now recognise some of them when we bump into each other around the airfields of Europe.
The talks were very good, but the star of the day has to be the weather - awesome!!!!!
Ridders begged me to keep him company for some of the return trip, so after practically no persuasion at all we found ourselves with a Bulldog on our wing for some of the return trip - gawd I miss it
but time for formation frolics will return once I have completed my instrument rating (and paid for it) so for the time being days like yesterday are there to keep the grin wide and the determination sky high. I took control for that part of the flight so that my pilot could enjoy the experience more and judging from his email to me it will stay with him for a while
He is convinced there is a photo of him out there with his jaw on the cockpit floor as he murmurs 'wow, that is a little close!'
Straight and level cruise back, I sat and enjoyed the amazing view over London in crystal clear visibility as he navigated us around the Luton Zone - needless to say I still haven't managed to negotiate a requested zone transit from Luton (other than being allowed to clip an edge of the zone)
One day.
After 'losing' his engine with absolutely no warning at all in the circuit back at base, my pilot did a sterling job of getting us back onto the numbers.
We both took a lot away from the day. He reckons he learned lots, I learned a couple of lessons that will stand me in good stead in the future and we both had a fantastic day out to boot.
Will try and remember to post a piccie later.