Wed Jun 15, 2016 3:30 pm
#1463332
I'm a fairly low hour pilot with just over 100hrs P1 and somehow managed to find time to take my wife off to Shobdon last week. Vis. wasn't great but it was certainly acceptable. We arrived to a pleasant atmosphere, great coffee and even a Mr Whippy ice cream!
Knowing that the weather wasn't going to be great back at Denham at 4'ish, we decided to eat lunch and head back hoping it would be good enough to get back down safely before the building CB's turned on us, yet as soon as I was talking to London Info, it became apparent that we were going to have to divert.
We got close to Aylesbury and the skies had turned deep dark grey and vis. looked like a solid wall from where we were, at 2,100ft. Well, it was hats off to the controllers from London, Oxford and Farnborough for being so proactive and helpful. They could not have been any more helpful and despite the radio being a little crackly in places, we ended up landing safely and calmly at White Waltham who were most welcoming and clearly had good weather to boot.
The cherry on top was that White Waltham told me that I had no landing or overnight parking fees to pay due to the Strasser Scheme. We were certainly not in any emergency but the diversion was essential given the weather conditions. I just didn't realise up front that I would benefit from this great scheme - so a big thanks (albeit way overdue) to Charles Strasser for all the hard work in making the scheme work! Thank you.
I took G-JACA back to Denham 2 days later and I see this experience very positively; at no point did anything feel wrong, it was simply a pleasure flying in what for many is an everyday occurrence in the UK.
Knowing that the weather wasn't going to be great back at Denham at 4'ish, we decided to eat lunch and head back hoping it would be good enough to get back down safely before the building CB's turned on us, yet as soon as I was talking to London Info, it became apparent that we were going to have to divert.
We got close to Aylesbury and the skies had turned deep dark grey and vis. looked like a solid wall from where we were, at 2,100ft. Well, it was hats off to the controllers from London, Oxford and Farnborough for being so proactive and helpful. They could not have been any more helpful and despite the radio being a little crackly in places, we ended up landing safely and calmly at White Waltham who were most welcoming and clearly had good weather to boot.
The cherry on top was that White Waltham told me that I had no landing or overnight parking fees to pay due to the Strasser Scheme. We were certainly not in any emergency but the diversion was essential given the weather conditions. I just didn't realise up front that I would benefit from this great scheme - so a big thanks (albeit way overdue) to Charles Strasser for all the hard work in making the scheme work! Thank you.
I took G-JACA back to Denham 2 days later and I see this experience very positively; at no point did anything feel wrong, it was simply a pleasure flying in what for many is an everyday occurrence in the UK.
Many thanks, Alex
[url]https://www.yak-aviation.com[/url]
07475 220029
[url]https://www.yak-aviation.com[/url]
07475 220029
FLYER Club Member
