Where have you been? What have you seen?
#1564486
Some 15 years ago, I had my first ever trial lesson in a light aircraft from Andrewsfield, my local. I was too young to go solo at the time - or even reach the pedals - but I was hooked! Now, I've had my licence for 5 years and I finally decided to fly into where it all began.

Routing from Sywell, the direct route takes you through Stansted's CTR. Not a problem, I'd done all of my training at an airfield inside Class D, so was used to using a radio! However, 2 years of flying from a Class G airfield had got me used to having silence in the skies most of the time! So, I thought I'd give it a shot, transiting through Stansted via Audley End VRP, with an alternate route around the north of the zone planned. I assumed I'd get routed along the VFR lanes, from Audley End and across to Gt. Dunmow, so I positioned the GoPro accordingly on the left hand side of the aircraft. No such luck!

I got a very early call into Essex Radar to request the transit, who were busy as ever, pretty much as soon as I was within radio range. Once overhead Royston I was cleared into the zone maintaining my current track (not via Audley End!) direct to the 22 numbers. Hand-over to Stansted Director was very easy - just call up with callsign only! Once inside the zone, a couple of minutes later it was onto Stansted Tower who restricted me to not above 2000ft VFR (not a problem that day), and sequenced me in just behind a Ryanair 737 coming in on the ILS. I caught the 737 a bit quicker than they thought, but didn't have enough time to orbit due to an A320 hot on its tail. So, drop a bit of flap and slow down to about 65kts until they'd passed under my cowling, then resume normal flying speed and own track to Andrewsfield. Very accommodating controllers to a little "spam can" making things awkward!

Despite living in the area for 23 years I couldn't recognise anything at all from the air! Andrewsfield came up very quickly, with the ATZ half inside Stansted's zone. Despite being a calm, near CAVOK day, there was very little other traffic around and I was the only one in the circuit.

Unfortunately on the way back it was rush hour at Stansted. Due to weather closing in at Sywell I had decided that if I wasn't given a clearance within 10mins of getting airborne I'd have to take the longer planned diversionary route, up to Newmarket and across the north of Cambridge (a few NOTAMs made it a bit too tight squeezing between Duxford & Cambridge), in order to make it back to Sywell before the weather. A quick call to Essex Radar while still on the ground, they acknowledged and to call again when airborne. Unfortunately the controller was pretty much talking nonstop, so while remaining outside & below controlled airspace doing a few orbits, no clearance was forthcoming. Eventually I bailed and it took another few minutes to get enough space on the radio to advise I was cancelling my transit request! An uneventful flight back to Sywell, getting back just before the rain!

I'd thoroughly recommend a visit to Andrewsfield, a great little airfield with a great cafe (I think it had won awards in the past). Especially before it gets turned into a "garden village"...

I made a couple of videos of the flights, overlaying my SkyDemon track of the route. Only tiny alarming thing was playing the videos back, I spotted a plane on the outbound leg flying at right angles and below me - never saw it at all in flight! That may have been when I was changing frequencies, but shows why a really good lookout is always needed. Looking at their track I suspect they probably didn't see me either.

Outbound leg (via Stansted):


Return leg (not via Stansted...!)


All comments greatly welcome!