Cornwall trip

Ok so I lied, it has taken me two days to write this report.. however here it is:

The plan started about six weeks ago, my dad mentioned that he had an idea about a flying trip and wanted to know my thoughts.. my dads father-in-law Tony was approaching his birthday on the 4th of April and my dad wondered about taking him for a flight. Tony is long retired now but in his younger days he used to race sail boats after WWII in the olympics, one of the boats he used to sail has now been restored and resides in a Maritime museum in Falmouth, Cornwall. The thing is he suffers from back problems and a seven hour drive to Cornwall would be an arduous affair if not impossible. Tony also in his youth had some flying experience in gliders but again had not flown for decades.

Therefore the plan was to make subtle enquiries as to firstly whether he wanted to come flying and secondly how long did he think he could cope in the air with his back, keeping the visit to Falmouth a secret for now. I had worked out an estimated flight time of nearly two hours not allowing for any wind, which he felt he could do because he would be so distracted by flying he wouldn't worry about his back. Therefore all now depended on the weather.

As time drew closer to the 4th I planned the flight properly, at least the route and noted down frequencies etc.. the first leg would be from Blackbushe to Compton Abbas as Tony lived only 15 minutes away from there, we would then pick him up and then fly down to the South coast at Bridport. Next we would continue to fly along the coastline round the many jags, cliffs, seaside towns all the way to the western corner of England.. Cornwall. Once at Cornwall I selected the closest airfield to Falmouth, Truro airfield. This is a privately owned airfield with a short (530m) grass runway, from there we would take a taxi cab to Falmouth.

The planning was by far the most adventurous I have undertaken to date, we had to cross two marked danger areas off-shore (D012 and D009) along with a couple of NOTAM'ed areas where military aircraft were carrying out target practice on towed targets. I called the RAF operations to ask what the likelihood was that I would get cleared through these areas. The RAF guy was real helpful and told me what aircraft where going to be doing at what times and what altitudes and gave me a couple of frequencies I could talk to en-route to get Danger Area Crossing Service (DACS) under radar supervision. I asked him to ask the pilots to please not shoot at anything Cessna shaped.

On the third of April the weather forecast was looking excellent so I called dad and told him it was almost certainly a go and we arranged to get to Blackbushe at 8.00am.

I woke early and completed the navigation planning for the first leg before dad arrived to pick me up, he was running a little late so we didn't get to Blackbushe until 8:30am. I carried out a meticulous preflight and realised we needed to pick up fuel, so we filled up which took more time. We finally departed at just before 10am. The winds were directly behind us so Compton Abbas was a fairly short flight with a ground speed around 130knts. The weather was amazing, stunning visibility with 40km and only scattered cumulus at around 5,000, makes one hellva change from the past few flights which have been mostly less than 10km.

This is the second time I have been to Compton Abbas, having visited earlier on in the year.. I warned dad about the bumpy but fun runway. This time we would be landing on runway 8 the opposite from before.

I joined the circuit with only one other aircraft joining from the opposite direction, and made an OK approach with an OK short-field landing, not my best but satisfactory. We bounced along due to the undulating surface and came to a halt barely a third into the length. I swung off into the longer grass and parked next to a nice looking Bulldog. Tony was there waiting for us so we went inside and grabbed a coffee. I completed the planning for the next stage down to Truro, just having to work out the wind drift, true airspeed and fuel required.

We got into the aircraft with Tony in the right-hand seat and dad in the back, and soon was taxiing to the runway. A Tiger Moth was nearby and we watched as it was hand-propped, I thought I bet that is fun to fly on a day like today. The runway proved funny again.. we were bouncing along over the crest of the hill and I was trying hard to make sure I kept the nosewheel up without lifting off prematurely before having enough speed. We were now three-up with full fuel so almost at MAUW, the take off began uphill on grass before reaching the downslope, so all combined meant Lima Sierra limped into the air and needed a Vx climb to miss the trees at the end of the runway. We cleared them with plenty of room fortunately.

Reaching the coastline only took around 20 minutes, I obtained clearance through the danger areas using the frequencies given to me the day before and flew just offshore. The water looked amazingly serene up here and once over the water any lumpiness in the air vanished. Water heats air evenly therefore we don't get the same kind of convective activity as we do on land.



Tony was clearly loving the flight, he was animated and pointing out all the places he knew along the coast. It really was beautiful, all the little seaside towns, dramatic cliffs and rock formations. I had totally forgotten how picture perfect our coastline can be, considering I live just outside London and am surrounded by a modern concrete jungle. The further West we flew the quieter the radio became, it seems very few people other than the Royal Navy heli's and the RAF jets were taking advantage of the weather. The whole flight along the coast gave us so much to look at that the time evaporated. Soon enough we entered Cornwall just below St Austell, looking to the South West we could clearly see Lands End and the shape of the bottom corner of England.

The next challenge was to find Truro airfield, I could see where it should be by reference to the town of Truro and the windfarm the airfield is adjacent to but I couldn't see the airfield itself. I asked Tony and dad to look for it also as it should now be below us. I circled round and then realised the small innocent looking field below was in fact it, wow.. small! I tried calling up the airfield but had no response, therefore I decided to circle again and try and pick out which way the windsock was pointing. It was basically directly across the runway at about 10-15knts. I decided I liked the look of 32 (totally forgetting that the runway is on a hillside with a 4 degree slope from North to South) so entered a descending left base for the runway and making blind calls.

This was a real shortfield landing, if I messed this up we would likely over-run so I decided early that if I definitely couldn't hit the numbers I would go around for another attempt. Sure enough the first approach was poor.. the downhill slope created a visual illusion which meant I came in too flat and also too high to make the numbers. I went around. The next approach was much better, I dropped all 40 degree of flaps to bring us in steeply at the slowest airspeed I could get (61mph) and forced myself to begin the flare before crossing the hedge and threshold. As we came down I pulled it out of the sideslip for the cross wind and we touched down firmly right on the numbers and rolled to a halt.. the runway surface was much better than Compton Abbas with no bumpiness. Total landing roll was around 180m, which impressed me greatly, I am sure the Katana could not have got into that space on a short grass surface.

We parked up on some nearby grass and hopped out. The flight time had been just one hour and 45 minutes due to the helpful tailwind, certainly beats the seven hour trip by car!

The female owner of the airfield was nearby at a small hut with her children, she had come out to greet us. We chatted awhile and found out we were one of the first visitors this year, no other aircraft where here at all! Immediately the West country attitude was apparent, laid back and casual, we were made to feel very welcome. The airfield was basking in the Spring sun and being on a hill gave us a good view all around of the cornish hills fading to the coast. We called a local taxi firm and then had a picnic on the airfield while we waited for it to arrive.

The taxi arrived and took us direct to the museum, Tony and dad went inside while I stopped outside to have a smoke, telling them I would catch them up inside. I walked over to the quayside and looked out across Falmouth bay, that moment was priceless. The warm air was soft with salt and gulls were calling out, the waves gently lapped the moored yachts and dinghies. A Royal Navy destroyer and command ship were a little way out and I could see the sailors busy on the decks. The sight of the many palm trees which live in the relatively warm climate in the West reminded me how amazing it was that only a couple of hours ago we were in the suburbs of London and now I am here. Amazing stress reliever.

I reluctantly left this paradise and went inside the museum, catching up with Tony and dad. Tony was again animated at seeing the boat he obviously held so much affection for, telling us of it's speed and the races. Sadly we didn't have too much time to hang around as I was conscious that the return trip would take much longer even though it was direct, the headwind would guarantee that. We proceeded through the museum but didn't spend too long looking at everything. A cab was again called and we resumed our journey, the cab driver spoke with that Cornish drawl which was excellent to hear, he was surprised and interested to hear we had flown down and asked a lot of questions.

When we arrived back at Truro airfield the owners again greeted us and we chatted for awhile. He is a commercial heli pilot and bought the airfield a few years ago, he does pleasure trips around Cornwall mainly in the summer and also offers instruction on his R44. I went to carry out a preflight on Lima Sierra, I only had 12 gallons of fuel left which wouldn't get us very far. I had intended to stop in at the much larger Exeter airport on the way back to refuel however a large tank here was marked as 100LL AVGAS so I enquired if he would sell us fuel. He was happy to, however mentioned that the tank had not been used hardly at all since last year so he would have to first test it. I helped him to turn on the levers and pumps as he recycled the fuel for awhile to clear any water that may have got into the pipes. He then poured a large amount into a clear plastic bucket to look for contamination, it was blue coloured, bright and no contamination was evident so I said I would accept the fuel. I proceeded to fill up both wing tanks to full. I checked the fuel drains on each tank twice.. no water again.

Next challenge was taking off again, hmm.. again we were at near MAUW due to the acquisition of the fuel, I knew I would have to take-off downhill regardless of the wind, which was incidentally still right across the runway. The owner had cut the runway grass today (I suspect for us especially) therefore we wouldn't get too much drag slowing up the take off run. The numbers worked in principal although with very little margin for miscalculation, I figured that I would need to be at 50mph by the time I was half-way otherwise I must abort and attempt to stop before hitting the hedge at the end of the runway. If I didn't get 50mph at that point and continued I would be committed and with trees and buildings at the end to clear it would likely mean disaster. Not for the faint hearted, I decided to keep my concerns to myself rather than alarming my passengers.

We waved goodbye to our hosts and taxied. I kept as tight in as I could to the threshold to make sure we got the longest run possible and opened the throttle.. speed started building.. 3rd of the length.. 40mph.. half-way.. 48 mph.. eek.. decided to continue.. we limped into the air at 55mph so kept the nose down to build up speed in ground effect then held 65mph in the climb out. We used most of the runway as expected and were able to clear the trees and buildings by an OK margin. Therefore a good result although to be honest this was the first time I really HAD to use every bit of the skills I had learnt on the PPL course, it gave me cause to wonder in hindsight the wisdom of attempting such things with so few hours under my belt. I think in future I would rather limit myself to 580m+ runway lengths, it is perhaps a part of the learning curve to discover what my personal limits should be. However hopefully discover them safely and in future alone. I suspect anyone reading this may think me reckless on this occasion, and I think they maybe right. If I had done this solo I would not dwell on it as only my life would be at risk, however I had two passengers with me, stuff to think about.

By the way anyone thinking of visiting Truro airfield, do so, my account is of a fully loaded 172 with no headwind to assist take-off run so don't let it put you off. The hospitality and setting was awesome and I will return here one day with a lighter load.

Anyway, on with the journey. The flight back was as expected slow due to the headwind which was pretty much directly on the nose, the weather remained superb as we climbed over the moors. We flew just below few fluffy clouds at close to 5,000AMSL giving us an excellent view of both the East and West coasts of Cornwall. We were flying with Flight Information Service the whole way although the frequency was very quiet with only occasional exchanges between Exeter approach and the professional pilots coming in under radar supervision. The way back was again excellent, plenty to see and lots of animated conversations between Tony and dad and myself.

After a couple of hours we found Compton Abbas although again hard to spot from the South due to being hidden along the edge of woodland. The time was now past 5pm and we joined overhead for runway 8 again. I called final and was told there was a 22knt crosswind, nothing like a good crosswind on a short soft runway for focusing the senses. I pulled off the first greaser of the day to Tony's compliments, I neglected to mention that I was trying to plonk it down as a good shortfield landing and failed... oh well.

We paused here awhile to say good bye to Tony who was extremely appreciative, today we had achieved something, we had put a huge smile on all our faces, and all made possible by the decision almost a year ago to take up flying lessons. This flying lark is good isn't it :-).

After checking the weather again and official sunset time dad and I set off back to Blackbushe. The sun was now beginning to sink below the horizon giving the few scattered clouds a rose tint with the lighter grey cirus high above. The air was now totally smooth and the radio almost silent, with seemingly hardly anyone else enjoying the flying conditions. We were both totally relaxed and enjoying the serenity of it all, away from the busy streets with their rush hour traffic and the mundane.

Blackbushe was now out of hours for the ATC service so we entered the circuit normally with calls to one other aircraft who called a straight in final about 20 miles out!?! We eventually ended up calling short final and landing long before the other aircraft appeared.

We then went to the flying club bar and got a couple of beers.. good time to reflect on the day. One realisation occurred to me at this point; I realised with a twinge of regret that in my adult life I had had far fewer adventures than I should have had. Today has been one of the best times of my entire life, I will be doing a lot more adventurous trips.