Late in 2001 I decided to take up microlighting. This had a couple of big advantages over hangliding which I had been doing for ten years. Firstly it offered me a way to get more flying for less time commitment, and also the ability to take my girlfriend Eva, up with me from time to time. This makes it much easier for her to live with my time consuming and expensive passion. As I'm keen to keep my relationship but also to keep flying, this seemed like a great idea!

I started training with Brian Palfreyman at Watnall in December 2001, and bought a half share in a Flash 2 Alpha in April 2002. Unfortunately, very soon after the Alpha arrived we had an engine out and the trike rolled over on the emergency landing. (There was nothing wrong with the landing, we were unlucky to find a rabbit hole) Two months later, it came back fully restored - many thanks to Robert Fleming's Insurance and Mainair, both of whom were truly excellent.

Brian's training was excellent and thorough and when I passed my GFT at the beginning of October, I felt confident that I knew enough to be a safe and competent pilot although I had (and have) a lot more to learn.

Having got my licence just prior to the end of the reasonable weather, I planned to take a flying trip to consolidate some of the flight planning training and the radio licence I had taken in July, before the weather broke. Eva was booked on an art course for a week near Hereford so I went through Pooley's to find local options to base myself there for a few days. Shobdon looked like a good bet and a phone call confirmed that they'd be happy to have me and to provide hangarage for the Alpha.

After a couple of evenings working through the flight planning, plotting my route and programming all the necessary frequencies into the radio, I was ready. Amazingly, on the Monday when I was due to depart, the weather was excellent and shortly after 9.00am I took off from Watnall and set course for a turnpoint over Darley Moor.

Breakfast was croissants at 2.500 feet to the North of Derby and I was soon over Darley Moor and setting course for Otherton where I had arranged to meet up with a friend who also flies microlights. Otherton Radio was unmanned but I saw another flexwing in the circuit and followed it in, landing at 10.30.

After coffee, John and I drove a few miles to a farm strip near Mitton where John keeps his Blade. We flew it back to Otherton so that we could take both aircraft for some local flying together. Back at Otherton, we met up with a couple of local pilots with an X-Air and agreed to all fly over to Sittle's Farm near Burton on Trent. Flying over Cannock Chase in mid day mildly turbulent air, with very limited emergency landing options focused the mind a little and I breathed a big sigh of relief when the land below opened up again.

The flight to Sittle's Farm took 30 minutes. The site is excellent with really comfortable facilities including a bar and restaurant, although it was deserted on the day. As someone pointed out, it's amazing what you can achieve when you throw a few millionaires together!

It was 2.15 when we got back to Otherton and with a South Westerly wind, I wanted to push on to Shobdon so that I would have plenty of time in case things didn't go entirely to plan. After signing out, I refolded my airmap and John and I took off again. I followed him back to his strip so that I could have a good look at it from the air. As John landed I flew around the circuit a couple of times before climbing back up and heading South.

Flying at 3,500 feet over the Cosford ATZ I called them up to let them know I was in the area, Cosford were very friendly and appreciative that I had put in the courtesy call. From there I headed straight to Shobdon, flying over the gap in the Clee Hills. As I passed Ludlow, I called up Shobdon to get the airfield information.

In circuit at Shobdon, I was in the company of two Cessnas and a Robinson helicopter. It felt quite strange to be flying into such a busy airfield but the radio was a huge help and as the microlight circuit is much smaller than the standard one, it always felt as if there was plenty of separation.

Shobdon has three parallel East / West runways, a 280m grass microlight strip and 900m grass and tarmac runways which are used by light aircraft and gliders. I landed at 4.00 on the microlight strip and waited for the other aircraft to land before taxing across the other runways to park and sign in.

The team at Shobdon were very friendly and briefed me on the local area procedures as I was going to be based there for a few days. They suggested that as they were having a fairly quiet week, I was welcome to use any of the runways if I preferred to do so.

Shortly afterwards, Eva arrived and as the late afternoon air was very smooth I took her for her first flight. We took off on the long grass runway and went for some superb local sight seeing. Eva was very relaxed with the flight and after half an hour we lined up and floated in for an absolute greaser. With the aircraft safely tucked up in the hangar we headed for the Airfield bar and had a couple of celebratory beers.

The next couple of days were not suitable for flying due to strong cross winds. On Thursday I flew for an hour during the day but the air was a little rough with marginal visibility so I stayed local and had another half an hour's local flight with Eva in the evening.

That evening the weather forecast showed unsettled weather due to arrive, so I was keen to head back to Watnall the next day.

In fact, the following day was flyable, albeit with a lively Easterly breeze and poor (though legal) visibility. I took off at 2.30 having sat and watched to make sure that the weather was not deteriorating at any worrying rate. My plan was to fly to John's strip and then to assess whether it was safe to fly to Watnall, given the crosswind.

Navigation was much harder in the poor visibility, but with a combination of map reading and GPS support, I arrived overhead Mitton at 4.00. The strip is very narrow and I had to go around on my first circuit but then put it down without a problem.

Within ten minutes of landing, the wind picked up strongly and it was obvious that a crosswind landing at Watnall was not a viable option, so I called Andy Buchan for permission to land at Caunton. Andy was very helpful and I quickly revised my flight plan for my new destination. As I taxied to the runway the heavens opened and it threw it down! Back to plan B, I derigged and put the aircraft in John's hangar. The upside was that John and I had a great Friday night in Wolverhampton!

Saturday was clearly unflyable with massive storms and strong winds, so John drove me back to Nottingham where I picked up my car. However Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, albeit with a forecast to deteriorate by early afternoon. I hurtled back down to Mitton in the car and rigged the Alpha. After telephoning Watnall, to check the weather I took off and headed back home.

Flying past Uttoxeter I was in contact with a Police helicopter on the microlight channel. This was useful as we were both aware of each other and he gave me a wide berth to avoid any wake turbulence problems. One thing I did notice was that some microlight pilots were using the frequency to "chat" extensively about all manner of things which would have been better discussed on the ground.

As I approached Derby, I could see that the weather was noticeably deteriorating and I started to consider my alternatives if landing at Watnall proved impractical. However, when I got to Watnall, I was just ahead of the rain and the wind was still light so I quickly landed. Within a few minutes the rain arrived so the timing was very lucky and I was very grateful to Leigh Caudwell who very kindly offered to drive me back to Mitton to retrieve my car.

There was a huge sense of satisfaction putting the aircraft away. I was aware that the trip had taught me many things and given me good experience which will hopefully stand me in good stead next spring when trips become practical again

 

Text © 2002 Steve Wilks

Pictures © Not Known unless individually stated.