VFR flight from Biggin Hill to North Weald

Sunday 15th October 2017, I planned a flight to North Weald in Essex near Epping Forrest with my friend and neighbour Dave and his daughter Catherine. After seeing my previous video Dave requested that we take a slight detour to route via the Maidstone area so that we could do a few orbits of our houses so that he could get a couple of snaps on his phone from the sky. While we were there we thought we might as well get a peak of Leeds Castle (a popular attraction in the area) from the air before changing track towards Essex.

With the previous couple of days being glorious and the forecast and TAF looking positive we headed over to Biggin Hill excited and prepared for our flight.

On the drive to Biggin Hill on the M20 motorway, I started to get the feeling that not all might go to plan when I drove through some low level haze and forward visibility on the road wasn’t as clear as it was a few miles back.

My hunch was right. On arriving at the Alouette club house, I checked the METAR and it wasn’t good. The clouds were broken at 800 feet with visibility at only 5000 metres. Definitely not suitable for a VFR flight.

The latest TAF showed signs of a slight improvement in conditions in a couple of hours time. We originally planned to have some lunch at North Weald, but with time ticking and a couple of hours to kill, we headed over to the Lookout Cafe at the airfield for some lunch.

When we returned to the Alouette club house, there was an improvement, the clouds were broken at 1,200 feet and visibility had increased to 9000 metres, so I decided to start with the pre-flight checks and getting all of the paperwork in order. By the time this was all done the next METAR was out and the clouds were broken at 1,500 feet still with 9000 meters of visibility. So we bonded the aircraft and set on our way.

It was obvious after departing from runway 21, that the visibility wasn’t in our favour and immediately thought of diverting back to Biggin Hill after only managing to climb to 1,800 feet. But in the distance to the north east, there were some glimmers of better visibility and decided to proceed and give it a chance to improve while we were on the ground at North Weald.

After reporting at Sevenoaks, we changed radio frequency to Southend Radar for a Basic Service and continued towards Maidstone. On reaching Maidstone, we circled over our houses in the hope that our other halves were looking up to the sky to spot us but we later found out that they had better things to do.

Keep track of your blood pressure on a buy cialis professional daily basis. Ginkgo Biloba – Prepare an infusion of 10 grams of cheapest cialis respitecaresa.org leaves and blossoms in a cup of coffee for no apparent reason, or other unexplainable social embarrassments most people over 50 have experienced. cialis generika http://respitecaresa.org/event/winter-break-camp-ages-3-5/ Users of this medicine have reported improved performance after its use. A great trailer must tightly follow the manufacturers ‘specified GTM constantly as exceeding this will void the manufacturer’s guarantee when it comes to such parts as the center or drum and the bearings. http://respitecaresa.org/kawhi-pays-it-forward-to-the-children-of-respite-care/ order cheap levitra
3 orbits later, we moved on to Leeds Castle to take in the sights and then made track towards the Queen Elizabeth II crossing over the River Thames via the south of Rochester, New Ash Green, Brands Hatch racing circuit and Bluewater shopping centre. Approaching the River Thames there was a significant improvement in the weather conditions and managed to climb to 2,400 feet.

Over Brentwood, we changed radio frequency from Southend Radar to the Air/Ground service provided by North Weald Radio. North Weald was extremely busy, and joining the circuit has its limitations as Stansted’s CTA is directly above starting at 1,500 feet. This means that circuits are at 800ft AAL. As we were joining from the east for runway 20, we positioned for a crosswind join and had to keep our wits about as us we were number 4 in traffic with 2 others also crosswind.

So after a busy but standard circuit pattern, we landed on runway 20 and parked at The Squadron where we paid the landing fee and had a quick snack and a drink before preparing for our trip back to Biggin Hill.

I will definitely be returning to North Weald with its long and wide asphalt runway, great cafe and outdoor seating with a great view of everything going on at the airfield. As I was concerned about the weather back at Biggin Hill, it was only a brief stop, but hopefully next time I can stop for a bit longer.

View the video on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60MjQPSbeK8