First flight in command of the Robin DR400

Headcorn to Kemble (Cotswold Airport) | G-BFJZ

This flight was actually back in May and has taken me a while to put the video together. With holidays and starting a new job, time has not been on my side.

Before starting my new job, I had a few weeks of down time and used one of those days to make the trip to Kemble (Cotswold Airport), a flight I have been trying to complete since the beginning of the year with friend and fellow pilot Graham. The last attempt was cancelled due to heavy snow back in February but with Biggin Hill still operating we flew over to Solent Airport where the conditions were better (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s7ppp0M0tY).

As Weald Air Services at Headcorn operate a fleet of 4 Robin DR400 aircraft, each with different engine sizes, I wanted to get checked out on them, not only to see what they are like to fly but also to give myself more options in busy periods when the aircraft get booked up quite quickly.

So following my check out flight and differences training, I set the date of the 10th May with Graham to make our latest attempt and to take the DR400 so I could get a bit more flight time and Graham was keen as he has never flown in a Robin aircraft before.

We arrived at Headcorn nice and early in the morning and things didn’t get off to a great start with fog and low cloud dominating the airfield. With the TAF’s indicating that it would slowly dissipate we made a start on the pre-flight checks and fuelling the aircraft.

By the the time this was complete along with the paperwork, the cloud-base had lifted enough for us to depart and the weather was improving along our route.

We took off nearly 2 hours later than planned from runway 28 and departed the circuit upwind as this put us on a good track to the west. We had to level off at around 1,400 feet quite early on to stay below a thick layer of cloud.

We then changed frequency to Farnborough Radar and requested a Basic Service as we routed through the narrow gap between the Gatwick CTA and the Biggin Hill ATZ. We got a great view of our former home base which was busy with departing jet traffic which unfortunately for GA has become all too familiar.

We continued west towards Farnborough airport where we made a right turn through another narrow gap between the Blackbush ATZ and the Heathrow CTA.

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Once through the gap and in the Reading area we requested a frequency change to Benson Zone to request a MATZ Penetration through their southern stub which was approved.

We then decided to stay with Benson Zone all the way to Swindon as they were providing us with really good and detailed traffic information even though we were only on a Basic Service. When we were in the Swindon vicinity we changed frequency to Kemble Information to get our approach and landing details.

We joined overhead for Runway 26 on a left hand circuit making a dog leg final approach to avoid Kemble village which lies directly on the runway centre line.

After a relatively smooth landing, we vacated the runway where we were asked to hold to allow another aircraft to land on the parallel grass runway.

We then taxied to our parking stand on the grass area in-front of the control tower and shut the aircraft down.

Due to the delays earlier in the morning, this meant that our time at Kemble was limited but we had just enough time to visit the temporary food truck as the restaurant was under renovation following some damage in a recent storm. So Graham and I grabbed a quick lunch before preparing for our return flight back to Headcorn.

It was a huge relief to actually get airborne and to finally make it over to Kemble and another airfield in my log book. It was actually a really pleasant flight with great company even if it did get a bit bumpy in places.

Overall the DR400 was really enjoyable to fly, but I must admit that coming from Cessna and Piper aircraft, I found taxiing the Robin harder work than it needed to be.

View the video on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EahB5ZojKpg