Circuits and Southend Class D zone transit

Last flight before another break!

With only one flight as pilot in command under my belt since lockdown restrictions were eased in June 2020, frustratingly this was my last flight for an extended period as I needed to go in to hospital for surgery on my shoulder.

This means that my medical certificate has been suspended and with the recovery estimated anywhere from 4 – 8 months before being medically fit to fly again and my biennial due in November, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I won’t be flying again for some time and will need to go through the whole revalidation process when I am fit again.

On the positive side, Headcorn is a great place to visit any day of the week as a spectator with all of the parachute activity, Spitfires, Harvards as well as general aviation and being able to pitch up right next to the runway. I will have to get my aviation fix from here for the time being.

Following my last flight, which was really just a refresher to get back into the swing of things, I wanted to extend on this and get a bit more practice in terms of my take offs and landings as well as brushing up on my RT. So I booked G-BMLX the Cessna 150 on the 30th July.

With my friend Matt watching from the side of the runway (thanks for the exterior video footage, and the ‘commentary’ while taxiing to the runway 🙂 ), I decided to practice a few touch and goes and then plotted a navigation route to the north transiting Southends Class D airspace. The idea being to fly over and around the Thames in an anti-clockwise direction.

As this was the Cessna 150’s first flight of the day, I performed the A check and refuelled the aircraft and completed all of the paperwork, before taxiing down to runway 10 to depart towards the east. It is a left hand circuit from runway 10, and with wanting to get 3 take offs and landings in I completed 2 circuits that I was happy with before leaving the ATZ to the north on the crosswind leg.

 

This was a day where you really needed to have your wits about you, not only was the circuit at Headcorn extremely busy, at times there were aircraft holding outside the ATZ to join, but when changing frequency to Southend Radar it was obvious that they were very busy and there was a lot of traffic about.

 

After initially calling Southend Radar when I was just to the east of Maidstone, I was asked to standby and was not called back until I approached Sheerness which is about 15 nautical miles away. To be honest, I was starting to get slightly concerned as I was getting closer and closer to controlled airspace and my ‘plan B’ now becoming an extremely long alternative.

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They finally got back to me amongst all of the other traffic requiring their service, and handed me over to Southend Director who approved my transit just I had started to hold outside of controlled airspace.

My route took me over Southend Pier and then direct to the Southend overhead where I made a left turn to track towards Basildon. On leaving controlled airspace with the London skyline in front of me and the runway at London City Airpot clearly visible, I turned left slightly to pass over the QEII bridge where I crossed the Thames for a second time.

 

It was then on a direct track back to Headcorn which positioned nicely to pass over my house in Maidstone where I changed frequency and requested the airfield information for my join back at Headcorn.

They were still using runway 10 and it seemed that the traffic had died down slightly as it wasn’t as busy coming in but still wasn’t without event as it was announced on frequency that a parachutist had suffered a class 1 injury. Not only concerned for the individual involved, I was half expecting a delay in landing while ATC sorted out the details. But there was no need for concern as I touched down without delay on runway 10.

After shutting down the engine I was definitely feeling exhausted after being in some very busy skies and constantly being on my guard for around an hour and half.

So, who knows when I will be back up and flying again. But I can’t wait to get back into the cockpit and up in the air again.

View the video on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz7rO4rqH0A