n Friday, July 13th, i had the opportunity to visit Cranfield Airport which is based in Bedfordshire, UK. Cabair and other FTO and RTO are based there. Perhaps Cabair could be considered to be the largest traininbg organisation for pilots in the world.
i have some new posts on The Universe, my flight with Polly Vacher for her wings around britian campaign and some new links which are useful for disabled aviators and non disabled aviators – they can be accessed through my pilot training blog as a disbled pilot http://www.freedom-in-the-air.com
To be invited to fly there was incredible and i can’t find a way to describe how excited i was with the chance to fly an aircraft after so long. it has been too long since i last flew – well May 2007. It was midday and i left my home and headed for the M1 motorway.
Arrived at Cranfied (which is also the home of The College of Aeronuatics and Technology – more on this University in future features) just after 14:00 BST and found the briefing room. Off blocks at 15:50, it was my first time at a proper aerodrome and it felt GOOD. The taxi way is over a mile before you reach the holding point of Runway 21. The airfield has an ATIS and i got information then requested departure and taxi clearance. We taxxied along A1 to hold at A2 (cross runway to let a twin engine aircraft pass), did our power checks into wind and once we received clearance, full throttle, check TXP, watch the ASI rise and gently roll out at 90MPH, just over 80KTS. I am used to thinking in Kts when i fly JV.
Visibility was terrific and take off was nice and i felt briliant to be flying again. We remained between 1500 feet to 2500FT. My primary land feature which i used as a datum was Grantham Lake. We flew within a 10-15NM radius where i was able to get a feel for the aircraft. My instructor was also assessing my ability to fly the aircraft based on the past hours i had flown..we flew around the danger zone in Bedfordshire where the huge hangers aare for the Zeppelin are, it was a great view from the air and a more impressive view of these huge hangers from the ground.
It was time to return to cranfield but i did not want to stop. off blocks at 17:25, total flown 1Hr 35Mins…My logbook is looking nice.
I enoyed flying from Cranfield and i learnt alot in the few hrs i was there. I hope to return on Wedneday 18th….
keep it in the green…
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July 17, 2007 at 8:50 am