Coastal flying feast

Hello!

Sometimes, it’s not meant to be. No matter what. You’ve planned it all, checked the forecast, which turned out to be encouraging, you’ve organised your life (or long week-end in this case) around THE flight… but no, you were not meant to fly on that day.

And sometimes, it’s for the best. Sometimes, what could have been a huge disappointment turns out to produce a much better outcome that could have been otherwise.

That’s exactly what happened last week-end. As my days in England are now counted (going back to France in October), I wanted to make sure that before I leave, I’d fly a long nav as far down to Cornwall as possible, following the coast all along, Norht and South.

So I planned this 4h flight (2x2h), from Thruxton to Malborough, Devises, Frome, Glastonbury, Taunton then the coast of Devon. And from there, follow the coast all the way down to Tintagel, to land at Bodmin. On the leg back, Bodmin to Exeter, following the coast to Bournemouth, then Salsbury and Thruxton.

I had managed to book the aircraft for the whole day on Saturday. The nav was ready, the NOTAMS checked… But getting up in the morning, the met was clearly not on our side. For some reason, I still bothered driving down to the airfield, as if it was going to improve greatly in the meantime. And the result was:

1. Despite some good weather at Thruxton, the flight to Bodmin was not going to happen (but I felt slightly better to hear it from an instructor)
2. Somebody had actually double-booked the plane for the day…
3. GOVFR, the trusted C172 was free all day on Monday.

As a consequence, we rescheduled the visit to the in-laws for Saturday and Sunday and arranged to proceed with the flight on Monday.

And what a GOOD idea that was!

Indeed, after some inital concern with some morning fog driving to the club, the weather kept improving and by 11h it was definitely en route to become a glorious day. Not only that but the Utterly-Butterly team was actually in Thruxton that morning…

Man, a day that starts chatting to these girls in their suit + taxying next to their aircraft can only be a good one 😉

11:30, we’re up, armed with a digital camera and a video camera this time, all eyes out.

The first part was great, clouds scattered around 2500 feet, relatively smooth air, sun shine but that’s really the coastal part I was looking forward to. And it exceeded my expectations.

This coast always features something of interest: small harbours, tiny coastal towns, high sharp cliffs, purple coloured heathers, beautiful beaches… What a pleasure to fly there! Soon we reached Ilfracombe, then Woolacombe, Bideford, Hartland point. Then Bude, Boscastle and Tintagel.

I had visited Tintagel earlier in the year by foot and I remember then wondering what it would look like from the air… Well I was there last Monday, circling above Merlin’s cave and King Arthur’s castle.

Next was Bodmin.

Ah. Interesting Bodmin. Firstly, interesting to find. I was talking to Saint-Mawgan who asked to report Bodmin in sight. Fine, wilco. Easier said than done. I had a track that I was nailing to the best of my ability and we also had the GPS as back up. We kept looking around anxious, watching the distance to Bodmin going from 7NM to 1NM, 0NM with no luck… Until I looked right down below us to spot a “31” in a grass field: we were straight over!

I left Saint-Mawgan to proceed with the landing, talking to Bodmin radio.

Now, landing at Bodmin is not quite your bog standard manoeuvre. The airfield has 2 (x2) grass runways, which are 610M and 450M long. Not that long really. To make things more interesting they also feature a pronounced slop, going uphill for half the length and then downhill. So to sump-up, there’s not much space for any slight overshooting: your landing has to be pretty well spot on… Which is not always the case, from what I heard from a chap there, recalling quite a few visitors going through the edge.

Back in the cockpit, on baseleg for runway 31. It seems that it’s my lucky day as it’s the “long” runway in use. After almost an airprox with another visitor who had elected to go with a right-hand circuit instead of normal left-hand, we’re on final.

My girlfriend is quiet. She knows about the airfield and she knows it’s not really the time to ask me about the shopping list. I’m focused but sweating. Remember that it was also a very hot day 😉 (not great for performance). The numbers come closer, I come back on the throttle, around 62knots over the threshold and touchdown! With enough runway stop, YEAH!

Anyway, we had a good lunch (I’d recommend the smoked salmon and maquerel salad) and a friendly talk to a local about the airfield, flying etc. I must say that anyone doing their PPL at Bodmin must really find any other runway almost too long! A guy was actually doing some touch and goes. No need to say that the “touch” part was really short.

Ok, 610m is not that short but with the slope and all, you still have to make it right.

It was then time to refuel and leave Bodmin. Now that called for another interesting time: if a good uphill slope may be a bonus on landing to slow you down, taking off uphill is a different story, especially when you can’t seem to ever see the other end of the runway at any point.

The acceleration was painfully slow but then we reached the flat bit, bounced once, almost settled back down again but instead kept flying and finally climbed over the edge. I reckon circuits a Bodmin would do me good 🙂

Time for our second leg with even better weather, clouds being few now.

What can I say? Another much pleasurable flight with a different coastal landscape: more beaches (crowded in places), more caravan/campign sites, a wonderful bay of Exeter/Exmouth and some pretty harbours like Lime Regis.

2 hours of looking out of the window later, Thruxton showed up in the distance for an uneventful and stressfree landing, albeit filmed on video camera.

Oh yes, bank holiday Monday was a good day!

Back at the club, I realised that I had landed just before a guy doing his first solo… Meeting up later, we shared our joy of flying from two different ends of the spectrum and yet so similar.

Here are a few average-quality pics from the flight.

Cheers,
Steph

1.North Coast
2.Very focused
3.North East of Taunton (far away the Bristol Channel)
4.Towards Ilfracombe (?)
5.North Devon country side
6.Around Bideford (or not too far ;))
7.Looking towards Cornwall
8.Tintagel castle
9.Lake to the North of Bodmin
10.Another ruined castle somewhere around okehampton