Volcanic dust over Kent

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day on the ground and as we needed to go to the hangar for a maintenance job we decided to go for a quick evening flight. At only 2,000' we could start to see the murkiness of the volcanic dust cloud above us. OK so it's not unusual to have haze cutting down the visibility, nor is it unusual to have a dark smudge in the sky at the *inversion level especially this close to London, but this did seem excessively grotty for want of a better term, particularly as you don't normally see the inversion layer when looking towards the sun. I know some countries, and even some parts of our country have it far worse than this as we are just on the edge here.

*The inversion is a level in the atmosphere where two masses of air sit on top of each other. The layer below will be warmer air trapped my a layer of colder air on top. You often get a layer of cloud here but on blue cloudless days you can often see a dirty smudge just below this layer when looking away from the sun. This is all the dirt, dust and pollutants that get mixed up in the air and have risen in the warm air to the top of this level just like smoke floating to the ceiling of a room. You don't normally see it looking towards the sun even though it's there due to an optical illusion just like you can't see a rainbow in that direction, but on this flight we could see it in all directions.

Flying to Futuroscope

For anyone who has not been there Futuroscope is similar to the Epcot centre in Florida, USA.  It comprises of numerous IMAX cinemas in 2D, 3D and 4D as well as various rides and an outdoor water park.  The ticket is all inclusive of rides but don't expect that to be the end of your paying out as food, typically, is expensive inside and not very good plus there are loads of boutiques aimed at selling toys to your kids.  To be honest, although some of the attractions were very good I'm not sure they are worth the cost and certainly not worth the long queues.  We went in the last week of February when some schools were on half term admittedly but the weather was not brilliant. Even so, for some attractions we had to wait 45 minutes in a very boring and uncomfortable queue.  Some attractions only had about a 5 minute running time as well.  I would hate to think what the queues would be like in summer! 
The French, being French, are not very helpful when it comes to people who don't speak their language.  There are audio guides available for English and Spanish speakers but you have to ask for them as they are not well advertised.  If you don't get one you won't have a clue what is going on in the attractions.  Much of the safety advice is also announced on these audio sets and although they are images depicting safety information it is far from comprehensive. 
Accommodation around the park is very formulaic.  The hotels vary in price but all appeared much-over-muchness with buffet style restaurants and little atmosphere.

Travelling to Futuroscope - Poitiers Airport

There are many way to get there but typically for us we flew ourselves.  There is an airport at Poitiers open for general aviation which is about 15 minutes drive from Futuroscope however the taxi fare is around 40 Euros.
If you are thinking of flying yourself to Poitiers there are a few things you might like to know.  There is Avgas available but you really need a Total card.  If you don't have one you have to find the refueller who speaks no English and is hard to find.  It is also difficult to pay landing and parking fees, you have to leave your details and they send you a bill.  As yet we have no idea how much this will be.  Exit and entry is via the flying club but they shut at lunchtime for 2 hours on Sunday.  There is a restaurant available in the main terminal.

Lido Airport, Venice

When I suggested Venice as a destination on our Italian flying holiday, Paul was not overly impressed. "Landing and parking charges at Venice will be prohibitive and they probably won't have parking for GA aircraft anyway." was his response. That set me a challenge and much to my surpirse it didn't take too much digging on Google before I came across a discussion thread for an airfield on the Venice Lido. The more we looked at it the more it seemed too good to be true but true it was. Paul was now totally committed to the idea so our plans were set and after leaving Bergamo we headed off for Venice.

St Nicolo Airport is situated at the far north end of the Lido and was the first airport for Venice being opened by Moussellini in 1930. It has no special instrument approach so landing there is weather dependant. Our approach took us over the lagoon of Venice and up the west side of the Lido. You can't fly over Venice itself due to noise abatement. The airfield is a grass strip of 750m and kept in perfect condition and it was like landing on a very large golf tee, it was so smooth.

The terminal building is typical Art Deco and was fully restored last year. There is fuel available next to the terminal with prices consistent for most of Italy at 2.6 euros per litre. There is also a bar and restaurant.
Despite being in Venice the landing and parking fees were very cheap at just 35.59 euros including 3 days parking and tax. Not bad for Venice.
St Nicolo airport is open 7 days a week through the summer but as of the 15th October and through the winter it is closed on Mondays. Telephone number for the airport is +39 (0)41 770300 Fax +39 (0)2428714 e-mail nicellispa@veniceairport.it

Being on the Lido meant it was about as close as we could get to Venice itself. There is a bus stop outside the airport and a short ride on this took us to the main water bus terminal where water buses run regular trips the the rest of the islands and up the Grand canal. Here we were able to buy a 3 day bus pass that covered us for as many bus rides as we wished on both water and land buses. We could have got a Water taxi from directly outside the airport but as we needed to get right to the far end of the Grand canal the cost of one journey with luggage on that would have been about 1/2 of what we paid for our two 3 day bus passes so we gave the taxis a miss.
There are two water bus routes, No.1 which is slow as it stops at every stop on route and takes an hour to go all the way from Lido to the far end of the Grand canal. The other is the No.52 with does it in half the time but only stops at a few stops. The buses run very regularly but they are crowded. Still, very good value for money if you buy a bus pass.

Our Return Home

Stockholm was harder to leave than we imagined. We were originally informed that there would be no aircraft movements before 10am on a Sunday and as Biggin Hill (our home airfield) closes at 8pm on Sundays we didn't have a lot of spare time. As it turned out Stockholm had since changed to time to no aircraft movements before noon. We were stuffed especially as there was an extremely strong headwind all the way home. We were going to have to stop somewhere on route for another night. We settled on Groningen in the Netherlands. I shot this windmill on the approach to the airfield as it is so far the only windmill I have ever seen in this country!
By the time we had booked into a hotel and got a bus into Groningen town centre it was getting quite late, and, being a Sunday night the town was very quiet. In fact, there were more gulls and crows in the precinct than people. The town centre was a typical mix of old and modern but apart from searching out a restaurant we had little time to look around.
Back home to Dartford and the weather was awful. Before our decent we had flown through a thick snow shower at 7000' at the mouth of the Thames estuary. Come on, it doesn't snow in July! Our landing at Biggin was uneventful, thankfully, but as we transferred our luggage to our car the heavens opened and it rained. What a wonderful homecoming. Hey Ho!

Onwards to Stockholm

The next day we prepare to leave for Stockholm, but before I tell you about that I must just mention Malms airport. This was the original airport for Helsinki and doesn't appear to have changed much since it was built. It is a perfect Art Deco building. The departure lounge is circular and all the original Art Deco fittings are still there. Not quite as beautiful as Shoreham airport on the UK's south coast but a good contender non the less.
The weather for our flight to Stockholm was perfect (CAVOK) so I flew that leg. When we landed we needed fuel and as the fuel pump was being temperamental we soon ended up in yet another queue. I don't think the refuelling went smoothly at any airport we landed at during the trip.
That afternoon, after we had settled into out hotel, we walked into the town to explore. As we walked down the main shopping street in Stockholm towards the old town the first thing that hit me was how busy it was. There were so many people it was like walking down Oxford Street in London. Then we reached the start of the old town which is situated on it's own island. The impression I got then was that Stockholm was grand. As you walk over the bridge to the island you are confronted by the parliament building and chancery which are joined by a triumphant arch. You know that you are in for something special as you approach. To be continued...

Day 5 - Helsinki or bust!

It's the morning of day 5 of our trip and we are heading off into the blue again. This time we are leaving Norway for Helsinki, Finland. We were also leaving behind this wonderful blue sky because before long we were dodging thunderstorms.
When I originally saw dozens of lightning strikes on our storm scope all perfectly aligned on our route I started to believe it was a computer error until I saw this beasty. It was emitting constant bolts of lightning every few seconds from the same place on its far right edge. We got permission to divert to the west by air traffic control. It was a long way around but flying through active thunderstorms is something even the big boys avoid.
Our diversion took us down the west coast of Finland. Well, in truth I guess they only have one coast. Despite this being a sea coast it looked more like the coast of a large lake. There was no evidence of any sandy beaches just hundreds of tiny islands.
The detour added an extra 40 minutes to our flight but it kept us reasonable safe so well worth it. Eventually we arrived at Malms airport, Helsinky and had a chance to swap tales with the rest of the group. No one, it seemed, had had a boring flight :-)

Glaciers

The flight from Trondheim to Alta took about 4 hours. there was little to see for the first 1 1/2 hours as we were in cloud but when we broke free the views were spectacular. We flew over glaciers and snowfields, mountains and lakes, for mile after mile. Having never seen a glacier in real life before I was thrilled to get this view (above). The fissures in the ice showed up turquoise and the whole thing looked like a pale blue tongue. The image below is the same view but zoomed out a bit.

Below are some more shots I took on the flight.

Day 2 - Trondheim to Alta

The flight from Trondheim to Alta was spectacular. The first part was in cloud but after flying for about an hour we broke free of it and the scenery had totally changed from lush green to white. We are flying at 10,000'and some of the peaks on route were about 8,500'.

Just Back from Scandinavia

We have just got back from a 10 day flying tour of Scandinavia. I took over 800 photos in all which will take me ages to sort out. Loads of deleting to be done I'm sure :-)
There were 12 people on the trip in 6 aircraft. This photo is our arrival at Bergen, Norway where we all met up and spent the first night. Didn't see much on the flight as we were in cloud for most of it but once we broke out of the clouds the scenery was wonderful. From Bergen we went up to Trondheim and then up into the Arctic circle at a place called Alta right at the top of Norway and land of the midnight sun (home of the insomniacs). After that we flew down to Helsinki in Finland where we returned to having a couple of hours of darkness each night...bliss. Our last planned stop was Stockholm but as the weather turned bad on us we had to break our return flight at Gronegen in the Netherlands for an extra night.
Apart from some nasty flying weather on some of the legs the trip was excellent. I'll tell you more about it over the next few days.

Taking to the Air

Now we have the aircraft back Paul is desperate to get up-to-speed again with flying it before we go on holiday in it at the end of the month. For this reason we spent the weekend going places in it. On Saturday we flew to Shoreham airport which is near to Brighton on the south coast. This is a charming airfield as the terminal building was an original 1920 Art Deco building with all it's original features. The airfield is also located so close to the town you can walk there and get straight down onto the beach.
Yesterday we flew to Old Sarum airfield which is next to Salisbury in wiltshire. We me his parents, sister, and niece Bethany there for lunch. Paul gave Bethany and his dad a joy flight while we were there. There is a large Iron Age hill fort next to the airfield that you fly right over on the approach. This was later turned into a Norman bailey and mote castle and when that fell into disuse the stone was taken to build a cathedral. You can see the ruins of both in this image. Apparently when this cathedral was built it was so exposed and cold that no one wanted to worship there. A decision was made to relocate the cathedral and so history books record that an archer fired an arrow from the mound and where it fell was where they erected the current cathedral. However, it seems extremely unlikely that any arrow could have ever made it that far. You can just about make out the spire of the current Salisbury cathedral in this photo and it's a very long way.

A Silver Lining

OK so I've done my moaning but its a very dark cloud indeed that has no silver lining. The injury to my thigh meant that I could no longer participate in the agility competitions I had entered for the weekend. OK, so that doesn't sound like much of a silver lining it's true but the weather on Saturday was just perfect for gliding. As there have been few really good gliding days this summer and as the season is virtually at an end this was too good an opportunity to miss. So the three of us packed into the aeroplane and headed off to the gliding club in the Midlands where we keep our glider. It was Paul's turn for the glider so I was ground crew but that was OK. I think all the members had the same idea worried that this would be their last chance this year. Everyone was rigging and before long the launchpoint was chock-a-block with gliders all waiting to go. A task of 220km (approx 132 miles)was set and by lunchtime they were gone.
A few hours later and the leaders start returning often swooping over the airfield in a victory beet-up. Everyone got round successfully including Paul who was now a very happy bunny.

It wasn't just Paul who was a happy bunny though. Last time I flew the glider I had had to do so leaving the undercarriage down as I did not have the strength in my left arm to operate it. Well it seems the physio is paying off as although I don't have much more mobility the strength has returned and now I can operate the undercarriage and so easily that I find it incredible that I could not do it before.
That night we enjoyed what was probably to be the last of the season's bar-be-ques. The nights are getting a little too chill now though so while Paul did the honours the rest of us stayed in the bar...hic!

This last image is probably a pretty good representation of how Brac appears to me when I've had to wait too long for the food to be ready ;-)

My Weekend

Now our aeroplane is fixed we are gradually getting back into our old routine. That is to say, 50% of our weekends during the summer we fly up to a gliding site in the Midlands and go gliding. We are both very rusty so have got a lot of ground to make up. Still we did get our glider out of it's box and Paul flew it both days. My medical has expired :-( so I can't fly solo until I get that sorted hopefully in another couple of weeks. Instead I flew as navigator in the back of a two seat glider for a cross country exercise. This is a photo I took of Paul (not doing as well as us) from the back of the two seater. The gliding airfield is visible in the top of the picture just right of centre. I although I enjoy navigating and there is a lot to learn flying with someone else it does tend to cause me to get travel sick. I get travel sick map reading in a car! Luckily it didn't get messy but I was aware of the possibility all the way around but wasn't going to let on. Luckily, I'm not affected by it when I'm do.uing the flying but then I don't get the chance to take photos.

Happy Bunnies

On Saturday we flew up to our gliding club at Bidford-Upon-Avon for the bank holiday weekend. Yes, that's right, we flew! Paul has finally got his beloved aeroplane a TB21 back from intensive care with the maintenance engineers at Biggin Hill and it seems (tough wood) to be working properly. This last bit was whispered as I'm sure it's all just an illusion really and it's actually just a defective as ever. It's been about 18 months since it started having problems and the last 6 months it has been on the verge of having the plug pulled on it. Paul was getting more and more despondent as although the engineers could see problem they couldn't find the cause. When we were told it was fixed and we could fly it this weekend we only half believed it as we had been at that point so many time before only for the fault to reappear. This time it looks like they might have actually succeeded as the engine and turbo behaved beautifully on the short flight to and from the gliding club. I now have a happy husband.

I also have a happy dog as finally Brac's paw seems to have calloused over properly. It will be a while before the thick layer of the pad grows back over the new skin so it is still fragile but he is at least now able to go out without having a boot on. Gentle walking on grass only for a while I think until it toughens up a bit but it looks good for his show on Saturday. Assuming he doesn't find another flint to step on! This photo is him asleep on the back seat of the aircraft flying home. He is wearing ear defenders are to protect his hearing.

We didn't exactly do any gliding while we were at Bidford but we did get our glider it out of it's box before realising that those who were already launched were struggling with the failing conditions and having to land. So we gave it a clean and put it away again. Sunday was overcast all day so no thermals to make it worth launching and today was a wash out this morning. After lunch we packed up to fly back home only for the weather to break and give the most stonkinggliding conditions for ages. By now most people had also packed up and gone so there was no one to take advantage of it. As we were getting thrown around by the thermals in our powered aircraft on our return home we didn't see one glider anywhere and the visibility was fantastic. No doubt there were a lot of glider pilots sitting in their cars on their way home cursing that the good weather arrived too late. Still it was a British bank holiday so what else could we expect?

(This is Brac looking cool at the laucn point.)