The last formal fly out of the 2017 season saw the North Weald Flying Group crews head to Lee-on-Solent on the south coast. Due to a slight cock-up on the booking front (all my own I should add!), I thought I’d put my name down for this one but evidently hadn’t – a fact that only came to light a few days before when I thought, ‘That’s odd – usually we’ve had the running order round by now…’ I am therefore indebted to Malcolm and JR who readily agreed at very short notice to carry 70 kilos of useless load in the back.
For once we had a promising forecast, with the papers even talking of the possibility of a late summer 25-degree heatwave! Unfortunately, this turned out to be what is known in the trade as utter cobblers, and so, as you would expect in mid-October, we experienced a day of patchy low cloud and grin-and-bear-it temperatures. Hey ho.
Nonetheless, we had a good turn-out – six crews in all, including G-GEEP (and VB of course). A fairly leisurely planned 11 am departure allowed plenty of time for planning, pre-flighting, fuelling, coffee drinking, and consumption of butties various. Eventually, when we had run out of excuses it was time to go, but not before Barrie and Sanjiv in Fox-Charlie had discovered a slightly soft mainwheel tyre. How many pilots does it take to pump up a tyre? Well judging by the photo below, if it’s the North Weald Flying Group the answer is three, plus the Head of Training on his phone to get technical input, plus a rescue helicopter hovering on standby…
With that issue eventually successfully resolved, we all set off on our way. For most crews, this meant a fairly routine track down past the QEII Bridge before a planned routeing down to Seaford and then westwards along the coast. Fox-Charlie elected to do things differently and do the north-south run down the Lea Valley and through City’s overhead instead, which by all accounts was a splendid experience.
Passing by the QEII Bridge before the weather started to turn
Back in Fox-Golf with JR doing the tricky flying bit, we like everyone else found that south of the Thames the cloud was hanging around at that annoying ‘are we best to stay under or go over’ level. The viz underneath wasn’t particularly good, on the other hand, a quick look on top seemed to suggest that the tops were rising and the cover was thickening. As it was, the decision was made to stay under on the basis of ‘better the devil you know’. Others did elect to go on top where conditions were much more pleasant, but the rising tops threatened to squeeze up against the base of the TMA. On the other hand although the cover thickened for a while, it broke up again over the coast, so in the end, there really was no right or wrong answer.
Cloud sitting right where you don’t want it
Back in FG the base of the TMA wasn’t a concern, but the rising ground of the North Downs was. Fortunately, there was enough room to thread our way through, even if it did mean getting a somewhat privileged close-up view of the Wrotham Mast in the process. With the South Downs still to negotiate and the cloud persisting, JR decided to abandon plans to route to Seaford direct and instead track slightly more eastwards over Bewl Reservoir and past the Herstmonceaux laser site, before escaping out across the Pevensey Levels to intercept the coast at Bexhill.
Over the water, the cloud eased, although the viz was still a bit up and down, and we settled in for a gentle sightseeing tour along the south coast. En route we enjoyed good views of Beachy Head, Seven Sisters, Brighton, Shoreham and Lancing College, Butlin’s at Bognor, Selsey Bill, Chichester Harbour, Portsmouth and The Spinnaker Tower, and the Isle of Wight and Osborne House – what a pleasure!
Enjoying the view of the Seven Sisters
Lee-on-Solent airfield itself was easily spotted as the sun had chosen that moment to make an appearance, and so in no time at all JR was settling us down on Runway 23. There was then a bit of confusion about where to turn off the runway, which saw us patiently waiting down a dead end whilst everyone else taxied past, but then again navigating around unfamiliar airports always has been something deserving a rating of its own.
Lee-on-Solent itself has a very interesting history. As HMS Daedalus it was home for many years to the Fleet Air Arm and there is an impressive memorial to aircrew lost in the war just outside the airfield. After its service life, it became a base for many years for Police and rescue helicopters. A period of uncertainty at the end of the last decade ended when the airfield was reborn as Solent Airport and these days the place appears to be going from strength to strength. There’s thriving GA and gliding activity, the Coastguard helicopter operates out of there, small-scale commercial operations are due to start soon, and Britten-Norman has set up on the far side of the field and is busy refurbishing and turning out Islanders once more. There’s still a bit of work to be done on the infrastructure around the airfield, but there is as they say a ‘good vibe’ about the place and the staff are genuinely friendly and welcoming.
JR and Malcolm at the Fleet Air Arm war memorial
What the airport does currently lack is any catering facilities, and so at the front desk’s recommendation, we set off along the seafront in search of a café. Before long we encountered an excellent and reasonably-priced bistro on the beach – Leon’s – where we were able to sit outside and enjoy fish and chips, moules frites, and handmade burgers whilst enjoying fine views of the Isle of Wight just across the Solent. And therein lies the slight quandary with Lee-on-Solent: it’s a nice place to fly for a day on the beach eating fish & chips, but having flown that far would you not just carry on for an extra 10 minutes and have a day on the Isle of Wight instead?
Leaving that question aside, what Lee-on-Solent does have is the excellent Hovercraft Museum immediately adjacent to the airfield. Better still the museum is home to not one but two of the huge SRN4 hovercraft that used to operate the Dover-Calais route for Hoverspeed. These magnificent beasties were large enough to carry 60 cars and up to 400 passengers, and I have particularly fond memories of zipping across a flat-as-a millpond Channel in a little over 20 minutes back in 1988. Something that big travelling at 60mph on water was truly something to behold!
My second quandary was whether or not to visit the museum. The problem was that it was easy to see from outside that that both SRN4s were looking a little ‘tired’ and would that spoil my memory of them in their prime? As it was, the problem was taken away from me as Malcolm was offering to fly up to Elstree for a coffee and cake stop which would allow me to at least get some ‘stick time’ flying the onward hop to North Weald. We therefore left the rest of the group to look round the museum whilst we made our way back to the planes. And in fairness to the museum, the feedback was that there was no shortage of enthusiasm from the staff who fully acknowledge the present condition of the hovercraft but, time and money permitting, are intent on restoring them to their former glory.
Up at the airfield, it was time to clamber into the back of FG once more, this time with Malcolm at the controls and JR in the right-hand seat. Taxying out we passed by Britten-Norman’s facility, with plenty of Islanders (and the odd Trilander) parked outside demonstrating just what a versatile design this has proven to be.
Setting off back down the Solent, in no time at all we were passing by Portsmouth. Over lunch, both Paul and Vrai had asked if we’d seen the Navy’s latest aircraft carrier, the Queen Elizabeth, as we’d flown past Portsmouth – to which the answer, somewhat embarrassingly was, ‘Errrr… No’. As we flew past this time it was hard to see how we missed it! It’s HUGE and it’s probably more accurate to say that the town of Portsmouth was moored alongside. It’s still being kitted out of course, but as Vrai had pointed out, the flight deck looked mighty tempting for an ‘emergency diversion’…
From Portsmouth we continued along the coast as far as Chichester Harbour before turning inland to track up round past the western end of the London CTR towards Elstree, squeezing through the Marlow gap as we went.
At Elstree things were busy and so we dutifully followed their Standard Overhead Join procedure which neatly brings you in over the top of the active circuit then drops you down over the far side before neatly feeding you back into the circuit at circuit height. This ensures good flow and separation – – – or at least it does until the twit behind you decides to cut the corner, even after Malcolm had already turned final and called “Fox-Golf Final”. Certainly one of the worst bits of circuit etiquette I’ve seen in a long time, and I don’t think simply announcing “Fox-Golf be advised we’re in your 2 o’clock position” excuses you! Fortunately, we had unflappable Malcolm at the controls who decided that knowing you are alive is better than knowing you were right and broke off and let the other fellow through.
Elstree from the overhead
That little incident apart, Elstree proved to be a good choice and was as busy and bustling as ever. The last time I was there the café was awful, quite possibly one of the worst at any UK airfield (quite some accolade!), but it has been replaced and the difference is chalk and cheese: a really nice café with a conservatory and an outdoor seating area and a good range of food on the menu. We were only stopping for coffee and cake, but I would happily go back there to eat – something I never thought I’d hear myself saying about Elstree before!
Suitably refreshed it was time for me to do some flying, as my two adult supervisors deemed that I could be trusted to attempt the short hop back to North Weald.
Despite our stop-off at Elstree, we were actually first to arrive back at The Squadron (everyone else had been to the Hovercraft museum and then come straight home back round the south and east of London), but within minutes the rest of the planes were taxying back in.
In summary, a good little trip to somewhere new to most of us, and a very enjoyable day out too. With the weather as it was for the outbound leg, I was glad for once to be sat in the back, and JR coped admirably.
Thanks to all the crews who participated in making a good day of it, and for safely conducting themselves in what was at times fairly challenging conditions.
