Around Britain Air Rally 2014

I’ve just completed the Around Britain Air Rally (ABAR) organised by the Intrepid Aviators. It was ten days of flying around the UK visiting thirteen different locations. The planned route is here. The intention was to give less experienced pilots, like me, a chance to “spread their wings”. It certainly achieved its aim. What a journey!

Day one (Wednesday 4th) was a washout – only one person made it to Leicester. The rest of us skipped the first stop and went straight to Sherburn in Elmet on Thursday morning. That turned out to be slightly more eventful for me than I’d expected as I had a comms failure about 10 miles prior to arrival. I had not been to Sherburn before, wasn’t sure whether they accepted non-radio traffic and it has an ATZ (rule 45) so I squawked 7600, joined overhead and fitted in with the circuit traffic. D&D got in touch with the operator at Sherburn to notify them, which was reassuring although, judging by the conversations I overheard on the ground, it did seem to cause a certain amount of flapping. Oh well.

After a bite to eat, I went to investigate my comms problem. It seemed that the PTT switch had failed so I plugged my headset into the passenger side and made use of that PTT. All seemed well so I decided to continue to the next stop – Durham Tees Valley – where I’d definitely need the radio as it’s in class D. Just to be on the safe side, one of the Intrepid Aviators leant me his handheld radio (thanks Ron!). The short flight to DTV was uneventful and straightforward. We were welcomed by a group of volunteers that marshalled us to our parking spots and who were very helpful during our short stay.

That evening we all met in the bar at the St George Hotel on the airfield. We chatted over a beer and were given a presentation on the origin of ABAR and some logistical matters. It was a good opportunity for the organisers to introduce themselves and for us all to get to know each other.

The next morning we departed for Fife/Glenrothes. In the spirit of the rally (trying something new and spreading my wings) I decided to route directly overhead Newcastle and ask for my first class D zone transit. Newcastle were very helpful and granted me my transit although I had to route either east or west of the thresholds. I was aware that’s generally how transits are done in the UK but have never understood why. I elected to route to the east so I could take photos of the bridges and I was asked to report November Tango. A frantic study of my chart revealed that NT was the NDB.

This is what the bridges VRP looks like while transiting VFR not above 2000ft using one hand on the stick and one hand on the camera:

And this is the airport while transitting their airspace:

From there I continued on, flying over some higher ground and the Firth of Forth:

Arrival at Fife/Glenrothes was fairly straightforward although the circuit was busy with both ABAR and local traffic. I came in a little fast, landed a bit long and had to taxi right to the end of the runway to vacate so as not to delay the following aircraft.

I had lunch in the nice little restaurant on site and discussed options for the next leg with the other ABAR folk. Given the high terrain between us and the next destination (Oban) and following some advice, I decided to climb through a hole in the cumulus and go VFR on top. It also fitted in with the spirit of ABAR as I’d never done that before. There was scattered cumulus at Oban so I knew I could find a hole through which to descend and it was suggested I do so over the Firth of Lorn. On leaving Fife, I found a hole through which to climb above the cloud, which was topping out between 6500ft and 7000ft. I was speaking to Scottish Information at the time and relayed the altitude of the cloud tops so that any other ABAR traffic on the same route might know what to expect should they want to do the same.

I arrived overhead Oban airport at 6500ft. I had planned my descent over the water due to the cloud and high terrain. Oban was pretty clear of cloud so I reported my position and intentions. My spiralling descent took quite a while and gave me the opportunity to take a couple of snaps:

Oban had switched runways since I departed Fife so I had to think about the new circuit direction and plan my join. I had plenty of time to do that over a 6500ft descent though! There is a big hill to the north of runway 19. It looks pretty imposing. I was fixating on it and remained high on base leg, which meant I had a lot of height to lose on final so I pushed the nose down. That in turn inevitably meant I was too fast on final and my resulting landing was possibly the worst I’ve ever done. In hindsight, the best option would’ve been to go around and try again. My approach wasn’t good so the landing was never going to be great.

On the ground, the apron was busy with people putting their aircraft to bed for the night. I unloaded all my kit, tied down and put the cover on. A group of us then jumped on the bus into Oban and checked in to our hotel, in which we’d be spending the next three nights.

Oban is a really lovely town. It was bustling with tourists, has some nice restaurants and is framed by stunning scenery. As you’d expect being on the coast, the seafood is great.

Saturday brought some fine weather in the morning but I was pretty tired after two days of challenging (for me) flying. So I asked if I could ride in the back of Marcus’s Robin DR400. He was only too willing for me to come along so three of us set off for a tour around some of the amazingly pretty Scottish islands. Every turn brought a new view, prettier and more magnificent than the last. We stopped in at Glenforsa on the island of Mull. This for me was possibly the most charming airfield we visited on the entire trip. It’s 780m of unlicenced grass right on the coast. We dropped in and got down on the ground after a couple of attempts.

We were met by a man frantically waving his arms. We were slightly apprehensive as we thought we may have upset someone with our two go-arounds but he was just guiding us to a suitable parking spot and making sure we avoided the wetter patches of grass. He couldn’t have been friendlier.

We stopped in a the Glenforsa hotel for a coffee. Here we met the incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and helpful Brendan Walsh and his wife Allison. I also introduced myself to their black labrador Stella who gave me a warm welcome. I immediately added a visit to Glenforsa in my own aircraft and a stay in the Glenforsa hotel to my bucket list. Later, I found myself looking through estate agents’ windows in Oban and idly considering a move to such an idyllic spot – as is my way when I visit somewhere new that I find myself drawn to.

Brendan has had an extensive career in aviation and the bar in his hotel is adorned with many interesting pictures – some of which feature him in exotic aircraft. He proved to be an invaluable source of local knowledge. If you find yourself in Scotland, Glenforsa airfield and hotel are a must!

The next day also provided some nice flyable weather so I took to the skies in my aircraft. I flew around the isles of Mull and Iona and took in the stunning scenery. I wanted to land at Glenforsa so I could “get it in the logbook”. There was a gusty crosswind so I did a low approach and go around and decided that it was prudent not to attempt a landing. After that I headed up Loch Linnhe to Fort William and took in the wonderful sights of Ben Nevis above me (I was at 3000ft).

I returned to Oban and pulled off a much better landing this time – getting the approach speed right certainly helped! When I parked up, a local named Donald came over for a chat. He had just finished building a Europa but it wasn’t cleared to fly yet. He wanted a natter with a fellow Europa owner. We chatted and he made me a cup to tea in their lovely clubhouse. It was then that I discovered the cost of monthly hangarage at Oban – about the cost of an expensive landing fee – so I hardened my resolve to move to Scotland :)

Chatting with Donald, I discovered that despite having just built a Europa, he had never flown in one. So I offered him a ride and we got airborne together. This was excellent – he got to fly a Europa and I got a tour around the Oban area from a local. He pointed out the famous ‘bridge over the Atlantic’, although my photo doesn’t do it justice:

The following day, Monday, wasn’t so good from a weather perspective. Our next stop was Kirkbride but there was some heavy rain making its way up from the south. Most of us decided to leave early in order to miss the bad weather. This was to prove somewhat optimistic however. My route would have taken me down the west coast, over Lochgilphead, past Bute turning left over Girvan (just south of Turnberry VOR) and passing over some higher ground before landing at Kirkbride. On getting to Girvan though, I found my path over the high ground blocked by some low cloud. I decided to go the long way around – down the coast past Stranraer. On rounding the corner and heading east, I was pushed lower and lower by cloud and heavy rain. In hindsight, I realise I was suckered into an unpleasant situation by reports from aircraft further ahead that were in good VMC. I pressed on but when I was down to 500ft with around 2km visibility, I understood that I was in some trouble. Scottish Information were most helpful and told me that D405 – the Kirkcudbright firing range – was active. I was really uncomfortable at the thought of having to fly out to sea, out of sight of the land and in terrible weather. Also, I had only about an hour of fuel remaining at that point and wanted to keep as much of it as possible to give me options in case I couldn’t put down in Kirkbride. So I informed Scottish Information that if I couldn’t get a crossing, I would have to declare an emergency and take my chances in the live firing range. The gentleman I was speaking to, Paul Aspin, did a stirling job. He managed to get hold of the MoD, explained the situation and convinced them to put their guns down. That helped immensely and three aircraft transitted the firing range (I was the middle aircraft). On passing through the other side, I saw the extended approach lines show up on SkyDemon so I turned on to an eight mile final for runway 10. Out of the gloom appeared a patch of tarmac that looked somewhat unloved at the end closest to me. I wasn’t entirely sure it was the runway but in that instant I decided I was landing on it regardless of what it was. It turned out to be the runway :)

Now I can justifiably claim that I was in VMC – outside controlled airspace, below 3000ft, clear of cloud and in sight of the surface, less than 140kt, in flight visibility greater than 1.5km – but that doesn’t mean I’d do it again! I might be entitled to fly that way but I didn’t feel comfortable doing it. I’m quite sure people have lost their lives in such conditions. I was so relieved to be back on the ground that, in that moment, I didn’t care whether I ever flew again.

We were warmly received at Kirkbride. The chap that runs the airfield was most helpful. He even stayed open late for us to depart when the weather broke. We had lunch in the nearby hotel. We had booked a meal for 20 people but one of our group had decided that no one would make it to Kirkbride that day and had cancelled the booking. So a small group of us arrived to find the hotel closed. To our delight, the hotel opened for us and provided us with a large platter of freshly made sandwiches, chips, tea and coffee. And very nice it all was too.

From Kirkbridge we made our way to Blackpool after the weather had cleared. We flew south hugging the coast and passing the Lake District on our left. This flight was much easier than the last. We landed in the early evening and spent the night in the centre of Blackpool. I’ve never been there before. It’s an “interesting” place but not really my scene.

On Tuesday morning the plan was to get to Cardiff for lunch. There were thunder storms forecast and I wasn’t keen on taking any further risks with the weather. Couple that with the fact I didn’t sleep well on Monday night and was feeling very tired, I elected to land at Shobdon and see how things shaped out from there. Once on the ground I realised I was absolutely shattered and that it would be unsafe for me to fly any more that day. I told the others that I was going to skip the Cornwall leg of the trip and would catch up with them on Thursday.

I left the aircraft at Shobdon and took the train home. Two nights in my own comfy bed was exactly what I needed. On Thursday I was full of energy again and I returned to Shobdon for an hour’s flight to Chichester Goodwood where the rest of the ABAR crew were. It was a really pleasant flight with some great weather. There were loads of gliders around and Brize radar passed me a lot of helpful traffic information. I passed Stone Henge – rather cryptically marked “stone circle” on the chart – but failed to spot it. I flew overhead RAF Lyneham, sadly now unused:

I arrived at Goodwood to find the circuit busy as usual. It’s a very popular airfield and is great to see GA thriving here. I parked up, put the aircraft to bed and joined the others on the terrace. It was a really hot and sunny day – so much so that one of the ABAR crew had to resort to wearing underwear as a sun hat:

While enjoying a beer and BBQ on the terrace, we were treated to a Spitfire doing its thing. Things couldn’t have got much better – good weather, good beer, good food, good company and a Spitfire doing fly-bys. I believe the chap that arrived in this Staggerwing was flying the Spitfire:

The next morning we were moving on to Lashenden Headcorn. On any sunny day in the south east of England, there are many light GA aircraft whizzing around the skies. So I decided to route directly south to Selsy Bill and then head east out at sea to Beachy Head at 3000ft. That took me close to Shoreham’s instrument approach track so I gave them a call and advised them of my intentions. Once past Shoreham, I called up Farnborough LARS and got a traffic service from them. I arrived at Headcorn for a very short stay and took on some fuel. I was keen to get moving on to our final destination – the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.

Duxford is in a pretty congested area so I decided to route directly overhead Southend and then ask for a transit through Stansted. Southend were happy with me passing overhead and Essex Radar granted me a transit across Stansted, not above 2000ft VFR. That’s when I earned my zone transit big-boy pants:

After leaving Stansted’s class D, I called up Duxford. They had an air display going on at the time so I had to orbit outside the ATZ along with three other aircraft. That was a bit uncomfortable but I was visual with them so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been and I got to watch an aircraft aerobatting. When the display finished, I landed, parked up and wandered round many hangars full of notable historic aircraft. Their collection is quite something.

Here are some of the ABAR aircraft parked up at Duxford:

That brought the rally to a close. We finished up with a great meal at the Red Lion Inn in Hinxton, some good beer and excellent company. Many a tale was told and we finished up with a few words from Stewart who had done much of the organising. The ABAR committee saw fit to award a prize for the most improved new pilot to me! Wow! I was stunned and really touched by the award. Thanks guys. The prize was an Android tablet sponsored by PocketFMS complete with a year’s subscription to their EasyVFR product.

Everyone departed Duxford on Saturday bar me and John. We were both heading back to Fairoaks and decided that the cloud base was just a bit too low for comfort. So we left our aircraft there and returned home by car (thanks for the lift John). I returned to Duxford to collect my aircraft today (Sunday). For the short journey back to Fairoaks, I decided to set myself one last challenge – a SVFR transit of the Heathrow zone. Passing north abeam Denham, I called up Heathrow Special and asked for a transit routing Burnham, Ascot, Fairoaks. They granted me a transit not above 1000ft. As I passed Eton Dorney, I noted heavy traffic passing overhead about 1000ft to 1500ft above me.

And with that the Around Britain Air Rally 2014 is over. It has been a real learning experience but above all an immensely enjoyable journey. I visited some great places, did some fantastic flying and met some excellent people.