hmng wrote:
and they close quiet early ( 16:00 IIRC).
True, this could be an argument to do Duxford instead.
Pig wrote:
Go to Trinity college
It’s exam time at Cambridge, so visiting any of the colleges will be difficult.
From Trinity’s website : Currently, the courts, including Great Court, are not open to the public (with the exceptions below).
However, the public can access The Backs – the College grounds beside the River Cam – when these are open: normally 10am – 5pm, but they may be closed for special events.
Please check before you visit by calling the Porters’ Lodge at +44 (0)1223 338 400. Bicycles and dogs are not allowed at Trinity, nor is walking on the grass or picking flowers. Picnics and BBQs are not permitted.
Flew to Cambridge last Thursday afternoon and flew back on Friday afternoon. We had a marvelous time in between. We went punting and we visited Kings College, had drinks in The Eagle, ate icecream, bought those Cambridge hoodies and a lot of other stuff. Two hours flying both ways, was a great experience.
Well done! Several more nice places to visit in the UK.
Cambridge is a lovely destination. It needs nice weather to appreciate the architecture, the cafes, etc.
We had a great fly-in there in 2017, despite rain 
Cobalt wrote:
So – back to the topic – how would one conduct the flight Exeter – Southend with “only” an IR(R)?
How would one conduct the flight EGHC-EGMC with a full IR?
Or back to the question; EGCB 😄
Lee wrote:
Or back to the question; EGCB
That one is easy – you could always stay OCAS, so as soon as you are East of EGCC CAS you could follow something like “NAPEX-ABBOT-EGMC”
Route from EGHC to EGMC is different.
arj1 wrote:
Oh, and if you are are 2000kg+ aircraft and submit an IFR flight plan, you WILL pay for the whole route, but it might so happen that you won’t get that service. :(
“- Request traffic service.
- Limited due to controller workload”
I certainly have seen a few heavier aircraft flying “VFR” outside controlled airspace when it was obvious that they were in solid cloud…; they would have to pay even if they did not request ANY service at all just by virtue of it being an IFR flight.
Everybody’s mileage. In my experience, getting “Limited traffic service due controller workload” is a fair weather thing – if there are lots of targets on screen controller workload is high even if they are only “working” a few. On days where I really needed it it never was a problem. Some say on those days you still don’t need it because nobody else including the birds is flying that low in that weather.
By far the biggest issue IMO is not being able to (re)join controlled airspace, because that completely throws the entire flight off track, with very little you can do except hope that the controller finds the flight plan, and no viable plan B except to return or divert. The worst is if you fly out the side of controlled airspace with a friendly goodbye to the previous controller, only to be met with the equivalent of “who the hell are you?” when trying to re-join half an hour later.
It is indeed quite poor.
arj1 wrote:
How would one conduct the flight EGHC-EGMC with a full IR?
Assuming SEP / MEP non-turbo here:
I would fly it exactly as I would fly it VFR; 5-7000ft-ish and then dropping lower to stay below the LTMA, routing north or south of London to taste. IR(R) is sufficient, you don’t HAVE to fly in class A airspace just because you can…
In turbo and if wanting to stay well above some weather:
Say FL180 and whatever IFPS wants, probably along the south coast to keep away from the LTMA.
The difficult bit here is crossing that airway which goes north-south around Exeter down to FL65, it is a “wall” of controlled airspace that you enter and leave, only to rejoin ats Portsmouth. Given the lack of proper hand-overs etc, I would try to get the clearance for that WELL ahead of time, probably 20 minutes before arriving at that boundary; I would also ask that controller to hand me over to the next bit of CAS at Portsmouth.
But in reality – after doing this sort of thing three times (towards Newkey and Perranporth, respectively), I decided I could not be bothered and just stayed below that “wall” and recduce ATC negotiation from 3 down to 1. Just too much hassle and uncertainty.
