Having been an avid reader of the forum for nearly two years (thanks for all your hard work Peter and David) and only currently made a couple of post, I thought it was about time I had a go myself.
Reading the trip reports from (in no particular order) Peter, Dublinpilot, Flyer59, Lenthamen, Boscomantico, JasonC, ChrisParker etc, have given me lots of inspiration. I originally gained my PPL H in 2005 and had lots of enjoyable trips over the next five years, Paris, Mountain Flying in Wales to name a few. Due to the ever increasing costs I hadn’t manage to fly for the last three or four years.
Thanks to EuroGA members I had a few hours in a Warrior last July and was hooked, so three weeks was booked off work in September and some intense training took place from where I gained my PPL A.
This trip today Thruxton to Haverfordwest almost didn’t happen, the wind was forecast with gusts up to 40 mph but I kept my fingers crossed. Some may be thinking why Haverfordwest, well I’d never been before, should have good views on the way and I wanted a trip where a good few hours could be had.
I’d booked a Warrior for most of the day, Brakes-Off commenced at 10:30 where take-off commenced shortly after, a steady climb up to 3000ft was achieved where the clouds were broken at approx 3400ft, there was to be a pretty constant 20kts westerly wind all the way. Initial routing 297 took me past Lyneham, I was supprised to see it now being tuned into a solar farm, what a difference from sixth months ago!
Colerne was active so I asked Bristol Radar for a Basic Service and they obliged pointing out a couple of Tutors from Colerne which I’d already spotted. I had a nice view of Filton with Concorde basking in the sun, next was crossing the Bristol Channel by the Southern River Seven Bridge with some lovely views of the Brecon Hills.
Bristol Radar handed me over to Cardiff Radar who were quite busy with arrivals, military activity into St Athan and one Examiner Flight. Newport came and went and then lovely sun laden views of Cardiff and the Millennium Stadium, Swansea was equally glowing in the sun with a clear view of the Liberty Stadium. Apart from the initial call to Cardiff I never spoke with them again until ending the service near Carmarthen then switching over to Haverfordwest. Some good views of Tenby in the distance were to be had, I started to think my radio had been playing up as for nearly 15 minutes I’d heard nothing in the vicinity of Haverfordwest.
Initial calls to Haverfordwest radio were one rotary departing to the west and 5kt wind straight down 27, with no traffic to effect I elected for the straight in approach and landed on the numbers, brief taxi to parking (block time 1:55), paid the landing fee and then hunted out the café for the obligatory sausage butty – lovely.
The return trip commenced at 1315 and was pretty much a reversed route, the views were just as good but the flight seemed a bit smoother with the tail wind, either that or my flying was improving. This flight ended up being 1:30, a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours in the log book, now where next!
Thanks for that :)
It’s great to see some more VFR stuff here! And glad that you found your way back into flying.
I imagine that with that wind, it was rather bumpy in that area?
Great report, Aero Fixer, and thank you for the kind words 
I went up today as well and it was rough as hell. Gusts up to 25kt right across the runway at Shoreham and not much better at 5000ft.
Very nice. Just curious:
I asked Bristol Radar for a Basic Service
Why would you as for a basic service forom a radar unit? (Just guessing: because they taught you so?)
It can be
The other reason that might be, is that you want to wander around a lot. You can’t change altitude on a traffic service without first advising ATC.
Not a bit deal, you don’t need permission, just need to advise, but if you plan on doing it a lot, then a basic service might be less hassle.
You can’t change altitude on a traffic service without first advising ATC.
Not a bit deal, you don’t need permission, just need to advise, but if you plan on doing it a lot, then a basic service might be less hassle.
Interesting.
There is a thread on the German PuF forum around the traffic information service provided by German FIS (Langen in particular) where one of the operators of the service just pointed out that in terms of altitude changes, they like to be advised if it makes sense (e.g. if you’re approaching class C from below and by advising, you avoid being warned of entering that airspace inadvertently) but they also ask to take into consideration the load on the frequency. I.e. if it’s very busy, rather do not report every altitude change.
Great report AeroFixer, thanks for posting. I flew into Haverfordwest two weeks ago whilst flying in Wales for the first time and it was nice to see some familiar views again!
