A Bank Holiday Trip to Worcester

Saturday night, while enjoying a rare windless evening at an outdoor cafe in Port Erin, margarita in hand, we looked at the weather. It was one of those rare events where there’s nothing but sunshine symbols over virtually the entire British Isles. And so on a whim we decided to go to Worcester (a town where I spent a few years as a teenager). Tina had never been there, so it’d be something new. And it’s the heart of Archers Country (no one can really decide if “Felpisham” in the Archers is either Worcester or Evesham) and guess what we listen to every Sunday on the way to the airfield…

Gloucestershire/EGBJ is probably the best place for Worcester. Long opening hours, no draconian 12 hour notice requirement for Special Branch, so it’s somewhere we can go at the drop of a hat (so I didn’t have to worry about getting the forms correct post-margarita). Cheltenham Spa train station is only 3mi/5km away, and you can hire a car there, and there’s a reasonable cafe/restaurant there too. (Unfortunately taxis are absurdly expensive, I think the local taxi firms assume we are all incredibly rich and gouge people going the 3 miles to the train station).

It’s quite an easy flight to plan for us, too:

First to Ronaldsway to fuel up, then almost direct – just a small jog in the route via Welshpool to provide adequate spacing from an airspace shelf east of Colwyn Bay and the bit of airspace north of Oswestry. Out at FL55, back at FL65.

Of course, while the British Isles was mostly basking in sunshine, the Isle of Man has other ideas…

Warm airflow over a cooler sea means you can get fog over the sea, and it can blow inland. The fog here is just lapping up against Peel on the west of the Isle of Man, and a bank of fog just touching the southern side of Ronaldsway meant we asked for an SVFR clearance. I was a bit concerned the fog might roll in and then we’d be stuck (I missed out on a flight in a Beech 18 that way a couple of years ago), but in that case we’d just get the bus home and retrieve the plane a bit later. Despite the official visibility of 2.5km on the ATIS, we could actually see runway 26 from a good 10km out. The land was warm enough to prevent the low cloud from getting in any further.

We departed in the event without issues, and climbed to FL55.The north Wales coast also had a bit of cloud for the same reason, with the peaks of the mountains in the Snowdonia National Park sticking through them. We coasted in at Conwy.

Fighting a headwind, it seemed to take an awful long time to cross the sea (it seemed like hours, but it was only about 40 minutes or so), and even longer to cross Wales to arrive at Gloucestershire, but with the air being smooth, the plane almost flew itself there all by itself. Once trimmed out, the Auster needs only the odd nudge of the rudder pedals to keep on track.

We brought our own ground transportation in the form of a pair of Bromptons, that fit nicely in the back of the Auster and don’t weigh too much (the Auster J1 was originally a 3 seater, so we have quite a lot of room in the back). The route to Cheltenham station is easy on a bike, and when staying in a city I find a car is just a huge liability and takes away enjoyment of a city visit. Bikes are just so much more practical for a city visit.

We had a bit of time before the train, so we bimbled up the Honeybourne trail (on the former railway line) into Cheltenham, after we found the station.

I was quite pleased when an HST rolled into the station, rather than a scabby old Sprinter :-) Proper locomotives and coaches are so much better – a lot quieter, and a very nice way to travel.

Worcester Shrub Hill station just about manages to get three centuries of railway technology into one place: semaphore signalling from the 19th century, the HST from the 20th century, and the Azuma from the 21st century. I could almost get it into a single shot, but not quite!

We stayed at the Diglis House Hotel on the River Severn. I can really recommend it. View the next morning from the other side of the river:

I think no visit to Worcester is complete without a trip to the Cardinal’s Hat (especially if you like non-mass produced ciders and beer), it’s a pub with the CAMRA seal of approval (Campaign for Real Ale)

…although remember not to drink too much of the scrumpy cider unless you want to end up grounded for a full 24 hours!

The next day dawned a bit misty, but it was a perfectly pleasant day for an after-breakfast wander down the riverside – down to the new footbridge past the weir, then back up the other side to the main road bridge over the river, then back down to the cathedral – which dominates the Worcester skyline.

Historical flood levels at the watergate, just off College Green:

One of the locks of the Diglis area – this one for boats to get past the weir. There’s also a nearby set of locks for the canal.

The weir on the other side of the locks:

The clouds began to break up as we started nearing Worcester Cathedral:

This area’s also a swan sanctuary. The Glover’s Needle is in the background.

The Glover’s Needle

Even if you’re atheist, the cathedral is worth a visit – it’s an awe-inspiring piece of architecture that took centuries to build.
This photo is from the garden/graveyard inside the cloisters:

And one last tea ceremony at the Diglis before we unfolded the bikes and headed off towards Shrub Hill Station:

Finally, the weather was perfect for departure (albeit warm, it hit 30C, and despite the Auster’s good climb performance, the increased density altitude over what I normally have was noticeable, especially since we were pretty much right up to MTOW). As normal, north Wales had attracted a bit of cloud which meant the mountains weren’t so evident from our perch at FL65.

But these were pretty much the only clouds on the entire trip, arriving back at Ronaldsway, the skies were crystal clear – and it was also a good deal cooler too!

It was our first trip with the Bromptons, and we’re really happy we got them. They ride really well, fold up small for taking on planes and trains, and if you’re going for a wander on foot there’s no problem leaving them folded at the hotel.

Some interesting observations:

We passed the Long Mynd gliding club. We could see glider activity on Skydemon, being retransmitted by the OGN (Open Glider Network) via the PilotAware. We also saw a powered parachute radiating either PilotAware or ADS-B (or possibly with an OGN beacon or FLARM, and getting rebroadcast to us by the OGN). However, at our altitude, neither the gliders would be able to get near us, and the powered parachute wouldn’t even bother trying :-) There was one GA aircraft also going to Ronaldsway on the way back – a lot faster than us, only radiating Mode-C. However, because both of us were on London Information, and I heard him check in, we had a pretty good idea of what his track would be even though we can only see the height of Mode-C only targets. He duly showed up, with the relative altitude, on Skydemon as he passed.