OMG, as the younger generation say these days, what a bloody long wet and miserable Winter that was. I had not flown since last October, other than 1 hour in February, local flight. The Airfield where I am based has been closed for months due to soft ground. The heavier Aircraft, Cessna's, Jodels, Cubs etc would cut up the airfield, so everyone is grounded. I got away for a local flight in February as the Airfield owner very kindly said that my Weightshift was so light that it would not damage the ground. But limited me to 1 takeoff and 1 landing, no circuits.
On Sunday I went down to the Airfield as it was lovely and calm, Fog had just lifted, cloud base was low, but forecasted to improve over the day. I was down early, and on my own. I moved a couple of Aircraft around and had just got my Quantum 503 outside when the Airfield owner arrived. I had not realised that the Airfield was still closed as I am not on the Group WhatsApp. Thankfully!But the owner again very kindly granted me special privileges as I am the lightest Aircraft at the Field, but requested that I leave soon, before anyone else arrived and stay gone. Just what the doctor ordered.
After preparing and checking my Quantum over I took off at 10.20, after the fog had cleared, with a flight of 90 mins to the west to visit a friend I had not seen for some time. For the first 20 mins I flew below a cloud base of 1,200 ft , after 20 mins the cloud base started to rise, holes appeared and it got brighter. I flew up to 2,500 ft and cruised along above the broken clouds. With 10 mins to run I descended to 1,000 ft and carried out my second landing of the year. After a good catch up, one of the club members decided he was going to go to a Breakfast Flyin which was going to be a 90 min flight away. Too late for breakfast, I thought about it, and then joined the Pilot of an X-Air Falcon. It was great flying along with someone who's cruise speed was the same as mine. It was a lovely flight, the Pilot of the X-Air Falcon complained at times that the air was lumpy and thermally, but I was content in my Quantum 503, just happy to be flying. 15 miles out from the Airfield there was a thick black curtain of rain blocking our way. So we flew around off to the right of the heavy shower which was about 20 miles wide and about 5 miles thick and came around behind the curtain and made our way to the Airfield. We landed at 14.50, the Airfield was very quiet, the heavy rain had scared the visiting Aircraft away after the Breakfast and the last of the visiting aircraft were taking off and the breakfast was gone. After a coffee I said my goodbyes and took off for my flight home. I had to work my way around showers and got a little wet at times. After an hour I was visual with the home base, but could not make an approach due to another shower which was black, heavy and the tail end of it was moving across the airfield. So I orbited and flew about locally for 30 minutes waiting for the rain to pass, and when it did I made my approach. I got my 3 take-off's and 3 landings.
2 flying days since October. The weather had been very bad, fields are flooded, ground is very wet. I am on a high all week, really needed that day, I logged 4.5 hours and had a head holiday. It has completely reinvigorated my passion for flying and my Quantum 503. All I can think about now is when I will get back up into the Sky again. I wish you all a good summer in the Air and safe flying.
Damien
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