Tales From The Crypt - Monday 23rd August 2021

'Aetheris Avidi', which translates as 'Eager for the Air', is the motto of the West London Aero Club based at White Waltham, and today I should be eagerly taking to the air around lunchtime for my first proper flying lesson.

Today is thus a day out of the ordinary run of Mondays - no yoga, no early morning walk (planning to do that later) since I think it might be a little anti-social being stuck in an aircraft cockpit with a sweaty bastard.

I'm feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness as I head off for White Waltham, though excitement is the dominant emotion.

On arrival, a little early (eager for the air 😉), I park and take a look around the visiting and based aircraft, which are pretty varied, including historic aircraft like Chipmunks and a Nanchang CJ-6 (Chinese-built, in Sri Lankan Air Force markings, photo below) and take a few photos before heading to Operations to check in.

I check in at Operations and they tell me to sit in the bar and fill out the temporary membership form and my instructor will be a long shortly. 

Once introduced, we head off for a classroom where he explains the controls and the various motions of an aircraft in flight (pitch, yaw, roll) and the control surfaces that affect these movements, before we head off for the plane, once he's picked up a headset for me.

Turns out we're taking up a different plane than the one the booking references, but still the same type - a Piper PA-28 Warrior, G-CEEU, pictured below.

If you ever flown a light aircraft before, you'll know checks are the order of the day (as they are for ALL aircraft), both external and internal before starting the engine or doing anything else.  The external checks were handled by the instructor whilst I got settled in to the left-hand (i.e. captain's) seat: since the aircraft had flown earlier in the day, the external checks were less rigorous than normal.

I'll not bore you with the checks, though they are something I will have to become familiar with (though all pilots use a checklist) and I did try to take them in and, more importantly, the significance of them.

After what seemed like an eternity, the instructor called 'props!' out the door, turned on the ignition, and the engine burst into life. This is it, or rather it isn't, because there are more checks to do now the engine is started!

Checks complete, we head for runway 11, and I get my first taste of the controls, rudder pedals to steer and brakes, well, for the obvious thing. We're holding short of the runway whilst the instructor does the final checks, informs air-ground (there's no Air Traffic Control at White Waltham) that we're holding short, another aircraft calls to say he's  on finals, and another is in the circuit (it's a busy airfield).  The landing aircraft vacates the runway whilst we're lining up on the centreline, marked in chalk, this being an all-grass airfield, and then we're off and up in the air, climbing ahead to 600 feet, before making a sharp left turn to join the left-hand circuit.  

The appropriate circuit radio calls are made and the instructor points out the City of London on the horizon and Windsor Castle rather closer.  After a circuit we depart and head towards my home, which we're going to fly over first before heading much further to the west.

I took control of the aircraft and attempted to keep the plane heading towards the appropriate landmark and level at the same time, something that is more difficult than it at first seems.  One of the problems today is the amount of murky cloud, making the horizon indistinct (that's what the instructor said, so I'm taking it!), and therefore more difficult to keep level for the untrained. The next lesson will be focused on mastering straight and level flight, so let's hope the sky is clearer. 

As we headed away from Reading to the west the instructor switched the transponder to the conspicuity code for Farnborough Radar, maintaining a listening watch on their frequency, which he switched to.  This means we were visible on Farnborough's radar displays and identified as listening out on their frequency, though not actually under their control. The controls below show us in contact and visible to Farnborough. 

For an ATC nerd like me, it was great listening to Farnborough Radar handling a bunch of aircraft (including a Police helicopter on a mission) whilst flying in 'their' airspace and being visible to them.

The instructor takes back the controls as we pass Aldermaston, which is restricted airspace that we are not allowed to fly through, before we head towards the remnants of Didcot power station, flying over Newbury racecourse and Greenham Common (what's left of the airfield) on our return trip.

Lots of familiar landmarks on the return leg and I hand back control to the instructor so we can take another circuit of where I live before heading back to re-join the Waltham circuit to land.

Preparing to land was interesting and I can see I have a lot to learn - there are a lot of things to do, including radio calls as you set up for final approach.  Once on the ground we re-fuelled the aircraft, which I stayed to watch, learning as much as I could, before returning to operations and signing the aircraft back in.

The route we took in G-CEEU...

To be honest, I'm in such a buzz that apart from picking up and completing my first log book entry and my own Piper Warrior checklist, I can't stop and sit and eat, instead I decide to drive home, but not before I've booked next week's lesson. Driving being as close to the thrill of flying as I can get. There has been so much to take in, my mind is racing.

The rest of the day pales into insignificance and is not dissimilar to most others days in the life, so I'll not repeat it.

The Coral / 'The Game She Plays' / 'Coral Island'

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