The Plan
Saturday - Fly ourselves fro Aberdeen to Calais via Wickenby (in Lincolnshire) park up and then tour the Passchendaele and Somme Battlefields before flying to Verdun on Tuesday . Returning to Aberdeen on Wednesday
Watch this space for trip report
I am typing this at Dyce station whilst waiting for the 1210 train back to Insch. Fot those who don't know Dyce serves Aberdeen Airport and I am here as I went down to Dundee this morning to collect ZV and bring her back home after her Annual Maintenence.
Having bought my ticket for Scotrail from Insch to Dundee this morning I was confused to find that a single ticket was only £1 cheaper than a return. I thought this very odd as I would have thought a ticket taking one away from Dundee would be infinately more valuable than on taking you there! (Only joking!)
It was a beautiful morning with hardly a cloud in the sky and the very friendly people at Tayside aviation were extremely helpful even giving me a hand to push ZV off the grass parking area where she had dug herself in a bit. No problems with the pre-flight check other than I managed to split my trousers when climbing down from checking the fuel :-(
After a little bother starting the engine (cold I suspect) we got on our way and took off form runway 27 at 1020 hrs climbing straight ahead until 1500 ft was reached and then turning towards montrose and the coast. The trip itself was pretty uneventful - I faffed with the GPS unit for a bit (its less modern than the 430 in TT) but navigation was visual and easy. Free - calling Aberdeen at Montrose i obtained clearnace to enter the Aberdeen Zone but took my time bringin the speed back to 9 Knots as the controller was busy trying to feed in a lot of commercial and helicopter arrivals and departures. The tactic worked - only 1 orbit of the Radar Head and cleard to land behind an Eastern Jetstream 41. Landed softly at 1105 (wind v light today) and fast taxied along the runway to clear as another commercial aircraft was coming right behind.
Putting the aircraft to bed I was disgusted to find, when opening the plastic box containing her covers, that 2 mice were looking up at me and had chewed massive chunks out of the covers as well used them as a toilet ! Needless to say the coversdidn't go on.
Summary a great little trip ; a little rusty as its been a month since my last flight (mainly due to weather and other commitments (Matthew's Rugby)) but enjoyed myself - now looking forward to Alan and Alex's Jolly Boys trip to France next Saturday again in ZV
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