Engine oil

None of the motorcycling outlets close to me have the oil that Bailey recommend for my Dragonfly engine, Castrol R4, as Castrol apparently did some deal with BMW, so that retailers can no longer get it. I thought I had been rather clever when research online turned up a 4 litre bottle of the stuff at RG Racing, but have since learned that they are out of stock and won't be able to get any more.

They say that the Castrol tech team recommend Power 1 10/40. I emailed Bruce at Bailey Aviation because I was worried that I couldn't find any 5W. They said, "you should be able to get the Castrol Power 1 Racing 4T oil, its still their current oil. 10W/40 is fine and we are actually trialling some 10W/60 oil also at present made by Putoline. The important part is that it must be fully synthetic".

So, I have ordered 4 litres of that, at the same price of £47 (incl postage) from Rob Willshire at RG Racing.

The spec sheet says:

Power 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 is fully synthetic 4-stroke engine oil for modern high performance sports bikes that increases engine acceleration and power right up to max rpm. Its Race Derived Technology based on Castrol's racing history and testing experience ensures maximum engine performance, without sacrificing engine
durability, thus giving a significant benefit over other types of engine oils.

Power 1 Racing 4T 10W-40's formula employs the very latest Trizone Technology™ for 4-stroke motorcycles, so as to give optimum protection of the engine, clutch and gears even under the most arduous riding conditions including sustained operation at high rpm.

Power 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 is suitable for all modern high performance motorcycle engines where API and or JASO specifications are recommended.

Qualified for Bronze

According to Colin Mackinnon, an instructor contributing to a BMAA discussion thread I started, having an NPPL(M) automatically qualifies a pilot for the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Bronze Colibri, without further tests being necessary, from which I infer that as some other participating countries do not have licences, this is a nod to the quality of training that British pilots receive.

I am rather chuffed. I shall have to get Flylight to sign my application form (I think that is necessary?) and send it off with the required fiver.

Now for the silver, though I will need to rack up the hours (100, incl 200 flights).

Kit Caddy

Call me Mr Anal, but I like to have all my kit well prepared and easy to get to....I like things in their own boxes, I like to know where everything is....

...not bad traits in a safe pilot, surely?

Now that I am hangaring my aircraft, getting ready can mean a constant back-and-forth shuttle between hangar and car...

...which is why I have adapted my cycle trailer to act as a caddy, so that I can take all my kit to the hangar in one go. This morning I made dividers so that charts and instruments are separated from helmet, bar mitts, gloves and headphones, which in turn are separated from flying suit. It all fits rather well.

The snug lid has a galvanised tray fixed to it to allow me to work on the trike without losing washers, etc. And the tray is useful for carrying a toolbox (iconic American lunch box I bought at a yard sale donkeys' years ago and for which I have never had a use) and 5 litre fuel container. I need to make a means to secure my propeller case to the lid too. I have made a quick release for the two part trailer arm, allowing it to be put in the boot easily.

All in all, a very satisfying result.

Dream Classic - ready to fly - £4,000

God, if I could afford it, I would snap this one up. Stuart Ball is asking less for it than you would pay for an un-built one.....and like anything you care to attempt, building one of these is bound to take ages and be fraught with difficulties and delays - as the Grass Strip Aviation people's Eindecker shows. I saw that one half way through the project at Popham two years ago and it has only just been finished.....and they are the experts!

I promised Stuart I would put his aeroplane, which I have always felt looks pretty much like a Demoiselle (the bamboo one flown by the womanising Frenchman in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines) on my blog, but having delayed a week or two it may have gone already. Stuart is going to use the proceeds of the sale (£4,000) to build a Pouchel, which regular readers will know is a fascination of mine....original Pouchels were made with aluminium ladders!

Stuart has done a beautiful job on his Dream Classic...and I know of no others of the same design which are actually ready to fly in the UK. If you are interested in Stuart's, you can contact him on the address he provided in his BMAA advert: stuart.ball1@btopenworld.com or phone him on 01283 760303 .

Update (as of 18th Feb)
If it hasn't been sold by then, Grass Strip Aviation are due to be exhibiting and possibly flying Stuart's Dream Classic at Popham this summer. Also, Stuart reports that his Pouchel is now part built and he needs more space now to continue the project.

Colibri - a measurable challenge

The Bronze Colibri

(Colibri is French for hummingbird)

I have found a challenge to work towards: the Bronze Colibri, which I read about this month in Microlight Flying in an article by Keith Negal (the guy who organised Bleriot on this side of La Manche, and who touchingly offered to fly slowly to see me safely across).

Reading it, I remembered that Neill Howarth showed me his before I knew what one was. He has a gold one; no surprises there!

This is just like the Cubs all over again (I don't think I got past my Bronze Arrow). Badges are won by performing flying tasks, accurately.The most interesting is the engine-off landing, though these days it can be done at idle. But Paul Dewhurst says it is sacrilege to fly the Dragonfly with engine-on more than 50% of the time so, what the hell, I will do some engine cutting practice and do it as was originally intended.


Requirements for Bronze Colibri badge:

a) 20 hours solo on Microlight or Paramotor aircraft including at least 50 flights.
b) 3 precision landings within 10 m of the centre of a given spot.
c) 1 precision landing within 20 m of the centre of a given spot from a height of 300 m (1000 ft) AGL with the throttle fully closed. Demonstration of correct go-around (overshoot) procedure.
d) Two cross country flights of distance dM* x 1 over a triangular course, one with an outlanding at a designated point along the route.

* dM is the distance the aircraft can fly in nil wind in one hour at the manufacturer’s published cruise speed. Evidence of dM must be provided as part of the application for a Colibri award.


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Fog Swap

Dave Broom got in some flying and landed before the fog dropped in on the field, as did the pilot of a Gemini; another pilot, however, was less lucky. As Lizzie and I arrived at Sutton Meadows Saturday morning and watched the fog come in over the fields, we could hear the growl of an aeroplane above. Dave joined us looking up and then we heard it turn away, never having shown itself.

I later heard that the lost pilot was Baz, a student of Dave's I met three weeks ago, who is building solo hours in his own Blade. Realising he couldn't see the airfield, though he knew he was directly over it, he calmly called for help and Dave vectored him to Mitchell's Farm. He turned on to the heading and flew a course in almost zero visibility until he picked out a road and followed it to the strip he had been given. It was a remarkable bit of level-headed flying, in my opinion, especially for a student.

Baz told me all about it when he got back to Sutton in the afternoon, though how he had made it back (without his aircraft) did not become clear until the evening, at the club dinner, when I was delighted to find myself sitting next to William and Sarah Furness; William had been the stranded Gemini pilot I'd met in the morning. He had made it home in his own car......driven to him at Sutton by Baz!

The Furnesses (William's dad), it turns out, own Mitchell's Farm. Last night Will's and Baz's aeroplanes spent the night at each other's airfields, in each other's hangar berths.

The ship of the Fens

In the end none of the ground maintenance got done; it was just too cold this morning to contemplate. But when I saw the sun and realised that next weekend could be too windy, wet or even snowy to fly, I realised that I couldn't fail to get up today. So, rather late, I got going to Sutton Meadows, where I met Al, an ex-RAF aerial photographer who is about to start learning to fly - and he kept me company as we waited for Dave Broom to land and take up his new student.

I fitted G-CFKK with her red panels then pulled the trike out and found to my enormous gratification that the wing trolley pulling hook that I welded up when I got home last weekend worked a treat. I was able to pull the trolley out while steadying the wing...and was able to pull it easily over the gravel in the hangar, which may well mean that patio slabs are unnecessary. I may just use some well anchored wooden planks, prepped at home.

I took off on runway 28, this time without a camera, and flew a circuit and a touch-and-go before leaving the circuit for a bimble across to Witchford, up the ditches and then back down to the airfield. Total flight, 40mins, but even that is worth the drive each way. It is just pure pleasure.

Next week is the club's annual dinner and Lizzie and I have booked into a hotel within staggering distance of the venue so that we can both drink. Hopefully we will spend the day flying. She has a lesson booked and I plan to fly to Ely.

As I come around the corner, approaching Ely from the south (when driving up on the A142), I am always staggered by the beauty of the cathedral and you can quite imagine the impact it must have had on people in the 12th century and for hundreds of years afterwards, when it was the awe-inspiring skyscraper of its time. It is a magnificent sight, bathed in sunlight. It will be good to see it from the air (sadly not as close as in the photo below), but Lizzie and I have decided that if it is unflyable, we will spend the day exploring it on the ground.

Ely Cathedral is known locally as "The ship of the Fens"
as it "towers above the surrounding flat and watery landscape" (to quote Wikipedia)

I had hoped to fly over the cathedral but its top is at 290ft amsl so, to overfly any part of Ely, I'd need to fly at a minimum of 1290ft amsl (because of the 1000' rule). The Mildenhall panhandle starts at 1033ft amsl, so I would be in controlled airspace. Thanks to Steve Wilson for keeping me out of the brown stuff with this one. He has suggested an alternative, which is to fly down the river beneath the pan-handle and keeping clear of any congested areas, which would mean being able to fly lower, provide I stay 500' clear of structures and 600m clear, horizontally. This will still afford a magnificent view of Ely and its cathedral from the east. Early enough and it will be bathed in sunlight....and that approach may even be better than what I originally had in mind.