Yakkity Yak, Yakkity Yak!

I forgot to mention that over Fram we were buzzed, ten o'clock high, by an all-silver Yak (3M, I think) with a red star on the fuselage, which turned and came past again. You can see why I thought it was a Spit at first...until it banked and I saw its wing shape, which looked oddly like a Hurricane's. We then thought the fuselage, with that wing, made it a Mustang, which would have been much more exciting than a Yak, of course, but it was still a real highlight sharing airspace with this character.

 Just found this on Google and it looks like the very one. It was seen at Duxford last year in the Flying Legends show, so there is every chance it is the one we saw.

Took Dave Flying

Dave and I teach at the same school. He is Head of Science.

Yesterday I took a colleague and great mate, Dave, flying. And what a great day for it. Winds were very low and there were almost no gusts, so it was perfectly smooth. Low wind and doubled weight lengthened and shallowed out the take off, and range was halved, but we did three flights out to Framlingham, to Saxtead and about.

I did a check flight before taking Dave up and that circuit on its own was glorious.

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We hovered over some very grand houses

But my favourite shot is very much more modest, the hangar.

Altogether a superb day's flying!

my diversionary track

I have been looking at satellite images of the area around the airfield to try to work out where I flew when I couldn't pick out the mast because of low cloud and haze. I didn't want to fly straight towards the mast from Debenham in case I didn't spot it soon enough to avert disaster, so I diverted to the right and tried to pick it up on my left. This course took me north of the field, but it was tricky orientating myself.

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I spotted the smaller tower (the Repeater Station at Brockford) and used it as a way point, turning back on myself and trying to rotate the shadow of the former aerodrome below me, until I spotted the hangar and the runway off to my right. But it was the tower at Brockford which got me back on track.

 Quite frightening how close you can be to home before you pick up familiar references, though.

Finally! Flew again after two months grounded by weather

It wasn't for long, but yesterday I finally got back in the air and I feel fantastic for having done so. I was really pleased by how easily the engine started and relieved to find that the ground, though sodden, was firm enough to taxi on and the main runway firm enough to land on safely.

The only real negative was the cloud base, which forced me down below a thousand feet (especially on the return leg) and much of the time from Framlingham I couldn't see the mast; in fact I couldn't even see Debenham much of the way, picking my way along 269 degrees, just trusting that I'd hit the town eventually, which I did, of course. But it is disconcerting being two and a half minutes from home, flying beneath the Wattisham panhandle, so around 800', and still not being able to see a mast which is two hundred feet taller!! But eventually it emerged and I found that I was slightly too far north of it (and alarmingly too close to the smaller mast just by the A140), which meant that I then made a very conspicuous cross wind approach; the hang gliders on the ground will have seen me for longer, and waited for me before launching.

I am so glad that I was free yesterday on the first flyable day in ages, with snow forecast for the week ahead.  

I am glad that I seized the day.

Hi Piotr

My nav is getting better. Today I flew this plan and completed it with an error of only 45 seconds! It was a triangle from Mendlesham to Bawdsey on the coast, past Woodbridge aerodrome and Bentwaters to Framlingham, then back to base via Debenham. The air was very smooth indeed, except near the ground. I had an irritating niggle along the way with my glasses which rode up under my visor; going to have to find a way to secure them better.

A highlight of the day was taking Piotr (Peter) up. He came to the airfield on spec, having read about it on a forum. He wants to fly and is going to start off on hang gliders. Piotr is Polish and has been here, with his wife, for four years.

Piotr borrowed a suit and helmet from a hang glider pilot, as I didn't have any spare kit with me, and unfortunately that meant we had no comms, apart from thumbs-up. We flew around Fram castle at about 700' and enjoyed turbines and the old windmill en route. A really spectacular introduction to England from the air. 

Piotr

Piotr, it was good to meet you. See you again at the airfield. 


It was great to be back in the air after an awful summer, which included a foot infection which put me on crutches, several head colds, diabolical weather and a need to change the front wheel's innertube, as it had been creeping on landing, so that the valve was being drawn into the wheel and becoming very hard to reach with a pump.

I replaced it with an angled valve, like the ones on the back, hoping it would clear the trailing link, but sadly it didn't and I had to change the tube yet again. Never mind, at least it is another job that I now know I can do on the plane, myself. Incidentally, taking the tyre off with levers wasn't too tricky, but putting it back on was a bugger and not worth the effort. Orwell Motorcycles in Ipswich did it both times for no charge.

Logging flights

Looking at my log I see that I have flown about 3hrs since the last blog entry (May 29th and June 13th), including a flight out to Bawdsey radar station, near Felixstowe. Have got out of the habit of writing up flights.

But I also had a foot infection which grounded me...and let's face it, the weather has been so changeable. Am hankering to get up again in the next few days.