Taking full advantage of the weather which had been taunting me all week through my office window, but fortunately lasted until today, me & Skippy proceeded to Kemble for what is technically known as a ‘local bimble’. Upon arrival at the airfield I did a full A check – with special reference to icing. This however had melted off the aircraft by the time we got there. I also paid special attention to my fuel sampling – just in case – but even after rocking the wings it was all pure avgas. Everything else seemed fine – although in retrospect I might have paid more attention to the transponder (see below). However, after last weekend’s trip, I did ensure that it was correctly set up, set to ALT, and that the circuit breaker was in, just in case. This would subsequently prove to be not enough! (Last trip Bristol Radar had problems getting my transponder at first, after re-selecting everything it seemed to work fine…I did report this, but in all fairness to BCT it was a fairly vague problem – “Transponder didn’t work until I fiddled about with it”. But after what happened later I hope it’s fixed!)

After topping her up (no-one seems to fill up the aircraft after they’ve flown her – too much effort maybe?) we backtracked all the way back along the runway to 26, experiencing some nose-wheel shimmy in the process. Fun! After a quick re-check of everything, just in case, we powered up & took off. Departing the circuit directly to the West, and then turning South over the M5, we headed towards Bath. And this is where I got my first lesson of the day… Even though I was under Bristol’s zone, and outside their airspace (nearly almost – but not quite - into the bottom of it in fairness, in order to maintain glide-clear height as we skirted around Bath), as I was listening out on Bristol’s frequency I heard them identify me by height, track & position….hmmm…I supposed I’d better reply then! They assigned me a squawk after I’d told them my intentions, and I carried on my merry way.

Now. My reasons for going under the zone rather than talking to them were a) Why bother them unnecessarily when I’m not actually in their zone b) If I did talk to them and they couldn’t let me through, I’d be perfectly legally able to go underneath anyway, so why not do it in the first place? C) Possibly a little wary of cocking up the RT. Although, Bristol are normally very helpful anyway, so a slightly off-par request would be accepted.

In retrospect (which is always CAVOK! [you see what I did there?]) it would have been much better to talk to them. Why not? It’s unlikely they would have turned me away, and even if I was going underneath the zone, why not tell them what I’m doing anyway? Nothing lost – and safer as well. Apologies to the controller! Although I feel it was a point of airmanship that while not essential/illegal etc, could have been done better. Anyway – the rest of flight went fine, right up until the point where I wanted to enter Lyneham’s airspace in order to get back to Kemble. After giving me a squawk, they came back and said…..nothing received! After cycling, resetting, checking, I noticed that the unit was actually protruding from the panel by about 15mm……! I therefore pushed it back in, and surprise! Lyneham could pick us up.

I made a mental note to tell BCT Ops. After an uneventful circuit (well I say uneventful, I think I need to brush up my landings somewhat) I did so. All in all an interesting trip….not one of my better ones, but I learnt a fair bit. I also was pleased I could fiddle with the balky transponder, circle around Membury, and keep up my lookout scan without too much trouble. Although I’m aware that I need to get some practice in vis a vis PFLs, EFATOS, steep turns, stalls etc, and also do some serious cross-countries, rather than sticking to the West Country. Cranfield, Perranporth, Swansea & Le Touquet are all possibilities….once my bank balance agrees.

Back to Top