Up, Up and Away

What better way to spend Battle of Britain Day, 15th September, than taking to the skies over Kent in a small aircraft?

My boss at Spitfire Club, Phil, is a pilot and often asks club members if they want to join him on a flight. I've not really had the chance to accept an invitation before but when I saw he was planning on a trip on Battle of Britain Day of all days, I jumped at the opportunity. Luckily, nobody else was quick enough to respond, so the flight was mine.

Phil flies out of Headcorn, previously, RAF Lashenden, so I had to make my way down there to meet him, a drive of about 45 minutes. Not quite as handy as Rochester but then Rochester doesn't have a Spitfire on site. Not that it was around on this day though and not that we would be flying in one.  Before I was allowed airside, there were some formalities to complete, signing some form or other, probably to say I was of sound mind! That done, we made our way over to the aircraft. Being a member of the flying club, Phil gets to fly several different aircraft. On this occasion, it was a Robin DR400-108, rego G-BCXE. The 108 denotes the horsepower of the engine. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little surprised the engine was so low powered, and Phil was equally surprised I think, when I told him Ginny has 160 horsepower!

Meet Robin, G-BCXE

As I took photos and probably asked some stupid questions, like "how does it fly with only 108 horsepower", Phil took out his little book and proceeded to do his external checks of the aircraft. Once those were complete, we got in the cramped cabin and he ran through another long list of pre-flight checks. Finally, we were ready to start up the engine but not quite ready for the off, as we had to put some fuel in.

We trundled over the the fuel pumps and stuck in 21 litres of Avgas. Once again I was surprised, as Avgas is cheaper than petrol, and considerably so, at only £1 per litre. If that became common knowledge amongst the t*ssers queuing for fuel now, I bet they'd all be heading for their nearest airfield!

Fueled up we were ready to go. Headset on, route map in hand, I was tooled up. With some communication between Phil and the control tower, we found ourselves at the end of the runway and gave Robin full gas. Slowly, very slowly, we bowled along the bumpy grass runway. For what seemed like ages we bumped along and my attention was drawn to the hedge at the end of the runway, coming slowly into view. Briefly wishing Robin had Ginny's 160 horses under the bonnet, I realised that the bumping had stopped and we had left the ground. I was happy to see the hedge pass beneath us that's for sure. 😌

Making a left turn Phil put us on course for the coast. The plan was to fly over the Capel-le-Ferne Battle of Britain Memorial, head up to Manston, then turn back to Headcorn. Whilst I had the map, Phil had an app on his phone that he had loaded the route into. It was a bit like a flying Tomtom and recorded masses of detail about the flight, not to mention, keeping us on course. The pic below shows the route from the app.

Blue track marks the route flown

The weather wasn't brilliant but neither was it too bad, so visibility was pretty good for the entire flight. We flew fairly close to where my brother Paul lives, though the shooting ranges prevented us flying over his house. We did fly over where my sister-in-law Claire used to work though, which Phil told me used to be RAF Lympne. A little further on we flew over the Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge, which also used to be an RAF airfield. Next up, we did a circuit of the Battle of Britain Memorial and Phil wiggled the wings as a mark of respect.

Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le Ferne

From Capel we made our way to RAF Manston, before turning south west on our return to Headcorn. From the air you get to see the full extent of the Manston runway, which is just huge! On the way back we flew over Canterbury and I managed to grab a photo of the Cathedral.

Canterbury Cathedral

Not long after, we passed over Ashford, before making a circuit of Headcorn and our return to terra firma. We taxied back to the spot we had left about an hour previously and cut the engine. The adventure was over. I'd only ever been in a light aircraft once before, a trial flight for my 40th birthday and have to admit felt a little queasy, so I wasn't really sure what to expect on this trip. Phil must be used to that, as he had some doggie poo bags with him, in case the need arose. It never did and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole flight, well, once we got over that hedge. I'd definitely consider doing it again and I can see the attraction of having a PPL. It's a bit like riding a bike I reckon, the freedom to go almost anywhere you like, without sitting in queues of traffic.

For those of you that like stats, Phil's app provides loads. Below is a summary of the flight.

109 knots is about 125 mph

That's all folks!