Having realised I’ve not flown many cross-country hours at all this year, I planned to fly into the Private Flyer Fest at Leeds East airport on the 8th of July. The day, as it turned out, began with a trough line and heavy squalls sweeping through the east of England followed by proper thunderstorms arising from a cold front. The flight was thus called off and I was keen to find a replacement in the near future as I’ve already prepared the route and ordered north England chart amongst other things. So it happened today that I took G-BODU, an SF25C motorglider into Humberside airport instead, together with my passenger G.
The majority of the planning, for a flight of this duration, happened the night before where I studied the airspace and possible routing options in detail. Inconveniently, four military airfields lie in the way between Gransden Lodge and Humberside, and routing west around all of them will add 20 miles to the 85 miles route. Normally, one should also have the option to route east along the coast to avoid the MATZs (military air traffic zone established around a military airfield), but, as it so happened, there is flight testing activity over the Wash and extending inland for a considerable 16 miles radius until into August. Routing along the coast would mean flying under that NOTAM whose base is at a mere 2000 ft AMSL, and that is not the best option either. Therefore, I decided to route through the MATZs and just penetrate them as approved by the air traffic control. There is a major military exercise, codename Storm Warrior, taking place over the north sea today with more than fifty aircrafts taking part, some of which would be departing from and returning to the military airfields we would be flying through. Therefore, intense aerial activity and busy radio was anticipated.
The route taken at last, as depicted below, while technically in class G airspace, penetrates two busy MATZs and also overflies two busy local airfields, Conington and Wickenby, before joining the radar controlled airport Humberside. Precise navigation is required in the Cranwell–Coningsby–Waddinton area. This makes it one of the most complex and busy routes I’ve flown. As it turned out, workload was intense at places. G was a great help all the way along with log keeping, chart cross-checking, and being the walking frequency card.
The weather forecast for the whole day was isolated showers, which creates further complexity. Normally I am always able to divert around isolated showers, but if one happens to be sitting strategically in a narrow corridor that I need to squeeze through, then there aren’t many options but to fly through. Luckily, as it turned out, the showers were not particularly severe and although we had to fly through some, visibility was acceptable and I probably gave the aircraft a quick wash by doing that. But the Falke, being prehistorical and a motor glider, leaks water all over the place which makes it somewhat unpleasant to fly in rain for more than a couple of minutes.
A good flight always begins with a detailed Alpha check. I could not see anything unusual through the walkaround but previous pilots made numerous reports in the daily inspection book about the quantity of engine oil remaining. The readings from one day to another varied wildly, with it being noted as ‘less than half’ on a day, full on the subsequent day, and ‘low but in limits’ the day after. It sparked interest although I quickly discovered that an accurate reading was difficult as it seems that the dip stick, as it was inserted, created an air lock in the tube, preventing the oil level from equalising with the sump. It took me five or six attempts before I convinced myself that the actual level should be no less than a half. While I had the top cowling off, the opportunity was taken to top up the oil in the carburettor float valve oil as well.
G and I then had a detailed briefing of the route, airspace, and weather forecast. We both agreed that, while complex, the flight can be safely made. Although I was the commander, I find always helpful to do a full briefing with the co-pilot, even an unqualified one. Having a second pair of eyes to scrutinise your plan is good threat and error management, and it offers reassurance to both sides: for the P2 to have confidence in the P1, his planning and competence, and for the P1 to know that the P2 will be comfortable, cooperative, and will not raise unforeseen issues mid-air. The mentality of staying ahead of the flight starts long before we step into the aircraft. I’m sure the professional airline and commercial pilots would not disagree with this.
We then fuelled the aircraft to the brim as this was just under the maximum take off weight and allows us to complete the trip without uplifting fuel at Humberside, as fuel availability at other airfields is not always reliable and the last thing we wanted on this Thursday flight was to get stranded as both of us had to go back to work on Friday. The last item of preparation was to call Humberside for PPR (prior permission required). Although arrivals during the normal hours do not require PPR, strictly speaking, it was considered good practice and would save us a substantial amount of R/T during the lead up to the join. I made particular emphasis over the phone about our lack of a transponder, and confirmed that the ATC was happy about this, as the surprise otherwise could be quite problematic.
Soon we taxied out and finished the pre-flight checks. The wind at Gransden Lodge was brisk but not very cross, so the take off was easy and the initial climb angle was good. The motor glider with its underpowered engine never really manages over 500 feet per minute at the maximum all-up weight, so a decent amount of headwind on take off is always welcome. The convective activity was strong even lower down and abrupt control inputs up to a half of the travel was needed just to keep the track straight and the airspeed steady on the climb out. We clipped the eastern edge of Hayley Woods before making a gentle climbing U turn to the north to bring us on track.
We reached our cruising level of 2500 ft after roughly six minutes of flying, but soon after, a few thermals offered us another 300 ft, so we cruised at approximately 2800 ft instead. If I could have cruised higher I would take the option, but the VFR minima changes above 3000 ft, requiring 1000 ft of vertical clearance from cloud, which the cloud base of the day did not allow. It was a struggle to maintain altitude in a motor glider on a strongly thermic day and, as I found out first hand during my training at Bicester airfield more than a year ago, trying too hard can lead to severe airsickness. So we mainly rode it along, following the advice given to me by an experienced instructor Ian. It was only when crossing the MATZs did I try to hold the altitude constant. Still, the SkyDemon trace afterwards proved my success to be limited.
Very soon we passed through Conington whose ground radio seemed to be unmanned despite having busy traffic. There were one departure and two joins during our few minutes in the vicinity. I wasn’t able to stay on their frequency for situational awareness for as long as I wanted, because we needed to contact Wittering shortly after to obtain a MATZ penetration. The transit was easy without any drama. While a few showers were in the vicinity, only one was directly in our way overhead Marker Deeping and it was light enough to see and fly through.
Onward to Bourne and a difficult and featureless navigation leg took us to Heckington where a transit through the Cranwell MATZ was made. I made initial contact with Cranwell which happened to be the only non-radar unit in the area. I came to understand later that the three RAF units in that area have good communication channels such that it didn’t really matter which station to call initially as they will pass details and transfer aircraft if necessary. Therefore, in hindsight, it would probably have been better if I obtained a LARS service from Coningsby upon entry to the AIAA and they would hand me over to Cranwell if necessary.
Very soon we passed abeam Wickenby and contacted Humberside for the join. I immediately came to the realisation how far north we have came as both the ATIS and the controllers were of a distinctly different accent, and it was only an hour since we took off. The circuit was not busy and we were told to expect a left hand downwind join before being transferred to the tower, still approximately five miles away. This relieved me from listening to the busy radar channel as Humberside is also a LARS unit. The wind was strongly cross on the main runway and variable in direction, so the tower offered us the option of the cross run which was narrower and shorter, which I did not consider necessary for the conditions. The join was easy and uneventful, and in no time we made a smooth landing on the piano keys, but the motor glider took quite some distance to stop rolling, meaning we had to turn around and back track to taxiway Alpha. At this point, I was glad I opted for the wider main runway which was 45 meters wide. I was certain that I could not have done a U-turn in the width available on the cross run if it was necessary. The tower controller was very considerate and offered us the widest taxi route available due to the wing span, but still, taxiway edge markers and designation boards were uncomfortably close. We carefully weaved our way through to the grass parking.
It was a five minute walk along the taxiways and across the apron before we exited the airport and another few minutes walking around the perimeter before we arrived at the main terminal information desk to pay the landing fee. We walked past hangers of Eastern airlines and HM Coastguard, admiring their aircraft along the way. A nice and helpful lady at the information desk greeted us with paperwork of great complexity, and it was a steep landing fee at £28 for a 650 kg aircraft, but probably average or below average for an airport this size with full ATC services. Unfortunately we were not admitted through security to the departure lounge where there must be eateries and shops, instead, we were confined to the check in area where there was only one cafe. Luckily we arrived 15 minutes before they closed, so we had a decent lunch of burgers, fries, and salad for £12. The conclusion probably is that, unless I had something to do in that area, maybe in Hull, the airport in itself was not worth visiting more than once.
We sat on the benches in front of the empty check in desks to look at the weather for the way back. There was a band of heavy shower passing through our route, so we made a delay of 20 minutes before booking out with ATC and retraced our steps back onto the apron. Photographic ID was required upon re-entry to the airside and we did well to remember to bring them. Upon departure, we were once more offered the use of the cross run, but I decided to stick to the main run for its width and length as the wind was acceptable. Length of the main run is in excess of 2000 meters which gave good engine failure options. After take off, we requested a right hand turnout to make an excursion to the Humber bridge, followed by the petrochemical plants on the south coast before routing around the ATZ to Caister VRP to re-join our reverse route back home. Having just flown it in the other direction, the route was familiar and the workload a lot easier to manage. The band of showers were nowhere to be seen, although as we passed Heckington on the way south, all the thermals had been killed and the air was silky smooth, which was evidence that heavy precipitation just washed the entire region. Gransden Lodge had stopped their glider flying earlier in the afternoon, and the airfield was completely deserted when we arrived back at 17:00, so it was an easy base join and landing. In half an hour we were in the car back to Cambridge.
Pictures are mostly courtesy of my co-pilot as I was doing the flying the majority of the time!