On Sunday 23rd Sept I had a reunion to go to in Norfolk, which is a 4½ hour drive each way from home. Or 1 hour 20 minutes in the aircraft.
Having checked that I could fly into Cromer airfield and get a couple of taxis and trains to the reunion I decided that I would either fly or not go.
The weather forecasts in the weeks preceding were as expected of 10-15 day forecasts, unreliable and changed to the opposites each day that I checked them. With a few days to go it looked like the remnants of one of the American storms would be sitting in the middle of the country, calling Cromer the day before they were suggesting that in the afternoon of the 23rd there would be strong winds gusting up to 45 knots.
On the morning of the 23rd I headed to the airfield early under a lifting stratus cloud layer, arriving at Tatenhill however there was a lower cloud base and rain. I opened the hanger doors and gave the aircraft a thorough check. Checking the weather showed that the rain would move off to the south and clear the whole route by around 11, and looking out the window this was matched with clearer weather to the northwest.
After a coffee and a breakfast the weather at Tatenhill cleared and improved dramatically. I pulled the aircraft out of the hanger checked my final preparation for the flight.
The weather continued to improve into a good clear sky. So I taxied out and took off, heading south east initially to avoid the East Midlands zone before turning east. The journey east was relaxing with good visibility and receiving a basic service off East Midlands it appeared that there was little other traffic around. I ended the service with East Midlands as the route was passing through the overhead of Fenland airfield.
Contacting Fenland to let them know I was passing through their overhead I requested if they were available for a fuel stop, which they said was OK, and that there was currently no traffic in their circuit, so I joined and landed to check out Fenland and pick up some fuel.
Fortunately one of the locals helped me get used to the self service fuel pumps and I topped up my tanks and recorded the landing and intended departure in the airfield logbook. After updating the paperwork in the aircraft I started up and headed off again towards Cromer.
Just after Kings Lynn the cloud base dropped dramatically to 1500 feet so I descended to take a look at the conditions below the clouds. Spotting that the clouds were clearer towards the coast I turned around and climbed up to 2500 to go over the restricted areas of Sandringham and Anmer Hill, before trying my luck along the coast. It wasn’t long before I was back down to 1500 and shortly after that I was faced with a wide band of showers, having a look at the showers they were quite heavy and I realised that I would have limited visibility and would be close to Instrument Conditions (IMC) which I am not currently licensed to fly in. I did not fancy arriving at a short grass airfield that I had never been to before, low and in limited visibility. Looking north the showers appeared to extend a few miles out to sea, I thought that they would be around for some time, so I made the decision to turn around and head for home.
The return journey was great and the weather over the centre of the country remained excellent throughout the rest of the day. Although I was only on a basic service with East Midlands the controller warned me of other traffic just before I changed frequency back to Tatenhill.
Although I did not make it to the reunion, it was an interesting trip and I managed to get into a different airfield and get experience on a shorter, grass airfield and learn of a great location to pick up fuel/ break if I am out to the east.
