Britain’s wealthiest 1% may own 50% of its land, but they don’t own the sky… There aren’t many occasions when you can look down on the rich and powerful. High hedges and drystone walls might stop ramblers and paparazzi, but they do nothing to a nosey pilot. My aerial playground (the Cotswolds) is littered with…
Category: General Aviation
Flying into RAF Fairford
On Friday 6 September I finally completed something that I’d always wanted to do, land an aircraft that I was flying myself on the 3 kilometres of tarmac at RAF Fairford. My first experience of landing at the airbase was in July 2003 on board a British Airways Boeing 747-400, with my old man as…
Rotary Flying
On a sunny but blustery day in August I was very lucky to be taken for a trip in an R44; only my third experience in a helicopter! I was meeting ‘Instagram friend’ Rachel at our strip. Our plan was to fly the RV up to Wellesbourne before jumping into a helicopter and flying to…
Writing in the sky
Writing in the sky with help from NATS.
Red Arrows Transit From Above
A flight to remember, as the Red Arrows pass 1,000ft below.
New Zealand CAA: Changes to Colour Vision Assessment
Kiwis bring in new task-relevant approach to assessing pilot’s colour vision.
‘Let go of the f***ing stick’
Learning to not fight the landing
First Week of RV Aerobatics
After many days waiting because of bad weather and early nights, I finally took the RV upside down. The footage below is from the second aerobatic flight, as both GoPro cameras went tech during the first flight.
Updated: Clearing an RV-6 for Aerobatics
The steps to take if you want to turn an RV upside down.
Sky Echo – Poor Man’s TCAS!
This is a very short look at the practicalities of the, now replaced, uAvionix Sky Echo ADS-B in/out device. Originally around £600 I got hold of one for a fraction of that price as I wanted another GPS unit to feed SkyDemon, with the added benefit of being able to see some traffic at the…