Flight to the coast

Hi all,

On Friday, I really did come back from my lesson with Cabair grinning from ear to ear. In my lesson I’d taken a little trip to the coast and back all within an hour. Flying is most definitely the way to go! I came back home after and asked my Dad, ‘and where do you think I’ve been’? He had no idea of course and so I told him that we’d flown to Southend and back.

As I arrived at Elstree, Liam and I sat down and worked out all the calculations we’d need to do to fly first to Potters Bar and then fly in a triangle pattern via two other airfields. There certainly was a lot to take in and it will definitely take a little while to know it like the back of my hand. I did really like working it all out though, and wow does doing all the calculations make the flight easier.

Once we were up in the air, we first flew alongside the M25 until we came to Potters Bar which is where I live and I pointed out my house to Liam too which was good fun. It’s pretty easy to find from the air thanks to our old and little above ground swimming pool in the garden.

I took note of the time and we then proceeded to fly the route I’d laid out on the map.  I continually estimated the ETA at each point and also the ATA when we got there. It was really nice to see how accurate my predictions were.

Flying over Southend was pretty cool too, as it just opened my eyes up to how easy it is to travel by plane. No traffic jams to worry about that’s for sure!

After flying back and landing at Elstree, we debriefed and looked at things that I could improve on and also how to or how not to do some things differently perhaps.

Mike