I bumped into Peter, Ken’s brother, the other week-end and shortly afterwards spoke with Ken about their X-Air. As I mentioned quite a while back, I was involved in its purchase the best part of 3 years ago but unlike MYRO, which took a few months of work to get flying, the X-Air hasn’t flown in all the time since. It’s a great machine as you can see from the pics below.

This particular X-Air has a 582 liquid cooled 2-stroke engine which gives about the same performance as MYRO’s 503 because the X-Air is a bit bigger and heavier. But whereas MYRO is rated at an all-up weight of 390kg, the X-Air is 450kg which allows for more fuel and a longer range even though the aircraft itself weighs a bit more. It also has a larger cabin and twin sticks which is rather nice, as can be seen from this pic which I posted when I first mentioned the X-Air at the time it was purchased.

Because it’s been standing for so long without being run, the X-Air recently had its engine fully overhauled. It now needs to be got ready for inspection and permit in the Spring, which isn’t very far away, but unfortunately both Ken and Peter are very short of time. So they’ve asked me if I could give them a hand to get the work done and I’ve agreed of course. I’m now looking forward very much to working on the X-Air over the next few weeks, while still flying MYRO of course, and at the end of it, I look forward to enjoying the pleasure of flying it across to Stoke for its check flight, as I did MYRO. And then seeing it up in the air and being regularly flown as it should be.

I’ll be keeping a note on progress here on my blog 😉

Flight that is, yesterday. First I had to finish sorting out the issue that prevented me flying last time but that didn’t take long. I lost some time because the field is so wet we can’t get cars in and I therefore had to walk everything I needed in on the special trolley I’ve made. Then I had to take MYRO’s covers off and stow them safely away before I could fuel up and fit the radio and GPS kit, and also the weather that was supposed to have cleared by mid-day was taking much longer than expected to do so. So it was 1.40pm before I eventually took off, heading west towards where the brighter weather was coming from. The vis and cloud base were not that brilliant but I knew they’d be improving while I was flying, and so it proved.

I’d planned a flight the evening before taking me just to the north of Tonbridge and then across to Edenbridge in the Gatwick CTA, right on the edge of the Gatwick TMA. Strictly not above 1500ft in that area and then great care needed not to infringe the TMA after turning and heading more or less due south. I then planned to turn and head south-west when abeam Forest Row to head down to Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill before then turning to head back via the south of Uckfield.

I more or less followed the planned route, out towards Edenbridge past the southern-most tip of the Bough Beech Reservoir where a regatta was taking place in the bright early Spring sunshine with a brisk south-westerly breeze filling out the sails. In the event, I decided to cut across the most distant south-west corner of the route, staying some way to the east of Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill and it was lucky I did, because in the end even after having done so, at 1 hour 45 minutes the flight was just about on the limit of MYRO’s endurance with the single tank. After landing I only had about 5 litres left in the tank and if I hadn’t cut the corner, I might well have been running on fumes by the time I’d arrived back at the field. Definitely not a good thing!

The flight turned out to be fantastic, probably the best I’ve done in MYRO so far. The weather and vis became almost perfect for the time of year and the views were spectacular. As I flew southwards along the edge of the Gatwick TMA the sun suddenly broke through and I could see Gatwick in the distance to the west. Then somewhere down to the south-east of Gatwick, in the Forest Row area I think, I flew over a beautiful castle with moat, maze and adjacent medieval buildings around a kind of courtyard or village square that I didn’t even know existed! It almost looked like a film set. I must find out where it is and see about visiting it on the ground some time. I also came across a lovely little Blubell Line steam engine chuffing along in the Spring sunshine hauling a train of beautifully painted old carriages, a gorgeous sight in the Sussex countryside and a bit further on over the Ashdown Forest where the ground rose up towards me I could see the faces of walkers looking up to watch me as I flew by them.

After turning over Uckfield to head back north-east, I had the wind on my tail and began to zip along over the ground, comparatively speaking. After Bewl Reservoir had passed on my right, pretty soon I was calling up on SafetyCom to join overhead for a landing back at Linton, which went off safely and well.

I had to hurry a bit to get MYRO tied down and covered up because I’d been invited to dinner with some very close friends. After driving home, feeding the dog, showering and taking him for a walk all at break-neck speed, I just made it on time. We had a lovely evening which finished with a few glasses of the bubbly that I’d taken along with me, by way of celebration. The reason is that today is my birthday. It’s one of the Big Ones, although I won’t say which one. I’m just so glad that I was able to celebrate it with such lovely friends and after yesterday’s marvellous flight, it is certainly one I will remember for a long time. Yes, a really good one indeed.

And how! To say it’s blowing a hooley as I type this is an understatement with gusts of 50mph or more forecast for this afternoon. And we’ve had this weather non-stop (literally) for 3 or 4 days now, more or less since the previous week-end in fact. So flying was out of the question last week-end. In fact when I went down to Linton to check on MYRO on Sunday I found that one of the tie-down ropes had actually been severed through constant abrasion by one of the tie-down hooks. So to be on the safe side, I put on two new ropes, which I bought at the same time last year as the cover material but up to now hadn’t used.

The wind is forecast to drop around mid-week but is then expected to pick up again in the second half, so flying may still be out next week-end even. Not that I could have flown anyway last week-end because I still hadn’t resolved the issue that prevented me flying the week-end before. But I will have by this coming week-end, so not having flown since January 3rd I’m really keen to get back into the air. I wonder just how lucky I’ll be ? 😯

And good riddance! Last Sunday turned out to be flyable but unfortunately there was an issue and I couldn’t get up into the air. So that was it. Just the two flights on the 2nd and 3rd totalling 2 hours 50 minutes. In some ways I suppose I was lucky because I’m sure that there are lots who got even less than that in what was a pretty miserable month weather-wise. In the south-east anyway … just never-ending dismal, low grey cloud. In fact January was my second-worst month since MYRO was permitted and in fact I actually got the same amount of time in in August last year before MYRO was permitted, ferrying it to and fro for its check flights! December was the worst, of course, with only one flight of 1 hour 15 minutes, a long way behind my best month, October with 6 hours 15 minutes.

The issue I mentioned may prevent me flying again this coming week-end but hopefully it will be resolved after that and I’ll again be able to look forward to getting back into the air. I just hope that the weather begins to smile on us a little bit more than it has been doing lately 😕

I’d hoped to get a bit of flying in this week end but it looks as though those hopes will now be dashed. Yesterday we had thick, dismal, grey low cloud that would have made flying impossible and today is a repeat of the same. I spoke to family members on the south coast a bit earlier and they have bright sunshine down there, but it seems that where we are, we are fated to be constantly on the receiving end of this awful low cloud that is being brought in by the northerly winds off the North Sea.

I ended up replacing my car last week and now have a small estate which will be much more convenient than the saloon for carting microlight bits and pieces around. I was able to go down to the field yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks to check on MYRO and was pleased to see that apart from the covers having loosened due to the rubber straps that secure them having stretched a bit, nothing else had moved. I tightened them a bit but couldn’t stay long so I think I might go back today and do a better job. One thing’s more or less for sure though – if I do go down I doubt that it’ll be to fly in this weather. So all in all, January has not turned out to be much of a month for me at all really, not as far is flying MYRO is concerned anyway 🙁

It doesn’t look as though I’ll be able to get any flying in this week-end because I can’t get down to the airfield. My car has got brake problems and although it’s still got brakes, I don’t think I dare risk driving too far in it. It’s really bad luck because we’ve continued to have very bad weather nearly all week (after the fog, lots of rain) and tomorrow (Sunday) looks as though it could be clear and bright for most of the day 🙁

Since flying down to Pevensey Bay on Monday, despite the fact that the weather was very dull, it was quite dark actually the further south I went, I’ve managed to get a reasonable video together which is now in the Gallery. CLICK HERE if you’d like to see it. I also made a short clip of my return landing. I thought it was quite entertaining because as I mentioned in the previous post, I ended up a bit high and fast and had to do quite a hefty side-slip to get MYRO down. Click on the pic below if you’d like to see it.

I’m disappointed about tomorrow but these things happen unfortunately, don’t they 😕

… the weather both days was awful.

As the Christmas break was drawing to a close, like everyone in the South-East, probably, who flies for fun, I was becoming desperate to get some flying in before the holiday period ended. We’ve been going through a period of awful weather – in the early part of the Christmas break we had bitterly cold temperatures and too much snow to take off and land on and when the temperature rose and the snow melted towards the latter part, almost continuous poor visibility as a result of fog and low cloud. There was really only one flyable day in all that time which was clear and bright enough on which I went down to the field to see if enough snow had melted from the runway. I found that it had, but didn’t take any flying kit with me so couldn’t fly. I intended to do so the next day, which was forecast to be good enough but, of course, fate decreed that in fact the weather would close in again making flying impossible.

The forecast for last Sunday 2nd January was not too bright (literally 🙁 ) with moderate to poor vis and low cloud expected, but I thought I’d give it a long shot. Any approaching weather was forecast to be coming in from the north and I always think that when you are only flying for fun, it’s best to fly towards incoming weather on the outgoing leg so you can turn tail and get back home again with the weather behind you. I still had the route for the last trip I’d planned before Christmas in my GPS, over the Thames to Essex and back and decided I’d use that again. Last time I’d cut the trip down and just flown up to the Isle of Grain over the Medway estuary past Stoke via the east of Rochester, returning via the west side, so I thought I’d do the same again. The flight was almost a repeat of last time. I flew over and through puffs of low cloud, that didn’t represent any hazard to flying, with the sky above low, dark and overcast and with even more uninviting murk and low cloud hanging in the distance to the west. But an hour and twenty minutes in the air was very welcome, even if my fingers were very chilly despite wearing gloves when I got down. I decided not to bother with the camcorder because it just wasn’t worth it in those light conditions.

The forecast for Monday 3rd January was a bit better, but not by much. By then the wind had turned to the south-west with little or no fog, but we still had a very low, overcast sky with just one or two breaks in it from time to time. However, the joker in the pack was a 30% probability of snow showers during the afternoon. I planned a flight to the south for the reason I mentioned earlier, heading towards Eastbourne, turning south-east before getting there to hit the coast at Pevensey Bay, following the shore-line along to Bexhill and then turning back north for the return leg, a total distance of 62 miles. At any time, if nasty weather did come in unexpectedly, I would always have the option of just turning round and safely heading home.

So that’s what I did. It did get a bit touch and go at one stage with the weather and I had tiny particles of snow blowing around me in the cabin with the sky became darker and murkier the closer I got to the coast. As a result, I decided to be prudent and cut the route down a bit, flying further to the east of Heathfield and Hailsham in Sussex than I’d originally planned to and flying parallel to the coast but slightly inland. Even so, my GPS shows that including taking off and joining to land, I covered a total distance of 64.4 miles in a time of 1 hour 27 minutes, so overall the difference was not that great. It was also excellent flying because the air was so smooth that it was easy to set engine revs to hold a pretty constant speed and maintain altitude comfortably within a 50/100 feet range.

I had an interesting landing. I usually fly a longish final starting from about 1000 feet with a dog-leg to avoid troubling any neighbours or anyone else who I might fly over. This time I was a bit lower at about 850 feet but instead of having an easy job getting down, today for some reason MYRO wanted to stay up. So towards the latter stages I ended up a bit high and fast. No problem, I just had to side-slip it off. I got down and stopped easily enough even on the short Winter runway, and it was fun doing it as well. I did a recording of the flight including the landing and I’ll see about putting it in the Gallery later.

And so my Christmas break came to an end. Just under three hours flying – not as much as I’d have liked, but probably more than a few less fortunate souls managed to get in I’d guess, so maybe I have to consider myself fortunate 😉

And I’d like to finish by wishing anyone who happens to pass by my blog and reads this a happy, prosperous and above all, peaceful 2011.

I took Toddie down to Linton on Sunday but unfortunately forgot to take my camera. Definitely no flying but it was a glorious sight under three or four inches of flat, even snow cover. Flat that is except for the rabbit paw marks of which there were hundreds and Toddie was soon in his element following all the scents. I left the car off the field and entered on foot so the rabbits didn’t hear us coming and as we turned the corner a couple dashed off through the hedge and another seemed to shoot out of a small gap under one of the hangar doors and disappeared off in the distance to join the others.

The reason for my visit was to check that MYRO was OK, remove the snow from its wings and tail surfaces, which I did with a small broom that I took with me, and place a wooden prop under the tail. The reason for this was that when we had a much larger amount of snow a couple of weeks ago, Bob noticed that the weight distribution caused MYRO to settle back on its tail skid. This was not a serious problem in itself but the nose is tied to a tyre that’s weighted with concrete and when it lifted it also lifted the tyre as well. The fuselage is strong enough to take the weight but there’s no reason for it to do so if it can be prevented, so that’s why I wanted to put a prop under the tail to prevent it dropping down.

A length of timber that I found in my garage proved to be just the right length without any need to cut it, although I’d taken a saw just in case, so the job was soon done. The wing tie-downs on one side had come loose but it only took a couple of minutes to re-tension them. A walk-round after brushing the snow off the wings and tail, of which there was a surprising amount actually, showed that with the covers I made, MYRO is perfectly OK out in the open in these weather conditions. I think that heavy rain will actually be far worse than snow, so I don’t have too much to worry about for the time being.

Except for the lack of flying that is. I’d hoped that I’d be able to use the time off between Christmas and New Year to get a decent bit of flying in, but it doesn’t now look as though that will be possible. The forecast is that this ‘cold snap’ could last for a month or more which would take us well into the New Year and if it stays this cold throughout, we could keep the snow cover for the whole of that time. Indeed, the chance is that we could have even more, in which case Linton could be a ‘no fly zone’ for quite a few weeks to come, unfortunately 🙁

Luckily I’d kept one of the old tubes from when I fitted the new tyres in the Summer otherwise I’d have been stymied today and have had to wait until I could get hold of a new replacement. As it was, I was able to repair the wheel this morning and with the weather forecast being for broken skies I was off to Linton as soon as I could get away.

Today I was the only one around and after I’d opened up, braved the mud and got MYRO ready to go, I was all set for the off. By that time the forecast broken skies had become solid, murky, low, grey cloud but I was determined to get some time in the air today. I’d planned a flight over the River Thames into Essex again but I decided that with today’s weather conditions, that would have to be for another day. I set the camcorder up and yet again it came unstuck from its vacuum mount twice before I’d even started the engine. I noticed that somehow the connecting jack plug had become bent since I last used the camcorder but it seemed to be OK when I connected the lead up with the comms system. I managed to get the camcorder mounted securely, started MYRO, got the camcorder going and set off.

I headed north along my planned route but decided that in view of the low cloud and murk, I’d head up to the east of Gillingham and Rochester over the Medway estuary to the Isle of Grain and than head back via the north and west of Rochester to link up with the final return leg of my originally planned route back to Linton. Looking west from the north of Rochester the murk and gloom was very bad and for a while I thought that the perhaps the cloud base was lower than I’d originally thought. In fact it was not too bad along my planned route so I continued as planned back to Linton, which was by now in a sunny break in the cloud. After a few minutes flying locally to the north-east of the field I decided that it was time to rejoin and land. Afterwards I checked the camcorder and found that the recording was hopeless – the camcorder was aimed too high and because the auto-focus system had nothing to centre on, even when the ground came into view it was totally blurred. Also, presumably because of the problem with the jack plug, there was no sound, so I’ll have to try to resolve that before next time.

So nothing to show for the flight by way of a recording but at least I’d had the consolation prize of an hour and fifteen minutes flying, so I was grateful just to go away with that, really.

I had a Victor Meldrew moment today alright. The weather forecast was for the grim, low, grey cloud to disperse by the middle of the day and for there to be some sunshine in the afternoon. I got myself ready to go with a flight already planned and kept looking out, but as mid-day approached there was no sign of any change in the weather. Then suddenly the clouds parted as if by magic and there was blue sky up above.

I packed everything in the car and dashed off and despite the traffic, made it to Linton in good time. Bob and Paul were there and Paul was getting his Quik R ready to go as well. After a quick ‘hello’ I walked down to MYRO to get the tie-downs and covers off and couldn’t believe the sight that greeted me – the left main wheel was completely flat. I thought I’d try pumping it up but when I went back to the hut, the foot pump that I’d used before, the only one that fits, had disappeared.

So that was that. I decided that the best thing to do would be to remove the wheel and take it home for closer investigation and lucky I did really because after I’d bought a foot pump in Halfords after checking all their stock until I found one that fitted (yup, I took the wheel in with me), I found that the valve stem was leaking where it attached to the main tube. And this was one of my new tubes that I’d bought at the same time as the new tyres when MYRO was permitted back in only August. Yes, you’ve got it, I don’t believe it…. 😯

We could handle the cold but when the snow hit us in the South-East a week or so ago we were slightly overwhelmed to say the least. Everything ground to a halt for several days, shops and supermarkets were blitzed by panic buyers who seemed to think the end of the world was nigh, everyone gave up any idea of leaving their homes and going to work, schools were shut in their droves and all hatches were battened down.

To say that flying has been out of the question is an understatement. Linton itself didn’t get anything like the amount of snow that we did at home (see pic below) but Bob reported that getting onto the airfield was well nigh impossible in a normal car initially because of ice and then because of mud when the snow that did settle (about 6 inches) began to melt. It has since frozen again so at the time of writing, we still have the worst of both worlds.

Here at home we got the best part of 3 feet of snow and after more than a week, we still have about a foot of frozen snow and paths that are solid ridged sheets of ice that to walk on is to take your life in your hands. The picture below was taken looking out of my conservatory window into my small back garden.

We thought the snow was bad enough last Winter but we have already had much more than we did then and so much earlier too. We rarely get snow this side of Christmas and I hear that this is the coldest start to Winter for well over 20 years. We are expecting a bit of a thaw in the next day or so but that will be rather relative as the temperature is unlikely to get much above freezing, so it’ll be doubtful that the snow will melt much before it freezes again. So there’s a big question mark over whether any flying will again be possible on either this coming Saturday or Sunday.

So I’ve been taking a bit of time over the past few days looking at video editing software as hopefully when the weather does at some time begin to pick up and I’m able to start flying over longer distances, I’ll be getting my camcorder on the go more and more. I’ve tried many packages but the ones I’ve come out most in favour of are Corel Video Studio Pro X3 (the same as what Tony H-S uses and recommended by him, so thanks Tony), Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate HD, and either Cyberlink Power Director or Magix Movie Edit Pro 17, although for me both of the latter come some way behind the first two. I’m currently favouring the Corel package and having put together a video of my landing back at Linton after my flight to Essex on 6th November initially using Moviemaker (free), then Pinnacle and ultimately Corel Video Studio Pro X3, none of which I put into the gallery here on My Trike, I’ve now decided to include the Corel-created version. You can see it by clicking on the pic below.

I’ve still got several days of the free trials to go before I need to make up my mind (getting a bit tight on Pinnacle mind…) so I’m not about to dash out cash in hand to make a purchase just yet. And anyway, who knows what Santa Claus might bring 😉

My whole day was running late today because I went to bed late last night and slept in a bit. That’s always a mistake if you want to go flying because it guarantees that the early part of the day is the most flyable and conditions will go downhill after that. And that’s what duly happened, of course.

After a dismal day yesterday which never saw the fog lifting, we awoke today to a very cold, bright morning. There had been a very sharp frost during the night and I heard today on the radio that this is the coldest November on record since 1985. The North has been blanketed with heavy snow (Edinburgh Airport is closed while I type this) but we have been lucky to be spared that so far. The ground and trees just looked as though they’d been snowed on, the frost was so heavy and thick.

Because of lying in, I had to dash round getting the dog and myself organised but eventually everything was sorted and I was able to get away. As I drove to Linton there was quite a bit of scattered cloud around but it was bright with a little bit of ground-hugging mist. I found Bob and Clive in the hut when I arrived but neither planned to fly complaining that it was too cold. Both fly flexwings, of course, but I didn’t think it would be too cold in MYRO at all, especially as I’d wrapped myself up more than usual today. I bought a pair of waterproof boots during the week and they are marvellously warm. I had also kitted myself out in a tee-shirt followed by a polo neck followed by a warm top and I also planned to put on my zip-up jacket as well. But my piece-de-resistance was my lower half (if you’ll excuse the expression). I’ve lost a bit of weight over recent months (on purpose I might add) and I’ve been left with a pair of trousers that are now several sizes too big for me. Up to now, I didn’t know what to do with them and I’d almost chucked them out. Lucky I didn’t, because I found that they’re big enough to comfortably wear a pair of fleecy jogging bottoms under them. Brilliant! Warm as toast, as it turned out, and surprisingly I didn’t look like the Michelin Man in them either 😀

I was delighted to find that MYRO’s covers hadn’t moved a whisker in the two weeks since I last flew, and when I took them off, it was as dry as a bone underneath them. They were covered in rime ice, of course, but there wasn’t much I could do so I just wrapped it up in them when I took them off. And all the while I could see that the sky was getting more and more murky 🙁

Nevertheless, I was determined to get a flight in but it was obvious that today would only be good for a local bimble. I wanted to use the camcorder but after the suction mount complete with camcorder had fallen off twice (something to do with the cold perhaps?) I decided that discretion was the better part before it got damaged, switched it off and stowed it on the seat beside me. I took off from runway 11 at 13:40 and it was obvious that there was weather coming in from the east. The cloud base was at only 1200 feet and it was even lower to the north with a nasty dark look to it. So I decided to stay local and just get a bit of air time in. No point dashing around using fuel unnecessarily, so I pulled the throttle back to 5000 RPM and just ambled along at 45mph, but that was very comfortable and very nice. At one time I got as high as 1400 feet but that was in a gap in the cloud and at that height, I was going into and out of the clag, so I made sure I stayed lower than that.

After a time, the cloud to the north-east began to have an ominous look to it and seemed to be reaching right down to the ground, a sure sign of snow. No point risking it for no reason, so I decided to join overhead and land back on 11. So that was it, just 40 minutes – better than nothing I suppose, but not nearly as much as I’d have liked given that I haven’t flown for a couple of weeks. Clive had already gone and Bob left shortly after I’d landed, after my best landing for some time, I have to say. A fully-stalled greaser, with the nose wheel remaining up for quite a few seconds as I slowed down before taxiing to the end of the runway. Very satisfying 😉

I then had the job of tying MYRO down and covering it back up again. Sure enough, there was just the lightest flurry of snow while I was doing it, so light in fact that you’d have hardly noticed it, and only for less than a minute or so. And when I’d finished and was sitting in my car drinking a cup of hot coffee from my flask at about quarter-past-three, although there was still clag overhead, the sky to the north-east from whence the weather was coming, was as bright as you’d please. So I could have stayed up for longer after all. As I say, very frustrating 😯

… was very difficult today because although the weather forecast was for the thick, grey cloud to clear in the second half of the day, it just didn’t happen. As a consequence it remained very dull and miserable, but at least it stayed dry.

As tomorrow is again forecast to be a bit wet and windy, my plan for today was to do a flight down towards Lydd, then to hit the coast just to the north of the Lydd zone, fly north up the coast towards Hythe and Danger Area 141 and then to head back to Linton via Ashford. Although it was only early afternoon by the time I was ready to take off, it was still so dull and murky, especially towards the south where I’d planned to head off to, that I thought it wise to curtail things a bit. So I headed off on my planned track then with Lydd in view in the distance, I turned to head east and then with Hythe on my nose turned left again to rejoin my planned track at Ashford.

I ended up with a flight of 1 hour 5 minutes so I was pleased with that, and by the time I’d replaced the covers and tied MYRO down, it was so dark that it felt like dusk. I even had to set the padlocks in my car headlights, and it wasn’t even 5.00pm 😯

I am pleased to say that MYRO’s covers saw off the terrible weather we had this week. I was surprised and rather dismayed to find that some water had still managed to find its way into the elevator – but only on one side! How it did that I do not know – maybe a quirk of the way the wind was driving the rain. I took great trouble this evening to make sure the covers were all nicely fitted and I’ll have to see how they fare next week-end as we already have more rain and storms forecast for this coming week.

But at least we only have a relatively few more weeks now, and the evenings will start to draw out again. That’s looking on the bright side, anyway 😉

We’ve had the most atrocious weather over the last day or so – lashing rain and very high winds with gusts up to 60 or 70 mph in places. This is something we don’t see that often and just my luck to have it come along just after I’ve put covers on MYRO for the first time. I hoped they would do their job but I was more worried about them being lifted and then damaged by the wind before I’ve had a chance to get the bungee cords set to the correct tension. So as we have yet more extreme weather on the way, I decided to nip down to Linton this lunch time to see how things were going.

Things were not half as bad as I’d feared because this was the sight that greeted me as I walked down the taxiway.

This may not be the sternest test that the covers will have to undergo, but so far they are doing pretty well. They are flapping around a bit at the tips of the wings which I want to modify as soon as I can in the same way that I did the tail horizontal stabiliser cover, so I hope that they will at least see this current blowy spell through without damage until I can do that work. Other than that they have stood up to the winds pretty well and apart from increasing the bungee cord tension, there’s not much else to do. Apart from make covers for the pod and windscreen and the tail fin that is.

I took these other shots before I left.

I’m glad I went down because with the wind gusting so much, all of the tie-down ropes had been loosened and I was able to put them all back under tension as well, to stop any movement in MYRO. Hopefully that will now see MYRO through. We have even more high winds to come, but with luck they will affect the north of the country more than the south. However, we’ll just have to wait and see and keep fingers crossed in the meantime until this spell of weather blows itself out.

As we approach the fag-end of the flying year, the number of good flying days must be expected to diminish as the ground gets wetter, the days get shorter and the weather becomes less predictable. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more good days, and Saturday was one of them. All the while I’ve still got only the one fuel tank and my flying time is therefore limited to something like 1 1/2 hours, I like to head off in the direction that the wind is blowing in from so I have it on my tail during the return leg. So with the wind coming from the north-west, I decided to head off over the River Thames into Essex and maybe this time get up closer to the Dartford Bridge.

I had to be a bit flexible because I haven’t flown in the area to the north of the Dartford Crossing for many years and I know that there has been a lot of building and development going on there in recent times. Although it is now legal to fly over built-up areas in a microlight, you have to always have the ability to land clear in the event of an engine failure, so this means that there must be an open area nearby and reachable in a glide at all times. This clearly excludes cities and large towns and would also exclude areas of any kind which are heavily developed with shopping centres, industrial estates and the like.

And this is exactly what it’s like just north of the Dartford Crossing. But although I decided that it would be unwise to approach the north side of the Bridge from the east along the edge of the River Thames, I found that there were actually plenty of fields further north, either side of the A13 main road and the M25, so that’s the route I took. I did decide as you can see in the video that I took, to swing westwards away from the Bridge to skirt round the power station next to it on the south side of the Thames and I did that because of the number of oil containing tanks that were below me. Just imagine the head lines …. 😯

And this time, smarting as I was after Tony H-S’s cruel comments about my apparent reluctance to record my landings, I made sure that I switched off the video during the flight and switched it back on again with enough tape left to record the landing back at Linton. Fortunately I’m glad to say it went pretty well too 😉

If you want to see the video, just click on the pic below.

As well as having had a good flight, I also managed to do quite a bit more with MYRO’s covers which now fit pretty well and should do the job. Just as well because today we’ve had high winds and lashing rain which are forecast to continue into tomorrow. Even though I thought I’d ordered enough extra hooks for the bungee cords that secure the covers, I ran out yet again, so I’ll have to order even more. I’ll also order some more cord because although most of MYRO is covered, which makes me feel better with the current weather, the tail fin, pod and screen are all still uncovered and I’d now like to finish off by making covers for those too. Then I really will be happy while MYRO is standing out over the Winter, completely under wraps 😉

This is the first week-end since MYRO was permitted that I’ve not flown. I was going to yesterday (Saturday) and nearly did but I thought better of it. The weather forecast was for clear, bright conditions with almost no wind followed by rain today and my plan was to get an hour or so in and then try fitting MYRO’s covers. But it was obvious when I set out that there was going to be some rain after all, so I abandoned the idea of flying altogether and decided just to concentrate on the covers.

This turned out not to be a bad thing because of the time it took me to get the covers on. In the event, the wing covers fitted pretty well and when I finish the fuselage section (which I had to get a measurement for), that will fit well too. The big problem was the tail horizontal stabiliser cover which I’d got completely wrong, and this is an important one. I’m finding that rain is entering the cover when MYRO is parked with the elevator secured in the ‘down’ position and cannot then escape until the elevator is raised to the ‘up’ position. This allows the water to exit the same way that it entered but while it is inside the cover, although it can’t do any real harm, it encourages the growth of green algae which would eventually become very unsightly.

So I brought the tail cover back home yesterday and today (Sunday) I quickly finished off the fuselage section and have spent the whole of the rest of the day and part of the evening modifying the tail cover. It has taken me hours to do and now I understand why bought fitted covers cost as much as they do. Anyway, I’ve finished the job and I’m very pleased with the result – I just hope it now fits 😯

The covers are secured by bungee cords with plastic hooks on and I forgot that I’d only ordered a few hooks to make sure they would work OK. They do and I’ve now got more on order. If they arrive tomorrow as I hope, my plan will be to take some time out, nip down to the field and try the redesigned tail cover out because naturally we’ve now got a lot more rain forecast this week. I hope everything goes to plan because then I won’t mind so much if I know that MYRO is outside in it but snug under its new fitted outdoor covers 😉

After the glorious Autumn day everyone enjoyed so much on Sunday, since then we’ve had two days of filthy weather. Yesterday we had the worst of both worlds – again – high winds and lashing rain. And I had to look out at it while I was busy working on MYRO’s outdoor covers and while it’s still sitting on the field out in the open in everything the weather is throwing at it 😕

Anyway, nearly done (although I still don’t know how good a fit they’ll be) but I’m just about to run out of brass eyelets, so I’ll have to wait for the extra ones I’ve ordered to be delivered. In the meantime I’ve put together the video I managed to get from last Sunday and put it in the Video gallery. You can see it if you click on the pic below.

Wonder what the weather will be like next week-end? And I wonder if next time I’ll be able to get the landing? It’ll be about time 😯

No chance of any flying today because it’s been yet another one of those days – cold northerly wind, dull low cloud and shower after shower, some of them quite heavy. Not that I could have flown anyway, because I’ve spent the whole day working on MYRO’s covers. And with this weather, just as well. I just hope that I can get them finished soon – and that they fit too, because I’m working just from measurements that I took last week.

I finished editing the movie footage from last week-end and I’ve put it into the Video Gallery. You can click on the pic below to see it.

The weather is supposed to pick up a bit tomorrow so although I want to do the fitting of MYRO’s covers, I hope I’ll be able to get an hour so in. May as well because with Autumn and Winter around the corner, the available weather windows could start to get a bit fewer and farther between. It’s tempting to say the weather can’t get much worse than it has been, but whenever I think that, it does 😯

The weather last Sunday was bright and breezy and I got two flights with over 2 hours flying in, which was good. I took my first passenger both times – my old friend Ken with whom I bought the original Our Trike over three years ago. How time flies – it doesn’t seem anything like that long ago 😯

We first flew north-west out of Linton over where Ken lives and later on we flew north-east over Faversham. For once, although there was a chilly northerly breeze, the air was pretty calm and we had an almost smooth ride!

I set the camcorder up pointing out over the nose and this time I angled it more or less correctly. I’m pleased with the results and I’d hoped to have put them into the gallery by now, but I’ve been busy this week and haven’t finished the editing yet. I’d hoped to get a landing on tape but yet again, I didn’t stop the tape while flying and it ran out just as we were rejoining to land back at Linton! I’ll do it one day I’m sure 😕

One of the things I’ve been busy doing is starting work to convert the large tarpaulin I bought into fitted covers for MYRO. I can’t afford new ones so I said, ‘Darn it, I’ll make my own!’ I cut the first sections out of the tarpaulin last weekend and picked up a brilliant over-50 years old Singer sewing machine that I got off Ebay so I’ve been doing some experimenting to find out how the machine works and how to go about making the covers. I’ve got the idea now so I’ll see how things go. This week-end is going to be wet and windy and I would like to have got the covers finished and on, but I doubt I’ll be able to do that in time.

Anyway, watch this space. Must go, busy busy… 😉

I’ve now edited and put together the video of last Sunday’s round trip to Tonbridge and it’s in the Videos section. You can also view it by clicking on the pic below.

It’s a pity about the very heavy Inversion Haze that has rather spoiled it, especially in the parts where I was flying towards the sun. The best thing was that it shows that the sucker camcorder mount on top of the panel is a better position than before and will be worth trying again the next time – especially if I give the screen a good clean beforehand 😉

Yesterday was a non-starter as far as flying was concerned. The Met Office forecast said that with high pressure coming into play, we could expect a bright day with a bit of cloud and an easterly wind. Instead we got solid low cloud with no sight of the sun all day so I doubt there was any VFR flying going on in the whole of South-East England 😐

But today was different. It didn’t look as though it was going to be as I was driving down to Linton because although there was sunshine and a fairly brisk ENE wind, there was quite a bit of low cloud scudding across with it too. However, I needed to go to the field anyway because I want to cut my large tarpaulin up to make some better covers for MYRO and I have to have some accurate measurements that I can only get from the aircraft itself.

When I arrived at the field, I saw immediately why it’s urgent for me to adapt the tarpaulin that I used to cover MYRO up last weekend. Lucky I did too because there was evidence that an enormous amount of water had fallen on the field and MYRO during the past week. Somehow the rain running off MYRO’s left wing had found a gap in the folds of the tarpaulin and had flowed into what eventually became a large water container with no outlet. As a result, the weight of the water which turned out to be quite a few gallons, had caused MYRO to tip backwards onto its tail skid. When I arrived I immediately saw that MYRO’s nose was up in the air and the weight of water was such that not only had it lifted MYRO’s nose but also the tyre weighted with concrete that MYRO’s nose is tied down to. Amazing 😯

Fortunately no damage had been done and after I’d released the water, MYRO came back down to earth none the worse for the experience. It was also totally dry showing how well the tarp had worked, but this emphasises why it has to be cut up and converted into ‘fitted’ covers to prevent such a thing happening in the future.

It was gone mid-day by the time I’d got MYRO ready to go. I’d planned a flight out over Leeds Castle, round Maidstone and across to Sevenoaks, down to Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, across to Pembury and back to Linton via Marden, so as by now the sky was wall-to-wall blue, that’s what I did! I also took my camcorder with me so I could try the other suction mount that I got off Ebay, mounted on top of the panel and with the camcorder facing straight ahead. I set everything up and it was immediately obvious that this is probably a better arrangement than the one I used last time. For a start I could see on the flip open screen how it was aimed and could also reach the camcorder controls to switch it on and off in flight if I wanted to and also check that it was working 😉

So off I went from the short winter runway. There was a strong, gusting left crosswind and as I climbed, I soon found that the blue sky was actually very deceptive. In fact there was an inversion layer topping out somewhere between 1500 and 2000 feet and within it, it was very, very murky indeed. This somewhat detracted from the pleasure of the flight but mainly it meant that whatever happened with the camcorder, the results were bound to be rather poor. As it happens, when I checked the footage afterwards, I found that the results were not as bad as I expected. Not good, but not that bad and certainly a good enough test of the new camcorder position 🙂

Just as well really, because although I took my still camera with me, I only took a single shot, of Leeds Castle when I flew to the west of it, and here it is.

So that was it. It was a nice flight and I’m really glad that I was able to do it. When I’ve had a chance to edit the camcorder footage I’ll see if it’s worth including in the Gallery. It probably will be. And just to finish off, I must mention the landing back at Linton. I knew that it was going to be tricky from my take off earlier because the wind was gusting up to 30 mph or so from about 30 degrees left of the runway centre line and when I got back, it was obvious that nothing had changed in the meantime. When I was on final, I tried a crabbing approach, then a wing down approach and then a combination of both. I was working hard with the stick and rudder the whole way down and for a time it felt as though I was stirring porridge, I was waggling the stick so much around and from side to side. In conditions like that, you have to watch your speed very carefully – be a bit too fast if anything because with a strong ‘on-the-nose’ wind component, even with a short runway to land on, you’ll still pull up with plenty to spare so long as you don’t take it too far.

And so it proved. Although I was ready to bang power back on again and go around, it wasn’t necessary and I ended up with quite a controlled, gentle touchdown. I unfortunately heard afterwards that Lee, who had come in a bit earlier in his Quantum, hadn’t been quite so lucky. The wind had caught him out and unfortunately his nose wheel also appears to have found a soft bit of runway and dug in, causing damage to his forks. He wasn’t hurt at all but I just hope the damage to his Quantum isn’t too bad.

Everyone wants to fly over where they live and what better time to do so than in the first few weeks after your aircraft has received its Permit to Fly. So that was also one of the reasons why I wanted to fly to the top of Wrotham Hill yesterday, because that’s the area in which I live. Although the weather wasn’t up to much, I was lucky that in the few minutes when I was approaching and flying around the area, the sun just managed to weakly break through and allowed me to get the following pictures.

The first one was taken as I approached from the south-east. I was flying at about 1600ft on the QNH and as the elevation is around 400ft, I was about 1200ft above the ground.

The dash of red in the left backbround is Brands Hatch racing circuit. They used to run the British Grand Prix there up until the 1960s when it was decided that as a venue it was just too small. Now amongst others they run rounds of the Touring Car Championship there and also the Super Bikes which are both hugely popular in the motor racing calendar.

The next shot was taken roughly from the east and my house is in the middle of that lot somewhere 😉

And this one was taken a little further on, approximately from the north

The last pic, below, was shot roughly from the west as I got ready to turn south-east to head back to Linton. You can’t really tell from the picture, but already the amount of low cloud was beginning to increase as more and more began to drift up from the south.

The main obstacle on the top of Wrotham Hill is the TV mast but I was flying a bit to the north of that so it wasn’t a worry. However, there are also a couple of other radio towers (microwave and such like) because of the elevated location and I had to fly around one of these to get onto heading. By now, because of the low cloud, I’d had to descend a bit to keep clear of it and in sight of the surface. Although I was still at 1200ft on the QNH, because the elevation of the land was about 400ft, it meant that I was down to around 800ft, still legal but not nice if you’re on the ground and an aircraft unexpectedly flies over you at that height. So this meant that as well as keeping clear of obstacles like the radio tower, I also tried to make sure that I didn’t fly directly over any houses or buildings.

Within a minute or so the ground suddenly fell away below me as I reached Wrotham Hill and within a moment or two, I was back at 1200ft. It was then just a matter of beating it back to Linton before the weather closed in, which I talked about in my previous post and sure enough, not that long after I’d landed while I was covering MYRO up, we got the promised rain which has continued on and off ever since and does so even now, while I’m typing this at mid-day on Sunday 🙁

Probably the best way to describe today. We’ve had so much rain lately and with so much more forecast in the next few days, I’ve been getting very concerned about MYRO standing out in it totally uncovered. So I wanted to get down to the field today anyway because with calm winds forecast, I thought I might be able to get MYRO covered up. And, of course, I also hoped that I might be able to get a short flight in too in the first part of the day which was forecast to be dry.

As it was, by the time I’d got all the little chores and things done that always stop you dashing straight out, I got to the field at about 1030am. Everywhere was drenched, of course, and I already knew the main runway would now be closed. But much as I’d worried about MYRO, these AX3s are tough little old birds and as soon as I saw it I knew I didn’t have too much to worry about after all. In fact, when AX3s were used at Popham for training, they all stood outside with just their engines covered, like MYRO has been doing, some of them for years, with no ill effects at all. And so it was this morning with MYRO. The wings and other surfaces were dripping but very little water had found its way into the cabin, and when it does, it can only drop onto the floor where it can do no harm at all. In fact, it gave me a chance to give MYRO a good wipe over with the wet cloth and at the end it looked cleaner than it has done for quite a few weeks now 🙂

Before I’d left home I’d planned a round trip overhead Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells but I knew that would be out as soon as I got to the top of Wrotham Hill. Below me I could see patches of fog and low cloud and with rain forecast for the afternoon, I doubted that that would get enough of a chance to burn off in the weak sun that was now just breaking through. In fact for a time, I doubted that I’d even be able to risk taking off, but by the time I’d finished MYRO’s wash and brush up, the sky looked clear enough to give it a go.

So I decided to head west towards Wrotham. With the weather coming in from the south-west I thought that would give me enough time to get back if I saw anything nasty weather-wise coming in. I’d not taken my camcorder today because I had too many other things to sort out without that distraction, so I made do with my little Pentax digital. Because it was so dingy, the shots I took were all rather dark and as a result do not blow up to full size too well, but they give an excellent idea of what the conditions were like today.

I took the first shot a few minutes after taking off as I was heading towards Yalding. I’d had to keep a good lookout as I’d spotted a red Jetranger helicopter working at low level just ahead of me but by this time I’d cleared him.

Now you can see what I meant when I said fog and low cloud. By this time, most (but not all) of the fog had disappeared but there was still plenty of very low cloud hanging around. Here’s another shot a little bit further on with Yalding just coming in to view.

I took the next shot as I passed overhead Yalding. It’s amazing to think that just a few short weeks ago the river and the boatyards below were bathed in sunshine and a hive of activity.

I took the next shot a bit further on as I was approaching the M20/M26 junction at the foot of Wrotham Hill. Not many hardy souls out on the golf course, as you can see.

Notice how the low cloud is thickening at the foot of Wrotham Hill as the airflow moving up from the south is forced to rise by the slope of the hill. I flew on and took some shots as I approached some lumps of the cloud but none of them came out well enough to include because they were all too much out of focus.

After a few more minutes I didn’t much like the way the weather was turning, so I decided it was time to get back to the field and land fairly pronto. The horizon to the south was becoming much darker and the amount of low cloud was increasing quite quickly. I found my way back to Linton very easily, especially with the help of my little GPS, joined overhead and descended into a left hand circuit to land on 29R, the winter runway.

You have to do a few little jinks to avoid houses and a couple of other things on the approach and you only line up with the runway quite late on final. It’s also a bit more challenging with the winter runway which is much shorter than the main one, because everything has to be dead right. And today it wasn’t. With no wind at all, I was a bit high and couldn’t bleed off the speed. As I approached the threshold it was pretty obvious that I was going to land far too far into the runway for comfort so I decided to go around. Better safe than sorry, especially with the grass being so wet, and the next time I got it on the button.

I then spent the next two hours getting MYRO nicely covered. In the process I got rained on (although MYRO didn’t 😉 ) and the next shots show the final result.

Not too bad, but it all depends how strong the winds are over the next few days which are forecast to be very wet indeed, starting from tomorrow with just the odd respite during the coming week. I hope the coverings do not move too much.

So that was how my flying day ended. As I said, good in parts – although any day which includes an hour’s flying should be described as a good one, really, I suppose 🙂

Well last week-end was for me anyway. I had to paint the weatherboarding on our house this year come what may and although Saturday was a bit windy, it was a dry weather window that I couldn’t afford to miss. So painting came first and as Sunday was wet and windy yet again, there was no flying for me at all over the two days. So all I could do was think about past flying pleasures and it gave me the chance to finish off the movie clip that I mentioned in my last post.

I got 60 minutes of video but was disappointed to find that as the camcorder had been aimed too low, much of it was pretty boring. I was very pleased to discover that the sound, though, was excellent, as this is something that stumps many microlighters who either end up with completely silent movies or ones with occasional passages of voice from their comms or intercom interspersed with long periods of silence. I was delighted to find that my clip included an excellent mix of everything – background engine noise, radio transmissions and voice from the intercom. I had to edit out most of the radio transmissions, though, because of the appalling noises that most light aircraft comms systems seem to transmit! Just click on the pic below to see the movie (that’s a shot approaching Rye, by the way).

I know I said that I wouldn’t put a direct link to it on the main blog, but after seeing it, I changed my mind. It’s not the most brilliant effort because of the problems I mentioned above, but I just had to include it in the Gallery as it’s the first in-flight movie I’ve done. Now I know about the aiming problem and if I can also do something about cleaning the screen plastic a bit as well, future videos should be a little bit more ‘polished’. Have to wait and see 😉

I had a really good day on Saturday but was too busy doing other stuff to write this up yesterday. A week ago I tried to link my camcorder into the comms system but without success because I’d connected a cable incorrectly. I’d planned a round trip out to Battle, Hastings and Rye passing overhead the Bewl reservoir and a return via Tenterden so on Saturday I made sure I connected the camcorder up properly this time. It was more in hope than expectation I have to admit, but in fact, I got 60 minutes-worth of video with excellent sound before the tape ran out just after Tenterden on my final leg back into Linton.

As this was the first attempt, I wasn’t wholly surprised to find that I’d aimed the camcorder a bit too low so although I’ve edited the 60 minutes down to about 10 and will be placing the video in the gallery (more for sentimental reasons than anything else really 🙂 ) I’ll not be including a direct link to it here on the main blog. But what I will show instead as a flavour of what I managed to get, is a short clip of the take off, so here’s the link to that. Just click on the pic to see the clip.

I’ve got my Canon camcorder mounted with a cheap plastic clamp from Ebay on a cross tube behind me in the cabin and I’m very happy with these initial results. Changing the aiming is not a problem but what I’m particularly pleased about is the nice sound balance between background sound (engine etc), comms system and intercom. I think it bodes very well for the future and I’m looking forward to making some more videos while the weather is good, especially including take offs and landings.

As the Autumn begins to approach, Bob announced at the week-end that Linton’s main runway will soon be closing and we’ll have to use the shorter Winter runway instead. To prepare myself, I thought I’d give it a go for both landing and take off on Saturday and had no problem with either. Partly it’s because I’ve been used to having trees at both ends of the runway and with Linton being so clear from both directions, it’s relatively easy I find to set your approach speed up pretty accurately making for very short landings. I’ll have to see how take offs go a bit later on when the ground becomes wetter and softer but as you can see from the YouTube clip, I got well away in plenty of time with runway to spare on Saturday. So solo at least, I don’t think there will be too much of a problem – I wonder if the faster Quik R boys will be thinking the same 😕

We’ll have to wait and see how we all do, I think, just as we will with my future video exploits…

So, today was the big day… the first day of official flying after MYRO had received its Permit to Fly. I wanted to do something to commemorate the event so I thought I’d set up my camcorder next to me in the cabin and see if I could record MYRO’s first official flight in my ownership. Here’s how the camcorder looked when mounted in position – pretty neat I thought.

So after checking and fuelling MYRO up, I strapped myself in, fired up the engine, pressed the camcorder ‘start’ button and set off for the wide blue yonder. Luckily I took my little still camera too because when I got back after over an hour’s flying, I found that the camcorder hadn’t even started! But you win some and you lose some – no movie to show for it, but at least my still pics came out not too bad, and here they are 🙂

I took off on runway 29 and after climbing out, I turned to head east. This shot, taken shortly after take off, is looking northwards with Stoke airfield where MYRO was check-flown last week, although you can’t make it out, slap bang in the middle of the shot, on the farthest-most shoreline in the far distance.

It’s too far to be very distinct, although you can see it pretty clearly if you click on the pic and then on the magnify link, but the beautiful Leeds Castle is just below the centre of the shot in the middle of its lake and surrounded by green fields. The next shot is of the City of Canterbury with its famous cathedral in its centre and was taken just after I’d turned onto a north-easterly heading.

I’ve never yet managed to get a good shot of Canterbury because I’ve always been just too far away but I’ll do it one day soon. The next picture is of the town of Whitstable which is on the Thames Estuary. You can clearly see the wind farm that has been built some way off-shore out in the estuary itself.

I had originally intended to fly right up to Whitstable before turning west to head back along the North Kent coast. However, there was a brisk wind today and the northerly component was obviously stronger than I’d allowed for. As a consequence this leg of my flight took quite a bit longer than I’d allowed for, so I decided to turn onto a westerly heading before Whitstable just in case my fuel level might start to get a bit low later on. I shot this next pic at about the time I did the first part of my turn.

You can see the Essex coast in the distance on the far side of the Thames Estuary and the pic shows the Isle of Sheppey just coming into view on the left. The next pic is a much closer view of the eastern end of the Isle of Sheppey with Essex in the distance beyond. Southend Airport is somewhere in that direction.

As I headed west towards Sittingbourne, I passed abeam the small town of Faversham which I’ve shown viewed from the north in the next shot.

I then decided to save some fuel by turning to the south of Sittingbourne to intersect my originally planned track to head back to Linton. As I did so I took my last picture of the day, the beautiful Leeds Castle.

I want to get some much closer shots of the castle and there will be other days, but for the time being, this one will suffice.

I returned to Linton and landed without incident in quite a brisk, gusting cross-wind actully, after spotting the field from some way out. I’m already beginning to recognise the local features I’m pleased to say that will allow me to do that even more easily in the future. The day wasn’t over by any means. After a chat and a cuppa with Bob and Lee I decided to go off for one more short flight to make the most of the day as it was a rather special one. This time I went off to the west as far as West Malling and then returned flying along the ridge over Coxheath and then round Linton and down to Staplehurst in the south.

I was flying at about 1500ft and could see Headcorn quite clearly in the distance. Although I was on the very much extended runway 29 centre line some way outside the airfield zone, an extraordinary thing happened. The air over Kent is pretty busy so you have to keep your eyes open and I’d seen several other aircraft during the day, including a tug towing a glider out of the Kent Gliding Club at Challock earlier in the day, which I’d watched climbing out and passing some way behind me. But I was amazed to see a yellow and white Robin aircraft that had obviously just taken of from Headcorn pass about 500ft directly below me on a track that intersected mine at 90 degrees. I saw him come and go, but I don’t think he saw me. He passed directly over Staplehurst and at about 1000ft, was a bit low in my book.

So the day came to an end. It gave me immense satisfaction after having put the work into MYRO that I did and it’s not easy to explain the pleasure of being able to take to the air in your own aircraft more or less whenever you want to without having to ask permission or being beholden to anyone. Other microlighters I’ve spoken to have said the same and I’m proud to be able to join them and be a part of that privileged group.

I was up at about 6.30am and rushing around right from the outset to try to get everything done before today’s planned Check Flight. I hadn’t wanted to tempt fate by planning my route last night so that was the first job after having breakfast. Maidstone and Rochester are slap bang between Linton and Stoke, so because of the need to go around them, it gave me a legitimate reason to go up to Stoke on one side of them and back on the other and get a bit of flying time in even though MYRO isn’t permitted. Cunning eh 😉

Later I was off to the car accessory shop to be there as soon as they opened at 8.30am and after a false start, having to return home and pick up MYRO’s key which I’d forgotten, I was then down at the field and ready to replace the fuel pump vacuum hose. I started by ground running MYRO’s engine and there was fuel pressure there, more than yesterday after having had a chance to ‘rest’, which is what I found previously, but I still had a decision to make. I decided to go for it and swap the hose.

All went well until I got to the plastic ‘T’ piece that splits the hose from the crankcase between the upper and lower Mikunis – its diameter is slightly larger than the ID of the new tubing and it was a heck of a job to get the tubing on enough to make it secure. I thought it only right to give Chris a ring to let him know I’d be delayed and I did so again later, getting through to his wife Karen it transpired, to keep him and Martyn, who would be doing the Check Flight, in the picture. I ground ran the engine again after I’d finished and as there was pressure there, although still not as much as I expected based on my experience with MZEL, I decided to give it a go anyway. As it happens, the decision proved to be right because once airborne and in the cruise, the pressure rose to a fairly respectable 0.3 bar (the maximum specified is 0.4 bar) which I was happy with. Here’s the route I took.

My first leg took me up to the east of Maidstone via Leeds Castle and Sittingbourne. The castle looked magnificent and one of my first flights when MYRO is permitted will be to return for some photographs because I didn’t think that today would be a good day for taking pictures. I skirted the western edge of the Isle of Sheppey and then turned left to head for Stoke across the Medway estuary. What a great area this is for taking pictures, with all kinds of sea traffic in view and the large container ships in the Thamesport docks on the Isle of Grain. I can’t wait!

I could see Stoke quite clearly from some way off – being next to the shoreline it’s very easy to find anyway – so as nobody was on the radio, I just called in blind as other traffic was doing, joined downwind right hand for runway 06 and landed. I found Chris straight away and as Martyn was already prepared, he was pretty soon straight off for the Check Flight. I’m very pleased to say that after the usual rude banter you get about AX3s (I can’t think why.. 😕 ) he reported back afterwards that in fact MYRO flew very well indeed. That made me very happy after all the hard work I’ve put in 🙂

I had a cuppa and a cheese scone while I was waiting for Martyn to return. We had a brief chat as we’ll be meeting again tomorrow to complete the formalities and pretty soon after I was ready to go for the return leg to Linton. I’d taken 10 litres or so of fuel with me so I put that into the tank and off I went. This time I took a route to the west of Rochester that would take me back via the M20/M26 junction at Wrotham. The view of Rochester Marina and Rochester Castle was spectacular and again I vowed to come back again soon to take some photographs. I switched to Rochester’s frequency because the airfield was clearly visible not that far off to my left and I wanted to keep a listening watch out and monitor traffic. The airfield looked amazingly like a Rochester Flight Simulator scenery I started but have never finished which made me think that I must get back onto that sometime.

Although I was skirting around the edge of Rochester’s zone, I was amazed by the size of the circuits those GA boys were flying! There seemed to be aircraft flying below me (I was at about 2000ft) and not that far off to my left on several occasions and I was actually outside the boundary of the published airfield zone! I began to descend after Rochester and pretty soon I was at my intended turn point at the M20/M26 junction. A turn to the left and soon I was above the golf course at Wrotham Heath and then over the river to the west of Teston and Wateringbury.

Then I spotted the water tower at Coxheath and to the right beyond that, Linton church. I knew that if I couldn’t spot Linton this time, I’d never live it down but then there was the airfield, still several miles ahead, but as plain as day. I knew that there wouldn’t be much flying going on so I decided to extend my flight for a little longer, skirt down towards the south and call up to join base leg for runway 11. And so my first flight out and back from Linton came to an end. The approaches to the field are so clear from both directions compared to where I did my training that you feel so much more in control. I crept in over the threshold and amazingly stopped within a few yards so I could turn off the runway and stop outside the hangar where MYRO is tied down. I was very pleased with that I have to say 😀

So that’s it – all I have to do now is send the Permit paperwork off again. It’s been a bit of an uphill struggle at times – not least over the last few weeks – but at last it’s ‘job done’ and hopefully I’ll have MYRO’s permit by next weekend. Just in time for the weather to change someone told me today 😐

I’m also pleased to say that the Arplast prop is a huge improvement over the original GSC wooden 2-blader that was originally on MYRO and is now on MZEL. It’s quieter and it also seems to me to be much more efficient. I’m surprised at how much better MYRO’s fuel consumption is compared to MZEL – I’ve not flown enough yet to get an accurate idea but it seems to be coming out at around 11 litres/hr which is much lower. Mind you, I’ve only been flying one up. I’ll start to keep more accurate records when I start flying MYRO regularly because I’m naturally very keen to find out.

Is this the end of this chapter? I think so. I hope so anyway 😉

I’ve now added a video to the Gallery HERE of the second check-flight.

I’m beginning to despair of ever getting MYRO permitted. I posted on the BMAA forum that the Permit system is so user-unfriendly and full of pitfalls that nobody tells you about until you fall into them that there must be a better way 😐

It seems that there’s a ‘rule’ that Rosie forgot about that says a Check Pilot who was the previous owner of an aircraft is not allowed to conduct a Check Flight on the aircraft – it must be done by a Check Pilot who is independent. So Rosie’s Check Flight has been deemed invalid and after all my hard work trying to work as closely as I could with the BMAA office and my Inspector so things were done right first time, my Permit paperwork was duly returned to me after sitting in the BMAA office for a week – yet another week lost. It’s now been the best part of two months since MYRO was finished for Permit and unbelievably it still isn’t 😯

I’m very miffed about this – it seems that the final choice on this should be mine, not Deddington’s. OK, they can make me aware of the fact, but surely it should be up to me as a grown-up adult if I’m prepared to accept the situation and risk buying a ‘dud’ from a total charlatan? And are they suggesting that a Check Pilot appointed by them would be prepared to falsify a Check Flight whether they previously owned the aircraft or not? If so, I find that astonishing!

I phoned Chris Draper (BMAA Council member and fixed wing Check Pilot) and I’ve arranged with permission from the BMAA Tech Office to conduct another solo ferry flight over to Stoke for him to do another Check Flight. I’d been thinking about my fuel pressure which is still low, in fact low enough for Rosie to have remarked on it, so I thought I’d nip down to the field this afternoon and see if servicing the second, lower Mikuni fuel pump solved the problem. The work went well and I was looking forward to starting up to see what the results would be, but I couldn’t have been more disappointed . Now not only was the fuel pressure low, it was also unpredictable – higher at lower revs and liable to drop when you increased revs up to flying power!

I just can’t believe the problems I’m having with this – nobody else seems to have ever experienced the difficulties that I’m having. As Ginge Sunley over at Saxon Microlights said, in the whole of his experience, Mikunis are bomb proof – you just fit em and forget em. The last link in the chain is the pipe connecting the Mikunis to the crankcase – all I can now do is replace that and hope that it’s leaking vacuum a bit because of age. I dashed away from the field in the hope of getting to an auto accessory shop before they closed but I was just too late. So now I’ll have to pick some up at 8.30am tomorrow morning and fit it before, hopefully, getting away to Stoke. It’ll probably make me a bit late so I’ll have to try phoning Chris first thing. Mind you, if the fuel pressure is still too low, the Check Flight will be off anyway and I’ll have what is becoming a rather intractible problem still to solve 😕

The Bank Holiday week-end has come and gone with barely any flyable weather at all here in the South-East. I was lucky to have got the short flight in from Headcorn to Linton on Friday because I think that’s more than many other microligt pilots got over the whole week-end in these parts. And lucky too that because of John’s help, I didn’t have to leave it until Saturday because if I had done, I doubt that I’d have got it done.

The reason, of course, were the old enemies, rain and high winds, but this time with a real vengeance. I’ll tell more later, but I was working outside on MYRO on the field yesterday and the wind was so strong it was hard to do things and stand still in one place, the wind was blowing so hard. As I type this, of course, it’s now sunny and almost calm, but a bit too late once again for all of the microlighters here in the South-East who just wanted to get a bit of relaxing time in the air.

It didn’t worry me in that respect, of course, because without my Permit I still can’t fly MYRO, so knowing that I should have it this week, hopefully by Wednesday, I thought after my recent experiences I’d better get my comms setup installed. I’ve actually had an aerial for quite a long time. It’s one I bought on Ebay – brand new, ex MOD and very good quality as you might expect. I trimmed the whip down to the correct length ages ago and have been waiting for the right time to fit it. Well, that was this week-end.

There was only one small problem, well not a problem really, just something that I had to deal with. The aerial was intended to be installed onto somewhere like the roof of a vehicle so the cable connections had been left exposed. They couldn’t be left like that because they would then have been totally open to the weather on MYRO so before I could fit the aerial, I had to carefully encase the connections in silicone. Dave Smith had advised on the BMAA forum that your common-or-garden kitchen or bathroom sealant wouldn’t do because it makes acetic acid while it cures which then begins to corrode the connections. To prevent this, you must use a special non-corrosive silicone sealant. So Saturday saw me nipping across to Maplins to buy a tube of Servisol red cap which is commonly used on printed circuit boards to do exactly what I wanted, albeit on a slightly smaller scale 🙂

So Sunday saw me out on the otherwise deserted field installing MYRO’s aerial and as I mentioned earlier, was it blowing a real hooley! I got the job done though, including stripping out the old aerial cable Rosie had left in (but sans-aerial) and running the new cable right up to the panel. I even temporarily fitted the radio aerial connector and was able to try it out before calling it a day and leaving for home, and I’m glad to say that I could hear Headcorn and traffic in the circuit there very clearly (not that there was much of the latter given the conditions) although they could not hear me when I tried a test transmission. But that was not too surprising.

Today I went over to finish the job. The wind was still blowing everything around including MYRO’s doors and I noticed this evening when I shut up shop that as a result, there is now a crack in the door plastic beginning from one of the pop rivets on the pilot’s-side door. This is so annoying when I’ve hardly even had a chance to fly MYRO because I think I’ll have to find a way to catch it before it spreads too far.

All I had to do today was shorten the aerial cable, clip it neatly behind the panel so it couldn’t come into contact with any controls (eg rudder cables) and try it out. So that’s what I did. When I’d finished and put the whole system in, I could here Heathrow Approach and the traffic going into runway 27R as clear as a bell and when Bob arrived a bit later, I was able to do a proper test with the engine running. I think there’s a tiny bit of noise, from a plug cap probably, but before I dash off and buy four new ones I’ll wait to see how the system performs in the air. So for now I’m more or less ready to go, and here’s what the panel and comms setup looks like.

I wasn’t going to, but I just can’t resist showing just one of the original old pics from when I first flew MYRO back in July 2008 which shows MYRO’s panel as it then was, and I hope you’ll agree it’s really quite an improvement 🙂

On the top right hand side of the panel I’ve mounted my GPS system. This isn’t any old GPS system – it’s actually an aviation system hacked onto a cheap car sat-nav. I’ll explain a bit more about that sometime in another post but for the time being, I’m just glad that this little job is now done.

Thanks to a very kind offer of a lift out to Headcorn from John, the other AX3 owner at Linton, I managed to complete my ferry flight this afternoon and get MYRO back to Linton from Headcorn. No time for any pics because time was tight but it’s good to know that that’s another problem out of the way, and it’s a very big THANK YOU to John for getting me out of trouble.

It was brakes off at 16.05 at Headcorn and brakes on at Linton at 16.20, so it took hardly any time at all. And in today’s better conditions, I now know that I had been within sight of the field on Wednesday, and that it was Linton village that I had flown over while trying to spot the airfield. So my dead-reckoning navigation hadn’t been too bad after all, I’m pleased to say. But it was still the right decision to divert to Headcorn given the conditions I was flying in and my lack of familiarity with the area. Now I’m really looking forward to some local exploring to get to know all the key features that let you find the field from whichever direction you’re coming.

But it won’t be this week-end, I’m afraid. I checked with the BMAA this morning and although they have my Permit paperwork, it’s in a queue and hasn’t been processed yet. So I won’t get it until next week, after the Bank Holiday, and MYRO must remain grounded until it’s actually in my hand. So I’ve been caught out by the Delay Gremlins yet again!

Oh well, nothing I can do about it. Maybe now MYRO’s back home again I’ll be able to do a few jobs that need doing, like fitting the comms kit, so when I do get the Permit through, I’ll be all ready to go 🙂