Halfpenny Green Return

Friday, 19th March

Friday was to have been our day for a trip to Ireland. We had planned to go to Cork and Waterford, and when we had arrived at Caernarfon the weather was looking good: excellent in fact.

Unfortunately the South of Ireland was stuck in a warm front and visibilities were down to hundreds of metres and cloud bases were of the order to 200 feet. The wind in Cork was practically non-existent and so the chances of the visibility improving were effectively nil. A quick re-plan was needed, and we had a flight plan to cancel and the police to inform about the cancellation of the Ireland flight. Just as we had made these decisions, North Wales Police arrived to inspect our documents, and so we had to explain that the international flight had been cancelled due to the weather in Ireland. We explained to a very understanding Detective Constable why we had made our decision, and apologised that he'd come along for nothing, although there was no way we could have known. He explained that this was just one of a number of visits he had to make in the area, and that he'd not really been inconvenienced. In any event, it was more important that we'd made the right decision not to fly to Cork.

After several suggestions for places to visit, we finally settled on Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green, with a possible flight to Kemble afterwards depending on the weather situation. I quickly planned the flight and by now Phil had completed the cancellation of the flight plan, and we were ready to depart for Wolverhampton.

The departure was second nature to me by now having flown over 10 hours on the Bulldog. We accelerated down runway 26 to 60 knots and eased the Bulldog into the air and set climb power shortly after takeoff. We made an early left turn from runway 26, and set heading for Wolverhampton whilst climbing to FL55. The conditions were a little hazy with mid-level cloud and this was no doubt indicative of the moisture of the approaching front.

We routed direct to Wolverhampton and in only a short time we were level at FL55 and moving out of the area covered by Valley Radar. Valley asked us to squawk 7000 (VFR conspicuity code) and to freecall London information. Despite the suggestion from Valley that we call London Information, we quickly determined that if we waited a few minutes we would be in range of Shawbury Radar who would be able to provide us with a much better service as we transited the southern part of the Shawbury area of intense aeronautical activity.

With no air traffic control to talk to briefly we set the Shawbury frequency on the radio to listen out for transmissions and the international distress frequency 121.5 MHz on the standby just in case we should have a problem before we were in range of Shawbury.

Phil then pulled a navigational surprise and asked me to fix my position. Shawbury is a slightly unusual military airfield in that it is equipped with a VOR rather than a TACAN radio aid. Civil aircraft can derive only range information and no bearing from a TACAN, but TACANs can be used to fix a position if two distances can be derived from two different stations. It's also useful to know that distance measuring equipment (DME) is by far the most accurate radio navigation aid, and that a position fixed by using two DME distances is the most precise. With a VOR at Shawbury however, we were able to receive range and bearing, and to plot these on the chart whilst only needing to tune and identify the one beacon. The position fix put us five miles North East of Llyn Efyrnwy and exactly on track.

By this time we could hear both sides of the conversations on the Shawbury frequency and so it was time to make contact. We spoke to Shawbury to give our details and the controller asked us to report ready for descent. Phil had calculated the position at which we should descend and now we sat back and waited for it to arrive.

After requesting the descent from Shawbury we were using the radar vectors to cloud break procedure just as we had on Monday returning from Shobdon. Descending to 4000 feet initially, and then to 2500 feet we broke through the cloud and were immediately visual with Wolverhampton airport. It is fairly distinctive, particularly when you notice the large 'W' on one of the hangar roofs!

We were able to determine on the radio that runway 22 was in use at Wolverhampton and the information officer asked us if we were familiar with this runway. After a reply in the negative, he informed us that there was a large down slope between the thresholds and that we should exercise caution in the landing, he also reminded us that the landing distance available was 515 metres: quite short but with an accurate landing we could just do it and still meet all of our landing performance criteria.

We crossed the threshold low at our landing reference speed (called Vref) of 75 knots and touched down just beyond the numbers. The slope that had been mentioned was very pronounced, but the aircraft came to a walking pace about 100 metres from the end of the runway, although we'd not needed to use particularly heavy braking. We vacated and taxied under instructions from the tower towards the parking area. One of the gentlemen in the tower had now trained his camera and telephoto lens on the aircraft, and was taking snaps as we parked in front of the tower.

Whilst we paid the landing fees in the tower, and discussed how to get fuel and food, he looked up our aircraft on a website that shows the final destination of many demobbed aircraft. "Bulldog XX707 was previously based at Boscome Down and flew with the Southampton UAS" he told us.

We ate in the very nice café and looked at the weather for Kemble. The warm front seemed to be making better progress than forecast, and a look at the Kemble airport webcam revealed that there was low cloud and very menacing skies. We elected to refuel, and return to Caernarfon, but to do some more unplanned diversion exercises on the way to make best use of the aircraft on our last day with the beautiful machine.

It was at this point that I had a text message from Margaret Patrick who, along with a small group from Sherburn, was heading for Ireland: Sligo to be exact. I'd not looked at the weather for Sligo, but Margaret mentioned that they intended to go ahead with the flight, so I assumed that the weather further north must have been vastly better than it had been at Cork.

Once again starting the aircraft when the engine is warm became an issue. We set the magneto switch to the left magneto, which has the impulse couplings to assist with starting. I pressed the starter button and the characteristic buzz of the battery gave way to the noise of the engine cranking. At the first attempt the engine fired into life, and I quickly set the fuel control to rich as per the checklist and pushed the throttle half an inch open. It was all to no avail, as the engine spluttered and stopped. Two more attempts to start were unsuccessful, and we decided that another cup of tea was in order to give the starter time to cool off.

Departure from the Wolverhampton apron mark two was more successful, and we taxied the aircraft over to the self-service fuel bay. This was the first time I'd used a completely self-service fuel bay. Fortunately the instructions were very clear.

After refuelling I called the tower on the radio and asked them for the airfield information and I was again informed that runway 22 was in use. We'd looked at the wind and decided that the crosswind on runway 28 was not significant at that 28 was the better choice for us as it allowed a straight out departure with a longer take off distance. I requested, and was cleared to taxi to runway 28.

After the power checks I took a few seconds to listen on the radio for any circuit traffic that was using runway 22, and became aware of a Cessna 172 making a practice forced landing onto runway 22. We were cleared to enter runway 28 and takeoff at our discretion. At this moment the Cessna was just crossing the runway 28 centreline ahead of us so we waited for him to clear to the South and I made the departure call: "G-DS with the Cessna in sight, rolling runway 28". Because of the lack of any headwind component and the uphill slope it took a relatively long time to get the aircraft airborne, and in the event we used a little over half of the runway.

We climbed away to the West and on leaving the Wolverhampton area we thanked them for their hospitality and changed to the Shawbury frequency once again. The weather was now deteriorating slightly and the mid-level cloud had become thicker than when we'd landed. Despite this, the visibility was still reasonable and there were very few low level clouds. We levelled out at FL65 and shortly afterwards passed Church Stretton. Church Stretton is a good feature for a positive position fix as it is a town deep in a valley with parallel roads and railways through the Eastern side.

We were now informed about traffic displaying no height information by the Shawbury radar controller, who's feeling was that it was traffic in the Welshpool training area. We passed over the top of Welshpool airfield, which I had visited as recently as last August when I'd been flying with another friend, Andy Reay, in a Cessna 172. On that occasion we'd decided to call in on the return leg from Wellesbourne Mountford.

Upon initial contact with Valley Radar we passed our details and told then that we'd be undertaking diversion exercises and that the first calling point was Bala lake. Bala is easily recognised as it's a long North East pointing lake with a town on the North Eastern shore. It had in fact been the diversion exercise on my Private Pilots Licence skills test two years earlier.

From Bala Phil selected Barmouth as the next place to find, and there was a simple way to do this. Turning to follow Bala lake to the South West would give me a heading exactly for Barmouth Estury. Phil and I both made an estimate for out arrival time at Barmouth, and unfortunately for me Phil was closer! We were however, both within three minutes, which is the margin that is accepted on the Commercial Pilots Licence skill test that I will be taking in a few months.

After a brief period tracking the Wallasey VOR to Denbigh, we decided that it was time to head back in the direction of Caernarfon. By now we could clearly see The Great Orme's Head and Llandudno. We requested descent from Valley, and they were happy for us to descend to 1500 feet to transit the Menai Strait. With some satisfaction at another flight almost successfully completed I reduced power to 15 inches of manifold pressure and the Bulldog settled into a descent at 1000 feet per minute.

The descent was effortless, and required no control inputs whatsoever to maintain the speed, rate of descent and the track. I started to think of something that Phil had said about my confidence growing with the aircraft as the week had progressed. At this moment I was content to let the aircraft do its thing, and I would just watch and admire how well balanced this machine really is.

At 2000 feet we were within 500 feet of our cleared level and so I increased the manifold pressure back to 21 inches and turned left to track down the strait. I agreed with Phil that we'd make an overhead join for the runway in use, just to make a few extra turns and spend a few extra minutes in the air with Bulldog XX707. The transit down the Strait is something that I have done many times during my PPL training and since, and the strange thing about it is that I always spot something new every time. This occasion was no different, and I was able to pick out the Chinese restaurant in Bangor that we'd eaten in the night before. The weather was now becoming quite gloomy, but I decided that since the sun was not too bright I'd video the transit down the Menai Strait, and if possible the overhead join and landing.

We joined overhead for runway 20 and flew a standard circuit. On turning onto base leg both stages of flap were deployed and I made the necessary trim and power increases for the new flap settings and maintained the final approach speed of 80 knots. As I turned final I realised that I'd overdone it slightly and that we'd passed through the centreline by a small amount no doubt due to the slight crosswind being somewhat stronger than I'd estimated. We passed over the house in the final approach to runway 20 at the correct height of 300 feet, and I got set for the landing. On crossing the threshold I very gradually reduced the power remembering that the ideal situation on the Bulldog is to reach idle power just as the main wheels touch down. As the throttle touched the idle stop there was a fraction of a second pause before the familiar sound of the main wheels touching terra firma, and I gently allowed the nose wheel to lower onto the tarmac.

After parking, and pushing the aircraft into the hangar, we tidied up the cockpit, turned off the fuel system and closed the canopy, returning XX707 to her peaceful, sleeping state.