G-EJBI managed just the one flight in February flown by Andrew. March was a bit more active with a couple of local flights and a very nice day out with Oscar in the Spring sunshine visiting Duxford. Little did we know then, that this would be our last flight for a couple of months due to the lockdown restrictions.
Annual Inspection 19/20
At the end of 2019 we performed the 100 hour check and annual inspection. I finally managed to install the schrader valves on to the oleo struts. Other jobs were fitting a new heater manifold, beautifully made by Competition Fabrications of Attleborough and a spray paint job on the front cowling performed by a local car spray workshop. Mainly due to the weather it would be February before G-EJBI’s next flight.
Brighton City Airport
It turned out to be our last flight of 2019. I had been to Shoreham many times about 40 years ago and always enjoyed the period feel of the Art Deco terminal. The purpose of the trip was to give our good friend Brian a trip. Brian has flown a good variety of great aeroplanes including the Hunter and 747, now he can add the Bölkow 207 to the list.
Rougham
Lucy and I had a very pleasant trip to Rougham about 20 minutes fro Tibenham. They were having a bit of a fly-in with their very good control tower museum open to visitors. Quite a few interesting aircraft had made the trip including Bolkow 208 G-ATTR.
Old Buck
Andrew and I made the five minute flight from Tibenham to Old Buck to visit our avionics engineer. Back in 2018 we installed a Trig TY96 8.33 radio which has worked perfectly. The accompanying paperwork however needed updating.
Sywell 2019
I rarely fly G-EJBI on my own but this years trip to the LAA rally at Sywell was one occasion where I was alone. The number of arrivals puts some pilots off but the proceedures are good and quite straight forward. Do stick with the proceedures or ATC may well invite you for a chat after landing.
Turweston 2
We are off to watch the British round of MotoGP at Silverstone. Having been given the ok to arrive at Turweston around 8.00am Andrew and I left Tibenham at 7.00am. The early morning mist and low sun made for a good photo opportunuty. I am always gratefull for the high quality pictures of G-EJBI that are posted online.
Turweston 1
Back at the end of August, Lucy and I flew G-EJBI to Turweston. We enquired about the airfields availability the following weekend as we hoped to use it for a visit to the nearby Silverstone Circuit. They could not have been more helpful, offering us the opportunity to arrive before their usuall Sunday opening time and allowing a late departure if required. The facilities are excellent and this level of helpfulness really put a smile on my face.
Nav Exercise
A few of the flights I made in August were with my eldest daughter Lucy. We took the opportunity to fly a few navigation exercises around East Anglia and we also flew a trip to Calais. Lucy is about to complete her PPL training with Premier Flight Training at Norwich so hopefully soon she will be taking me for some flights in G-EJBI.
50 Hour Check
G-EJBI has flown around 40 hours so far this year but with the last check being in December, it was time for a 50 hour check. Andrew and I for the first time felt confident enough to perform the work ourselves without supervision from an aircraft engineer. One job was to re-route the oil breather pipe, it had been interfering with the cowl flaps preventing them from fully closing. I still stick with W80 oi, maybe one day I will change to multigrade.