The Season Opener airshow was on the 5th of May at Old Warden. I had booked a landing slot early in the year to be sure of a place at this wonderful event and flew in with Paola, some good friends and a good picnic. The weather was a little cool but the wind was light and a full flying programme was possible. I highly recommend this event, the sights, sounds and general atmosphere are delightful. I found this picture (David Whitworth) of our arrival posted online.
April 2019
G-EJBI flew to Farley Farm in an what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to get some air in the oleos, we could not find a suitable adapter for the inflation valves. I needed to fly a dual hour of refresher training to keep my LAPL valid so we took G-EJBI to Clacton where I then spent a lovely hour flying with Jo McDonald in the Clacton Aero Club Super Cub. G-EJBI also managed a Tibenham local flight in April with Andrew taking his oldest sister Lucy for a flight. Lucy is currently training for her PPL on the PA28 with Premier Flight Training at Norwich.
Florida Trip
Nope, we did not fly G-EJBI to Florida but took a Norwegian 787. Myself, Andrew, Oscar and good friend Jasper took the opportunity to visit Sun n Fun at Lakeland Florida. Sun n Fun is well worth a visit although there was not a Bölkow of any description to be found. During our stay we made a visit to Jack Browns Seaplane Base for a flight each in the Cub, a very neat way of seeing some of Florida from the air and with 9 different landing sites visited, quite an intense and really enjoyable hour.
March 2019
A little more flying for G-EJBI this month with visits to Seething, Old Warden, Farley Farm and Wycombe Air Park. The visit to Wycombe was a bit of a trip down memory lane as it was the airfield where I completed my PPL. The flying club have this pretty cool retro B.O.A.C. livery Piper Cherokee with the other side painted in the old B.E.A. colours.
February 2019
We took G-EJBI to Duxford at the beginning of the month and visited Cromer towards the end. Cromer (Northrepps) is a small and quite picturesque airfield which always seems to have a good turn out of photographers. Here is a picture, taken by Graham Reeve, of G-EJBI departing on the rather short 385m cross runway.
First 2019 Flight
Here is G-EJBI just prior to her first flight after maintenance and our first flight of 2019. This year Andrew and I did a lot of the spanner work on the aircraft ourselves under the supervision of Mike. It was probably for that reason we thought 30 minutes over the Norfolk Broads was ample flight time and we should land while all was working well.
Oleo Strut
One ongoing problem I have yet to solve is how to pump air into the landing struts. The manual mentions that a tool is required with a spindle to depress the valve. I would like to make a tool but the valve has a male thread around 13.25mm ie bigger than a Schrader and I am yet to determine if the thread is metric, american or something else. Nothing I have tried has been a perfect fit so far and quite a few engineers have now scratched their heads over this.
January 2019
One problem fixed during the annual check was the very stiff operation of the flaps. In the picture the rear seat has been removed to reveal the flap jack screw. With some fresh lubrication the system works a treat. We rarely practised forced landings due to the effort of moving the flaps but now intend to do a few more. Still no luck fixing the flap indicator but counting the turns works for us.
Annual Check 2018
This year I have decided to do things a little differently. In the past we have flown the aircraft to Farley Farm and the excellant Mike Smart has taken care of the ARC renewal. Locally Mike Powell was available and we are able to do the check at Tibenham with G-EJBI in her hangar. It has given both myself and Andrew a great opportunity to get invoved. We are awaiting a couple of oil hoses and should have her finished this week.
Old Warden 4
Our trip to Old Warden at the begining of November was the last flight before the 100 hour check and Annual Inspection. Having attended two airshows at this airfield already this year, it was a pleasant change to be able to visit the museum at a much quieter time. With no ATC and very few visitors by air it was a lovely way to end the years flying.