Jump to content

WOW wh a flight


Recommended Posts

Great flight this morning with Dan the camara man. He was filming in Cornwall yesterday and abused my hospitality again by staying at my house saving on accomodation. I let him off because he did cook (master chef style) me the scallops he caught on his diving photo shoot.

We flew from Truro to Padstow and along the North coast (spotted a shark and took phots), then across Cornwall to the south coast before following the coast home. (See GE image looking South at the route). Going past Newquay airport we climbed to 2k ft AGL to avoid any conflict on the approach (MATZ no longer applicable). At 1kft we were against a 10mph NE wind but above cloud at 2kft we were in nil wind achieving 29 to 30mph. Watching the cloud shadows zoom past indicating a head wind and still going along at 30mph was nice.

We dropped back down to 1kft for the dash across Cornwall passing West abeam Bodmin (parachute Notam) achieving 42 to 45mph we had a quick look at the Eden project before arriving on the South coast and heading home. Todays conditions would have been excellent for an epic XC in any direction.

Flight 72.7 miles 2 hours 31 mins. Average speed 28.7mph, Max 47.8mph.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Whitters, that looked a fantastic flight, and avoiding the airspace lol. I take it your motor is up and running again.

Been busy of late but hope to fly this weekend (Sun/Mon)

Mike :)8)

Hi Mike.

I thought of you this morning as I was attempting to get off the floor with my motor almost fully fueled (19ltrs). A car pulled over to watch as I topled over trying to get up :oops: .

Hope you got a flight in today.

I took off from the furthest point you can see in the picture below (Near Truro) and headed into wind along the south coast. It was slow going into a 12-14mph NE wind at 1000ft AGL but I had to wait untill I got past Newquay approach before I could climb and see if the wind was better up high like it was yesterday. As I climbed my ground speed slowly increased but it wasn't untill I punched through an inversion at 2900ft that I managed to achieve ground speed of 24-26mph. Eventually approaching Looe at 3500ft I decided it was far too cold to be here any longer (approx 90 mins into the flight). I then turned North towards Liskeard and noticed that the wind was now from the east with little variation with altitude so descended to warmer air in the cross wind leg.

After passing liskeard and a friends house slightly further North, I tracked up and arround Siblyback lake then Colliford Lake before heading for home. I was planning to do some low flying over the moors but the air was rough as hell coming off the gorse and forests up wind.

I have been navigating by map for the last 2 days but now feeling cold and fed up of looking down at the map which makes my eyes water and sends a cold draft down my neck I decided to use the GPS to avoid Bodmin airspace and parachute jump Notam, passing North abeam. I could see 4 sets of wind farms in the Gyn clear air and they were all indicating different wind directions with a good 45 degree variation.

I passed under the Newquay approach at 1kft AGL after first holding 5 miles to the NE for a departing skybus, which wasn't necassary as he was >3Kft above me by the time he flew across my track. I always fly with my Icom airband radio and listen to air traffic changing channels as I go so I know what is going on arround me.

Earlier in the flight whilst over St Austell at 1300ft ATO I heard a Cesna request basic info giving his height as 1300ft on 1032 and his location as over St Austell :shock: . I knew he must be close and I was looking but never did see him :roll: .

Coming off the high ground descending into warmer air and my landing field in sight creating mixed emotions. Glad to be back because I am cold and busting for a wee but want to continue on this amazing flight.

I arrived up wind of my landing field 1200ft AGL and with the engine at cruise revs I cut the engine to practice engine off landing and to test the colour of my spark plug after I land.

Great flight. 76.4 miles 2 hours 49 mins Average moving speed 27mph Max 47mph. I was suprised the average speed was as much because the early up wind leg seemed to take ages.

Hope I havn't bored you too much ZZZZZzzzzzz

Whitters.

573363f28a4fd_Viewflight171009(Small).jp

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice write up thanks for sharing, hoping to do a 35 mile round trip tomorrow with a landout at a mates field.

Still waiting for the pics from your first sortie, especially the shark :shock:

Bob..

The first shot is Dan at Rumps Point North of Padstow, Port Quin Bay where they film 'Doc Martin' with Martin Clunes.

In the second phot you will have to open up and zoom in on the long black bit just to the right corner of the group of rocks that form a square formation near my left foot to see the shark. Its only a Fuji camara, I tried to zoom in to take the shot but its difficult with gloves and the camara holder covers most of the view finder so I can't see what is happening. Unfortunately camara man Dan was without camara!!

I think it is a Great White shark :shock: what do you think?

Whitters.

573363f28ebcb_DSCF1653(Small).JPG.5a91ae

573363f2994c6_DSCF1651(Small).JPG.620c37

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great pictures Richard !

Must have been a fantastic day, along some of my favourite coastline anywhere. :D

See if this is a better view of the Great White off the Cornish coast!!!
Very difficult to tell even with cropping. But far more likely to be a Porbeagle or even Basking Shark, which are resident off the British coast all year-round.

Perhaps best to log your sighting with The Shark Trust - as they should be able to ID it if anyone can.

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AMAZING!!!!!

If that is a Great White, (and it looks like it to me!)

I think it would be a good idea to report it to the Cornish water people, whoever they are.

Great White Sharks ONLY EVER come close to the shore when feeding.

Lots of people surf in Cornwall. :shock:

If this was sited at a beach in the USA they would close it and hurd the beast out to sea.

Quite seriously, if a great White, (and who is prepared to decide its not) its needs reporting ASAP!!

AWESOME!! Very Jelous!

SW :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...