Ross' at last

At last ross the weather and me managed to find a day where we could meet up and go flying. In the end decided to fly the route i was sposed to fly in my flight test but didnt finish because i was far too good to need to do the whole thing :) Have been checked out on a 172 in the last week too, its a bigger plane that has seats in the back to carry more people at a time. So had been hoping Ciara (ross's gf) would come to but the lisbon treaty ended that idea. still took the 172 cus i wanted a little experience without an instructor sitting beside me and keeping tabs on me.

Anywhos up to killashandra which is in Cavan picking out which lakes we wanted to own along the way. Wind seemed not to be quite what i had planned for and so ended up a bit off course along the way, but sorted that out and back on track without too much hassle. My other plan for the flight was to visit an airfield called abbeyshrule for a touch and go (land and take off again straight away) - completely different airfield to Weston, much smaller and not tower telling you what to do - so it was an overhead join - descent into the circuit pattern before lining up on finals. While doing this i was announcing my position on the radio, but not receiving any replys or anything due to the fact it was Air to Ground radio, once again something i'd not encountered before. So it was a little strange to say the least but we survived and i must admit that my first landing in a 172 and at an unknown airfield without a instructor sitting beside me went pretty blinking well and i was very very happy with it.

Touch with both wheels before pouring the power back on to pick up speed and lift off again - little shimmy from the nose gear so eased back on the controls to counter it and climbed out in a loverly straight line, with enough calmness to wave at the bloke in the car beside the runway -
From there it was round again and straight back to Weston.

A robin landing before we could go

A Lake - Somewhere

Abbeyshrule finals

Abbeyshrule - very finals

ByeBye Abbeyshrule

Told ya he came too - didnt get a 2of us pic tho

Newgrange

After weeks of promising me and robs went up last week for a sightseeing trip to newgrange and slane - after the most awkward of starts including forgetting about a 2nd headset and a pretty dodgey looking Heading Indicator (as it span round in circles) we got up up and away. Slight nav issues on the way (that'll teach me not to plan routes properly) but found the boyne, followed it to slane where robs could see bits he'd kyacked/canoed on and then on to fly around newgrange, wave at the tourists and back home

Newgrange from behind we kinda crept up from the right of this pic circled round and the back to the front past the front of it

Newgrange from the front

Slane bridge where robs went kyacking - apparently they start up river abit, down over the 2 weirs and then out on the bottom side of the bridge

Slane Castle itself

Dublin

Wednesday last week and i decided on a beautifully sunny day i was going flying - after wondering about where to go for the hour, i decided it was about time i headed in over the city - So in the end it was up from weston down to blessington lakes, over the hills to Bray, then up the coast to pidgeon house towers, before hanging a left and flying up the liffey back to weston.

This has got to have been one of the top flights yet, purely cus i knew what i was flying over!! The lakes were easy to spot from miles off and on the way there flew pretty close to the aircorp base at baldonnel, luckilly they'd gone to the seaside for the sunny day and werent about, turned at blesso and climbed up to 4000ft to clear kippure, before dropping back down to 2000 and past the sugar loaf. Once at Bray it was straight up the coast, past dalkey, dun laoighre harbour and over the sea to the towers. Then up the middle of the city, spotting everything, the docks, croke park, trinity, even looked down on work. On up past the park with the zoo and marys house, and finally over liffey valley shopping centre and back down to land very nicely - So the only hassle is i think i need a co-pilot to come with next time and take soooo many more pics!!! any volunteers??

Blessington lakes

Sugar Loaf - (now my desktop)

Deansgrange/newtown park ave - we think the pitch is newpark school

Dun Laoghaire Harbour

Pigeon House Cooling Towers

Trinity College

Mums First Flight

After a while of promising it was mums turn to come up with me today - checked weather and looked ok so had planned to head down to Kilkenny, Mountrath and then back to Kilcock again. But given when we woke up this morning you could kinda tell the horizontal visibility wasn't going to be the greatest - decided we'd go up and have a look about at least and in the end chose to head up to Mullingar and back instead, largely because there was very little possibility of getting lost, somebody kindly built me a motorway (and a canal for that matter) to follow there and back! So again mr GPS came with and kept an eye out to see where we'd been and we took some pics along the way.

Mum seemed to enjoy it - she did get a little quiet as we got closer to the runway for take-off - but I get the feeling most people are gonna be like that - once up up and away things were fine!!



View Larger Map

The obligatory 2 of us pic - (With Classy glasses I must say)


And Look what happens if you look close - who said they werent cool!!


Mullingar

This is what we mean by poor horizontial vis


Finals Zero Seven - spot the spectator

The rest of the photos here!!

St Patricks Day Flying

Took Dad flying on St Patricks Day. 1hr 50 over to Athlone and then up to Roscommon, back to Longford and then the whole way home. After waiting till the plane arrived for us an hour or 2 late and stopping the slight drip from the fuel valve we were off. Door stayed closed this time (just as well) and the whole flight was quite nice on a pretty perfect day tho we seemed to miss all the parades. Also remembered to turn my GPS on and log the whole thing so i have a record of exactly where we went. Have been trying to get it to embed on this but its being a taste awkward. Little bit of fun with another aircraft getting in my way on the way back in but round the circuit again, extending the downwind on towards celbridge a bit and we got down. All good roll up the next one.



The 2 of us
Athlone Lough Ree

View Larger Map


View Larger Map

Dunno why i cant get it on one map but hey you get the idea!!

My First Passenger

Robs got the honour of being my first official passenger on friday. We had planned to head up towards kells and then over to slane to have a look at where he'd been canoeing up and down the boyne. Also figured we could go sightseeing and find newgrange and possibly even the hill of tara on the way back. However when we got to the field reports of the clouds getting lower out west and coming from the south scared me off a little and in the end decided to play it safe and jus play in the circuit for a while. Actually it was probably the first time i'd done circuits off 07 so adds to the experience.

Important thing is rob survived and even survived his door popping open as we headed off down the runway - Probs wuda been better if i didnt have to roll over towards his side pushing him towards his open door before getting the chance to slam it shut - but thats the way the man told me to go - and he did at least have his seat belt on :P Well there you go memo to self check doors are closed!!

Had 6 trips round the circuit with 5 pretty decent landings and 1 go-around cus the radio was busy and i cudn't get my call in! only annoyed cus it wuda been a good landing too - I think rob liked it tho and im sure he'll come again to go sightseeing!!

Hour Build Day 1

Went Flying today - first time on my own - and with my own licence. So was all planned for a simple trip out from kilkock up to kells then over to castlepollard, down past mullingar to kilbeggin and then back over to enfield and kilcock again. Now i wont say it went perfectly wasnt really on my heading on the way up to kells and it sort of messed me up and resulted in me being "temporarily uncertain of my position" but after a little time i noticed one of the big lakes in the distance and figured out which way to head from it - after that the whole flight went pretty perfect with regard to headings and timings, so the thing i learnt from the day was to trust the headings i'd worked out and most importantly fly them. I did have to duck below a few spots of cloud along the way home but still enough room to squeeze through. The final bit of excitment came as i caught up with a nice big rain cloud on the way back to the airfield from kilcock. Vis got less and less and the rain got heavier and heavier but could still see the airfield and hence direction to go, so i lit up all my lights to be seen and headed on in through it to touch down ahead of the shower. Theres a picture below of my chariot of the day (an english reg for the clever ones of you) and i have a few others enroute on another puter that i'll try upload 2mo. Good to be back up tho - so hopefully were flying now 1:32 down nother 68 odd to go methinks!!

View Larger Map