I last flew a helicopter in May last year. The day I did my test, in fact. Once I got the test, I transferred my energies and efforts into a couple of minor projects (applying for jobs, arranging to move to the right hand side of the Irish Sea, upgrading from TLG to TLF, arranging a further upgrade to TLW, etc). Oh, and the place where I was planning to fly suddenly fell apart financially and ceased operating. Thusly I haven’t actually sat in a cockpit and thrown a machine about the sky in over 10 months.
To satisfy this lack of playage, a couple of weeks ago I started ringing around places and seeing what was available in this little backwater part of the world. I found a place that looked interesting, and booked a day out for last Saturday. Which, you may remember, was the one day in the last week that was cursed with bad weather. Meaning that I braved the M25, drove to the wrong side of London, and didn’t even get to fly at the end of it.
Curses. I’d forgotten that bit about flying small aircraft: the climate in this part of the world is a source of considerable annoyance. It’s the type of annoyances that I can live with, though. For two reasons:
- Steps are being taken to get back into flying, which is worth the annoyance; and
- The airfield looks to be a very interesting place to fly from; just at the start of one of the London Heliroutes that would take me straight to Greenwich if I so chose; it’s also close to some very interesting flying areas and offers the opportunity to fly over Heathrow at 800ft. Aviation geek heaven!
Minor annoyances? Yes. But the upside should make up for it. Oh yes.