| Reykjavik to Bournemouth | |
| 28 June 2007 Pilot Section General
Wednesday 27th had been planned as a day off. I had a business reason to spend a day in Reykjavik. Friend, and Chairman of my company, Tony Ebel had joined me in Reykjavik for the meeting and would also join Ed and myself for the flight down to Bournemouth in N238JG.
Andre had no reason to stay over a day in Reykjavik, so we had said goodbye to him yesterday when he departed in his Bonanza via Glasgow on his way to meet his family in Germany.
The forecast today was something of a mixed bag over UK, with a low pressure system building over Scotland. June 2007 was on target to break records for the wettest June in the UK since records began. However prior to takeoff the forecast looked better for Glasgow than our planned stopover at Stornoway, so we opted to fly directly to Glasgow, and then on from there the relatively short flight down to Bournemouth where my family were due to meet us on arrival.
Arriving at Reykjavik airport at 0900, there was C172 Skyhawk N1008U and her crew that we had last seen broken down in Sept Isles, Canada! Their parts had arrived as they had hoped, they had fixed their aircraft and continued one day behind us, finally catching us up in Reykjavik as a result of our one day stopover. We spent a while chatting with Mike, N1008U’s pilot, who also brought us up to date with the Bolero II historical aircraft flight. Apparently they had been testing their aircraft and preparing to leave for Greenland a few hours behind N1008U. We were all hoping to hear some good news about Bolero II, and I was looking forward to going to see them fly in the Legands of Flight airshow at Duxford with my son on 7th July.
We still had a hire car to return and flight plan to file, so we said goodbye to N1008U and watched them take off for Scotland 20 minutes ahead of us. I had hoped to do a VFR flight over Iceland’s Vatnajokul Ice Cap and Volcano region yesterday, but our business meeting had run on longer than expected and when it finished Tony and I had felt more inclined to go for a nice meal and a beer with Ed rather than do more flying yesterday evening. However, true to form, Ed was in tour guide mode and proposing we do some sightseeing as we departed Iceland this morning. Reykjavik ATC were very accomodating, and accepted us on a mixed IFR flight plan starting with a VFR flight at low level until we were clear of the cost. This enabled us to fly aloing the South West coast of Iceland and see the amazing scenery from low level until we reached the southern tip, when we climbed up to our planned 11,000ft cruising altitude.
Approaching the coast of Scotland over four hours into the flight we could see the cloud banks associated with the building low pressure. Ironically, we passed over Stornoway and could see it in clear sunshine 11,000ft below us. Shortly afterwards we entered cloud and didn’t see anything else until we emerged out of the cloud at 2,500ft on the ILS approach to runway 23 at a very rainy Glasgow Airport 50 minutes later. Welcome to Scotland, and so much for British weather forecasts!! At 5 Hours 25 minutes, this was the longest leg of our flight so far. We had used 67.5 US Gallons of Fuel since departing Reykjavik, landing with 24.5 US Gallons still remaining, which is approximately 2 hours endurance at cruise consumption. Interestingly I am also learning that (provided the MFD computer is properly set up prior to engine start-up) the computerised fuel calculations and predictions shown on the Avidyne MFD are remarkably accurate.
Our turnaround in Glasgow at Signature Flight Support was fast and painless despite the rain. We were also using Signature in Bournemouth so I used the opportunity to send a message ahead, but they were already expecting us.
At 1725 we were off again, taking our position for takeoff between two British Midland Airbuses! Passing 2,500ft we were back in the clouds and as we climbed it looked as though the cloud went all the way up to our planned 11,000ft cruising altitude, and the freezing level was around 9,000ft – we quickly started to pick up some light icing. I asked and was given an immediate descent to FL070 (Altitude 7,000ft) where we stayed as we cruised towards Bournmouth in the cloud and rain. Having come all the way across from Canada over Greenland and Iceland without encoutering any significant weather or icing it was ironic to be experiencing it over central England at the end of June!!
Nevertheless, there was no turbulence, and the SR22 is a great IFR aircraft, quite capable of handling these IMC conditions. From a flying point of view it was an interesting flight, although I wish there had been more to see for Tony’s as a passenger in the back seat along for the ride. The traffic over England is similar density to that I had experienced over the East coast of the USA, but the UK ATC system is much more fragmented than USA with frequent handovers between different control authorities, requiring course changes and vectoring around other aircraft. You really get the feeling that UK has not quite got things together when compared to the seamless national ATC system and slick handling I had experienced in the USA.
Two and a half hours after leaving Glasgow we were being vectored towards the ILS at Bournemouth airport when we broke out of the clouds at 4,000ft over Southampton. There to our left was the familiar outline of Southampton Water which I know so well. Ahead of us the New Forest, Lyndhurst and beyond that Bournemouth Airport itself.
N238JG flew itself onto the ILS localiser for runway 26 with only a few buttons pushed by me before I disconnected the autopilot and flew the final part of the approach to land. As we cleared the runway there was a “Follow Me” van to lead us towards our designated parking on the North side of the airfield. It took me a minute or two to notice my two children Hallin and Jasmine waving at us from the the back of the van – given the ride by Signature. When we shut down I immediately had two very excited children seeing N238JG for the very first time and eager to climb all over it before Ed, Tony and myself barely had time to climb out!
Still a long way to go for me and N238JG on our way to Singapore, but it was great to be half way through our trip and “home” with my family in the New Forest for the next few weeks.
Pilot Section
Here are the details of today’s flight for other pilots and people interested in the details:
Departure Airport: Geykjavik (BIRK)
Departue & Handling: Flight Services at Reykjavik were expensive but efficient. I used Signature at both Glasgow and Bournemouth who are a US company trying to introduce the US FBO kind of service to the UK.
Miscellaneous Fees:
Glasgow Landing Fee: N/A
Handling Fee: ₤79.39 (Approx US$160.00)
Departure Fee: ₤36.00 (Approx US$73.00)
Parking Fee: ₤00.49 (Approx US$1.00)
CAA Navigation: ₤10.00 (Approx US$21.00)
Avgas Price:
Glasgow ₤1.25 / Litre (Approx US$11.93 / US Gallon)
Detailed Route: BIRK – VFR to INGO then IFR DCT EGPF
EGPF – DCS – POL – LISTO – HON – CPT – PEPIS – SAM - EGHH
En Route Altitude: Filed 11,000ft both legs. FL080 from EGPF to EGHH due icing.
Flight Time: BIRK to EGPF 5 Hours 25 Minutes
EGPF to EGHH 2 Hours 40 Minutes
Arrival Airport: Bournemouth (EGHH)
Arrival & Handling:
Glasgow Signature Flight Support
Bournemouth Signature Flight Support
Hangar 100, Aviation Park West,
Bournemouth Airport, Dorset, BH23 NW
Tel: +44 (0) 1202 583405
Fax: +44-(0) 1202 581579
e-mail: boh@signatureflight.co.uk
Kids Section Did you Know : Iceland is the most volcanically active countries in the world with almost continuous sesmic activity, hot geysers and frequwnt volcanic eruptions.
Fun Fact: The New Forest is in Hampshire, England. It was preserved in the Middle Ages as a hunting forest for England’s Kings and Queens, and is now a National Park. In the 15th and 16th centuries when England was building it’s powerful Navy, many of the most famous ships, like Admiral Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory, were built at shipyards on the Solent from hard Oak wood felled in the New Forest.
Quiz:
Answer to yesterday’s Quiz: The Gulf Stream brings warm water North East across the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean. This warm current means the sea is warmer off Iceland and keeps the sea ice free, while the sea off Newfoundland and Greenland freezes and has large icebergs, even though I is further South.
Today’s Quiz Question: This is the end of the first leg of our flight to Singapore. How many hours has N238JG flown and what is our distance now from Duluth, Minnesota in USA where we started our journey?
(Answers on the next Daily Diary!)
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Hallin Marine (