When i woke this morning, I hadn’t expected that i would be doing some flying. Days that are this full of surprise are magical. Through my home window in West London, i could see the sun beaming through the high clouds. With my morning coffee , I called Cranfield having checked the TAFS and METARS on the web to book G-ECGC.

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The last few times i flew G- ECGE have not been so great. i have been trying to master how a different set of hand controls are used on a type of aeroplane that i did not learn on. When i say not great, i had to get used to taxiing, and knowing how the steering works on the Cessna 172, with the differential breaking. Fine tuning the landing was also took a few hrs to get right. Read more →

Last year we interviewed Barry Cardno from Wanaka in New Zealand. He is a terrific person who is in the later stages of publishing his book about his experiences of having a plane crash and life before and afterwards. He sent us this brilliant video of hi flying in NZ. You can just make out him using the bolt on hand controls during take off and landing..

He told me “You might be able to tell its warm here by how my 160hp Cessna 172 never lept into the air off any of the airstrips (all at 1000+ ft ASL, and 28-30′C). There was three of us on board, but the trick is always fly to the conditions.”

His interview for those who have not read it yet can be found here…please click to read the full text

I had the pleasure today of doing several new things in Aviation today!

1) Install a portable hand control for use in Cessna 172 and 177 Read more →

After weeks of anticipation – the hand controls have finally arrived. I had a good chat with the CAA today and i shall report back after we have flown with them, and how they differ with the vision air controls.

We are about to take delivery of a set of Union portable hand control for the Cessna and Grumman. Read more →