At 0930 we arrived at Cranfield. It was sunny and the sky was clear. The sort of day that makes flying even more exciting. It would be my first time flying through a control zone. I chose Luton class D as it is right next to Cranfield. I often fly under the zone. With me came Donald and Valentina.
After take, we climbed to 900 feet before i made a left turn above circuit height. Heading 090 and once over my first routing point, i changed freq to Luton radar and requested a Zone transit. They asked me to standby and a few minutes later, cleared me to enter their zone, flying over the eastern threshold of runway 06. This way, controllers in the tower could see me crossing their runway hading towards my next turning point, Brookmans park VOR. I was given various traffic information and helicopters and other traffic transiting the route were flying in front me and above me.I steared 180 to pass Panshanger airfield and their ATZ. I tuned my next VOR Freq and headed 120 towards Stapleford.
To my right was the outline of Londoninum. I could see Wembley Stadium, the buildings of Canary wharf, and the one and only 02 arena. My friend Harry played a gig there just the other day with his dad Roger Waters.
To my left, i could see the runway maybe 20 miles away of Stansted. 10 miles before crossing Stapleford airport, i called them on the radio to tell them that i would be transiting their aerodrome and ATZ. I met a great instructor recently who teaches at this airfield. He has offered to do free instruction for Freedom in the air once we get our Freedom days going. Naturally, as a social call, i asked atc to pass my best wishes onto Jonathon. Once passed Stapleford, i could see Billericay and then ahead of that a lake and then my VRP to join left base for rway 06 at Stapleford. When i left Cranfield, another pilot was also heading to Southend and i had been following his progress on the radio. We both arrived at our VRP roughly at the same time. i was a few mins ahead of him. Once i was cleared to join and then passed over to tower, i made my descent to land. A different approach as you are flying over Southend at 1000 ft. the final 500 ft was exciting.
Once parked, we had a light lunch with a ribena, then booked out and made our way back to Cranfield.
Luton Radar routed me to Hyde VRP and told me to remain outside controlled zone. there was a lot of commercial traffic landing and taking off from Luton, so i did a few tight orbits to stay over Hyde which is a tiny hamlet with 3 houses. Finally, i was asked if i was visual with a monarch – yes i was – which was on a 4 mile final. my instruction was to transit their zone after the monarch had pass me and i was to pass behind and route direct to CFD. From where i was and with the great vizability, i could see milton keynes and knew that cfd was only 10 mins or so away. I routed to stewartby and given instruction to join left base. good landing and we were done. a great experience and a great great day…
