It was last may that i took my friend Luca flying out of Lasham during the early part of my private pilots licence training. That time Paul was giving me lessons on stalling and steep turns – we also went cloud bashing as it was put to me. The day was boiling hot and visibility was great. Luca was sick in my rucksack 3000 feet up which meant that we had to finish the lesson early. I did manage to get a few circuits in at RAF Odiham though.Today, the weather is lovely but due to an inversion, and very little wind, it is very hazy…

We arrived at Cranfield just after midday and i was very happy to be taking my friend flying as he has watched me develop from having the ambition to be a pilot to now being able to take him flying. We took off from runway 03 which was good as we steered straight towards Connington which is exactly 030 from Cranfield VOR. I planned to fly just below 3000ft but the haze was not nice so i climbed on standard pressure setting QNH 1013 above 3000ft through the transition layer and climbed to 4500ft – up here the viz got a lot better. 

We made the standard overhead join, and listening to the radio Connington was busy – not surprised seeing that it was a great day for flying.Very few cloud and i could have basked in the sunshine for the rest of the day. landing was nice and after parked at the apron, went to have lunch and after an hour – back tracked on rwy 010, after waiting for several other aeroplanes to depart and full throttle, and rolled at 75kts, lovely take off and right turn back to Cranfield.

We must have been 1 of 7 inbound aircrafts to Cranfield at the same time and when i made my first call to approach was told to STANDY – a few mins later we were given the flight information and a few mins after that instructed to join downwind, no 4 to a diamond star DA40. Cranfield at any one time only has 5 aeroplanes in the circuit awaiting to land.We met a lovely man called peter who is a passionate aviator and has a disability. he was very interested in me and likewise i was of him. we chatted for a while and i hope he will do some flying with mike or donald. Peter’s website is www.aerogee.co.uk