Grey skies at Liverpool

Yesterday my planned business trip down to Hampshire was postponed. Mainly because my client needed to re-arrange it, but if they had not I would probably have been forced to postpone it anyway due to the weather. It was marginal to say the least and although in parts it might have been flyable, I think it would have been a hard trip with poor visibility, low cloud and rain. That’s sometimes do-able on a short trip or for a similarly short part of a long trip, but it was looking like that all the way down and safety and good airmanship was pointing towards terra firma – which is where the chopper remained.

I, on the other hand, took to the skies in my pal Paul Trevor’s Piper Turboprop on a trip to Coventry (EGBE) in order for him to have a quick repair undertaken on the doors of his aircraft. Paul has recently passed his American IFR and therefore can operate in significantly degraded conditions, make use of the airways, and in many cases climb above the weather. Which is pretty much what we did yesterday. I regularly act as his P2 on trips to reduce workload and to double check him as he builds experience on both his aircraft and his new IFR rating. I’m only IMC rated, but I have a reasonably good appreciation of the procedures and we work well together. We’ve been flying on and off together for many, years so we have a pretty good mutual intuition. Read More→