Compton Abbas

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="045085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Golf Mike Bravo going around...</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Mike Bravo going around..."><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Mike Bravo going around..."><U><B><IMG SRC="03b0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>     </B><A HREF="id203.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sywell"><U><B><IMG SRC="02f0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><A HREF="id205.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Back to Bembridge"><U><B><IMG SRC="0300e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="046d2e83.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="88ba0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id116.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bembridge"><U>Bembridge</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Isle of Man"><U>Isle of Man</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id139.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Check outs and Bimbles"><U>Check outs and Bimbles</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id150.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shobdon"><U>Shobdon</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id151.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="First Passenger"><U>First Passenger</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id154.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Back in the 40"><U>Back in the '40</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id152.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Flyer Magazine Bash"><U>Flyer Magazine Bash</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id153.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kemble"><U>Kemble</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id155.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shotteswell and Goodwood"><U>Shotteswell and Goodwood</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id156.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Night Training 1"><U>Night Training - 1</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id157.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Night Training 2"><U>Night Training - 2</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id158.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Touch of HEVN"><U>A Touch of HEVN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id159.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Night Training 3"><U>Night Training - 3</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id160.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="On to the 10"><U>On to the '10'</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id161.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Getting used to the 10"><U>Getting used to the '10'</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id162.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Abbeville"><U>Abbeville</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id163.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Duxford"><U>Duxford</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id164.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hazy Sunday Afternoon"><U>Hazy Sunday Afternoon</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id165.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Avranches"><U>Avranches</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id166.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A little Jodeling"><U>A little Jodel-ing</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id203.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sywell"><U>Sywell</U></A></div> <div> <B>Compton Abbas</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id205.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Back to Bembridge"><U>Back to Bembridge</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id206.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rochester"><U>Rochester</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id207.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sleap"><U>Sleap</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id208.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A look at Leicester, more Jodelling and "><U>A look at Leicester, more Jodelling and back to Sleap!</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id210.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Bonus Bimble"><U>A Bonus Bimble</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCCCE4" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Compton Abbas</I></div> <div> Friday 14th July, 2006</div> <bR> <div> In the middle of a heat wave it can be a bit uncomfortable flying during the day. In the air there are unseen thermals over trees, lakes and so on, which can make a flight bumpy, or make it difficult to maintain a constant altitude, and on the ground, the blazing sun turns the average GA cockpit, with no forced ventilation and little if any in the way of opening windows, into a veritable oven. So I was thinking about an evening flight, when the air was a little cooler, and with this in mind I was flipping through <I>Pooleys </I>looking for potential destinations that would be open in the evening. A number of places caught my eye, but top of the list was Compton Abbas. </div> <bR> <div> As an aside, it seems a real shame to me that so many airfields are closed by 6pm. Most leisure centres - sports facilities, entertainment venues etc. - are at their most active in the evening, when the people that want to use them are not working. For flying to thrive as a <I>leisure </I>activity, surely we need more airfields open in the evenings. Similarly in the Winter at night. I have a night rating, but it's of no practical value because there's literally nowhere open to use it. Even the night training airfields close at 8pm!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="88cc2490.jpg" border=0 width="450" height="329" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="88dc2410.jpg" border=0 width="450" height="321" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Okay, back to the plot. This weekend sees the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at Fairford. This means that there is a TRA (Temporary Restricted Airspace) established, covering Fairford, Brize Norton and some of the surrounding area, and much toing and froing of display aircraft. A direct route to Compton Abbas would normally involve a transit through Brize, and crossing the Salisbury Plain danger areas. With so much traffic about, it seemed that not getting a zone transit was a high probablility, and so a route around the TRA was planned. This was basically Stroud, Bath and then direct. very similar in fact to that infamous early trip to <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3 A trip to Henstridge"><U>Henstridge</U></A>.</div> <bR> <div> Having gone on at length about evening flying, I'm now going to admit that this particular flight took place in the late afternoon. I'd phoned the airfield, and discovered that there was an aerobatics competition taking place today and tomorrow to the North of the field, and so all circuits would be to the South, with no overhead joins. The active runway was 08.</div> <bR> <div> Dominic Richardson, one of the current students, had done his first solo earlier in the week, and was at the airfield for his next lesson. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to instructor non-availablility, so I suggested he might like to come along for the ride.</div> <bR> <div> There was nobody in the tower at Enstone, but the prevailing wind suggested runway 08, and the circuit was quite busy. This meant a break in our back track at Alpha to wait for an aircraft on final to complete his touch and go, before continuing. By the time we started our take off roll, there were two more aircraft waiting to take off. We departed the circuit from downwind, and climbed to 3000ft. I then changed frequency to Brize Radar, 124.275 and asked for Flight Information. They told me to change to another frequency, where I would get a RIS (Radar Information Service), which I did. Not that we heard another peep out of them - I guess there was no other traffic going our way. We passed over the ridge to the South of Gloucester, and were told to Freecall Filton Radar. Filton gave us a FIS, and handed us over to Bristol as we got near to Bath. By now we'd passed a number of glider sites, and seen nothing in the air, although a number of gliders were visible on the ground. I guess the thermals were dying down ad they'd given up for the day. By the time we were within 10 miles of Compton Abbas, we were listening out on their frequency and had called up and told them of our intentions. Now we just had to find the place! </div> <bR> <div> The airfield has a reputation for being a bit hard to spot, and so we were looking for landmarks to identify it. We knew it was on the Western end of a ridge, and we had the ridge. We knew there were woods immediately to the South, and we had the woods. We couldn't identify the airfield itself, but it had to be there ('<I>Direct to</I>' on the GPS confirmed we were looking in the right direction. I'd also tuned in the ADF, but it didn't appear to be picking up a signal, and there was no audible ident.). Anyhow, we flew a wide arc to the East, so that we'd be well clear of any aerobatics, and approached along the ridge on an extended downwind leg. Soon we could make out the runway, aeroplanes and the windsock, so we knew we had the field.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="89140f00.jpg" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="88f40f00.jpg" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="89040f00.jpg" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> On the ground, we taxied to join the line of visiting aircraft, and parked next to a black Warrior from the Brize Norton Flying Club. A stroll down the line to the cafe-reception-museum building, where we paid the landing fee (£8.50). We then spent a pleasant half hour drinking coffee and eating ice cream in the sunshine, while watching the aeroplanes go by.</div> <bR> <div> All too soon it was time to head back. The wind was 15kts straight down the runway as we took off. There were still aeros going on North of the field, and so the circuit was still to the South. The climb to 3000ft seemingly took no time at all (helped in no small part by the 800ft elevation of the airfield!). We followed the same route back, however Bristol Radar was busy with IFR arrivals, and all we could get out of them was "Standby!". We kept a listening watch as far as Stroud, but they never came back to us, anyhow the IFR chatter was interesting enough. Brize was quiet now, with the airshow traffic presumably finished for the night. There was still a lot of traffic in the circuit at Enstone, so rather than a straight in approach, we joined overhead.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>