These days my flying is limited to to the computer. But I still dream, and I hope you enjoy my artwork based on screenshots of my particular hobby.

Exuberance

I was sat at a computer the other day, browsing flight simulator forums and enjoying some banter about the Second World War, when I heard the light aeroplane flying around outside. That isn't unusual over Swindon. For some reason the town is on a north-south route for private flyers much to the chagrin of the controllers at Lyneham Airbase down the road.

I saw the aircraft, a C152, quite low over the back of our house. In fact, considering the rules concerning flight over built up areas, he was lower than might be considered safe or legal. Not only that, the pilot was very hamfisted on the controls. Every movement was sudden and the little Cessna wobbled unsteadily in the sky. Not being funny, but that pilot isn't going to impress anyone flying like that.

I remember chatting to a guy at Thruxton when things were a little quiet. He claimed he was a glider pilot by trade and was interested in furthering his aviation experience with a fixed-wing license. Being the generous chap that I was, I took him out onto the apron and let sit in one of the flying clubs Piper Tomahawks. He started talking about the challenges of long distance flight. Was he serious? Did he really think he could glide a Tomahawk cross-country by flying in a series of climbs and dives? My thought went to a recent incident. A Piper Arrow had crashed when a wing fell off. Now, wings are designed not to do that, so there must have been a reason, and eye witnesses on the ground said he'd been flying up and down. The investigation report said he was flying with his kids back from holiday, so understandably, you might suspect there was a certain amount of exuberance and he paid for that by over-stressing the aeroplane once too often.

I turned to the chap sat at the controls of the stationary Piper (who actually didn't look all that clued up about being in a cockpit at all) and suggested he talk to the instructors before he tried to push the envelope of an aeroplane I might be flying next week.

The days when I headed down to Thruxton for my weekly dose of aviation are now long gone. It was of course an excuse for a chance to let my sports car off the leash, and back in those days, we had yet to suffer the tyranny of the speed camera. Ah yes... Exuberance...