Almeria

Today's flight was to Almeria, about 100 nautical miles east of Malaga. So once again I had to fly towards Malaga international. However this time, they let me fly right over it at 5500ft (see left). On the way down to Almeria I picked up a great 25 knot tail-wind, so although my airspeed was only registering around 85kts, the GPS said I was doing at least 120, that's 2 miles per minute. As a result I got to Almeria in record time, just under 2 hours, despite a planned time of nearly 2hrs 30m.

HOWEVER, on the way back, the tail-wind became... a headwind, and it increased in strength. At 85kts IAS (indicated airspeed) the GPS was recording a groundspeed of around 55. There was rain forecast from 5pm onwards at Jerez, and I wanted to be back well before the rain came through. I had left at 2pm but by the time I was overhead Malaga on the way back things were looking tricky. The earliest ETA I could count on via the normal route was 5.30. A whole hour longer than planned, giving a total airborne time of 3.30.

Now we come to the really interesting bit: Fuel. The venerable Cessna 150 that I'm flying has around 88 litres of fuel when full. The burn rate depends upon what you're doing (how high, how fast, climbing, etc..) but can be estimated at 33 per hour in the climb and around 20 per hour in the cruise at 85kts. My rule of thumb is not to plan for a flight of over 2.30 duration.

While approaching Malaga I did some quick calculations and worked out that regardless of my desire to avoid the rain, my fuel state required me to be on the ground by 5pm. That would leave just over 30 mins of reserve fuel, according to my calculations. And if my calculations were off, then the reserve would then be renamed 'calculation tolerances'. But I had a plan. There is another airport on the way back to Jerez, so if it looked like I couldn't get to Jerez by 5pm, then I'd divert to the other airport for fuel. No problem.

However, there was also another thing to try. The usual route back involves flying around the Malaga zone to the east, and this was easily an extra 30 mins of flying time.

So, "Hola, por favor Toro 810 requesting direct routing Malaga Jerez...".
 "Toro 810 approved, 6500ft caution your own terrain clearance".
"Uh, Roger, Toro 810". Oh yes, the mountains. From my previous post about yesterday's flying you may have remembered me mentioning that its fine flying the mountains with good weather and light winds. Well, dear reader, I can now tell you that it's a lot more sporting flying the mountains with a 25-30kt wind creating moderate turbulence and downdrafts.

At first my groundspeed actually went down to around 50kts, but once bumpily over the one large summit 30 miles west of Malaga the wind decreased, my groundspeed increased and the GPS started giving me more encouraging ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) estimates.  5.20, 5.15. Then a step down to 3500ft towards the plain, and the groundspeed increased to 75kts, ETA 5.10. Then at my decision point for the divert (10 miles northwest, rather than 40 miles west to Jerez), one final check of the GPS and the map. Now groundspeed 80kts, ETA 5.00! Bingo. Jerez it is.

And it was. Phew. Landing time 1659 local. Thanks to Fletcher Anderson, who taught me via his book which side of the mountain to fly, when to cross the ridge, at what angle, and how to manage the turbulence.

Córdoba part 2

Yesterday I flew to Cordoba again, this time taking a longer route and doing some 'Nav' practice along the way. I decided to fly east over the mountains and then north, trying out a few mountain flying techniques that I've been reading about (Flying the Mountains by Fletcher Anderson: thanks to Paul Burton for the recommendation). The mountain on the left is at 4750ft, and at 5500ft I was not far from the top. The tricky thing with mountains is the wind and weather. As you can see the weather was fine. The wind was light AND blowing from me towards the mountain. That means that any turbulence and downdrafts would be on the other side.

Cordoba is an interesting airfield because it has all the facilities of a major city airport, including a terminal, runway lighting, security (no suspicious packages here, except for my lunch) and a full compliment of airport staff. The only thing missing is a radio operator. There is a control tower and a tower frequency, but no controller. So coming in, the correct procedure is to fly over the runway at 1500ft, look at the windsock to determine which runway to land on, all the time making 'blind calls' on the tower frequency for the benefit of other air traffic. Good preparation for Africa perhaps..?

Costa del Sol: the works

Today's flight took me from Jerez down to the coast (near Vejer la frontera if you want to google it) and then along past Gibraltar again but this time to keep heading northeast and land at Malaga International. Yes here in Spain the little Toros can play with the big boys. I was downwind to land on runway 13 and they managed to get 2 easyjet flights out before me. The second one was a bit annoyed I think because he was told to 'expedite' his departure due to landing Cessna 150 on final!!!

But more of that later. Firstly, a bit of a surprise while approaching Gibraltar. The weather is very unusual. As you can see, today there was a cap-cloud right over the rock, but none anywhere else. I was admiring the sight and talking to (or as we pilots like to say, 'working') Gibraltar radar. I asked the controller if there was any traffic to affect my passing around and to the south and east of the rock at 4500ft. He suddenly said "Toro 810 you're very lucky. I have no further traffic reported for the next 20 minutes, would you like to descend across the bay and fly overhead the runway at 500ft, west to east?"

WOULD I!? This was a "Tower this is Ghostrider requesting a fly-by" moment, but in reverse. (From Top Gun, in case somehow you've forgotten or worse, don't know). "Roger Gibraltar, Toro 810 for a fly-by". No I didn't really say that, but I wanted to. So from 4500ft heading east I started a tight turn to north and dived down at a good 700ft per minute, down to my 'hard deck' at 500ft. He reminded me to go no lower, as the road was still open that goes right across the runway, but I wasn't going any higher either. Much too much fun. Having recently seen a TV programme about Gibraltar airport (world's most dangerous airports!) I have to say I was a little nervous, but very excited too. Here's a picture at about a mile out, with the rock covered in cap-cloud on the right. Don't worry, the lines are not the Gibraltar power grid. They are shadows created by the propellor.

All to quickly my moment of glory was over, and with a quick word of thanks to the controller I climbed away to the northeast, and headed for Malaga International. The procedure for small aircraft arrivals into Malaga is to descend to 1000ft before Marbella, then track along the coast to Torremlinos, and then finally turn towards the runway, still at 1000ft, for a downwind join. So I got to see all the holidaymakers getting toasted as I flew in. I could almost smell the Hawaian Tropic rising in the heat....

So a quick stop at Malaga International. I had a 'follow-me' car which came out to the taxiway and then drove just ahead of me to the small aircraft parking. Flight plan and fuelling done, an hour later I was bound for home. For the return flight to Jerez I decided to climb high and go over the mountains. The highest one between Malaga and Jerez is 4500ft, so I climbed to 6500 and got a good view of it down my left hand side, as you can see.

Córdoba part 1

Today I flew to Córdoba in Central Spain. The weather was glorious again (sorry if it's raining and cold where you are), but the weather was one of the main reasons for coming here to fly. By the way, click here to see today's forecast: Spain 26/10/10. In fact that's pretty much the forecast every day.

On the way back from Córdoba I flew past the Moron US Airforce base (see the white strip under my wing in the picture). This is one of the Space Shuttle diversion landing sites, and as you might expect it has a massively long runway.

Oh, and here's one of Capt. Machell, just to prove that I am actually here, and am really flying, not simply sitting by the pool sipping a cold beer and inventing things to say on this blog.

I'm hoping to fly to Malaga and back tomorrow.

Publish Post

Cuidad Real, For real!

There is a  private airport situated in the middle of Spain, 80 miles south of Madrid. It cost 1 billion Euro to build. This airport has a great long runway (4km, about 6 times the length of my local grass strip at Popham) and a large and modern terminal building, pictured right, which can easily handle several thousand passengers per day. However as you can see from the photo, there were no passengers. In fact other than the daily RyanAir flight (and no nasty comments please, one of my mates is a first-officer on RA and I know is reading this) there were no flights today. Other than Toro 810!

Taxying in, I was advised to proceed to Alpha ramp, stand 207. STAND 207? Can they not see that it's just a 2 seater? Anyway, I proceeded to stand 207 opposite the main terminal, where a marshaller was waiting!! I've never been marshalled in my life before. So I tried to remember the marshalling instructions (mostly learned from watching the Airplane movie as a kid), and duly shut down engines (sorry, the engine, plus of course 'doors to manual') at stand 207. To the left is the ramp, and you might just be able to see the Cessna 150 next to a PC12.

Then an air-conditioned shuttle bus arrived and took me across the apron and into the terminal. Through security and the 'crew only' door I was then escored to the flight planning centre where I filed the return flight plan and paid the hefty landing fee.

So what did they charge me for all this? 14 Euros. I figure that if they charge 14 Euros per landing and get 2 aircraft (and that's a good day) then the airport will be paid for in about 3.5 million years.

England Expects....

I felt very English today. Flying due south from Jerez, I coasted out at a place called locally 'Los Canos de Meca', which you can find on this Google Map. However what the Spanish don't mention is that the spit of land one mile to the West is Cabo de Trafalgar, or Cape Trafalgar.

A few minutes later, to my right, (in the aircraft and on your page) North Africa came into view. I flew at 6500 feet so as to be able to glide back if the engine stopped. 1000ft of altitude = 1.5 nautical miles of glide range, so the higher the better. I was around 8 miles from the coast at the furthest point.

And just a few minutes later on the other side of the aircraft, Gibraltar:

Due to the, shall we say, lack of entente between Spain and the UK over this place, there is a no-fly zone to the West, North and East of Gibraltar. So to fly over (or indeed land there: you can see the runway just to the right of the rock) you have to head out towards Morocco, fly along the strait, and then turn north but staying 5 to 10 miles or so offshore.



I flew up the coast towards Malaga until I was clear of the no-fly zone, and then back to Jerez via a northerly route over the mountains (elevation 5000 ft) so I stayed at 6500 most of the way home.

Deja vu, but higher

On this blog 2.5 years ago, on 18th March 2008 (blog Day7) , I recorded flying the Duchess over the Needles on the Isle of Wight, during my CPL training. Yesderday I did the same (see left), but in a much larger aircraft, at a much higher altitude, and with far more passengers. Unfortunately I was one of the passengers.

However this morning I turned from passenger to Pilot, and not just that. I've become a bull.

Here at Jerez airport all traffic follows commercial procedures. My flying club here uses the callsign 'Toro' (bull, as in the animal!) and so now I am officially 'Toro 810'. And before you ask 810 is not my weight, IQ or waist circumference. It is my unique designator here.

I flew a short check flight with another instructor this morning, and then another short flight alone this afternoon for familiarisation with the local area. Watch out Spain, Toro 810 is building up steam....

Just for fun?

Erm, not exactly.

Since 2007 we (the Machell family) have been working towards returning to beloved Africa. We hope to work with the organisation Mission Aviation Fellowship.They require their new pilots to have at least 500 flying hours, and currently I (Steve) have 420. With the British winter approaching and aircraft being booked for maintenance, we hit upon the idea of going to Spain for 12 days to get closer to the target, so that we might be able to leave for Africa next year.

Obviusly we would all love to go to Spain, but the object of the exercise is to get the flying hours in, so regrettably this has to be a solo trip.

Southern Spain has several advantages for flying: first and foremost the weather is generally more conducive to general aviation than the UK at this time of year. Second, the terrain is unfamiliar (good for honing my navigation skills). There are also good opportunities to go further afield, as per the map opposite.

Finally, since Steve has a JAA/EASA (i.e. European) pilot license, he can fly there without requiring any license conversion or further administrative steps.

Please feel free to submit any questions or comments and I'll try to answer them between flights.

Off to Sunny Spain

On Thursday I'm off to Jerez (pronounced Hereth) in southern Spain for 12 days of flying. I hope to visit Gibraltar, Portugal and possibly Morocco while I'm there. Keep abreast of my adventures on this blog.

Steve