Day trip to a small(ish) island

Alastair and I have been watching the weather for a couple of weeks looking for a window of opportunity to fly to Sandown airfield on the IoW

We chose Friday 15th February which turned out to be a beautiful, and dare I say it, spring like day with a southerly wind and clear blue skies once the early morning fog lifted. 

Having carefully planned the flight, prepared notes of frequencies en route and checked the charts we departed The Park at 11.15am.  Our track took us via Fordingbridge, Stoney Cross and Beaulieu then over the water passing Cowes and Newport before arriving at Sandown. A nice overhead join and landing was followed up with a cup of tea and a bacon sarnie with my sister-in-law and her other half who live nearby.

The return flight was uneventful but a tad quicker than the outward flight due to the tail-wind. On both legs it was necessary to remain below 2,000’ QNH to remain clear of the Bournemouth/Southampton  CTR. We landed back at The Park just before 3pm and soon had ‘Kilo Uniform’ tucked safely back into the hangar.

What a fantastic way to spend a day at this time of the year 😎