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This past weekend I was at Shobdon airfield in Herefordshire getting my tailwheel endorsement (finally!)

Tailwheel aeroplanes fly just like any other aeroplane, but landing and taking off is different due to the main gear being forward from the centre of gravity. The aircraft needs more attention to the rudder than a nosewheel aeroplane. (Similar problem with those flat trolleys at B&Q when you push them instead of pulling!)

I did the conversion on a Citabria, and it was a fun aircraft to fly. Unlike the other powered aircraft I’ve flown the Citabria is a tandem aircraft, meaning the instructor or passenger sits behind the pilot. Getting into the front seat would have been easier had I been a few inches shorter (or a lot more flexible) but once in it the vision over the nose and down both sides is excellent. It’s got a stick instead of a control yoke, and the throttle is mounted on the side wall of the cockpit.

Total time to convert was 4h 50m, and I flew the aircraft solo after 2h 5m. I did a session of circuits at Shobdon on Saturday morning, then we visited a private strip 15 minutes away from Shobdon. Back at Shobdon I did a solo circuit then we headed over to Welshpool looking for some crosswinds.
Finally on Sunday morning I did an hour of solo consolidation. It wasn’t cheap, but a great experience as I was able to operate from tarmac and grass runways at Shobdon, and fly into a private strip, and do some cross county flying too. Shobdon successfully mixes powered aircraft, microlights, helicopters and gliders, a really busy airfield. There’s a cafe and camping site there too. No hassles with liferafts, lifejackets, flight plans or special branch notification either. Fantastic!

In combination with my Aboyne trip two weeks ago I’ve flown about 16 hours this month, and I’m feeling better for it too - currency really does make a difference.

Finally this afternoon I went to see the gliding club on the airfield. Unfortunately they didn’t have an instructor available so I couldn’t get checked out to fly their SZD Junior, but an afternoon in the sun watching the aircraft come and go was a nice way to finish off the weekend there, I even got sunburned in the car on the way back to liverpool…

Saturday Morning marked the end of the Sierra Estate. She had been kept at my parents house in a deteriorating state since we got the Freelander in 2006, and it was time for her to go.

J341ESL had obviously had a turbulent past, with extensive damage that was apparently undetected by the MOT testers. Perhaps she had been a minicab, or used as a van, or a skip. I guess she had seen over 250k miles. She was bought unseen, and I was going to just sell her on and forget about it, but I’m a sucker for the underdog and decided we could save her.

Intended as a canine transport that could donate parts to the Sapphire when her useful life was finished, far more expense was lavished on her to make her properly roadworthy than first envisaged. Yet she was always fragile, troublesome, recalcitrant. Perhaps that’s why I kept her for so long…

As well as transporting the dogs around, she accompanied us to Fort William in 2005 for our first ski trip. When we arrived at the Travel Inn car park one morning, we had been left a note by “Kieran” offering to buy her. All polished up under a stormy highland sky far from home, she must have looked 10 years younger. I grinned about that for a long time.

Sadly I don’t have too many pictures of her, but here are the best:

At the start of the year, she fulfulled her original, final job - most useful components were removed as spares stock for the white Sapphire.  She was lifted unceremoniously onto a Ford Cargo by Hyab, and then she was gone.

Last week we were in Chamonix skiing at the Vallee Blanche ski areas. The snow conditions were excellent, but the visibility could have been better on some days.

Chamonix itself is a nice little town, with much more to do than we’d expected. We also took a trip on the Aiguille du Midi cable car to the peak platform at 12600ft. It took a while to acclimatise to the altitude, but it was an awesome experience, and it was -17 Degrees Celcius but in direct sunlight you wouldn’t know it.

During the days with the low cloud base we went to Les Planards ski area which is at the town level and only 5 minutes from our apartment - we had great fun on the blue and red runs there. On the better days our skiing skills had improved sufficiently to allow us to explore much more of the areas.

The mountain rescue helicopters were operating almost continually during the time we were there, and that has to be some of the most challenging peacetime heli flying possible, especially considering the Alouette III is single engined and operating at high altitudes.

The only regret would be the access pass we had also allowed unlimited skiing at Courmayeur in Italy, but the free shuttle bus through the Mont Blanc tunnel was fully booked days in advance. Next time we’ll go for an extra week!

The new Canon Powershot A590 IS worked well too!

Other holiday pictures

Our Auster is back in the air, and back home. Now all I’ve got to do is get my tailwheel endorsement and I might be able to fly her!

But we don’t know where we’re staying yet - Still, a substantial saving going “allocated on arrival” so fingers crossed! Skis are serviced, gear retrieved from loft, only a few days to go now..