North Weald Flying Group - Fly-out

NORTH WEALD FLYING GROUP
BRIZE NORTON FLY-OUT

MONTHS spent organising the NWFG's fly-out to Brize Norton by Paul Bazire came to fruition in October - luckily Paul had planned a fall-back position.

Paul told LOOP, "After an early morning meet at 0800 and watching the low cloud and rain scud across the airfield during the aircraft prep, it was clear that we wouldn't be going as originally planned.
"The forecast was for improving weather to the west and a lifting cloud base during the morning."

A call to Wycombe revealed a cloud base of 800ft, although Brize reported clear skies. The group had to opt for 'Plan B', which involved people swapping seats to allow IMC-rated pilots to fly the outbound leg.
The weather began to clear and Brize Zone assisted with radar vectors towards the airfield.

Paul continued, "As we became visual with the field we were changed to Brize Tower, joining left base for RW26, all 3000 meters of it!  "Landing long to avoid a very long taxi we were directed to our parking stand. With all our aircraft safely on the ground we met up with our RAF Liaison Officer, Flying Officer Peter Barker, who outlined our day."

The first stop was ATC, where the group was given an interesting talk in both the Tower and the Radar room with the opportunity to view a departing VC10 from the ATC perspective.

Lunch in the Officers' Mess followed and then a tour of a C17's flight deck and load bay.
"With our scheduled departure time already well past, it was back into the bus for our aircraft. Start, taxi, take off and clearance out of the Zone via Faringdon VRP not above 1000ft, and it was own navigation back to North Weald in a beautifully crystal clear autumn sky."
W: www.northwealdflyinggroup.co.uk