VFR to Duxford with my Wife | Stansted Class D zone transit (Cessna 172 G-ATWJ) Full ATC
Since gaining my pilots licence one of the airfields on my list to visit was Duxford to visit the Imperial War Museum and it has taken me just over 4 years to actually make the trip. It hasn't been for the want of trying, over the last 4 years I have attempted the trip 4 times with either the weather or technical issues with the aircraft (including a frozen shut door and a faulty altimeter) cancelling the flights.
So on the August bank holiday Monday (27th August 2018), we managed to get some baby sitters so my wife and I could spend a day at Duxford. We took the Cessna 172 G-ATWJ for the trip and plotted a route that I know would challenge me more than most of my recent flights.
My wife was a great help taking some of the workload off of me by programming radio frequencies and looking after the transponder along the way.
We departed on runway 28 at Headcorn and left the circuit upwind and shortly after made a right turn towards Maidstone where we made contact with Southend Radar for a Basic Service. Initially we could only climb to 2,100 feet due to some low cloud that was hanging around. As we routed towards the Dartford crossing the cloud cleared slightly and we could climb slightly higher.
After passing over the River Thames and entering the county of Essex our most direct route to Duxford was to pass directly over the runway at Stansted airport. The alternative meant flying around the controlled airspace which would add another 15 minutes to the journey.
With this in mind, before we even departed, I used the online service provided by NATS (aup.nats.aero/classdtransitre...) to pre-notify of my intentions to transit the Class D airspace above London. Knowing that there would be a high possibility that my request would be denied en-route, I also planned a back up to route north east towards Earls Colne and fly around the controlled airspace.
On reaching Brentwood I requested a frequency change to Essex Radar to request a zone transit. They offered me a Traffic Service and coordinated my request with Stansted Director before requesting that a call them on the radio.
To my surprise my request was approved by the really helpful controller on the Stansted Director frequency who requested that I transit direct to the threshold of runway 22 to get me through between inbound commercial jet traffic.
On approaching the Stansted overhead, I was in for a treat as a Boeing 747 took off underneath me and a Ryanair Boeing 737 was on final approach.
After passing the airfield we continued routing towards the Barkway VOR where my Radar Control service was terminated and we changed frequency to Duxford information to get the details for our approach and information to join the circuit.
We joined the circuit on the left hand downwind leg for runway 24 left and at the time the circuit was relatively quiet. As we descended and turned onto final approach I had to battle to help the plane stable as we experienced some wind shear and turbulence.
After touching down, we vacated at the end of the runway and then taxied past the hangars and displays of commercial airliners where we met a marshaller who guided us to our parking stand.
Our day at Duxford was great fun and great value for money. Entry to the Imperial War Museum for both my wife and I was included in the £15 landing fee. After a nice lunch in their cafe we set off exploring. It was great to see Battle of Britain aircraft such as the Spitfire but the highlight for me was walking through the cabin and getting a sneak peek of the flight deck on the Concorde.
There was so much to see and do that we eventually ran out of time before we needed to return the Cessna back to Headcorn, so there is definitely have an excuse to visit again soon.
I was really impressed by everything Duxford had to offer from the helpful and informative controllers on the Duxford Information frequency, a nice long tarmac runway and everything that was included in an extremely reasonable landing fee.
View the write up on my web site: www.pplvideodiary.com/2018/08/...
Write ups from other flights: www.pplvideodiary.com/2018/08/...
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Note: I am not an instructor and these videos are for aviation enthusiasts to enjoy for entertainment purposes only. Please always consult a qualified instructor for advice.
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MUSIC:
Artist: Nicolai Heidlas
Title: Wherever You Go
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Пікірлер: 41
Great video, very enjoyable .
This is awesome. More videos like this.
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Longbyname thanks for the comment
Great video, totally enjoyed it 👌👍👏👏👏
Excellent crew cooperation from your wife, nicely reducing your workload by managing the transponder and helping with lookout.
@pplvideodiary
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the comment. Yes it really is nice when you have passengers who can help reduce the workload.
@markdesmond4947
3 жыл бұрын
@@pplvideodiary I agree and a shared experience, is far better than flying solo.
great video
very nice!!!! good capture of the 74 taking off!!!!
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks richard c
Great video! I am flying to Duxford from Elstree for my first solo nav this week.
@pplvideodiary
3 жыл бұрын
Jeff O thanks for the comment. Good luck with the solo flight.
Great video. I usually avoid the transits but that looked very straightforward!
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the comment. The transit was actually more straight forward that I anticipated. I used the online pre-notification service provided by NATS. I think this helped as the controllers never asked for any of my details and already knew my intentions. It was an extra piece of admin in the flight planning but saved me at least 15 minutes in flight time (and cost).
Great video. Just got my licence and Duxford is on my bucket list. I am used to Ryanair, easy jet and A340's as I learnt at Bournemouth. However not sure I am ready for Stanstead ATC yet. That looked great experiance flying over the runway.
Great video! I'm hopefully going to Old Warden soon so will try out the Stansted transit.
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
anders217 thanks for the comment. Yes the transit was a lot easier than expected and I think part of that was down to the use of the online pre-notification service. I highly recommend this.
That was good. V interesting over stansted
Little glimpses of Headcorn's Cessna Caravan skydiving aircraft in the early parts of this video - and of jumpers waiting to board!
Looked like a good trip! I need to get my wife back up soon
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
It was a great trip, so pleased I finally managed to tick Duxford off my list. This was the fist time my wife has been up with me in 2 years. We've had baby number 2 in that space of time and as I am sure you are familiar, other priorities have limited the amount of flying we have been able to do together. Loving your channel too!
@PrivatePilotFlightVlogs
5 жыл бұрын
PPL Video Diary never been to Duxford either! Yeah having a baby or babies and getting out to fly can be challenging!! We shd go for a flight out sometime 👍🏻👍🏻
very nice, I fly in Spain now Totana got my licence at Stapalford Essex. do miss the UK country side great views over Stansted, well done.
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks Ray Mears. I frequently visit that area of Spain as my family own a property in nearby Mazarron .. I keep meaning to do some flying when I visit but never get round to it.
@raymears8256
5 жыл бұрын
Hi Joe, sorry it’s taken a while to get back to you, I live in Camposol near Mazarron and fly out of Totana small private field just 20 mins away, I use to fly out of Stapleford were I got my PPL(A) Back in the 80’s flying PA28, C152, 182, Cherokee 140. and lived in Spain for past 6 years, and purchased a 2 seat 3 axis ultralight Tecnam 96 Gold, flying in Spain can be a lot cheaper, let me Know when you over my be could get together, Ray
Little tip, try to keep your eyes fixed in one spot when looking for traffic and let your eyes find the traffic naturally.
Great vid , i am planning to do this route. Quick question how do you record your audio ?
@pplvideodiary
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the comment :) I use a voice recorder with an aux cable plugged into the rear headphone socket. The voice recorder is similar to this one: www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-ICD-BX140-Digital-Recorder-Built-Silver/dp/B00IZEJFF4/
Brilliant view of that 747 departing!
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Yes, that was a real treat! It looked a lot bigger and closer at the time than it appears on camera.
I'm currently studying for my PPL, so just wanted to ask: at 22:32, aren't those hold point markings painted the wrong way around? i.e. shouldn't the dashed double lines be on the runway side?
@pplvideodiary
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for your comment Phil. I hope the training is going well. Good spot with the markings, as far as I can see they are painted in the wrong direction and the skydemon chart for Duxford actually shows the markings with what my interpretation to be correct is. Maybe this is a question your instructor might be able to answer.
That Avgas price...
Loved this video. Did you let Stansted know in advance or file a VFR flight plan on SkyDemon?
@pplvideodiary
4 жыл бұрын
Ashok Thamarakshan I didn’t file a flight plan for this route but it did use the NATS online pre-notification service, so they were aware of my intentions and the time I was planning to transit. Although it isn’t a clearance, I’ve never had a a transit denied when using this service
Do you have to cross overhead the numbers when transiting the zone?
@pplvideodiary
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the comment. In this case we were asked to transit via the threshold of runway 22, the instructions could be different depending on the traffic in the vicinity.
Whoops, right over the GVS
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Toffy B thanks for the comment. It probably looked closer on camera than it actually was but we were well clear to the right of the GVS on the downwind leg at Duxford
@danharrodian
5 жыл бұрын
@@pplvideodiary Meant no criticism, valid point, but for 24L I aim for the highly visible white-roof industrial estate between Duxford and the GVS. That way I keep to the left of the village of Hinxton just over the M11 on the base turn to final. Enjoyed the video. Nice transit. Take care :)
@pplvideodiary
5 жыл бұрын
Toffy B thanks for the tip, good to know for the next time I visit