UniformCharlie

Shoreham (Saturday, 18 June 2005)

We had been listening to the Shoreham frequency for a while and I somehow seemed to miss the very scarce slots where I could have pushed the button and "passed" our "message".

It was a very very busy little aerodrome. I eventually got all my guts together and pushed the button. Back came a blurb of all sorts of instructions, climbing to 2000ft, doing and overhead join and and and. Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrgh   I had a mental picture of what he wanted in my head, but knew that LP would not want to climb. So, in not so many words ... I just left the whole caboodle to LP to sort out and I was not a very happy chappy after that.

Just turning into downwind 20

We were number three behind a Cessna and a Piper when we were told of traffic at our 3 o'clock, another Piper desperately trying to fly slow enough to stay in his number four slot. On final, the Piper behind us probably nearly fell out of the sky as he was trying to slow down even further behind us, so LP offered to do a 360 and let him pass. ATC had their mind set that we were number three and told us "negative". But on very very very short final he nevertheless asked whether we could move over to the grass strip, hoping the Piper would make it on the asphalt. Sure, we'll move over! Oh, and in between all this ATC kept asking LP all sorts of questions as to who, why, what, where, how, and whether it was fun,  etc. ..... Well done LP! I probably would have cracked completely by then.  Anyway, in the end the number four Piper still had to go around. Later, on the ground, he came across and thanked LP for offering the 360! Well, here's for manners! And he was wearing a uniform shirt !

Now ...  refuelling, filing fight plan on the computer ... which left LP cursing and swearing for a while ..., a very quiet and subdued soup-n-sandwich lunch. Not because of the Piper, or because of LP or anybody else for that matter, but because I was mad with myself about my RT.

Although I would describe my experience there as character-building, to say the least, I love Shoreham and I want to come back!

GT between a twin and a jet!

Shoreham's lovely Art Deco terminal and tower

27.6.05 12:33