In this edition:

• Down on the Farm 74 last month 2/25 – Tony Palmer
• Boys on Tour 2024 – Bristells to Valencia – Kevin Faint
• Replacing the Panel: almost there! – Richard Griffiths

Down on the Farm 74 last month 2/25

Klemm L25C G-ACXE

We have been trying to eliminate engine oil leaks over the last year, and many have disappeared. There was one coming from number 3 cylinder at the top of the pushrod tunnel where it butts to the head casting. We had to take of the exhaust header and the air baffles either side of cylinder 3 and exhaust stubs, rocker covers etc. We then hoped to lift the cylinder by about 8mm and then clean and add sealer but in the end we had to lift the whole pot off. We cleaned it all up and put it together with high temperature silicon sealer, inspected it all and then refitted everything including repainting the exhaust system.

Prentice G-APPL VR189

No movement

Bristell G-NGBB and DH82C

No flying from the strip as its too wet.

Moth centenary dinner

On February the 22^nd the Moth club held its centenary dinner at Knebworth House Barns to pay homage to the De Havilland Company’s first flight of the DH60 Moth 100 years ago to the day by Geoffrey De Havilland. This paved the way to private airplane ownership as about 90% of all small planes flying here in the 1930’s were Moths of some sort. My wife was due to go with me but she was suffering with a stomach bug of some sort for two days before so could not go some my daughter stepped in at the last minute and come with me. It did not want to miss it as I did not fancy waiting for the next one in another 100 years. I met some interesting people; at least 3 people there had Klemms as well as their Moth. The guy sitting next to my daughter Marie was the chief engineer for the Shuttleworth collection at Old Warden and was very interesting. I was talking to him about the Prentice and he tells me that someone had DH queen 30 engine to get rid of, so let’s see how that pans out. On the other side of me was Steven Slater of LAA fame recovering from his bad stroke, its cruel thing but he is not letting it stop him from doing things in fact he is getting married in June to his lady, good luck to both of you!!

Peter Harrison’s son was there and he told me about another source of Queen parts including props etc. which I am pursuing.

Next club night March 5^th 2025

The club subscriptions will stay at £25 this year as it just covered the Xmas meal cost and will hopefully cover next years prices.

Please, PLEASE can we have club members come up with things to do this year!!! Maybe organise trips out to museums, fly-outs, someone to do an interesting talk??

Tony Palmer

Boys on Tour 2024 – Bristells to Valencia

In 2023, a group of Bristell owners ventured down to La Rochelle for a couple of nights. Flushed with the success of that, we decided to attempt something more ambitious for 2024. Our group comprises of five pilots each owning a Bristell NG-5; Farry and myself from the Southern Strut and David, Gerry and Allan who have their aircraft based at Popham. David has a villa about an hours drive south of Valencia and suggested we fly down for a two night stay. There were no objections and planning commenced. Gerry flies on a PMD, not recognized in Europe, so we would take four aircraft with Allan and Gerry flying together. Farry would carry essential tools and spares.

Approval is needed from the Spanish to fly permit aircraft in their airspace and this is done via an online form. Like most computerized procedures, this proved to be a frustrating process but we got there in the end. As we had to postpone our trip due to weather, we had the joy of going through the process a second time!

There was some discussion on our routing to France weighing the pros and cons of the short water crossing to Le Touquet or the longer crossing but more direct route to Cherbourg. In the end we departed on 28 July to meet in Cherbourg where we completed the immigration formalities with prearranged customs. At the same time we booked customs for our return five days later. Sadly the restaurant had shut down so hopes of a breakfast were dashed. From Cherbourg we flew 1hr 45mins down to Saumur St Florent, located on the Loire between Angers and Tours which is an active parachuting center. The flight was straightforward routing via Mont St Michel with the excellent French FIS providing easy transit through their airspace. When we arrived a Turbo Porter was busy lifting parachutists. Radio calls were expected in French, but with nothing else in the circuit we just slotted in between parachute jumps. We were met by a very friendly Frenchman who took great interest in our aircraft and provided some much needed food and drink. With humans and planes refuelled we departed for Albi Le Sequestre, our final stop for the day.

We overflew Poitiers and routed just to the west of the Massif Central at around 3,000ft. Albi is a small airfield nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees to the northeast of Toulouse and Farry knew of a pleasant hotel and restaurant close to the airport. After the 2hrs 30mins flight we were all ready for a shower and sustenance. By now it had become apparent that we had picked the hottest week of the year for our little adventure!

Day two would take us to Valencia. With the planes refueled we departed for Viladamat, a Spanish microlight airfield to the northeast of Girona. Flying at 6,000ft and routing close to Carcassonne we passed to the west of Perpignan before being transferred to Girona who gave us VFR transit through their Class D airspace towards Viladamat. 1hr 30 mins after departing we arrived at a very parched grass airfield with very little activity. We were expected and met by the manager who provided us with refreshments. We had hoped to uplift fuel here and our host did offer to ferry us to the local petrol station but we felt that it was too much effort given that we had more than enough in the tanks.

At this point life became interesting. In Spain a Flightplan needs to be filed for flights over 1500ft which we did for our route planned over Girona and then to follow the coast to Valencia. Spanish ATC was less obliging than we had become used to and Girona kept us clear of their CTR and Barcelona insisted that we route some 20nms off the coast, well clear of their airspace.The end result was around 1hr 45 mins flying over water. We flew passed many fishing boats and ships and we all kept a mental note of where the nearest vessel was. The situation was made more uncomfortable by the heat and I was indicating an outside temperature of 32 degrees at 3,000 ft! We followed the VFR route into Valencia and following a tight left base we arrived after around 2 hrs 40 mins flying, to be met by our handling agent who provided cold beers all round as pre-arranged by David. We put the planes to bed and were driven to the other side of the airport where the main terminal is located and David’s car was parked.

We then enjoyed our two night stay, enjoying some excellent food and drink, exploring the area and even did some go carting. We also turned our attention to the return flight and as we didn’t wish to retrace our steps or, indeed, repeat our experience outbound, we elected to route through the center of Spain and take the western route over the Pyrenees.

Valencia is a busy airport and it was no surprise that on departure from runway 30 ATC required an immediate right turn onto the VFR route to keep us out of the way. In fact they made it quite clear that they wanted us out of their Class D airspace! Maybe it was something we said! We eventually climbed out to the northwest reaching around 7,000 ft and Valencia passed us on to Madrid information. However, the combination of terrain and range made any two way communication impossible until we approached Zaragoza and were then given a circuitous route to our destination of Villanueva De Gallego. This is another microlight airfield although it had 1,000m hard runway which was surprisingly difficult to spot in the rather barron terrain. The flight took about 2 hrs and the stop was made purely to break the journey and assess the weather for the next leg to La Rochelle. Like magic, Farry produced some fruit and snacks which were very welcome as we deliberated over our route. The preferred route was to go to San Sebastián on the coast for fuel and then route northbound passed Biarritz to La Rochelle. There was a westerly breeze bringing with it low stratus inland and the forecasts and actuals were not good along the coast. Pau, which is inland to the north of the Pyrenees, was giving good weather. In the event Farry decided to route over San Sebastián, along the coast to Mimizan which is available but operated by the military. The rest of us turned north before the coast and made our way to Pau only about 1hr 15 mins away. Both plans worked, although Farry had some interesting discussions with the military, I understand. Fuelled up we all successfully made our way to La Rochelle, Farry having arrived well before the rest of us.

Those familiar with La Rochelle will know it’s a lovely town with plenty of excellent restaurants, particularly around the harbour. It’s an easy and cheap bus ride into town but it had been a long day, so an Uber was ordered. David hadn’t had his daily run, so decided to jog to the hotel. Strangely no one else joined him! A well deserved meal was enjoyed by all that night.

We were now in familiar territory and the plan was to fly directly to Cherbourg and then home. My engine had suffered some intermittent rough running so Farry and I went to airfield early and he performed some magic on the carbs, which solved the problem. The forecast for Cherbourg was good although en route some low scattered cloud was likely. We had enough fuel to fly to Cherbourg and if necessary divert back to La Rochelle. In the event the weather was worse than forecast and we were VFR “on top” for some of the time. Rennes info informed us that the actual for Cherbourg remained good and with about 25 nms to go the clouds parted and we arrived after just over 2 hrs in the air. Douanes were conspicuous by their absence, despite pre booking but the ever helpful guy in the tower made a call and an official eventually arrived.

An uneventful flight back to our respective bases finished off an excellent five day “day trip to Valencia”. In total around 18.5 hrs airborne. This year we are planning a Bristell home coming to the factory in the Czech Republic.

Kevin Faint

Replacing the Panel: almost there!

Things would certainly be simpler if I had easy access to my aircraft. It is sitting in a trailer on the waterlogged strip at Truleigh Farm. Even attempting to drive on to the strip risks an embarrassing tractor extraction from the mud. If only it would stop raining! Well, it has just, so give it a few weeks of sun and blue sky’s please.

The panel is coming together. One thing making progress slow is getting hold of connectors and other electrical bits. Main suppliers have long back-order times, and others have to ship from China – where it all seems to come from anyway. And it’s not just my DIY efforts that are frustrated by long lead times. The Continental O-300-D from my group C172 has been sitting in Nicholson McLaren’s workshop for a couple of months waiting for some non-standard crankshaft bearings. Patience seems to be a necessary virtue in aircraft maintenance.

Here’s the current state of play. Of course, it’s not quite right… When I came to fit it, the circuit-breakers were just a fraction too close to the mounting point. Damn! A bit of fettling had them moved into slightly unaesthetically less regularly spaced positions, but now it will fit. One last thorough check of the wiring and I’ll be ready to see what happens when I power it up. Wish me luck!

Richard Griffiths

Events

Next Strut ‘Club Night’ at The Longshore is on Wednesday 5th March, 7:30 pm.

For a full list of events go to the website Events page.