The Dream Continues???...

Since returning form Anglo American, flying as you can well imagine came to an abrupt standstill due to the small problem of the CAA and their lengthy process of producing licences. Even when this was completed the shear cost of flying in the UK meant that as a recently qualified pilot, I was grounded. A trip to the local flying school clarified that I could clearly not go solo without a lengthy and costly check ride and the payment of extortionate hourly fees. Luckily for me, I was able to call upon a favour owed to me by a family friend, which resulted in me logging another 2 hours PIC time in a Cessna 172. This flight was not an ordinary flight, but the start of new pastures. It opened the door to new flying relationships, which would ultimately lead to me purchasing my first share in an aircraft, a Cessna 172. But perhaps, at this moment in time this is looking too far into the future. For now, we departed Barton, a small aerodrome in Lancashire, to the South West of Manchester. Routing around Manchester airspace and up over Saddleworth Moor over towards Holmfirth, we quickly came onto Huddersfield’s Crossland Moor airfield. A small, uphill, semi tarmac, semi grass landing strip with a caravan serving as a club house. With a quarry and lots of potential sink on short finals, as you can imagine this was not the most welcoming place for a newly qualified pilot to approach. But overcoming all odds and fears, the landing was made, albeit with a more qualified pilot in the right hand seat for security. The arrival at Sherburn-In-Elmet, near York was textbook, much more like the usual. After flying back to Barton, via an SVFR route due to deterioration into IMC, a smooth first ever grass landing ensured that the first flight since Anglo came to a satisfactory ending.