Follow the yellow brick road...

Departing Barton just before 11:00, the destination of Welshpool was firmly set in our minds. Despite a last minute report from another departing pilot that rain in the Low Level Route was hampering visibility, I decided to check it out for myself. It turned out that it was fine to proceed down the route, a transiting zone between MCR and LPL Class D airspace. Arriving overhead Oulton Park on the far side, we headed towards Oswestry, and then on towards Welshpool. The flight went without hitch; the only problem was the ever-wondering DI, which had to be realigned with the Magnetic grid ring compass on a frequent basis of not longer than five minutes. At least the FREDA checks were getting done on a regular basis!

Although initially quite a tricky place to spot, landing at Welshpool was straightforward enough, with long finals to RWY 22 established and short finals called adjacent to the town of Welshpool itself. I found myself singing along to the Wizard of Oz's 'follow the yellow brick road' whilst on finals, absolutely bizarre lol... After landing, I was amazed that the fuel was a self-service pump station, something which I had not yet seen in the UK with the high levels of CAA safety legislation. With the fuel now costing an alarming £1.41 per litre at Barton, I brimmed the tanks with a cost of only £1.32 per litre. This also guaranteed a free landing, as we had took on more than 50ltrs.
This was only the second time, which my little princess had ever been up in an aircraft, and I was amazed at how calm she remained, even when I decided to execute a few steep turns. She seems like a natural born flyer, and to be honest, it’s a real pleasure to take her up. A short two-mile walk later, and we were in the town itself for a spot of picnic style alfresco lunch at the canal side. We headed back after spending half an hour and experiencing a lengthy de-tour, searching high and low for the perfect ice-cream lol.

A walk around the hangers led to the discovery of a few remarkable aircraft. One of my favourites, an ‘N’ registered Piper Seneca V was looking stunning in her red and white livery. There was also a heap of commercial traffic, due to the fact that this is ‘apparently’ the mid Wales airport. We also saw one of the funniest signs i have seen in a while. It featured a man preforming illicit acts with a sheep, whilst warning people to take care due to lonely Shepard's. Seeing though we were in Wales, we found this very amusing! After watching a few of the locals do some 'touch and go' CCT’s, we boarded VA and headed to the skies. We saw some fantastic views of low level clouds forming over the peaks of Snowdonia. A short hop later and we were joining the downwind for RWY 27L back at Barton. A greaser of a landing is not the word, it was simply perfect… A mirror image of the day, which also had been perfect, due to the combination of great flying and fantastic company. The day had also allowed me to gain another two hours experience as PIC.