Category Archives: Travel

Learning to Fly – Day Nine – (Forcing it)

I knew that we would not do patterns Saturday morning, well not at Winter Haven anyways.  Winter Haven is what the American’s call a Municipal Airport. That means the community, run by the community mainly for the community, owns it. The flight school is by far the biggest user of the airport during the week but on Saturday mornings everyone with micros, light and not-so-light aircrafts come out to give ‘em a spin.  Most of these guys have licenses to fly and most of those that do, have it current. Of those that are equipped with radio, few of them make calls in the pattern (It is my country, my airport, my pattern. Why should I make calls?). So the school has decided just to stay away to reduce the risk of collisions in the pattern. I appreciated that. We could go to another airport to fly patterns but it is a bit of waste of time so it was off to the training grounds for a couple of steep turns. We were flying a heap of junk called N444HA. Another Warrior PA-28-151 it had an inop (Faulty) turn indicator, a very suspect HI (Heading Indicator) that needed re-adjustment every 2-3 minutes and after every non-shallow turn, which was difficult because the compass was loose too. I am in Hotel-Alpha today but should be back into 990 tomorrow. We were then working on some more forced landings.  Getting the whole check list right and in order, get wind in back, look for a site, decide quickly, fly the approach and land (or get within 500ft) is tough.  On the second one, we were at 4,500ft.  I found a huge field with no trees and a few haystacks.  Ideal… I got most of the checks ok, with full flaps, turns and slipping I got rid of most of my height and I was on final with 1,500ft to go… the haystacks started to move.  Oh S***, they were cows!  Hitting a cow going about 85mph is not good, neither for the cow nor the airplane or indeed the occupants in it.  Quick re-decision, ah, that field there to the left now looks distinctly more attractive.  I know we will be doing more of these and they are actually harder than they sound.  You need to coolly execute all your checks and actions while within range finding the most suitable site for the landing. You then have to fly as good an approach to that site as possible. However, though not planning to ever need it, it is a distinct life-safer to be able to execute a good forced landing. No doubt, you can survive most if not all total engine failures in a Piper as long as you do the right things.

On the way back from the plane, we saw a guy in a home made ultra-light gyrocopter. That thing looked really cool; right out of a James Bond movie.  It was sort of a garden chair with a very big propeller on a broomstick coming up vertically from his back.  He took off and flew a couple of circuits.  Fun contraption.  As we are getting closer to the fun’n’sun events we have all sort of interesting aircrafts landing. WW1 bi-wing planes, private jets, micro-lights etc.  I am taking photos and could find myself turned into a plane spotter… ahhhhhhh!!

In the afternoon we practised unusual take-offs and landings. Flapless landings, short-field landings, soft-field take-offs etc.  We did not have to do anything special for crosswind as we did all this with a 9-knot crosswind from the south.

In the afternoon we did a couple of touch and goes but as I hated the aircraft (Still Hotel-Alpha) and wasn’t too keen on the runway (11 – I definitely prefer 04) and it was getting a bit dusky I felt I might as well hold off to Sunday morning before doing more solo patterns. When I am solo, I am not allowed touch and goes. They all have to be full stop, taxi off and taxi back on for another run. Again, this is a school rule because the added stress of doing both landing and take-offs and the accumulation of inaccuracy and the fact that a 1 minute breather between each pattern is probably good for a student.

Summary after 9 days:
Flown: 3 hours and 42 minutes.
Total flying time: 25 hours and 55 minute.
Solo: 0 hours and 6 minutes.
Day 1Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8Day 9 – Day 10Day 11Day 23

Learning to Fly – Day Eight – Alone?

It was Friday. It was exactly one week since I started at the school, and we were flying at eight in the morning.  I got up at the usual 6:00 to read, relax, shower etc. I got my stuff ready for today’s flying before making and eating breakfast.  My Italian flat mates, who are over here for hour building, come in at 03:30 every morning after having been out partying all night.  This morning, however, they had 401 all day from 8:00 and for the first time ever I saw and heard life from their rooms as early as 7:30. I hope they remember the pilot rule: 8 hours from bottle to throttle! They remind me distinctly about someone from work (Yeah, you know who you are!).  Anyways, having to wait for the guys vacating the bathroom I was a little late for my 8:00 appointment at the school, but I was sent on my way straight away to check the plane out.  I had bought a bottle of champagne for my first solo but I did not bring it that morning. A couple of reasons: One, I always assumed that your first solo should be your last flight of the day for various reasons.  You are on a high and might not be as concentrated as normal for any further flying and also, if you make a nice first solo flight (and landing!) you have nothing to gain by getting a second chance to screw up your record.  Also, though I felt improved, I still wanted to see for my self that I could make every landing and not just 4/5. We did 90 minutes of landings.  At a standard rate of about one landing per 5 minutes that is 18 take-offs and landings.  They were improving and we would have walked away from all of them. One was a go-around as I was ballooning. However, I initiated it myself, so that was OK.  Another was a wind shear cross wind landing where I managed to slip down the runway by turning into the wind with the wing while at the same time applying reverse rudder… without my instructor telling me. He was suitably impressed. At the end of the morning session, I knew within myself a couple of things: I was ready to go solo and I could do it safely. I spent the break from 10:00 to 14:00 relaxing, reading up on the FAA written test, cooking lunch and just all sorts of things trying to calm myself down. At 13:40, I started to pack my bag and check my equipment and at 14:00, I was ready at the flight school. I had brought the bottle of champagne and without anyone noticing put it in the school’s fridge. Off we went for another session of patterns and landings.  Almost every pattern was good, occasionally I would drop the speed at downwind a bit but everything, including the landings, was OK.  There was a fair amount of wind-sheer from bushes just before the threshold of the runway and there were significant thermals on the last parts of downwind to blow you 1-200 feet up just as you got ready do descent.  The wind was from 110 so we should have used runway 11 and Gerry asked me if I wanted to change from 04 that we had been using.  Less crosswind etc. I wanted to stay on 04 as the wind was only 6 knots and I was getting used to the crosswind landings. After about 13 touch and goes, Gerry made the call for final before I got to it and called a full stop.  I just knew this would be it. I took her for landing, slipped down the middle and placed her right down the middle in one of my best landings yet.  “My controls” Gerry said, and braked hard to make the first turn off runway 04. As we turned into the taxiway… the engine stopped.  Fancy that, eh?  If it had to do something like that, I could have thought of worse times to do it. Like on base, or at any point while I was flying solo.  Gerry was very perplexed. “I have never seen it do that before… in a Piper”.  Great. Very re-assuring.  He got it running again after a few restarts and none of the checks threw up anything. Carb heat was off, primer locked, fuel sufficient, mixture rich, throttle ¼ open… I was thinking, that if he told me to fly solo now I would tell him to stuff it. Well, he did not. We taxied back to the runway for a test pattern which he flew except for final, where he “your controls” me and I landed though not as nicely as the one before.  He did the 2nd turn in and said we needed another test ride but I could do it myself; he was getting off. So this was to be it. Gerry out of the plane, doors closed. I called “Winter Haven Traffic, Warrior 32990, taxiing runway 04, Winter Haven” and was on my way. I didn’t need to do the power-up checks so switching the xponder back on to mode C, I called departure and was zooming down the runway at about 80 miles/hour before pulling back on the column and I was airborne.  I was actually alone in an aircraft. I was PIC (Pilot in Command). Without Gerry’s weight, I got to the pattern altitude very quickly on cross wind, I turned relatively sharply into downwind making the calls for both. I knew Gerry was on the ground with his radio and if he thought I was out of line or in trouble, I would hear from him. Downwind checks completed, flaps extended one notch at threshold, watch out for the thermals and it was time turning to base. Power down, flaps 2nd stage, speed at 80knots, and look for the runway as an indication to turn into final. Oops forgot to call base. Ah well, as they say: The order of priority is Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Turned into final a bit too soon so I had to correct quite a lot as the wind was coming in cross from the right.  Glide path looked good, speed 70knots, descend rate 500ft per minute… yeah, I might just make it.  Oops, forgot to call final too, guess I was concentrating heavily on the aviating bit right now. Over the f…… bushes with their wind-sheer, cut power completely, keep nose down… down… closer… closer… now, level off flying over the runway and just as I was flaring I heard “pitch, pitch, pitch” over the radio.  Gerry just could not risk it and had to remind me.  Never mind, I did a good landing, turned at the last exit (I hate hard braking, as I am always afraid the propeller will come down to the ground and they cost $3,000 to replace) and picked Gerry up on the way. “Do you want to do another one?” he asked. I declined quoting the reasons listed above. From my point of view, the most interesting thing about that first solo pattern was that it felt much less stressful than when I was with Gerry. I felt relaxed and comfortable knowing that I could turn in when I thought it was right instead of anticipating Gerry telling me “turn in” which always felt like a failure. I now have to do 5 hours solo patterns before moving on to solo cross-country. That is 60 take offs and landings. Everyone tells me I am going to be sick of it and I hope I am. Being bored doing circuits will mean that there is nothing to challenge me which means I am in control of the whole thing. And hey! That’s exactly where I want to be. We had our bottle of champagne (I had ½) and together with Erwin, the mad Dutchman who passed his final skills test today, we are off to celebrate at our local Japanese restaurant with good food, sake and (more) beer. Erwin is such a crazy beast that for those who read this diary for the non-flying bits I should be able to have some good stuff for tomorrow. Tomorrow it will be back to the patterns for me and pick up at the training grounds for our exercises and cross-country stuff. How does it feel to be a pilot solely at the controls of an airplane? Indescribable. It was the main motivator for this whole venture and it is just such a fantastic feeling to have achieved it. I have studied and passed seven written and one practical exam. I have flown concentrated for over 20 hours in one week and the first level has been achieved.  Now it seems, the rest will be easy.

It was a Good Friday for me and summary after 8 days:
Flown: 3 hours and 12 minutes.
Total flying time: 22 hours and 13 minute.
Solo: 0 hours and 6 minutes.
Day 1Day 2Day 6Day 7Day 8Day 9Day 10Day 23

Learning to Fly – Day Six (What goes up…)

Yesterday had been a good day with respect to getting up this steep learning curve and today was a bit of a let down.  I had, for the first time, dreamt about flying during the night. Specifically landings.  In my dreams, they were going really well.  With all that practice, you would think I would pick up in the morning and just do it.  Well, up she went, around and down again… and not very well. Typically either too high, or too much to the right etc etc.  Not my day.  After an hour and 30 minutes in the pattern, that is about 15 take-offs and landings – but using the word “landings” in the widest possible sense – we called it quits for the morning session. My sunglasses had broken too so I was flying without sunglasses.  Besides the fact, it makes you look distinctly un-cool without, sunglasses are actually really necessary because you fly a rectangle and at one point or another, you will be flying and looking into the sun. I had forgotten to wear my baseball cap as well so I was sweating into my eyes and when I walked away from the aircraft, I was feeling a bit miserable.  I knew, however, that I had learned something (albeit just a little) up there, that I was getting even a little better and (though it sounds funny) I took some comfort from the fact that all though my landings were poor they were consistent(ly poor).  At least I had a few specific points I had to work on; I was not all over the place.

I was moving residence from a student’s house about 10 miles away to some student flats virtually next to the flight school.  My clothes etc. took about double the space compared to when Jackie packed it… ah well. The reason for the move was the departure of a number of students. There was the Welsh housemate Allan. After passing the FFA skills test, where he said he did terribly and the FAA examiner phoned the school up afterwards to congratulate them on such a perfect student(!), he did a cross country on his new license and was today flying back to Gatwick to drive Thomas the Tank Engine somewhere in Wales over the Easter Holidays. It appears he was also a steam engine locomotive driver.  Yesterday while driving back to the house we had to wait at a railroad crossing.  He got out his camera to photograph the engine pulling the 1-mile long monster.  I asked him if he wanted me to note down the number for him and he declined with the comment: “I’m not sad!” Right. However, I hope he will write me next time he drives Thomas so I can fly out there with Hans. An English guy who had come for his IMC (and gotten it) went back as did another Brit who was “hour-building”. Many of the guys flying from the school have their certificate but are building up hour so they can get enough experience to go for the next level up towards a commercial air-traffic license.

When I passed one of the otherwise always shut private hangars on the way to the plane, for the first time it was open!  In this huge hangar, about the same size as the one at Fairoaks holding all their aircrafts was one Citation Jet. It was beautiful. I walked in and there was a guy standing with his head in one of the jet engines. Gerry informed me discretely that it was the pilot/owner!  I asked the guy very politely if I could take a look and surprisingly enough, I was merrily permitted.  It was unbelievable.  It was so polished on the outside that it was only matched by the inside.  Seating for about 10-12 passengers in first class leather seats with mahogany tables etc etc.  It was obvious from looking at it, he never flew it, just nursed it, but man was it nice.

In the afternoon, we took off and flew north to Lakeland. Next week will be a nightmare there, as they are expecting ½ million visitors to “Sun’n’Fun”. On the runway in front of us was… the citation jet from earlier! It flew all right, with the same guy who had been messing with the jet engine earlier, at the controls.  If he flew that aircraft AND had it in an inside/outside pristine condition as the one we were looking at, he must spend his whole live in that hangar. Before dream went into overdrive: A normal lottery win would not help here; we are talking double if not triple roll over!  After the citation, we scurried down runway 04 towards Lakeland. Lakeland is a Class Delta airport with some pretty big machines and we called the tower to announce our intention to land.  A very cheerful voice came back on the radio instructing us we should report back 5 miles south of the runway. We did and were given clearance for long final landing. On the ground, changing to the ground frequency, we requested taxi to the shop, this was cleared, and we parked the airplane in the shop’s airplane parking area. Hop out, walk in, and I found myself in a very big showroom with all the gadgets and gizmos you could possibly imagine.  I did my shopping; we looked around the new terminal building and hopped back in to fly back to Winter Haven. When we called the ground to request taxi with the intention to return to Winter Haven we had a cheerful: “Fancy that, Warrior 990 returning to Winter Haven”.  990 is the aircraft used for instrument training and Lakeland is the closest airport with full ILS and VOR instrument approach utilities so they probably see more of 990 than anyone else. Back at Winter Haven we did a few pattern for good measure, I had not improved significantly and that was it for the day’s flying.

Gerry had offered to drive me out to Tampa to meet Jackie and the family as they arrived. He would have flown but it takes a little preparation as Tampa is Class Bravo airspace and it is faster to land instruments and that requires various documentation etc. So we drove, met everyone as they arrived, helped collect their luggage and saw them off on their way to their hotel. On the way back we stopped at a redneck bar for a great burger and two pitchers of beer.  I had 1.5 glass of beer, Gerry the rest. I drove him back to his place and took myself back to mine.  I promised myself not to dream about landings and I went as easily and quickly to sleep as I had the other nights.

Summary after 6 days
Flown: 2 hours and 29 minutes.
Total flying time: 15 hours and 43 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 8Day 23

Learning to Fly – Day Five (Cheer up)

So after an evening of all you can eat Chinese with Tsin-Tao’s paid for by Alan (The Welsh guy who passed his test yesterday) it was back with Gerry and more training. Oh, before we get to the flying: six guys eating all you can eat Chinese food – and good it was too! –  2-3 beers per person: $65 before tips… It is not just the flying that is cheap over here.

So we started in the pattern and Gerry was pretty impressed. I was now doing the whole thing by myself just having Gerry step in with a little rudder when I needed it, which was not every time.  After six touch and goes, it was off to the training grounds and steep turns, stalls etc.  This was coming along nicely.  I did 2×45 degree angle turns with 0 drop of altitude both to the left and to the right.  Clean and landing stalls ok too. So now, I just have to get the whole ting down routinely to ensure it will be right every time. On the way back to the airport, we were cruising at 3,500ft. Gerry put on Carb heat, pulled throttle back and informed me that I have had an engine failure and what would I do about it?  There is a checklist for this (There is a checklist for everything, you should know by now) and I could not remember anything. I went on by common sense… which just is not good enough when you are under extreme stress.  Adjust speed to best glide speed and trim (logical, eh?)  Get downwind so you can cover as much ground as possible looking for suitable forced landing.  Check for cause of engine failure (Well, I knew that already – I saw Gerry turn off the power!) but still; one has to go through the checks.  Look for suitable site.  “I’m going to land at that airfield over there”.  “You spotted it, well done. Can you reach it?”  “Yeah”.  “Yes, I think you can too… go for it.  I need to get to it downwind at 1,000ft altitude, turn base and final and make a nice forced but controlled landing.  I am converging to the downwind leg and I feel really nice.  “Eh, you’re a bit left”.  I am not!  “Er, it looks OK from here”.  “Nope, you’re definitely missing it”.  “I’m going for that one” I say pointing out the windscreen.  “I wouldn’t, it’s a driveway with a ditch at one side and lamp-posts at the other. I thought you had seen the grass airfield over there!”  “Oh, s***.. I forgot airstrips could be made out of grass as well.  Quick change of plans and the field there looked pretty inviting.  I was allowed to go to 300ft (and for you non-pilots out there, 300ft when you have been zooming around at 3,000ft is bloody close) before I was instructed to “go-around”.  Full power and I was so happy when I saw the VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator) go positive.  Two more of those, getting a bit better but still some work to do.  Later that day on our second flight it was back to the pattern.  I did a total of five landings.  The first was near perfect. Obviously, a fluke but it could not have been much better. On the centre line with the aircraft pointing that way too at touchdown, smooth in spite of cross winds etc. I saw Gerry do a double take, wanting to know if I had practiced during lunch.  The second landing wasn’t bad but a bit off centre. Third was on centre with a bit too early flare but not by much. Fourth was ..erm.. interesting. The worse ever, actually.  I had come in a bit too much to the right. Just before the threshold there are bushes and you get a lift (thermal) screwing you up with respect to your path. So there I was, a bit too much to the right and a bit too high but not enough for Gerry to interfere.  I was trying to get us more towards the centre while pitching down. Gerry was trying to help on the rudder to get us to the middle and I was flaring to early. Oh f***.  This is definitely a situation where I should have applied full power and gone around… unsalvageable. We ended on the runway at a bang so hard I am really happy we did not leave bits of the undercarriage behind us.  Full power and take off for final pattern and full stop. The fifth and final landing was pretty good though I was a bit shaken from the hard landing. We had to tell Chuck, our wonderful resident mechanic, that he had to look the aircraft over.  He came over to the flight centre and saw Gerry and myself in conversation.  “Who was the pilot?”  “He was!” Gerry was quick to point out, albeit with a sly grin.  I was estimating in my mind what a new undercarriage could possibly cost.  “Well” Chuck said, if you walk away from a landing it’s supposed to have been a good one.  “Did you walk away, sir?”  I confirmed that I did indeed make it from aircraft to centre under my own bi-pedal power.  “Well, it must then have been a good one” Chuck comforted me while explaining to the instructor that replacing some fluid in the oleo and brakes would leave the aircraft more or less as we found it.

Hey, this is fun. I am feeling more cheerful today.  If I do reasonable well on landings all day tomorrow and Thursday I’m pretty sure I’ll be soloing at the end of Thursday or first thing Friday.

I also had to do my FAA medical today. “Can you hear me” “Yep”.  “Can you see me?”  “Yep”.  “Close your eyes and stay vertical.” That’s about it. What really outrages me is that on an FAA license I can fly at night. In addition, he never checked if I was colour-blind.  Fantastic….

Summary after 4 days
Flown: 2 hours and 54 minutes.
Total flying time: 13 hours and 14 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 23

Learning to Fly – Day Four (and so it goes)

So, Gerry was off to fire training and I was meeting up with my 1-day temporary instructor. Yannick, from France, and there was no mistake about it.  Inspector Clouseau on the Radio: Warrioh forh-zero-wun, downwind fur wun-wun. Very sweet indeed.  Actually, the guys at the school told me that 2 days before I arrived Yannick had been involved in an air-rage incident.  He was at the run-up area with a student going through the power checks.  There are many checks and you have to do them right and for someone who is learning it takes a little while to read from your check list and do the checks.  Too long for a redneck “Lake” parked behind them. Sorry, but all the natives around the flight school are called rednecks even by the Americans at the school.  Goes a long way, I guess, to explain the noise-abatement order put on runway 22 but that is another story. Anyway, the pilot in the Laker called on the common frequency:  “Hey you guys in the Piper, are you moving or not?!”  Well, Yannick got on the radio and in his best Frenglish explained that they would be going soon enough but he should be sympathetic towards a student pilot.  “God damn foreigners” was the reply “you bomb our cities, pollute our airspace and are kind to our women” (for the last bit, those were not the exact words, mind you, but I am sure you get the drift).  Yannick then continued to explain the finer points of cross-cultural sharing at which point the airwaves really got blue.  Until a guy going downwind, obviously hoping to avoid explosions on ground, had to remind them that there could be ladies present on the frequencies.  Anyways, I was now sitting with Yannick. We would be going trough the same things as I did day three so I won’t bore you with the details.  One thing was interesting in two different ways:  There were a number of subtle differences in how Yannick wanted me to fly compared to how Gerry wanted it. Yannick wanted a 5-knot higher rotation speed. Climb at 70 knots instead of 80 (Meaning a better angle rather than a better rate), no power manipulation during steep turns and a circuit height of 1,000ft above sea level instead of Gerry’s 1,000ft above ground level (=ca. 1,100ft amsl). I am happy to say I was “smart” enough not to mention the differences in instructions and just take the corrections and follow them as told. I then later checked the details with Gerry and we have figured out some good compromises.  The circuit height, btw, was changed recently from 1,100 to 1,000 above sea, which is why Gerry had been flying at the wrong height. 100ft in circuit is not going to kill you anyways, neither literally nor metaphorically.  One last final interesting point I took away: It is an easy trap for students to lock onto the instructions as rules, as a fixed way to do things. What this little experience showed me is that you learn to fly safely, fluently and efficiently. Exactly how you do, it is not that important as long as you are comfortable with your chosen technique. It is the resulting quality of flying that is important. From the training itself, I can only say that I felt I got better and I felt a lot happier at the end of the day.  My Welsh mate from the student’s house took and passed the final FFA skills test today as well.  I immediately went and quizzed him about the examiner, as she would very likely be my examiner as well. The future will show if it was useful but he informed me that she was very focused on the human performance aspects. Emergency scenarios, planning etc.  Not so much a gadget person who wants to know the path of fuel from tank to carburettor as someone who wants to know what you will do if that fuel-flow is interrupted.  At some point, so goes the plan, I will take the FFA test and the day after the CAA test.

At least Yannick was of the opinion that I would be going solo “in a couple of days”. My own revised target is end of Thursday.

Summary after 4 days
Flown: 2 hours and 48 minutes.
Total flying time: 10 hours and 20 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 23

Learning to Fly – Day Three (Hard work)

Today we planned to take off around 8:00 and we were not too far off schedule taking off at 08:15.  Again, I did all checks and taxiing under Gerry’s watchful eyes. Radio call to ensure everyone in the pattern (or circuit) knew we would be taking off from runway 11. Rotating at 55 knots and keeping the runway heading, I was instructed we were going to start by doing a few touch and goes. We did 2, focusing more on sticking to the pattern than me getting the landing part right.  It was then off to the training grounds for steep turns, stalls, S-turns and turns around a point.  I only really have problem with the latter. The other exercises seem to come along quite well. The important bit being practised is the ability to do the exercise where you have to consider the effect of the wind when determining the turn-angle for a uniform ground pattern WHILE you maintain constant altitude.  In the stall you also have to maintain constant heading and in the turn around a point you have to maintain a constant distance from the point.  After about 1 hour we turned back towards Winter Haven for 30 minutes in the pattern with me having to do as much as I was able to.  This was very very tough; hard work indeed.  Take offs and initial climb OK though I get a feeling I’m moving too fast. I guess I instinctively want to move slower so I have more time to consider all the stuff I need to do. Turn onto cross-wind leg. For runway 11 there are not many visual reference points so I do this on heading. 11 minus 90 is 020. Nice 15 degrees climbing turn to a heading of 020 and if I don’t watch it, I start to lose climb before reaching 1,100ft. 980ft and it’s time to turn to downwind. 020-90 is 290 (and not 190 as I did the first time!). Level off at 1,100ft, reduce power to 2,100 RPM, R/T call downwind, keep altitude, watch runway threshold, keep look-out, go through BUMPFICH checks (Brakes, Under-carriage which is a bit of a moot point in a Piper PA-28 with non-retractable), mixture – 2 part vermouth to 1 part gin, pitch which is another moot point in a Piper with fixed pitched propeller, fuel sufficient and fuel pump on, instruments OK and Ts&Ps, carburettor heat and hatches and harnesses secure), 10 degrees of flaps and in the US start descent but in the UK just turn onto base.  Call base on the radio, 1,700 RPM, 25 degrees flaps, airspeed 75knots, look for anyone long final (no mid-air collisions please) 30 degree turn into final, full 40 degrees flaps, keep airspeed at 70knots, point nose before runway, keep aircraft aimed at centre of runway and ensure you are on the right glide-path. That’s really it… how hard could it be? Well, as with most things if you know how to do it, it is probably not very hard but this was really draining.  I went through 8 full patterns with landings and touch and goes. My take offs really improved and though I could slowly feeling my landings being more controlled the quality did not improve much.  I do not have a problem in general holding off the flare so I hope I am going to click into this really soon. In one of the patterns just as I was going to call downwind someone else did! That threw us a bit as it means someone is at the same height going the same direction as you on pretty much the same track… and we could not see the plane!  The smug bastards could see us and told us to look over our left wing as they were flying a tighter pattern than I was (Yeah, he’s doing his checkout ride tomorrow – I’m on my third day; what do you expect, eh?). The problem was, we still couldn’t see him.  He then called base. Now we knew around where he would turn from downwind into base and were both scanning as mad (now having re-joined downwind ourselves) but we still could not find him. Very embarrassing though we mutually agreed that it was either a stealth Cessna or it was equipped with a Klingon cloaking device.  They uncloaked on final when I finally spotted them.  Seeing the other aircrafts in the circuit is also hard work.

After nearly two hours of flying, it was a full stop and 1.5 hours relaxation before next session. I was soaked. The sun had been on the whole time and it’s 25° Celsius but we have plenty of fresh airflow and the concentration and hard work just soaked me through.

The second session was more or less a duplicate of the first except I didn’t do any S-turns of turns around points.  I was so tired (and soaked again). I had all these grand plans of flying 3 sessions a day, 5-6 hours and I was ready for bed at 15:00 after a hard days work.  I just popped into the learning centre to finish off the second of 11 mandatory videos I have to sit through.  This was on special manoeuvres and quite relevant to the training I am doing right now.

I have to admit, at this point only my confidence in the system and my general learning abilities being at least that of the average student, convinces me I will succeed at this.  Getting all those techniques right at the right time and with required accuracy seems so hard and so far away, I am beginning to realise the size of the task ahead. Two students at the school quit their training half way through over the past month.  However, neither could apparently overcome really basic stuff, so I am still cautiously optimistic.

Gerry is off to a big airport tomorrow for a full day of “Fire training” so I am flying 4 hours with a replacement instructor. He is French and seems a pretty calm and OK guy but we will see.

I have had my Cross pen nicked from the school, which really pisses me off.

Summary after 3 days
Flown: 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Total flying time: 7 hours and 32 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 23

Learning to Fly – Day Two (Special events)

I should have had an idea today wasn’t going to turn out normal. I couldn’t find my pen in the morning as I was packing and it annoyed me. I knew I had it late last night as I was filling out my log-book but now it was gone. I still haven’t found it which means someone must have nicked it. Irritating. It was a nice pen (Cross).

Today, another 2 flight-sessions were planned: 1st session from 10:00-12:00 and another from 16:00-18:00.  Our plane from yesterday was still being looked at, but was due to be ready “real soon” so rather than switching we waited around.  Gerry informed me it was part of the training, as that is a signidficant part of what pilots do. Wait. At 11:00 I wandered over to the mechanic, a great old stereotypical American, who informed me the plane would be ready in 5.  Naïve and inexperienced as I was, I assumed he meant minutes where obviously he was running on something like IT time as it was 12:10 before an instructor and his student entered the plane.

I knew I had to be in charge from start to finish with Gerry telling me (off) when I was doing something wrong. After the walk-around checks and the inside start checks I got to the exciting part where you open the little pilot window, yell “Clear the prop!”, wait for a response (very much like when a priest ask if anyone objects to a wedding… you never expect a reply) and start the aircraft.  Our plane started and (from the inside) sounded quite good.  I went through the pre-taxi checks when another instructor came over and gave the marshalling signal for cut the engine.  He didn’t like the sound of it.  We got the mechanic over, restarted without our noise cancelling headsets and sure enough… there was a distinct put-put sound intermittently.  Check left/right magneto… 75 rpm drop on each.. shouldn’t be a dead cylinder then, and the noise wasn’t weird enough for that anyways. Lean the mixture slowly but more and more and ooops, what’s the smoke coming out of the engine?  Lean cut, full throttle, quick go through shut down procedures and suddenly a walk back to the club-house seemed like a good idea.  The mechanics were swarming around our poor N32990 and we were just glad we never made it into the air.  We re-booked ourselves into N32401 which would be available at 16:00. I have to go through 9 hours of videos on various manoeuvres etc. so this seemed like a good time to make inroads in the private study rooms.  At 16:00, after 2 long and tiring videos on procedures and manoeuvres, we were in 401 ready to go.  401 starts like a dream and I was taxiing down to the holding point making my first official real radio call: “Winter Haven Traffic, 32401 Warrior taxiing to runway 04, Winter Haven”. I did the run-up checks and continued to the runway line-up all without assistance or interference from Gerry. Final check of T&P (Temperature and pressures), full throttle, keep straight on the runway while watching speed, 55 knots and rotate… we were airborne and the first take-off without assistance from an instructor. “Climb to 1,000ft and while continue to climb, turn us onto 310”. I did as told and had us on 310 at around 1,400ft. “Change heading to 360, continue climb to 3,000ft”. While this was going on Gerry attempted to utilise the maximum effect of our noise cancelling headsets and the squelch controls so we could cut out the noise coming over the mikes.  We both suddenly realised we couldn’t hear ourselves never mind each other. Gerry kept playing with the controls and settings but nothing would bring back the radio.  This was (almost) funny. Before I can fly solo I have to complete an open book test with 50 questions and one of them were “what do you do if you want to land and you are experiencing a total radio failure”.  I assumed I was soon about to find out. It was pretty obvious that unless Gerry was in line for an Oscar he was not doing this to test me and all though I knew most of the English variants I could have picked up a whole lot of Dutch expletives were I inclined to do that.  We had reached 3,000ft altitude keeping a steady heading of 360 in rather turbulent air and I was pretty proud but Gerry took control and headed back to the airfield.  Before joining the pattern we kept a really good lookout for any traffic as they wouldn’t know we were coming. Short downwind leg before turning on to base, very sort final, down to the runway, very very short run and back to service.  The landing run was indeed so short it reminded me about Paddy and Ciaran, 2 pilots from Ryan Air.  Approaching an airport, Paddy (The captain) says to Ciaran: “Ciaran, this is a very short runway”.  “It sure is, Paddy… as short as I’ve ever seen one”.  “Ciaran, I’m going to give full flaps and side slip down. The second we hit it, I’ll reverse thrust and you hit the brakes and pray”.  “Paddy, I’ll do that… and I’m already praying”.  Well, the aircraft approaches very steeply and hits the runway. Immediately, Paddy applies full reverse thrust and Ciaran is on the brakes.  With the engines roaring in reverse and smoke shooting up from the wheels and tires the plane comes to a halt just centimetres away from the end of the runway.  “Sweet Jesus” says Paddy “That was a very short runway”.  “That it was” says Ciaran… and looking out the side windows “But look, Paddy, it must be at least a mile wide!”  So anyways, we parked at the garage where 990 was happily parked with another cousin (A Cessna-152) (One that we didn’t wreck.  “Radio inop”.  “Really?” was the quizzical response from the mechanic. Back to the terminal building. No more flying that day, I headed back to the student quarters where I had dinner duty. It would be asparagus as starters with Lasagne as main course. While I was preparing, Gerry arrived red faced. While he had played with the squelch he must have pushed the button as well and that turns the radio off. As he put it himself: Something you expect a student to do but not necessarily an instructor. I then found out that Gerry is an ex-chef and 2 of the other students were Italian. Great. I’m cooking lasagne for a chef and 2 Italians.  Well, the 2 Italians, on discovering I was doing Lasagne, made a panic dash to the local Chinese restaurant. Those two Italian students are a bit crazy anyways.  Not having a good aircraft to fly, they took 990 out before she had been completely signed off.  ½ way the RPM dropped to 0!  Luckily only the indicator not the actual engine, but still….  According to the instructor the Welsh student and myself who stayed for the whole meal, it was a success. They don’t know it yet, but I’m a one trick pony. I can cook dinner all right as long as you want and like lasagne.

Waiting for me tomorrow are another 2 sessions in 401 (with a fully functional radio). Both sessions planned to last 2 hours containing steep turns, S-turns, turns around points and lots and lots of touch and goes.

Summary after 2 days
Flown: 0 hours and 36 minutes.
Total flying time: 4 hours and 2 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 23

Learning to Fly in 23 days – Day One (The trip)

The flight over to Florida was uneventful.  Some turbulence at the departing end (hah, I’ve flown in worse myself) and looking out the window trying to guess base and ceiling of cloud layers and the cloud types.  Check the altitude and temperature indications on the entertainment system… how far away from ISA standard?

Orlando airport was much harder work.  25 queues to chose from for immigration and I, together with 40 other idiots, chose the one with Officer Jobsworth.  A guy who came out of the aircraft just after me and joined the neighbouring queue got through 25 minutes before me!  When I got through I had 5-6 people behind me (everyone else having joined other queues as we went along) and no other queue had more than 2-3 people.  The same thing happens to me in super markets. If anyone can tell me the technique to pick a good queue I’d pay a nifty ransom. Through immigration, pick up suitcases and check them back in… ‘scuse me?  Yep, hand over the suitcases again, go through security with your carry-on. Take a shuttle to the main terminal building and pick up your suitcases a second time.  There’s got to be a good reason hidden somewhere but I’ve yet to think up what it could be.  It took me a total of 2 hours to get from the airplane to the free world.  I had feared that my address in the US (Being that of the flight school) was going to set all sort of alarm bells off.  Not a batted eye-lid, not a single question.

For my first day of pilot training they had laid out a slightly out of the ordinary schedule: Normally a student who has just arrived overseas only get 1 flying session on the first day but since I was such a wise-guy who had taken all the written exams in advance, already done 14 hours of flying and had requested to do both the FAA and JAR/CAA they scheduled two 2-hours sessions.

Before getting this far I had spent 3 hours with the instructor who had been assigned to me for the duration of my training, Gerry. A Dutch commercial pilot 1 foot taller than me with the width and breadth to match. Man I’m glad we were going to fly in a PA-28 and not a Cessna 150!  This could get very cosy. He had trained at the school before but this time around he arrived at the school the same day as I, but he had arrived from Las Vegas where he had a job transporting freight into Las Vegas from various locations on the west coast.  Gerry had yet to lose a student (either by flying death or failing) and I’m sure we are going to have fun with his Dutch English and my Danish English.  “Set throttle 1,100ft”.  “When you turn at a low speed you can make the turn more…erm… narrow..” “Tighter?”  “Yeah, tighter. Much better word. Thanks”.  The important thing, though, as with everything in life, is trust.  I trust he can teach me to fly and I trust he’s not going to get me killed, ‘cause he obviously knows what he’s doing and he has a sensible practical approach to the whole venture.

Gerry informed me that today we would do basic manoeuvres but I wouldn’t do take-off and landings until tomorrow.  In our first sessions we did Steep Turns which are 45 degree turns to the left and the right. In these sort of turns the passengers get the feeling they are 90 degrees in as much as the wing appears to be perpendicular to the ground. From a technical point of view the skill is to fly a constant rate of turn (i.e. 45 degrees) at a constant altitude while mainly looking out the windows and not at the instruments. Having failed at enough of these we went on to stalls; with and without flaps or as “we” say: In clean and landing configuration.  Stalls have never phased me and the most difficult is to get a safe General Aviation aircraft like the Piper into a stall. One hour and 35 minutes of fun and it was back to the airfield for a delayed lunch.

After lunch it was off again for another late afternoon session.  “My” aircraft N32990 had been flying while we had been eating and the instructor had reported a fault with the engine so it was already on to a replacement aircraft. Interestingly enough, though this aircraft worked fundamentally like the previous and the one I flew in the UK all 3 were different in material way and all had their own peculiarities that had to be taken into consideration. I guess that’s why ships and aircrafts are “she”. The first of undoubtedly many surprises came after the run-up: As we taxied on to the runway for take-off Gerry leaned back in the seat, let go of the column and said: “You have control”.  My first take-off. I kept her nicely on the centreline and rotated (took off) at 55 knots. We climbed quickly to 1,000ft and left the pattern (circuit in the UK) which is the holding pattern for aircrafts flying in close proximity to the airport. We did more steep turns, S-turns and turn around a point.  After a few (intentional) stalls we went back towards the airport.  Having disclosed to Gerry that my lowest score was in the Navigation exams, that I couldn’t find the airport to fly from when I did my written flight-plan, that I came from a family where my mum have got lost in the parking area in front of my sisters house AND that I had got lost that morning when I went for a jog he was well aware this might be a problem during training. He asked me to point out where the airport was.  I thought I recognized one lake (of the thousands in the area) and pointed in the appropriate direction which happened to be correct. He had me go through all the checks on the downwind-leg and the base and when we were on final he asked me to pay attention to the details as he did a touch-and-go. Up we went again, cross-wind and “I had control” turning downwind. Do the checks again, turn onto base, a bit slow starting descend, turn onto finale, too high, full flaps, still too high… you still have control, watch the 10 knots 30 degree crosswind, lower the nose, too high, you’re off the middle, watch the wind, you’re too slow; lower the nose, cross control by turning left and right rudder and we’re close, closer, closer, back pressure on column – flare – and we’re down. Flaps up, full power and do it again.  Another 2 touch and go landings with less and less help from Gerry and after 2 hours of flying we finally went for the full-stop landing. 1 hour of debrief, 1 hour of shopping (Jeez, it’s cheap here!) and it was 21:00 before we sat down at the house eating Domino’s pizza and philosophising about today’s events.

I was shattered. 3.5 hours flying in one day and I had begun to learn 3 completely new manoeuvres I hadn’t even heard of before, I had taken off for the first time ever and I had landed (albeit with help) for the first time ever. I’m still bitten and can’t wait until my first solo. I guess in 3-4 days time, but we’ll see.

Summary after 1 day:
Flown: 3 hours and 26 minutes.
Total flying time: 3 hours and 26 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 23

Circle Line Pub Crawl Tour 2013

Circle Line Pub Crawl tour

The Planning

We were 5 adventurous guys who wanted to try a pub crawl with a difference. The idea was, that we would take the London Circle Line, getting off at each stop, finding a nearby suitable pub in which to have a beer, before venturing back into the underground system and heading for the next pub and beer. This would happen on the Friday of a long weekend away from our daily duties as husbands, fathers and earners. It would be the centerpiece of a boys away weekend – taking in some football, brewery visits  and other appropriate London based culture as it presented itself, of course.

As for the crawl itself, there are 27 stations on the circling bit of the Circle Line. Starting and finishing at the same station would make it 28 drinks. As beer drinkers and lads, we have the deepest respect for the concept of “The Pint” and obviously considered doing the whole crawl consuming nothing but. However, simulations run using the most modern technology revealed an expected  final blood alcohol level above 3.0 which by most people is deemed to be a bit too much on the high side. Going around on ½-pints, however, would push the alcohol level to somewhere between 1.8 for the larger of us and 2.2 for the smaller guys. It would make us unable to drive (legally at least) but we anticipated that we would still be able to find our way up and down an escalator and onto a train.

Using various web-sites we researched pubs in the vicinity of the Circle Line stations. We were looking to get around the full spectrum of tied and free houses, chains and stand alones etc. etc. Walking distance between station and pub was obviously important, but we would be willing to sacrifice a bit of walking in order to achieve what looked like a better place or even more importantly a better (half) pint.

Having found 27 pubs and using Google maps and other guides’ directions from the stations to the pubs, we also identified 27 backup pubs. You just can’t be too careful!

Based on distance between station and pub, we calculated the time it would take to walk from the station to the pub and back. Based on the frequency of the trains we calculated the average waiting time for a train and TfL (Transport for London) had a guide for train travel times between stations. Adding all that time together and subtracting the total from 12 hours (11:00am to 11:00pm) we then had the total time we could spend in the pubs. It came out a surprisingly low 9 minutes per pub! This could prove to be a little harder than we had thought. We also considered that we would be queuing at the bars around lunch time and again at dinner time, and thus gave ourselves between 5 and 12 minutes per pub.

We had on the internet found pictures of each pub as seen from the outside hopefully helping us identify it as we came out of the station, and all the info was put into a guide with a page for each pub and estimated times for arrival and departures. Ensuring each member of our crawling team had a copy of the plan and with a few contingency ground rules, we anticipated that in case one of us got lost from the flock, he would be able to re-join again further down the route.

As training for the event, we drank ½ pint of water every 25th minute for a 12-hour stretch on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We hoped it would help the stomach expand when it came to the real stuff, but in my case I am not too sure it had any particular effect other than making me piss like a racehorse for 3 days.

Hotels, flights etc. was a breeze to organize in comparison, and come time of departure, we felt as ready, as we would ever be.

London

After work on Thursday the 24th October 2013 we ventured to Copenhagen airport, checked in and met up at the bar. They serve a 75cl Carlsberg draught which we had a couple of – a fitting send of for our adventure, we thought.

Arriving at a relatively cheap and cheerful hotel on Cromwell Road near Earls Court we ventured to a very nice Indian restaurant, “Karma”, on Blythe Road. We had a few Cobra beers with our curries and arrived back at the hotel for an early night; we knew that we had a long, hard and strenuous day ahead of us!

Friday is crawl day

We woke up to a cloudy but dry day. So we ventured to Earls Court and bought our 1 day travel cards for Zone 1 and 2. At £7.30, they were going to be an absolute bargain compared to the alternative 28 single tickets 🙂

We picked up sandwiches from the local Pret and had them in our freezer bag together with some bottles of water. Dehydration from drinking so much beer should not be ignored.
All set, we took breakfast at a … well … where else but pub near Earls Court. The Prince of Tech.

We had planned to start and finish at the same pub, namely the split-in-two Ship and Shovel pub near Embankment Station. We would do one side of the pub at the start and the other side at the finish.
We were, as planned, outside the pub around 10:45 ready to go as soon as it opened at 11:00 when we noticed that the pub across the street, “The Princess of Wales”, actually seemed to be open. As we were fearing in only 12 hours we wouldn’t have quite enough time to complete the whole crawl, we decided to improvise from the start and go there instead for the first pub. And thus, at 10:51 the crawl began!

The crawl

Stop 1

Station Embankment
We turned left after the ticket barriers leaving the station heading away from the river. Heading straight up Villier Street after leaving the station, Princess of Wales came up on our right. Opposite the Princess of Wales is a shopping arcade. For the back-up AND finishing pub, Ship & Shovel, head down here and keep going you’ll eventually come to the pub in two halves. One half on the left and one on the right.
Arrival at pub 10:51 27 Villiers Street, Charing Cross, London, WC2N 6ND – (Mon-Sat 10:00-00:00)
The Princess of Wales – ***
Brewery/Beer: Nicholson, Nicholson Pale Ale, Time at pub: 9 minutes

Leaving pub 11:00, Blood-Alcohol level 0.19, Walking time to the station: 1 minuteArrival at platform: 11:01,
Waiting for train: 2 minutes, Alternate tube east to Temple: DistrictTrain departing: 11:03, Train Train journey time: 2 minutes
This was a nice pub to begin with and a pale ale was a good beer to get us started. We weren’t really yet into the swing of just getting a move on and thus we took far longer than needed to drink up. Eventually, after 9 minutes, we emptied our glasses and headed out for the station and second stop. One of our tourists came straight from the airport and his flight was late, so we had actually started without him.

Stop 2

Station  Temple
You come out of the tube station with the river to your right and you see a set of steps to your left. Go up those steps, cross the road and keep heading in towards the city up Arundel Street. Take the first right between the office blocks – or around the building site, if they are still building. Twist left on Milford Lane and there it is, Cheshire Cheese, on the right!
Arrival at pub 11:09 5 Little Essex Street, WC2R 3LD – (Mon-Fri 11:00-23:00)
Cheshire Cheese – *****
Brewery/Beer: Tribute –Cornish Pale Ale/St. Austell Brewery, Time at pub: 7 minutes
Leaving pub 11:15, Blood-Alcohol level 0.28, Walking time to the station: 5 minutes
Arrival at platform: , Waiting for train: 1 minute, Alternate tube east to Blackfriars: District
Train departing: 11:21, Train journey time: 2 minutes
We all agreed that if this was not the best pub on the crawl, it was certainly among the top 3. Very interesting deco, great selection of beers and a very friendly landlord. We met up with our late tourist and all 5 of us signed the pub’s guest book before venturing onwards on our journey.

Stop 3

Station  Blackfriars
You should follow the underground sign to The Blackfriar and take the tunnel on the right which runs under the road. You’ll appear out of the station entrance directly in front of the pub. It’s so hard to miss, that if you manage to do so anyways, you should probably treat your guide dog better.
Arrival at pub 11:26 174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EG – (Mon-Sat 10:00-23:00)
The Blackfriar ***
Brewery/Beer: London Pride (Fullers) and Guiness, Time at pub: 3 minutes
Leaving pub: 11:29, Blood-Alcohol level 0.40, Walking time to the station: 3 minutes
Arrival at platform: 11:32, Waiting for train: 3 minutes
Alternate tube east to Mansion House: District
Train departing: 11:35, Train journey time: 1 minute
A very interesting pub which is far more spacious when you get inside it than the outer appearance eludes to. We were getting into the swing of things – 3 minutes from entering to leaving; we were on a roll now and had already started to build up a nice time buffer in case we ran into trouble later.


Stop 4

Station  Mansion House
Come out of the station entrance. Look down the road to the right and the pubs are in front of you!
Arrival at pub 11:39 28 Garlick Hill, EC4V 2BA – (Mon-Fri 11:00-23:00)
The Hatchet
Brewery/Beer: Green King IPA, Abbott Ale and Fosters lager, Time at pub: 2 minutes
Leaving pub: 11:41, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.45, Walking time to the station: 1 minutes
Arrival at platform: 11:42, Waiting for train: 7 minutes
Alternate tube east to Cannon Street: District, Train departing: 11:49, Train journey time: 1 minute
We had a bit of a disagreement on what to drink here, and thus went our own particular ways. I know for sure, that I did not have the lager knowing that it’s a very bad idea if you want to be able to pour a lot on board.

Stop 5

Station  Cannon Street
Come out of the station entrance. Turn right up Cannon Street and Bush Lane with The Bell appears on the right.
Arrival at pub 11:53 29 Bush Lane, EC4R 0AN – (Mon-Fri 11:00-22:00)
The Bell – ****
Brewery/Beer: Sharps Cornish Coaster, Time at pub: 5 minutes
Leaving pub: 11:58, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.56, Walking time to the station: 4 minutes
Arrival at platform: 12:02, Waiting for train: 0 minutes, Alternate tube east to Monument: District
Train departing: 12:02, Train journey time: 1 minute
We were originally looking for The Cannon; a pub which (it seems) has not been seen since it was torn down several years earlier. Where the pub was supposed to be was now a building site for one of London’s new fantastic and weirdly/oddly shaped skyscrapers. The rest of the team seriously began to have their doubt about the quality of my planning, having missed THAT one! However, The Bell was a charming alternate and after the disagreement at the previous pub, we all went for the Cornish Coaster.

Stop 6

Station  Monument
Pop out of the station entrance and turn right down the round. On the left is the monument itself, usually encircled by tourists, and on the right the pub, usually full of them.
Arrival at pub 12:05 18 Fish Street Hill, London EC3R 6DB – (Mon-Fri 11:00-23:00)
Monument (Hogg’s Head) – *
Brewery/Beer: Heineken lager, Time at pub: 7 minutes
Leaving pub: 12:12, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.68, Walking time to the station: 1 minute
Arrival at platform: 12:13, Waiting for train: 2 minutes, Alternate tube east to Tower Hill: District
Train departing: 12:15, Train journey time: 3 minutes
What an absolutely awful pub – a real tourist trap. Next time we’ll try the Britannia on the other side of The Monument. Could be just as bad, really, but can’t see it being any worse. Also, lager again… We learnt a lot during this crawl, and one of the things was, not to get any democratic ideas like taking turns choosing what everyone should drink. If someone doesn’t want to drink ale or bitter, let them, but do not let yourself get tricked into drinking lager.

.   

Stop 7

Station  Tower Hill
When you get out of the station, look around to get your bearings. Come out to the right of the station and follow the pavement round to the right. The pub is in front of you.
Arrival at pub 12:22 64-73 Minories, EC3N 1JL
The Minories – ***
Brewery/Beer: Wychwood Hobgoblin (Funny name, flashing-light-label but sub-standard beer)
Time at pub: 8 minutesLeaving pub: 12:30, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.74, Walking time to the station: 3 minutes
Arrival at platform: 12:33, Waiting for train: 10 minutes, Train departing: 12:43
Train journey time: 3 minutes

Stop 8

Station  Aldgate
Turn left out of the station. This is Aldgate High Street. The easiest of the three pubs to find is the Still & Star; cross the extremely busy road, and do it at the pedestrian crossing (or you’ll probably die). Look toward the right and ’round’ the back of the buildings in front of you lies the pub.
Arrival at pub 12:49 1 Little Somerset Street, E1 8AH – (Mon-Fri 11:00-23:00)
Still & Star
Brewery/Beer: Fullers’ Pride and Youngs Lighthouse, Time at pub: 6 minutes
Leaving pub: 12:55, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.84, Walking time to the station: 2 minutes
Arrival at platform: 12:57, Waiting for train: 15 minutes
Alternate tube east to Liverpool Street: Metropolitan
Train departing: 13:12, Train journey time: 4 minutes

Stop 9

Station  Liverpool Street Station
Come out of Liverpool St. Railway Station and into the main square. You’ll be near a McDonalds. You should be able to spot the backup pub Railway Tavern on the corner of a junction and just over the road is the target pub Lord Aberconway.
Arrival at pub 13:18 72 Old Broad Street, The City, EC2M 1QT – (Mon-Fri 10:00-23:00)
Lord Aberconway
Brewery/Beer: Fullers London Pride, Thwaites 13 guns IPA
Time at pub: 6 minutes
Leaving pub: 13:24, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.89, Walking time to the station: 1 minutes
Arrival at platform: 13:25, Waiting for train: 4 minutes
Alternate tube west to Moorgate: Metropolitan + Hammersmith & City, Train departing: 13:29, Train journey time: 2 minutes

13 Guns is a highly rated Ameriucan Style IPA – certainly worth trying.

Stop 10

Station  Moorgate
Out of the station and head right. Both “The Globe” and “Keats at the Globe” pubs are on the right hand side.
Arrival at pub 13:35 85 Moorgate, EC2M 6SA – (Mon-Fri 10:00-23:30)
Keats at the Globe
Brewery/Beer: Nicholsons Pale Ale, Time at pub: 14 minutes
Leaving pub: 13:49, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.96, Walking time to the station: 4 minutes
Arrival at platform: 13:53, Waiting for train: 0 minutes
Alternate tube northwest to Barbican: Metropolitan + Hammersmith & City, Train departing: 13:53, Train journey time: 1 minute

Keats at the Globe can be viewed as being the “Bar Area” of “The Globe”, which then itself is the “Public Area”.

Stop 11

Station  Barbican
To get to “The Shakespeare” head left out of the underground entrance. Follow the main road down. You’ll shortly see the pub on the right hand side.
Arrival at pub 13:58 2 Goswell Road, EC1M 7AA – (Mon-Sat 12:00-23:00)
The Shakespeare
Brewery/Beer: Sharps’ Doom Bar, Time at pub: 8 minutes
Leaving pub: 14:06, Blood-Alcohol level: 0.99, Walking time to the station: 3 minutes
Arrival at platform: 14:09, Waiting for train: 1 minute
Alternate tubes northwest to Farringdon: Metropolitan + Hammersmith & City
Train departing: 14:10, Train journey time: 1 minute

Stop 12

Station  Farringdon
Come out of the station entrance. Look left and head that way. At the first junction facing you is “The Castle“.
Arrival at pub 14:13 34-35 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6DB – (Mon-Thu 12:00-23:00, Fri 12:00-01:00)
The Castle
Brewery/Beer: Andwells’ Krystalweiss & Fullers London Pride, Time at pub: 6 minutes
Leaving pub: 14:19, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.10, Walking time to the station: 1 minute
Arrival at platform: 14:20, Waiting for train: 4 minutes
Alternate tubes northwest to Kings Cross: Hammersmith & City + Metropolitan
Train departing: 14:24, Train journey time: 4 minutes


Stop 13

Station  Kings Cross
It’s possible to pop up anywhere in this area and find a pub. We had originally put O’Neils on the schedule. O’Neills pubs are found everywhere, and we had included it, as a sample of a chain driven down-market pub. Location of O’Neils is on the main Euston Road junction with Judd St. opposite St. Pancras Station. However, we chickened out and didn’t want to go, so feeling adventurous we carried on a bit down Caledonian Road where we found The Flying Scotsman on our right.
Arrival at pub 14:39 2-4 Caledonian Road, N1 9DT – (Mon-Sat 12:00-23:00)
Flying Scotschman M
Brewery/Beer: 1664 Kronenberg, Time at pub: 11 minutes
Leaving pub: 14:50, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.15, Walking time to the station: 10 minutes
Arrival at platform: 15:00, Waiting for train: 10 minutes
Alternate tube west to Euston Square: Metropolitan + Hammersmith & City
Train departing: 15:10 Train journey time: 2 minutes
Little did we know (honest guv) that it is a strip bar. We were unprepared for the stark naked girl on stage wringing around to a seemingly different beat from what was playing rather loudly from some cheap speakers. One of us –obviously a tragically deprived individual- suggested abandoning the crawl all together and set up camp here.

The majority opinion of getting out fast won the day, however. Like Sir Gallagher and the other Monty Pythons knights we were on a mission. Not for something as boring as a stripper or for that matter a holy grail. No no no!! We were on a mission for beer!

Stop 14

Station  Euston Square
Be sure to take the exit on the north side of Euston Road by turning right after coming through the ticket barriers. Turn right out of the station, and right again into North Gower Street. After 100 yards you will find the Crown & Anchor on the right.
Arrival at pub 15:19 137 Drummond Street, NW1 2HL – (Mon-Sat 10:00-00:00)
The Crown (& Anchor)
Brewery/Beer: Hobgoblin & Doom Bar, Time at pub: 30 minutes


Leaving pub: 15:49, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.23, Walking time to the station: 4 minutes
Arrival at platform: 15:53, Waiting for train: 2 minutes
Alternate tube west to Great Portland Street: Metropolitan + Hammersmith & City
Train departing: 15:55, Train journey time: 1 minute

We were at this stage almost an hour ahead of the original schedule, so we decided to sit down and relax and enjoy the pub. The Crown and  Anchor is a very nice pub.
   
Half way through the tour, it was very nice to rest our feet and catch our breaths.

Stop 15

Station  Great Portland Street
Turn right at the top of the stairs to pass through the barrier. As you leave the station, the Green Man is directly opposite.
Arrival at pub 13:59 383 Euston Road, NW1 3AU – (Mon-Sat 11:00-23:00)
The Green Man
Brewery/Beer: Windsor & Eaton Canberra, Time at pub: 11 minutesLeaving pub: 16:10, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.26, Walking time to the station: 1 minutes
Arrival at platform: 16:11, Waiting for train: 3 minutes
Alternate tube west to Baker Street: Metropolitan + Hammersmith & City, Train departing: 16:14, Train journey time: 3 minutes
   

Another pub sporting the Halloween topical Hobgoblin, but this time we declined and went for a rich chestnut coloured beer from Windsor & Eaton brewery. Nice full bodied with rounded and rich flavours that stays pleasantly with you.

Stop 16

Station  Baker Street
Take the main exit from the station, onto the loading road at the front. The Globe pub can be seen directly across the road.
Arrival at pub 16:22 43 to 47 Marylebone Road, Marylebone, NW1 5JY – (Mon-Sat 10:00-23:00)
Globe
Brewery/Beer: Nelsson Brewery: Vengeance, Time at pub: 9 minutes


Leaving pub: 16:31, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.29, Walking time to the station: 4 minutes
Arrival at platform: 16:35, Waiting for train: 4 minutes
Alternate tube west to Edgware Road: Hammersmith & City
Train departing: 16:39, Train journey time: 2 minutes

The Globe along quite a few of the other pubs were all made up for Halloween. Once bitten, we continued to stay clear of the Hobgoblin and instead went for Vengeance, a 4.8% blonde. Maybe just a little sharp for my taste, but certainly drinkable.

Stop 17

Station  Edgware Road
Turn left out of the station and follow Chapel Street for around 150 yards. The Chapel is on the right at the far end, at the junction with Old Marylebone Road.
Arrival at pub 16:45 48 Chapel Street, NW1 5DP – (Mon-Sat 12:00-23:00)
The Chapel
Brewery/Beer: Peroni, Time at pub: 11 minutes


Leaving pub: 16:56, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.28, Walking time to the station: minutes
Arrival at platform: 16:59, Waiting for train: 3 minutes
Alternate tube west to Paddington: District Line + Hammersmith & City, Train departing: 17:01 Train journey time: 4 minutes

Peroni lager. OK, pleasant enough, but again not the right beer for a 28 shot pub-crawl. Anyhow, let the Italian do Amarone, Barberesco and Barolo and let the British take care of the beer. Please.
              

Stop 18

Station  Paddington
Come out of the station on the south exit of Praed Street. Head to the right and turn down London Street. The pub is on the left on the corner of London Mews and London street.
Arrival at pub 17:10 25 London Street, W2 1HH – (Mon-Sat 12:00-23:00)
Dickens Tavern
Brewery/Beer: Thwaites Lancaster Bombers, Time at pub: 8 minutes
Leaving pub: 17:18, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.30, Walking time to the station: 4 minutes
Arrival at platform: 17:22, Waiting for train: 1 minutes
Alternate tube south to Bayswater: District Line
Train departing: 17:23, Train journey time: 2 minutes
Thwaites Lancaster Bomber, for all of its pompous and bombastic name, is the kind of beer I really like. I have to admit, I can’t remember whether this is the case, but I venture a guess, that it was my turn to decide what we should be drinking at this pub!

Stop 19

Station  Bayswater
Turning left out of the station, walking about 30 yards down Queensway we reached Moscow Road on the left, and Bayswater Arms on the near corner.
Arrival at pub 17:27 Bayswater, W2 4QH – (Mon-Thu 09:00-23:30, Fri-Sat 00:00)
Bayswater Arms (Rat & Parrot)
Brewery/Beer: Hobgoblin, Guiness, London Pride, Time at pub: 19 minutes


Leaving pub: 17:46, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.34, Walking time to the station: 1 minutes
Arrival at platform: 17:47, Waiting for train: 2 minutes
Alternate tube south to Notting Hill Gate: District Line
Train departing: 17:49, Train journey time: 1 minute

A round of free choice. We had a tourist getting caught up in the Halloween spirit and coming back for another Hobgoblin. Then there were the Guiness drinkers. Anywhere and anytime. In opposition and against the odds, I had Pride.  Always have pride…


Unfortunately, we lost one of our tourist after Bayswater. He became a little too tired and emotional and felt an urgent need to rest his weary legs back at the hotel. We were down to four for the rest of the crawl.

Stop 20

Station  Nottinghill Gate
Coming out of the station we went a little east on Notting Hill Gate (A402) and around the corner to the right on Kensington Church Street (A4204). The pub is across the road on your right.
Arrival at pub 17:55 206 Kensington Church St, London W8 4DP – (Mon-Sat 12:00-23:00)
The Old Swan
Brewery/Beer: Cottage Brewery Trick & Treat, Time at pub: 18 minutes
Leaving pub: 18:13, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.50, Walking time to the station: 37 minutes
Arrival at platform: , Waiting for train: minutes
Alternate tube south to High Street Kensington: District
Train departing: 18:53, Train journey time: 1 minute
We have now each had 10 pints of beer over a 7 hour period of time. We felt fine, but on the way back to the station we also felt in serious need for salty food and a Kentucky Fried Chicken place seemed perfect to fit the bill. On a tight schedule we quickly scuffed down the food and got up and onwards on our quest. Well, 2 of us did. We didn’t notice that the other 2 were waiting behind – for what, I have no clue. We discovered that we were two men down as we went through the ticket barriers. The ensuing SMS conversation, went as follows:
Me: Where the hell are you? We are through the ticket barriers at Notting Hill Gate!
Slacker: At KFC.
Me: Why. The. Fuck?!
Slacker: <No answer>
After a few minutes our happy group was again complete and ready for the next challenge.

Stop 21

Station  High Street Kensington
Out of the station, we passed straight ahead through the arcade to reach the High Street, then turned right. After 150 yards, at the traffic lights, we crossed the road into Kensington Church Street, where we almost immediately saw the Prince of Wales on the right.
Arrival at pub 18:59 8 Kensington Church Street, W8 4EP – (Mon-Sat 11:00-12:00)
Prince of Wales
Brewery/Beer: Sole Bay Brewery’s Explorer, Time at pub: 11 minutes
Leaving pub: 19:10, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.53, Walking time to the station: 5 minutes
Arrival at platform: 19:15, Waiting for train: 1 minute
Train departing: 19:16, Train journey time: 26 minutes
It was a nice pub with a different beer. An American style blonde ale at 4.3%. Blondes are not exactly my favorites… eh… if we’re talking beers, that is, but this was actually really nice Coming out of the pub we definitely had the feeling of being on the home stretch and in no doubt we would make it. We were making good time, had no problem finishing the drinks and didn’t feel particularly influenced by the alcohol intake. It can therefore only be put down to poor signage on behalf of TfL that we managed to get on the train in the wrong direction! Back to Notting Hill Gate we went, off and onto different platform so we could pass first High Street Kensington again and then get to next stop, Gloucester Road. This was the second significant hiccough we encountered (“The Cannon” being the first), this time not with the planning, but with the execution.

Stop 22

Station  Gloucester Road
We came straight out of the station entrance and headed off to the right. The pub was in front of us just across the road.
Arrival at pub 19:45 97 Gloucester Road, SW7 4SS – (Mon-Wed 09:00-23:30, Thu-Sat 09:00-00:00)
Stanhope Arms
Brewery/Beer: Fullers’ London Pride, Time at pub: 7 minutes


Leaving pub: 19:53, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.56, Walking time to the station: 2 minutes
Arrival at platform: 19:54, Waiting for train: 1 minute
Alternate tube east to South Kensington: District + Picadilly
Train departing: 19:55, Train journey time: 1 minute

It had been over ½ an hour since we had been in a pub, and we had been on a long journey. We also needed to recoup some pride from having gone the wrong way, so the beer choice was really given, right?

Stop 23

Station  South Kensington
At the top of the stairs, we turned left to reach the street. Across the street we went, aiming slightly to the right to the central island, then cross again to the right so as to be able to walk down the right hand side of Old Brompton Road. Carrying on, crossing Glendower Place, for around 100 yards. The Zetland Arms is found on the near corner at the junction with Bute Street.
Arrival at pub 20:01 2 Bute Street, SW7 3EX (Mon-Sat 11:00-00:00)
Zetland Arms
Brewery/Beer: Portobello Star (Too bitter) and Green King IPA, Time at pub: 11 minutes
Leaving pub: 20:12, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.61, Walking time to the station: 3 minutes
Arrival at platform: 20:15, Waiting for train: 3 minutes
Alternate tube east to Sloane Square: District
Train departing: 20:18, Train journey time: 2 minutes
We split up our choices and two of us decided to try the Portobello Star which we in the end agreed was too bitter. The other half of the group went for Green King IPA which was a safe choice made several times along the crawl.

Stop 24

Station  Sloane Square
First of all, the pub we had lined up was supposed to be on Sloane Square but neither it nor the back-up pub were in existence any longer. Next day we located the Queens Head.
Arrival at pub 20:27 25 Tryon St. SW3 3LG
Queens Head
Time at pub: 7 minutesLeaving pub: 20:34, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.65, Walking time to the station: 6 minutes
Arrival at platform: 20:40, Waiting for train: 1 minute, Alternate tube east to Victoria: District
Train departing: 20:41, Train journey time: 2 minutes
Around Sloane Square there are now only wine-bars and cafés. We originally went to the counter of a wine-bar but is was truly so ghastly we left before ordering, in order to locate a proper pub. Failing to do this, we returned to the original wine-bar so we could at least fulfil our ½ pint obligation but this time we were refused entry because one of us had volunteered the information, that we were doing a Circle Line Pub Crawl and they didn’t want “that sort of clientele”. Right… I have later been informed that there are two pubs around the back of the station which we will try next time we do the crawl: The Fox and Hounds on 29 Passmore Street and Duke Of Wellington on 63 Eaton Terrace. For completion, we went around the next day to look for a pub and after some searching found the Queens Head. We went in and had lunch and a few pints. On my return I was informed that Queens Head was known to be a “gay pub” and some reviews I have found mention that straight customers were not treated as being welcome. I got the impression the pub has moved away from being very gay-specific, and we had a very pleasant lunch there.

Stop 25

Station  Victoria
Follow the signs for the mainline station as you leave the underground ticket hall. As you reach the main station concourse you should go round to the right of W H Smith and then up the small escalator. At the top you will find Wetherspoon’s
Arrival at pub 20:48 Concourse on Victoria Station
Weatherspoons
Brewery/Beer: Pumpkin Ale, Time at pub: 17 minutes
Leaving pub: 21:05, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.71, Walking time to the station: 5 minutes
Arrival at platform: 21:10, Waiting for train: 0 minutes
Alternate tube east to St. James Park: District
Train departing: 21:10, Train journey time: 2 minutes
Weatherspoon. I mean… enuff said, right? Had to be the worse “pub” on the crawl, right? Well, let’s get the facts straight. Yes, it has no pub atmosphere, it’s literally placed on the concourse of one of the busiest stations and the tables and chairs are more or less made of plastic. However, after the Sloane Square experience, it was at least not pretentiously trying to cater for a finer crowd. The pumpkin ale was fine, and we had a full pint of it to make up for Sloane Square. At this stage, I was getting into difficulties. With a blood/alcohol level of 1.71 I was of course feeling the effect, but that was not the main issue. I was running out of room to put the beer. I could take the glass to my mouth, open the mouth, but my body was telling me, there was nowhere to put the beer. I have to take the blame for the 17 minutes spent – that’s how long time it took to the get the pint down. I absolutely blame the lager I was tricked into having at earlier stops.

Stop 26

Station  St. James’ Park
Exit the station towards north to get on Broadway. Pub is across the road to the right of the mini roundabout.
Arrival at pub 21:15 66 Broadway, Westminster, SW1H 0DB – (Mon-Fri 11:00-23:00)
The Old Star
Brewery/Beer: Abbot Ale, Green King IPA, Time at pub: 11 minutes


Leaving pub: 21:26, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.78, Walking time to the station: 2 minutes
Arrival at platform: 21:28, Waiting for train: 4 minutes
Train departing: 21:32, Train journey time: 2 minutes

Abbot ale is a malted barley beer. Being back to ½ pints from the full pint at Weatherspoons on the previous stop was psychological a good thing. I was still struggling but it seemed less of a whole elephant to be consumed. I can’t remember if it was one or two who just wanted to finish and rather than experiment with some unknown brew, they went for the safe haven of an IPA.

Stop 27

Station  Westminster
After the ticket barriers, do not go directly to the street but head to the far right corner of the ticket hall, which should be signposted as an exit for Parliament Street/Whitehall. Go up the first stairs on the right and continue straight on up Parliament Street. The Red Lion is on the right after about 100 yards, on the corner with Derby Gate.
Arrival at pub 21:40 48 Parliament Square, SW1A 2NH – (Mon-Sat 10:00-23:00)
The Red Lion
Brewery/Beer: Fullers’ ESB, Time at pub: 15 minutes
Leaving pub: 21:55, Blood-Alcohol level: 1.85, Walking time to the station: 5minutes
Arrival at platform: 22:00, Waiting for train: 1 minutes, Alternate tube east to Embankment: District
Train departing: 22:01, Train journey time: 2 minutes
Even though it was only the penultimate stop, as we were getting back to the starting point, The Red Lion had a distinct feeling of finishing line over it. Another good pub with Fullers’ beers and we felt cocky enough to celebrate with the ESB. The Extra Strong Brew or Pride on steroids if you wish. Very nice at 5.9%. We knew for certain at this stage we would make it and we had plenty of times to spare. So we sat down, enjoyed the beer and completed some of the notes we had made along the way.


Stop 28

Station  Embankment
Turn left after the ticket barriers to leave the station heading away from the river. Head straight up Villier Street after leaving the station. Opposite the Princess of Wales is a shopping arcade. Head down here and keep going you’ll eventually come to the pub in two halves. One half on the left and one on the right.
Arrival at pub 22:07 1-3 Craven Passage, WC2N 5PH – (Mon-Sat 11:00-23:00)
Ship & Shovel
Brewery/Beer: Hall & Woodhouse Tanglefoot, Time at pub: 28 minutes
Leaving pub: 22:35, Blood-Alcohol level: 2.05, Walking time to the station: 4 minutes
Arrival at platform: 22:39, Waiting for train: 2 minutes, Train departing: 22:41
… and we had made it!

It was at this point obviously dark, and we were tired, so the outside pictures of the pub were those taken earlier in the morning as were were waiting for the pub to open.