Nosher Flies a Plane, Cambridge Airport, Cambridge - 28th May 2008

It's just over one year to the day that Isobel got Nosher a 40th-birthday voucher, for an hour's trial flying lesson at Cambridge Airport, before we finally get together the oppositely-conspiring forces of time and weather and manage to pin down a day. The day itself turns out to be not the classic "blue sky" one would expect, but has low cloud at 1500 feet and swirly cross-winds at around 16 knots, and so it seems for a while that the weather might frustrate again. But no - we take off in the Cessna 172 and Nosher is given control at about 1200 feet for an hour's flight over the fens to Huntingdon, a spin around Graffham Water, a few manoeuvers and then back to base, all the while flying through some bumpy air and even some clouds, technically flying IFR for a few moments.

next album: Morris Dancing, and Rick Wakeman Opens the Park Pavillion Mural, Diss, Norfolk - 30th May 2008
previous album: Cambridge and Hoxne Beer Festivals, and Mill Road Dereliction - 26th May 2008

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The instructor takes us to our plane, G-HERC

The instructor takes us to our plane, G-HERC

Isobel carries the headset bag to the waiting plane

The instructor checks the fuel levels

Nosher by the Cessna

Nosher in the hot seat

A passenger's view

The cockpit of the Cessna

Nosher goes through the pre-flight checklist

The Cessna rolls up Cambridge Airport's runway

Cambridge from the air

Cambridge, with the railway station to the right

King's Chapel is just at the bottom left

Nosher at the helm

Some flooded fields

Some sort of quarry

Sediment flow in Graffham Water

Sediment eddies around the shore

The flatlands of Cambridgeshire

Huntingdon Industrial estates

This might be St. Ives

More floods

A river runs through it

The Green Dragon bridge and the River Cam

The roundabout on Perne Road

We cross over Cambridge Airport before finals

The instructor checks around

Final approach as we cross the A14

Our Cessna - G-HERC - on the ground

Isobel and Nosher