LEG 1: EGHI-EGTE (Mutley Field – Exeter)
The first leg of our challenge would be a short
90minute flight from our base to Exeter just to the west. After
departure we would head out over the port of Southampton, over the Isle
of Wight and then along the southern coast before heading inland to make
a landing on runway 26 at Exeter. Here’s how it happened...
We arrived at the ramp a little after 14:30 local time where we were
greeted by the hustle and bustle of the busy airport at Southampton (aka
Mutley Field). Our leader had given me permission to take you on a
visual tour of England using a variety of aircraft, with the main aim to
educate you about the fantastic scenery England has to offer.
Un-fortunately the default scenery which FSX has to offer is rather
bland so would make for a pretty poor story. Fortunately, however, the
kind people at Just Flight have donated the complete collection of their
VFR Real Scenery to help make this adventure possible (thank you, thank
you).
After receiving our clearance we waved goodbye to Joe as we taxied out to runway 20. This looked like it should be a good flight as the winds were calm and visibility good. Initially we had planned to cruise at 4,500 feet, but yet again the weatherman got it wrong and when we started to taxi out, the clouds came over at 3,700 feet. Not to be put off by the weather we altered our cruise height to 2,500 feet. I think this should still make for a good flight.
The Isle of Wight was getting bigger by the minute
in the windscreen as we passed over the Solent, and when we reached
Nettlestone we turned inland to have a look at the rolling countryside
known as the Isle of Wight. This area of the scenery is available as a
stand-alone download, you can read my review of it
here.
Cruising along at 2,500ft the scenery really began to come to life.
Flying VFR is very enjoyable and actually possible thanks to this
awesome package. The subtle shades of green really bring the Isle of
Wight to life and seem to make the island seem very calm and relaxing,
even from this altitude as we a buffeted about by the winds (this
weather man needs a pay cut!).
All too soon we have run out of the Isle of Wight, as signalled by the
fact that we are passing the Needles Lighthouse, probably the most
famous landmark on the island. At this point it was time to get out the
sunglasses as the sun reflecting of the water quite badly and blinding
us.
When we left the Isle of Wight we turned north-west and headed back for
the coastline. I thought it was safer staying near the coast because a)
I didn’t fancy getting my feet wet in an emergency, and b) there was no
VFR scenery in the English Channel.
We continued to move along the coastline marvelling at how real
everything looks from up here. There is no waiting for the scenery to
load as we move along, it’s already there waiting for us. Bournemouth
came and went on the right hand side of the aircraft, it looked a little
quiet down on the apron, probably because everyone was at Mutley Field.
When we were passing over the beach at Poole I suddenly remembered that
our route would take us close to Portland Navy, where as some of you may
remember Joe had some fun trying to land some time ago -
Link to forum post.
I decided to veer of course and see if his plane was still down there,
rumour has it that he opted to use a helicopter to get back to Mutley
Field. Sure enough as we flew by Portland Navy we could just about make
out the tail of N789DL sticking out from the hangar.
We then moved back to our course and heading
back to the south English coastline and onwards to Exeter. We
closely followed the coast as it would lead us straight to our
destination, just to be on the safe side I tuned in the ADF for EX
NDB. It was interesting to look at the difference in this part of
the scenery to that of the Isle of Wight. This region of the
coastline was substantially more built up that the Isle of Wight,
which was predominantly fields.
Soon enough we picked up the signal for the NDB so I called the
tower and requested permission to land on runway 26, which they
granted. We turned inland to line up with the runway so that we were
able to make a straight in approach and after a few minutes the
runway was just about in sight.
After lining up and establishing the descent, all that was left to
do was monitor the airspeed and vertical speed whilst the passengers
got a few more shots as we got ever closer to the ground. The
approach to the airport is much more fun that if we had been landing
without this great scenery add-on.
We landed dead on the centre
line after battling with cross winds for the last 1,000 feet of the
descent, it was a harder touchdown that I had planned for, but the
plane will be useable for the next flight.
After taxing to the parking area I shutdown and
made my way to the de-briefing room to phone Joe to let him know we
were safely there and planning the next trip on this adventure
Continued.....