A brand new airfield for me today, Earls Colne. This was with my instructor.
On my nav I needed to have planned to the overhead, which would have put my half way mark more cleanly on Hatfield Pereval. Also I need to pay more attention to the point at which I put my turning point on something large like Hanningfield Reservoir e.g. in the middle or or the edge.
Visually a little difficult to spot, surrounded by large clusters of trees but using Rivenhall (disused airfield/quarry) just to the South. There are also quite a few noise abatements which were hard to hold in my head but managed it fine. For runway 24 to join downwind, go past the Pylons and then turn left into downwind, heading towards the cluster of trees ahead, get the checks in and start descending as the circuit is quite short this way.
I drew over a printout of the plates with the circuit and headings to be prepared, and in a difficult colour the overhead join with arrows, just to make sure I cross the runway and turn in the right direction! After all I am used to the LH turns at Stapleford all the time.
Their runway is part hard surface and part grass, I found it easier to land on the grass as it is much wider. Parking is usually at the end of the runway on the grass area, the controller can help with this. There is a hard taxi way off the end of the hard run way, or you can just taxi onto the grass beyond the end of the runway and park. I parked facing the other aircraft but not too close so I can still turn around. There’s also a helicopter landing pad so make sure to give that plenty of space. I went in and paid my landing fee, they were really nice and friendly. Signed the book so I could return as a student without my instructor. I noticed they sold a few snacks for a reasonable price, there were some desks if you needed to do some planning. There was a sign for a cafe or van but I didn’t take a look, there were some benches outside to sit on.
Some checks of the aircraft, before we headed off again. The taxiway is quite long, be sure to follow the line as some people have hit bushes/trees with their wings. We did our power checks at the end of the runway there was a small grass area.
“<call sign> at Holding Point Bravo, Ready for Departure Runway 24”
“<call sign> Lining up Runway 24”
I decided to take off on the hard surface, and away we went. I turned towards Rivenhall a bit early, my instructor suggested to stay on heading a little longer towards the edge of the ATZ then turn to Rivenhall. I switched back to Southend Radar at Rivenhall.
We hoped to try to squeeze in a solo return trip but there wasn’t any aircraft available, the weather is looking very good for tomorrow so fingers crossed.