Beney.org.uk | Personal | Modern Day Flying | Days out from Newcastle
Across the
Pennines to Cumbria and the Lake District
Needing just a few hours more
solo time to get my PPL, I was able to plan my first solo flight of
over an hour in December of 1995. During an amazingly cold spell,
with clear skies and almost unlimited visibility, I planned a trip
over the Lake District.
Leaving Newcastle at around 2pm,
with the outside air temperature at -6 degrees C, I flew west past
the old RAF base at Ouston, now an Army Camp, and on up the Tyne
Valley. Watch out for the Stagshaw masts, an only marginally visible
VRP. At barely 1000ft agl, I saw what looked liked clouds on the
western horizon over the Lake District, until I realised they were
the Lake District.
Crossing the Pennines north of Cross Fell, there was just the
slightest bump from updrafts over the eastern flank of the Eden
Valley. This is a
notable area for strange winds, I understand, both up and downdrafts,
Föhn winds and so on.
You soon find the ridge of
Blencathra and Skiddaw looming in front of you, and I flew along the
ridge, watching the walkers a thousand feet below making their paths
in the snow. A circuit of the corrie at the back of Skidda' (there
is something there&ldots;.cf Alfred Wainwright)
led me to Keswick and a frozen Derwent Water. South, then, with the
Scafell range forming the horizon on the west, and Helvellyn close
below on the East, and the Pennines, and even the Cleveland Hills
just visible further away.
The Coniston fells began to form
the horizon quite quickly as I approached Windermere, and saw that
Thirlmere, Grasmere, Rydal and Esthwaite were all at least partly
covered in ice. Then turning back east, for Appleby (wary of a small
restricted or prohibited area near the Warcop ranges) and then a
change of plan, going for a direct approach to Newcastle via Cross
Fell, Alston and the Stella Power station. (GA
flights from the west and south west are frequently routed north of
Stagshaw, which is itself about 10 miles almost due West of the
airfield, to maintain separation from commercial traffic under the
control of Pennine Radar coming up from Pole Hill.)
As I returned, so mist was just beginning to collect in the bottoms
of the valleys in the northern Pennines, carpeting them with cotton
wool, and totally obscuring Derwent Reservoir south west of
Newcastle, usually a reliable reference point.
A most beautiful day, with fabulous visibility, and wonderful performance from a lightly laden PA-28 with lovely dense air!
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