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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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