I spoke to Ben yesterday and so my trip to the “British Mainland” is now confirmed.

I’ll start in Oxford and do circuits there until I’m dizzy (circuit: take off, fly in a circle, “touch” the run way and “go” again, ad infinitum) and then head off to local airfields and do the same there.
Ben will make me go to Enstone, his home airport, and no flight training from Oxford is complete without Hinton in the Hedges, a small airfield now full of gliders and parachuters, just to keep things interesting.

One reason (as I understand it, I better go research this) that there are so many airfields in Southern England is that the military requisitioned a lot of farm land during World War 2 to make landing strips for the RAF. These airfields were in heavy use for four or five years and then abandoned. Some of these got picked up by the local council or even privately and remain in use: Hinton in the Hedges with its original Control Tower in ruins is one of these.
With the exception of Oxford, I know nothing of any of these places except their runways. When possible, you book over the phone to avoid having to stop your training and land to pay fees etc. This time, though, I will try to convince Ben to do a photograph and coffee tour, stopping at each one to test out their cafes (where possible) and get a look around.

We’ll also be doing some navigation to a destination which will no doubt be sprung on me the night before, leaving me sleepless in a small hotel poring over maps wondering if I can find my way without the aid of the GPS. If Ben is feeling confident, we’ll carry on to do shortfield landings. Last time we went to Stapleford, where I smiled as I landed with runway to spare and Ben shivered as he told me he’d never been that close to the hedges before.
I’m not sure if he’ll take me there again.

Then there’s the standard refreshers: recovering from a stall, practice forced landings, steep turns. We can’t do spins in the Saratoga, thank goodness.

I’m nervous now.

… lest you think I’m only going there for the alcohol.

A meal in St Anne in view of St Anne’s church.

Hike out to the neolithic burial site, followed by a visit to the Alderney Museum.

A trip on the only running railway in the Channel Islands.

Find out about the Elizabethan wreck which seems an awesome project.
See a gannet and maybe even a blonde hedgehog.

Visit The Nunnery, an old fort from Roman times used as a staging post between Brittany and Britain.

Leave the island to see Burhou if possible (served as a shelter for fishermen and shipwrecked mariners, now a bird sanctuary).

Alderney has an annual event called “Milk-a-Punch Sunday” and I’ve specifically worked my schedule around being able to be there, plus a day on the ground on Monday to recover.

http://www.alderney.gov.gg/index.php/pid/16/more_info/7

This long-observed tradition is a drink made of milk and egg and given a little kick by a healthy tot of rum, offered by every publican on the island and often imaginatively adapted to their own recipe. The origin of the tradition is suitably blurred, but folklore has it that

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The Food and Ale Festival. I think this means a pub crawl. I hope so. :)

Currently looking at spending most of the time in St Peter Port, seeing the harbour and the market and probably the German Naval Signals HQ, Hautevill House and Castle Cornet.

I’m not sure if the shipwreck museum in Fort Grey is worth a visit, likewise the Little Chapel. I’m tempted to spend the time out of doors instead exploring the coastline.

• Visit Vineyards of La Mare
• Find out about Jersey Apple Brandy
• Try a real Jersey Cream Tea
• Go to the Ramsar wetlands
• Walk on the seabed where Jersey was once connected to mainland France
• Take a coastal cruise from Grouville Bay
• Visit the sea front at St Clement including Green Island
• Get a tour of Mont Orgueil Castle
• Have a meal at St Aubin’s Bay
• Go to Elizabeth Castle and find out why it was named after the queen
• Visit St Matthew’s Church
• See the WWII fortifications at Noirmont Point
• Find the Fishermen’s Chapel at St Brelade’s.
• See the lighthouse at Corbi
  
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I’m flying. And I have a plan.

I’m flying to the British Isles. All of them. Well, all of them that have an airfield.

After a lot of peering at Pooleys and pondering maps, it appears that we have a total of 38 islands that fit the criteria of having a runway that is useable (not all of them by the Saratoga, sadly).

First stop is easy: “The British Mainland” … I’ll be flying to somewhere near Oxford and asking a lovely instructor to make sure I’m up-to-date and help me with short-field landings. That at least kills the decision of which country to choose, let alone which airfield.

The intro is written. Dates are set and all the basic research is done for the next three stops: Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. All that’s left is for me to stop mispronouncing Guernsey.

That, and to start collating information. That’s where this blog comes in. I’ll be posting my locations, my must-see lists and my dates here. I’ll be trawling web forums and mailing lists asking for more details. I’ll be grovelling at people to come here and check that my information is right. I’ll be using it as a scratch pad of sorts, I suppose, while I try to get everything coordinated over a two-year period.
And in the end, this will be the outline for a book about the results: Fear of Landing.