I was watching my log book carefully as I waited for the weather to clear and then, most frustratingly, waited for the plane to be in good working order again. Although I have to admit I was relieved that someone else found the fault rather than leaving it to me.

I then managed to get a flight in just the nick of time: there’s a three-month deadline for taking passengers and, god forgive me, but I still hate the thought of flying that plane solo.

We flew to Angouleme where I made a complete and utter hash of joining the circuit and then overcompensated for the weight of the plane by coming in way too fast. On the bright-side, I have now come up with a cheatsheet of things to review after an extended amount of time without flying. As I get more experienced I’m sure this will become redundant, but at the moment I think it makes a real difference.

• The order of a standard radio call

Silly, but there’s a hideous blank moment the first time I’m asked to pass my message where I think, “I have no idea what to say” and end up stuttering lots. A quick refresher would avoid one stomach cramp per flight, always a good thing.

• Diagram of a standard join

I always end up twisting and turning a plate to work out the angle I need to join the circuit. The problem is that I assume I know what the join will be like and think that one through without considering the other options. I just need to plan in a few minutes of staring at it, test myself on joins in various configurations using both circuit directions and taking into account coming in from an odd angle. I’m just not quick enough to think this through in the air while I’m desperately trying to get the plane to slow the hell down.

• Review emergency procedures on the ground!

It’s all well and good testing myself in the air, quiet moments filled with considerations of what would I do if …. But when I’ve not flown for weeks, it’s a bit of a jump to assume that nothing will go wrong until I’ve achieved radio silence and had a chance to review. I should be testing myself on the ground first.

• Visualise

I learned this in the PPL and somewhere along the line forgot. Visualise the processes needed. Stepping through the planned flight serves as a refresher and more importantly nudges me on the ground about the things that are a bit hazy in my mind.

The Saratoga is sitting in Elstree, we cancelled our flight home when it began to snow. We’ll pick it up in a few weeks — meanwhile I keep saying I want to re-read my coursework from the PPL. No time like the present!

I saw this photograph today and had to share.

You can see the full story at Snopes at
http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/flightschool.asp — what a landing, huh? Amazing that the pilot walked away, really.

We sat on the terrace of the Chalet, gazing out at the water and Sark in the distance, while Peter and Mary put up with a torrent of questions about the island and the must-see places.

“And while you are exploring the bays, you should go visit the towers, they’ve been put into quite good order, although I still wouldn’t want to be a soldier living in it during a winter gale! Just don’t believe anyone that tells you that the towers are all Martellos. Most of them are not.” Peter gave me a stern look.

“Not what?”

“Not a Martello tower,” Peter explained.

It seems that in 1794 during the Napoleonic Wars, the British responded to a plea from Corsica to help them fight off the French. The Royal Navy attacked and captured a large, round tower on Mortella Point but it took two days and they suffered unexpected casualties. When the British left Corsica, they decided to destroy the tower to keep it from being used by the French but even that proved more difficult than expected. The Royal Navy was impressed and made plans of the tower, apparently at this point getting the name wrong. The decision was made to create towers in the same style to defend the English Coast. In the early 1800s a hundred of these towers were built: chunky brick structures that were 30 foot tall and 13 foot thick on the seaward side. The towers became redundant when Napoleon defeated in 1815 and were never used in battle.

“We have 15 towers along the coast,” Peter told me, “but they pre-date the Martello towers, built in 1780. They are smaller and not as strong. Guernsey does have Martello towers: Fort Grey is one, they call it the cup and saucer. I think there are two others. But the locals will tell you they are all Martello towers. They aren’t.”

I nodded, impressed at the pitfalls involved in describing disused fortifications.

Much later, I had forgotten about the conversation when I saw grey brick looming up from a green field covered in buttercups. I realised that I had found one of the towers that Peter had been telling me about. I explored around it and its cannons. I laughed aloud when I found and read the plaque attached to it. The plaque is there to inform visitors that they have reached Tower No. 11, Rousse Tower, and that it is not a Martello tower.

Useful websites for the Channel Islands:

• http://www.jerseymet.gov.je/ with webcams of the runway and St Helier!
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/guernsey/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/ but not Alderney. :(
• http://www.visitguernsey.com
• http://www.aboutjersey.net and http://www.jersey.com/ and http://www.jersey.co.uk/ (Have you guys ever thought about consolidating?)
• http://www.nationaltrustjersey.org.je
• http://www.flyalderney.com/
• http://www.alderney.net - I especially liked the very brief history
• http://www.alderney.gov.gg

Alderney Lighthouse

Originally uploaded by fearoflanding.

I’ve set up a separate flickr account for this blog, so I can add photographs quickly and not confuse people with a photostream full of my house in Spain.

I’ll probably retroactively add stuff but more important at the moment is to go through all the images (some 200!) that I haven’t done anything with yet from Isle of Wight and St Mary’s.

Meanwhile, this is the point where I stopped on the Alderney draft — I need to read up on the lighthouse (and I am very interested in hearing from anyone who has stayed there).