Flying in Competition
- D Mahajan
- Jun 24
- 5 min read
Open Round 4, St Michaels Preston 21 June 2025
St Michaels Microlight Airfield is on the bank of the River Wyre, north of Preston, Lancashire. From the air, the landing strips look like they are below the river water level, protected by a high bund all around it to prevent flooding.
Andrew Butler, my navigator and I had not been able to sleep well on the Friday night due to a combination of a long working week and the excitement of flying in the competition. We had decided to take off at dawn on Saturday from Damyns Hall and fly north to arrive in time for breakfast at St. Michaels.
Damyns Hall Aerodrome in the pre-dawn clear sky is only seen by a chosen few and we were glad to be there walking through the radiation fog. Our Pipistrel Alpha, “Whisky Charlie” was well prepared and packed the evening before. Ten minutes after parking our cars, we were airborne going north heading directly towards Luton International Airport.
“Luton Radar” I said on the radio… about 15 seconds later, the Controller on the night shift responded in a voice mixed with surprise and coffee…. “good morning…” pleasantries and details exchanged, we flew over the runway in cool, creamy smooth air towards Cranfield and Leicester.
East Midlands airport is the central hub in England, normally busy with UPS, DHL, FEDEX and other cargo carriers with their midnight and predawn arrivals. We were cleared through their zone along our chosen direct line towards St Michaels, over Derby airfield. The sun peeked over the horizon and everything on the ground looked clean and green in the low light, as if the earth had just freshened up after a short mid summer slumber, ready for the weekend, just as we were.
The hills south of Manchester were “sunlit uplands” on the eastern side, their shadows rapidly shortening on the western side, waking up Stoke on Trent and Macclesfield. There was one inbound landing on Runway 23 at Manchester. We positioned to cross behind and above the landing jet by reducing our speed from 110 knots to 60 knots (thus avoiding a holding orbit) and continued towards Barton.
Barton runways looked tidy with the white washed numbers on all the 6 grass runways; then onwards to the football stadium, west of Bolton, straight over Preston and northbound, we started looking for St Michaels. The car-boot sale site, next to the airstrip, was filling up rapidly and we overlooked the airfield due to that distraction for a few seconds.
Circling and descending over-head, helped us locate the windsock and determine the runway to land, which led us straight to the bacon, egg, sausage baps and tea as was promised. Arriving at 0710 local we were the first in queue !
Now the competition round itself was briefed at 0900…
First Task to fly from St Michaels to Troutbeck Airstrip north of Lake Ullswater with 10 photos to spot.
· Each photo correctly identified and accurately marked on your map for 100 points each.
· Along the marked route on the map, there are “hidden gates” that gain 50 points each so flying accurately along the track was paramount.
· There are ground speed checks at random points. These are based on the declared speed the pilot submits before take off, based on his flight calculations given the wind conditions.
· Each competing aircraft is fitted with a tracker issued by the Flight Director, enabling the Marshalls to see the live track of each competitor. We also used the Gaggle app on the phone for post flight analysis.
Flying through the Lake District with its scenic views trying to locate the photos and stay on track was hard work for Andrew and myself. We had no spare mental capacity to enjoy the hills and lakes nor to take any pictures whilst flying. Piloting the Alpha was easy, but spotting the photos was not. On the first task, we found only 2 photos. Our consolation was being complimented on a “superb landing” on the hilly strip at Troutbeck in rotor turbulence. But I think all the co-competitors were as good with their landings.
Troutbeck (beck is a stream in “northern English”) is 5 miles from Castle Greystoke, yes the very same as the legend of Tarzan, John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke.
A quick snack prepared by the ground team who had reached the Troutbeck airstrip in advance (by air) refreshed us; I picked up some UL91 (thank you Roger Savage) and we were handed a new task sheet with the photos.
The wind was now blowing down the venturi funnels formed by the hills and lakes. Climbing through 250 feet above ground, we were hit with the turbulence as expected! Turning left as instructed to keep clear of the hamlet at the end of the runway, we followed the A66 for a few seconds to find the Start Point at Berrier village, then turned south, over the roundabout in the middle of the village, which I was certain was a “hidden gate”. Our estimated ground speed was now completely out of kilter due to the strong gusty winds of the summer noon blowing through, perfect for the landlubber tourists but not so good for Microlight pilots….
More difficult photo spotting, however with the practice gained on the outbound task, we made 7 out of 10 photos along the route.
On submitting our marked maps, we were told, that two of our photo marks were out of tolerance of 2 mm on either side of actual position on the map!
After a refreshing lunch and “rest period” watching the noon marine winds blow through, we did some “spots”. The conditions were good enough for the team to practice spot landings.
Two with powered approaches and two with glide approaches. Andrew was pleased to try the powered approach from 500 feet and I was happy to make glide approaches from 1000 feet. It is not as easy as it may sound…
Due to the threat of more thunderstorms on Sunday, many of the team decided to fly home on the Saturday evening. We decided to stay the night in Preston and enjoyed a very delicious curry along with 30 other St Michaels club members. After an adventurous evening finding hotel accommodation, we went to sleep after midnight… a very long day it was.
Sunday morning somewhat refreshed and energised, we set off in my favourite conditions where we could fly “ducking and diving”. Andrew was PIC and my role was “rain spotter” and “airspace avoider”.
It was very satisfying to navigate between heavy summer thundershowers and staying clear of airspace, without having to talk to anyone on the ground. After passing through the narrow VFR corridor west of Manchester, we flew between showers and emerged past Birmingham into clean air and sunshine all the way to Damyns Hall after a 2 and half hour flight.
@Deepak Mahajan
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