Birthday Bimble

Any student or qualified pilot based in the UK knows only too well the frustration of good ol' British weather when the urge to get airbourne grasps you.

So when I decided I'd like to go flying with my friend on my birthday I was disappointed to discover the day before that the forecast was high winds and low cloud.

To my delight I woke up today to blue skies and light wind. I promptly called my friend and we headed to Headcorn Aerodrome with the hope to get airbourne before the weather closed in.

After shuffling a couple of aeroplanes in the hangar we managed to get airbourne by late morning.

75 minutes of flying around Kent was enough to put a big smile on my face for the rest of the day. We flew over Leeds Castle when I took this lovely shot. We chased rainbows, flew away from the rain showers and buzzed around the fluffy clouds. Nothing compares to the sheer joy and freedom of flying we said as we "bimbled" about.

The wind was gusty and variable making for a challenging approach to land and my friend who was Pilot-in-Command showed great airmanship by flying a 'go-around' when the landing wasn't going quite to plan. The air to ground radio operator then called a runway change confirming that the decision to abort landing had been a good one afterall. But then any landing that doesn't end in the trees at the end of the runway or break the aircraft is a good one!

I had a few opportunities to take the controls during the flight, and despite preferring stick flying to yoke, I enjoyed climbing, turning and managing to keep straight and level with the unpredictable wind.

I've seriously got the bug to get flying more regularly again and hope to get airbourne again as Pilot-in-Command in March with more adventurous trips in the summer.

Flying on my birthday has to be the best birthday present I could have hoped for. What a lucky girl.