VFR return flight from Duxford to Headcorn

So after a great day of exploring the Imperial War Museum at Duxford we had run out of time and needed to get the Cessna 172 back to Headcorn. Also, the low cloud that we left behind in the south east when we departed earlier in the day seemed to have caught up with us and wanted to time our flight to make sure we wouldn’t get caught out.

When we arrived at our parking stand, to my surprise parked next to me was one of the other aircraft I fly from Headcorn, the PA28 G-SEXX. They too were about to depart back to Headcorn but knew they would make it back to base well before me as the PA28 is a lot faster than the much older and slower Cessna 172.

For our flight back home, I plotted a different and slightly longer route. I didn’t want to bother Stansted again with another Class D zone transit request but wanted to route down the narrow corridor that runs between both Stansted and Luton. The end of the corridor would bring me out in the north London area where there are some great views of the London skyline including Canary Wharf and the O2 arena.

Although less intense on the radio than my flight earlier in the day, there were some narrow areas of airspace to navigate with the worst being the small gap between the London City CTA and Stapleford ATZ.

After a short delay due to inbound traffic, we departed Duxford on runway 24 left making a left hand turn leaving the circuit on the crosswind leg towards the south. On leaving the Duxford ATZ we changed frequency to Farnborough LARS north and as we passed over the Barkway VOR we requested a Basic Service.

For the majority of the flight we cruised at around 2,200 feet and as on the flight up to Duxford, my wife was a great help with programming radio frequencies and setting transponder squawk codes.

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As we reached the Brookmans Park VOR heading towards Banbury Reservoir we could clearly see the London city skyline and as we got closer to the River Thames we were asked to re-contact Farnborough Radar on their LARS east frequency.

We crossed over the Thames just to the east of the QEII bridge which gave us some great views of the crossing and the river.

We continued south east and on reaching my home town of Maidstone we requested a frequency change to the Air/Ground service at Headcorn and start preparing for our approach and arrival.

Runway 28 was still the active in use with a left hand circuit. Due to parachuting activities and noise abatement procedures we joined tight on the crosswind leg to avoid overflying Headcorn village and flew a standard circuit touching down on the grass on runway 28.

We then taxied back to our parking stand on the front row of the GA area to see that the PA28 G-SEXX had arrived back long before us and they even had time to completely shut down and put the engine cover back on before we even joined the circuit.

On our way back into the office to complete the paperwork, we had some time to reflect on a fascinating trip to Duxford and a great day of flying. As with a number of recent trips, I can’t wait until I can visit again.

View the video on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6F1pWvdJN0