Amazing...

I'd been having quite a bad week so far and things didn't seem to be getting any better until I received a phone call this morning. A Sheffield number came up on the mobile and I didn't recognise it so I sent it to the answer phone.

A little bit later in the morning I picked the message up and it was Steve, the owner of the flying school ringing to say that both the DA40s we out of service, but if I fancied I could fly the Slingsby that they had.

I'd never heard of the Slingsby or even thought I had a lesson that day so I rang back to query it and no, I did have a lesson booked for 16:00 and even though the weather was bad it should still be ok.

I rang the flying school at 15:30 as it was coming down in buckets over Sheffield to see if the lesson was still going ahead and yep it looked like it was going to happen so off I went. I arrived on time and met Christian who I was flying with today and its the first time that I have genuinely seen him excited to fly a plane. The DA40s don't really do it for him, hes ok with the PA28, but seems to have a thing about Cessnas. He had actually managed to get me to go flying in one earlier in the month and I can honestly say, he was right it was kind of fun and actually quite enjoyable.

We were grounded for a couple of hours due to the weather but things seemed to be getting better we got the plane fuelled and headed across the apron to it. It was lashing down, its an interesting plane to climb aboard and its the first time I have flown with a 5 point harness, but I managed to get strapped in.

While we were waiting for a break in the clouds Christian was telling me how quick they can climb, anything up to 1,000ft/min. The best climbing aircraft I had flown to date was the PA28-180 so I didn't think much about it. I taxied to the R28 and did the power checks with Christian, got clearance from the tower and lined up.

Usual start, feet on the brakes, full power, feet off the brakes and off we went. Christian said the take off speed was around the 75-80 knot mark so when we reached that speed I pulled back on the stick and....wow, she can climb, up we went like a rocket. We performed a normal climb out cruise and headed to the rother valley for some fun. By the time we had reached the VRP we had climbed to 1,500', without trying.

There was a break in the weather so I had a bit of a play to get the feel for the plane and she is really is a dream to fly. She is very easy to handle, picks up speed like there is no tomorrow and climbs like nothing else I have flown. Due to the huge glass canopy visibility is unreal.

We headed towards Toll Bar to see how bad the flooding was and I can honestly say I was shocked at how bad it still was, we were between 2,500 and 3,000' and from the height you could see how deep the water was and see the infividual hoses from the engines pumping out the village. I really do hope that the village gets sorted and that things get better for the people in that village.

We stayed local for a bit with Christian doing a few wing overs, the plane has a G meter in it and at one point we were pulling over 3 G's. During one of the wing overs the plane went into a spin, that pulled nearly 4 Gs, Christian recovered from the spin increadibly quickly, there was no drama no nothing. In fact it was over before I even really realised we were in trouble.

We returned to Sheffield and the weather had started to close in, which is a shame as the cockpit leaks slightly and I ended up sopping wet, but it was still one of the best flights I've had in a very long time. Can't wait to fly it again.