Advice - Leicester to Caernarfon

[EGNX]

On Monday my PPL holding friend, 2 other mates and myself are 'hopefully' flying to Caernarfon and back from Leicester in a PA-28. My friend and I are the only ones with flying experience, and in real terms, we ourselves are not that experienced. It's my friends first 'big' trip other than his cross country and he's asked me to come along to help out.

The plan is to fly from Leicester to Welshpool, and if everything is still good continue the flight onto Caernarfon, flying directly back to Leicester in the afternoon.

See here:
[url]http://www.b3ta.cr3ation.co.uk/data/jpg/fearnwalestrip.jpg
[/url]

All I would like is a little bit of advice from any pilots or people in the know on any bear traps we may stumble in to, other than the obvious such as airspace, mountains and ATC being a pain!

Thanks in advance,

And if we go I'll have the photos posted up soon!

Cheers,

Luke.

[Craig.]

Right into the low flying area.

[C]

I have to admit, if it'd been me, and it was my first post-PPL cross country, I'd have gone the other way - Leicester to say Norwich or Clacton can be done avoiding most shark infested custard. Why? First of all, as soon as you depart you've got to negotiate around Birmingham, miss the danger areas, then over the mountains of N. Wales (please please don't go anywhere near below 2000ft), then arrive at Caenarfon without messing about with Valley and Mona traffic (note the recent case of a recently qualified PPL landing at Valley by mistake!).

Anyway, that said, you'll be going to Caenarfon. My main advice is to make sure your friend plans thoroughly in the days before hand, ensuring all his charts are up to date, checks all the relevant notams in the run up and on the day. It's probably best if he asks an instructor just to take a quick look over his planning too beforehand.

Keeps your eyes open too.

[EGNX]

Thanks guys.  :)

We've both taken most of this into consideration. We've already spent an afternoon planning the route on a brand new chart, trying to make sure we avoid most of the airspace and use the nav aids to our advantage.
Caenarfon will only happen if were happy with how we managed the trip to Welshpool and that the weather is still holding up. It should be fun and a great learning experience. Wish us luck!... We'll be as safe as we can!

Thanks again,

Luke.  :)

[C]

[quote]
Caenarfon will only happen if were happy with how we managed the trip to Welshpool and that the weather is still holding up. It should be fun and a great learning experience. Wish us luck!... We'll be as safe as we can!

Thanks again,

Luke.

[EGNX]

Thanks Charlie.

If we do go onwards to Caenarfon then we are going to head directly for the coast and follow it up to the airfield so were in a nice big space where there is a better chance of any 'Hawk sky gods' to spot us. We simply have to cross 5nm of land before we get to Caenarfon which should be a lot safer.  :)

I'll try and get some good snaps when i'm not flying!

Luke.  :)

[beaky]

If you notice you've been over nothing but water for 1/2 hour or more, turn around.
Other than that, I should repeat: eyes outside; don't all of you get caught up with flying the plane or fiddling with things. With so many in the plane there's no reason at all to count on the "sky gods" looking out for you.

And of course, don't get stupid about the weather, even though all concerned are excited about completing the trip. It's amazing how multiple participants can increase the "stupid factor" rather than decrease it...

[C]

If you notice you've been over nothing but water for 1/2 hour or more, turn around.

I dunno - if you've gone that far you may as well do another 1/2 hour to Ireland!

[EGNX]

Well... the weather was too poop today, so we have rebooked it all for this Friday where the weather looks very nice!

I dunno - if you've gone that far you may as well do another 1/2 hour to Ireland!

Hahah...  ;D
Might as well! I've always fancied going to Ireland! But when we do go we will be sticking to the coastline.