Firstly I must apologise for my almost month long absence from this Blog. This has been due to the usage of my hands and arms at times being limited by me developing osteoarthritis. Confirmed officially in mid-September to be the reason I have been unable to hold my joystick and / or mouse correctly in order to fly successfully on FS2004.

However the treatment I am receiving for this condition has now begun to take effect and allow me sufficient grip to use my joystick / mouse. So the good news is that after today's Fitness For Duty checkride with real life Certified Flight Instructor Sylvia Foxall signing me off I am able to start flying again. As many may already know I would have to undertake such an evaluation in real world aviation post suspension from duty on medical grounds although osteoarthritis would actually be a serious enough matter to ground someone. Much Appreciated Sylv!

Today's evaluation featured the real world BE267 EDI - EMA / BE268 EMA - EDI rotation which is operated by UK regional operator FlyBe. It required the Dreamwings Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop for FS9 / FS2004 which is available from here. Departing Edinburgh Turnhouse / EDI at 18:50 GMT+1 the BE267 flight to East Midlands Airport / EMA had G-JEDI in the white FlyBe livery assigned to it. The flight took off during daylight hours but with an STA of 19:55 required a night landing to be made. G-JEDI with me as Pilot in Command made the trip in 45 minutes and arrived into EMA at 19:45 GMT+1.

The return BE268 flight between East Midlands / EMA and Edinburgh Turnhouse / EDI was harder with an STD of 20:25 and STA of 21:30 dictating that this would be loggable as a night flight post completion. Having operated the outbound leg G-JEDI was assigned to the return leg of the rotation in order to keep things real. The aircraft was in the air for 59 minutes between EMA and EDI with a landing being made at 21:24 GMT+1 onto Runway 24 @ EDI. As a result I was signed off as Fit To Return by the CFI ... GET IN THERE!!!

In return for conducting my evaluation flight(s) I was able to introduce Sylvia to something she has always wanted to try and master on Flight Simulator: Fast jets! So an hour was spent with the Simshed Folland Gnat TR1 trainer as once used by the Royal Air Force which an earlier Blog entry shows that I am now quite familiar with. This enabled us to change roles so now I played the role of IP or Instructor Pilot - P1 with Sylv now in the role of Trainee Pilot - P2. With a full load of fuel the Folland Gnat TR1 is able to master a one hour duration flying at height and speed and so I picked XR981 fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks on the wings for this task.

The aim was to leave the now closed RAF Woodbridge (EGVG) airfield at 14:30 GMT+1 present day (there are two Folland Gnats preserved in the UK to airworthy standards) and head northwards across Norfolk and Lincolnshire with a block cruise clearance supposedly in force between 14,500 and 24,500 feet (VFR Westbound.) As this section of the trip was made and Sylv mastered the basics of holding 200 KIAS - 250 KIAS above 10,000 feet manually as well as discovered the trim tendencies (well replicated by Simshed) the decision was made to fly as far around the UK coastline as possible at 24,500 feet within the time remaining.

Unfortunately this flight had to be curtailed at around the 45 minute duration mark because Sylv had to return home following a phone call from a colleague. So a successful landing was made after a swift but safe emergency descent was executed by me. Maintaining VFR we were able to put the aircraft down into ... Edinburgh Turnhouse / EDI! The second time we had seen this airport in the same day even if technically we had somehow travelled backwards in time to make this landing: Same Runway 24 via Visual Approach made at 15:19 GMT+1. So for that reason I reckon that two categories most certainly apply to this entry ... Real World Scheduled Flight and The B Side!