Cub Tour

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Brian Hope
Posts: 1271
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Sheerness Kent

Cub Tour

Post by Brian Hope » Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:47 pm

Hi, I am posting on behalf of Peter Dacey, a non member with a non LAA L4 Cub. He is off on a British Tour, using mainly grass strips and intends taking most of the summer. He says "I am aiming to leave my home base of Denham around mid July and head first to Essex before continuing in an approximate anti clockwise tour of the UK. I am a keen hiker too so will be hoping to get some treks of the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales. I just need to buy the right camping gear and see if I can fit a Brompton bike in too!"

I was passed his details by the office as he was seeking some advice, and I was under the misapprehension that he was going with a few others. I sent him some ideas and he asked that I post my reply on the forum. FWIW:

Good afternoon Peter, I was passed your email today re a proposed Piper Cub tour next summer, it sounds a great idea so I hope it all comes together.
As far as pointers, I can only offer my own experience of having toured with a group of other aircraft, mostly very good experiences but most in mainland Europe rather than confined to the UK, and generally only lasting 10-14days. We generally travelled as a group of about five or six aeroplanes and maybe eight people, and that worked very well. Fact is that within a small group, a natural leader comes to the fore, more by accident than design, and that's no bad thing. Somebody needs to float ideas and set departure times, destinations etc., all hopefully by consensus, or you'll end up with constant indecision and waste most of the morning before even deciding what's going on. I have always found that most people are happy that somebody is providing a bit of a steer, provided that person is respected for their airmanship and people skills. The largest group I ever flew with was 12 aeroplanes and 19 people, all I'll say is that I never did it again. Another thing to consider with large groups is the time taken to refuel all the aeroplanes.
Try not to make it a Cooke's Tour - "it's Tuesday so I guess this must be Scunthorpe". In the UK climate, even in summer, that will soon end as a can of worms and you'll forever be playing catch up. You have to be flexible and go where the weather goes. We've planned to go to Sweden and ended up in the south of France before now, because the northern European weather was so bad and forecast to stay that way for the next week! Also plan for 'day's off' and reschedule them to work with the weather. On a trip to Scotland once a couple of days of non flyable weather was forecast so we changed our plans and stayed at Cumbernauld for two nights so we could visit Edinburgh rather than end up marooned at what was a proposed night stop on a strip miles from anywhere. The weather was indeed crap, but we had a great time in Edinburgh anyway.
Most of England, Wales and Ireland, North and South, are well served with strips and airfields, Scotland not so much, so that needs careful consideration, especially in something like a Cub with limited range. You also need to decide whether you are having a 'meet up at X this evening' sort of arrangement, or the group flies 'same way same day' but together. If it's the latter, which is the way we always flew, if the conditions are iffy, you only go if everybody is happy to go. That way you take the pressure of anybody who has less experience than the others, and they don't push their luck.
Well, I hope that is of some help, when I go away with a bunch of mates, the social interaction is at least as important as the flying. It has to be fun, with banter and much humour whilst still taking decision making and planning seriously as a group, making sure everybody knows what the plan is and what the possible diversions are. We make sure we all have each others' mobile numbers too, in case somebody ends up going astray, and if someone has a mechanical issue we stick together to sort it out. Filming etc will add an extra dimension to the entire enterprise, so good luck with that. I'm afraid that's not something I have any knowledge of.
I look forward to hearing how plans, and how the actual tour proceeds.
Very best regards, Brian.

Brian Hope, Light Aviation.

Peter has promised to keep in touch, if you see a lone Cub and a tent on your strip, say hello and ask if he needs a hand getting fuel, etc. As you gather from the filming comment, he plans to record the trip.
Thanks, Brian
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Sandy Hutton LAA372
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:30 pm

Re: Cub Tour

Post by Sandy Hutton LAA372 » Thu Sep 03, 2020 9:37 pm

I had the pleasure of meeting Peter a few days ago at Perth and I fixed a small problem he had with the aircraft. He seems to have had a wonderful time meandering here and there over merry England but I think he's looking forward to his Scottish legs more, following the NC500 over the top if he can. Fuelling seems to be his main problem but I'm sure he'll be offered lots of help getting over that so he can get out to the beach landing spots he has in mind. Best of luck fella.
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