Keeps you on your toes

Had a flight planned today with a friendly apache pilot in one of the school Robins. It had been ages since he had been in a fixed wing aircraft as he learnt to fly on a chipmunk and then quickly converted to rotary. We had a pleasant flight around the local area (which of course is familiar to him!) and went to look at the old portion of runway and control tower at Martlesham. This was a new area as the apaches cannot go close to this area due to ‘clash of the electronics’ between them and BT on the ground!!

All was going well until we noticed a small red flashing light (high fuel pressure) … we both ran through possible reasons and perspective course of actions. The fuel pressure showed no sign of returning to normal values and as we were close to Elmsett (where the maintenance organisation are based) we diverted in there. No dramas as the aircraft flew normally bar the high fuel pressure warning (which got higher as we selected the fuel pump for landing). Successful landing and an even higher fuel pressure as we taxied in! We then had a wait to be ‘rescued and recovered’ back to Earls Colne which was filled with lots of aviation chatter – to be expected considering our different flying backgrounds!

After all that drama it was onto drama of a different kind and back to directing Elmsett panto!