Why I don't begrudge paying landing fees
An insight to a student's mock PPL exam
Updated: 14 October 2004

On Saturday 9th of October 2004, I arrived at Biggin Hill, Kent to do a final mock test with my flying instructor John before embarking on the real thing the following day. Unfortunately, the flight school where I am learning had cocked up on the organisation of aircraft maintenance for the Cessna 172's which meant that the three aircraft I usually fly were all in maintenance at the same time. Undaunted by this fact John flew down to Rochester before I arrived to collect 'Charlie Delta'.

Now 'Charlie Delta' is not the newest aircraft in the fleet, lets be honest they're all a bit long in the tooth so that means this one is old! On approaching the aircraft I was quite impressed, the airframe was very nice with a reasonably new paint job. On entering the cabin I was filled with a sense of nostalgia for the 1970's, the brown leather upholstery was straight out of shaft and the radio stack would have looked more in place in a world war two fighter. As I started and went through the power checks I started to actually get to like the aircraft, the engine was smooth and had loads of power so I was really looking forward to getting her in the air.

After a long wait we were cleared to line up on runway 03. Keen to keep things in the circuit flowing I immediately powered up and started my take-off run. So far so good!

We reached 60 Knots and I started to apply back pressure allowing the speed to get to 65 before we actually got airborne. With so much runway I figure it's always safer to get an extra few knots for the climb out. As I climbed out everything was going well, with a stiff cross wind I was concentrating on staying on the centre line and keeping my speed to 75 Knots giving the best rate of climb.

I was therefore a bit confused when John started looking over his shoulder with a look of concern on his face. I was just thinking "speed's OK, I'm on the centre line, climbing well, what's up with him?" when he shouted "Oh fu$k, fu$k, I have control", he then grabbed the controls and cut the power.

By this stage I'm thinking "what the hell is going on, that's a really nasty way of doing an EFATO drill".

Then John goes on to make a radio call:

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 'Charlie Delta', Fuel Leak, Require priority landing on 03"

Nothing...........

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 'Charlie Delta', we have a major fuel leek and require priority landing on runway 03"

This time ATC respond "cleared for priority landing on runway 03, fire & rescue despatched"

While ATC busily clear the circuit and send any inbound aircraft elsewhere John performs a tight, low level circuit to get back to 03, I, in the mean time I try and see what the hell he's talking about.

After what seamed like an eternity we were touching back down on 03.

"switch off the fuel and get ready to exit the aircraft as soon as we stop" John quickly said

As the aircraft stopped we opened our doors and made a run for it, well not quite straight away, I couldn't get my seat back because of those annoying catches they have in Cessna's and John started running but had forgotten about his headphones and ended up going arse over tit in the middle of the runway.

So there we are standing in the middle of a 2km long runway looking as fuel continues to pour out of the left wing "Oh that fuel leak" says I.

By the time I looked up we were also faced by two enormous fire trucks ready to foam down the aircraft.

After examining the aircraft the fire and rescue guys concur that there's definitely a fuel leak but no immediate danger of the aircraft bursting into flames. So we push the aircraft back down the runway and move it onto the disused runway before getting a lift back to flight school with airport security.

The most annoying thing about the whole thing is that no-one else saw it, we walked back in to the flight school and the only reaction we got was "you're back early chaps".

So the £25 which we begrudgingly pay every time we land goes to good use to pay for fire cover and top quality ATC which normally we all think we don't actually need. However the one day it was needed it was very reassuring to the see the firemen there in such good time.

And the best of it is that I didn't even get charged a landing fee on that flight!!

So my flight test has been pushed back to next week when hopefully one of the usual aircraft that I fly will be back from maintenance. Although I think I'll still pay particular attention to the fuel tanks on my pre-flight checks.

All credit to my flying instructor John who spotted the problem and reacted so effectively, if I'd been on my own I'd probably have ended up in a field having run out of fuel, or worse. Doesn't bear thinking about.

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