Storm Doris was forecast to arrive on Thursday, so we hoped to get a flight in on the Wednesday before the wind picked up too much. With a strong wind straight down runway 26 we set off for Fenland airfield near Spalding, which has a similarly oriented east/west runway, albeit grass. We’d called ahead to be sure they were open and to check the condition of the grass runway – all was well!
Climbing through 1,000 feet we began to suspect we’d taken on a stronger wind than we could perhaps handle, but things settled down enough at 2,200 feet and 90 knots IAS.
However, being unable to raise Fenland on the radio from 10 miles out, with rain starting to fall and dark clouds ahead we decided that turning for home was the safer option.
Certainly our windiest and bumpiest flight so far.