Whiskey Alpha Pilot

Home
United Kingdom
Shenley
Whiskey Alpha Pilot

Directions Website

I am slightly older than your average newly qualified pilot. Described as an 'Up and Coming YouTuber'. Owner of 1/5 of a 1977 Cessna 172.

Follow me on my journey learning to fly and beyond. now at https://whiskeyalphapilot.com

22/09/2026

Two hours. Twenty-five questions. And a slightly bent whizz wheel doing most of the heavy lifting.

Back in 2021 Linda Wheeler got me through my PPL theory exams. Five years on, I was back in her Gerrards Cross classroom for the IMC ground school.

Revision happened by a pool with Pooleys Book 5 and a piña colada, which I can thoroughly recommend. The exam? Less relaxing. Only a mind reader could love a CAA paper.

So did the whizz wheel prevail, and was it worth the money? The full review's on the blog 👇
https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/kit-reviews/linda-wheeler-ground-school

We never stop learning ✈️

21/09/2026

Last chance. The CAA's electronic conspicuity consultation closes at midnight tomorrow.

Thirteen questions. Twenty minutes. They say they especially want to hear from owners of older, lower value aircraft, and a fifth of a 1977 Cessna on a pad at Elstree is exactly the aircraft they're asking about.

Keep it serious and they'll have to read it. The devices are weak and the manufacturer says so. The ground network has no budget and no date. And nobody is obliged to look at you anyway.

My take on CAP3268 is here, if it helps you write yours.

https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/caa-electronic-conspicuity-mandate-cap3268

14/09/2026

£26.60 to land at Duxford. That includes two hours in the Imperial War Museum, which turns a landing fee into the best value day out in UK general aviation.
New airfield review is up. Restricted joins with no overhead and no deadside, a frequency so busy I counted 37 transmissions in under four minutes, and two Spitfires departing in formation off the runway I'd just landed on. On an ordinary Wednesday in August. No show ticket needed.

https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews/duxford-egsu

11/09/2026

A CAA webinar on engine malfunctions Do you trust your fuel gauges, brief every takeoff, and look at the fields?. New Touch and Go Logbook piece: https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/power-off-brain-on

06/09/2026

Flying home from Duxford always sounds straightforward until the queue ahead of you is two Spitfires, a Harvard and a Tiger Moth. Can't really complain about a hold like that.

Caz came along for the ride. We had a look at Leavesden Studios on the way back (my Nimbus 2000 is definitely wearing out), then it was the usual nemesis, a straight in approach to runway 08 at Elstree. Dodge the pylons, get her down, and the tower still had one more surprise waiting.

New video is up now: https://youtu.be/cTvpdF7GzMY

We never stop learning, and the day we do is the day we should stop flying. ✈️

06/09/2026

Some of the smaller aviation Facebook groups seem to delete real pilot content and fill up with AI-generated dross instead, all in the name of "the algorithm." Here's why I'm never going to play that game.

https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/gatekeeping-ai-dross-facebook-groups

05/09/2026

Jack's doing his ATPLs. I'm about to restart my IMC. He's the oldest one on his course, older than some of his classmates' parents by his own admission. You'd think that age is disadvantage. Buit is it?

We talked about it mid-flight in KK, why we think the twenty year olds fresh out of school are the ones struggling, not him. New video is live now, link below.

https://youtu.be/8R5WXElxmHg

04/09/2026

Twenty times more radiation at cruise than on my kitchen table.

For a passenger that works out at about a tenth of a chest X-ray, and it is not worth a moment of your attention. For the crew flying it every working day for thirty years, it is a very different sum.

The full write-up is on the site, including why Cornwall granite matters, and the regulation that has quietly covered this since 2019.

A Radiacode 101 on a commercial flight: 0.05 microsieverts on the ground, 1.02 at FL350. Twenty times more, and why that matters to crew not passengers.

02/09/2026

Ever had that chap at your wingtip the moment you stop. You know the one, he's full of goodwill and ready to save you a minute.

Every so often that minute turns into a scraped wingtip, a torn covering, or a very long phone call to your engineer.

We run a sterile cockpit in the air for a reason. So why does that bubble pop the second the wheels stop? Wheels stopped and noise gone doesn't mean the mags are dead or the prop won't turn. The only person who knows is the pilot, still working through the checks.

New in the Touch and Go Logbook. On uninvited help, marshallers who aren't marshallers, and who actually has command on the ground.

Ask, and it's all yours. The ladder, the guidance, the hand.

https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/are-you-a-helpful-stranger

30/08/2026

Don't climb into an X-ray machine at the airport.

Background radiation where I was standing: 0.05 microsieverts an hour.
The detector going through the bag scanner: maxed out at 15,000.

Maxed out, as in the machine couldn't measure any higher. So the real
number is anyone's guess, and I have no plans to find out.

Full video and the write-up on the YouTube Channel and the website.

Address

Elstree Aerodrome
Shenley

Website

https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Whiskey Alpha Pilot posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.