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On
Sunday 17 April, 7 members of Heelan's Flying Circus gathered together to
do their circuits at EGSL. However the weather was such that they
needed to divert from the circuit to Bembridge. 4 aircraft took to the air
with DO in the lead. However DO was overtaken by XK. There was
later a discussion about the height of XK which DO claimed was 'in the
wrong place'.
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| Having passed the Gatwick corner the cavalcade aimed
at Bembridge at different angles with XK retaining the lead. TL
opted to spend pennies on fuel rather than thinking and merely followed
DO, to the consternation of the latter who could not see TL and feared it
might be grabbing a piggy back ride. SHAH brought up the rear.
A fairly uneventful flight in glorious weather with the visibility
improving when away from the London conglomeration. |
  
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Aeros straight
up in front of DO's nose created the feeling that a tad over land might be
better rather than finding the aero machine sticking its nose up between
the wheels, or elsewhere. Landing at the same time as a glider was
slightly disconcerting. Luckily the glider was using a parallel
runway. And so to land with the larger machines squeaking when they
found that as they created larger dents in the runway so they had to pay
more. |
Review of TAF and local clouds indicated that a walk down to the shore
might be a worthwhile activity with the aim of finding a bite to eat
whilst there. And so through the woods following what might have
been a romantic couple who seemed to know where they were going. Local
fairly recent rain was noted by the damp stickyness of the clayey soil. A
caff on the sea front was chosen.
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The prices were noted to be rather
higher than those at the airfield. It was agreed that they were
tourist rather than pilot prices. However the group decided that a
nibble might be in order whilst watching others in the circuit. Then
a brisk walk back to use up the food when taking W & B into
consideration for the return journey.
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And so a swap round of P1s, rhs and aircraft. Check out, jump in,
line up and ............. wait. Then a convoy of aircraft to
back track with tower requesting that someone wanting to join on long
finals would do the circuit as there were a number of aircraft hanging
round on the runway. DO hurriedly asked to be included in the convoy
and SHAH tagged along as well. Tower thought SHAH was in the lead
and had to be corrected. And for some reason tower kept calling DO
madame. Dunno why!!! After all DO was in the lead compared to
SHAH.
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And so back with SHAH deciding to overtake DO, with TL or was it XK having
zoomed ahead anyway. It was great to be up in the air, pottering
over the local countryside, admiring the view, watching out for other
aircraft, listening in and when necessary announcing where one was.
A delightful relaxing day. And a decent landing at the end.
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Addendum: the kids at school find it incomprehensible that we 'popped over
to the Isle of Wight for a sandwich'. They cannot believe that we
could get there and back in the afternoon and why not just go into town
for the sandwich. I am trying to learn 'em and have pix of Polly
Vacher and Steve Fossett up on the notice board replacing some of the
official Food Tech work.
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[Text: Jane]
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[Pictures: Shane & Robert;
Click to view large photo; Click here to see them
all!] |
