Some non-functional aircraft
Functional aircraft, Europa and XK
Jane told Rod she was going with him in his Europa
despite the fact that his aircraft has no heating, I heard Nick suggest they
could cuddle up to keep warm, never did hear Rod's response.
After the usual coffee, bacon rolls and discussions on
the best route, the area around the pump as per usual became frantic. I could
overhear lots of rumbling about the weather looking rough to the North and
"should we"/"shouldn’t we go"? But as per normal we threw caution to the wind
and started our engines (apart from TL!).
Rob and I were the first to depart in UD, followed by
Shane and Nick in XK, as for the rest I haven’t a clue. We were going to
call Earls Colne, but the radio was busy so we routed just to the North of
them on route to Felixstowe. It made a change just to fly and not to have to
talk to anybody until our destination.
Manningtree and Harwich
Felixstowe and Orfordness
When overhead Beccles, I called descending dead side
only to hear Mike in MP saying he was in the same part of the sky. I never realised Rob's head could turn in so many directions desperately trying to
spot Mikes aircraft. We never did see him; turns out he was behind us and
slightly lower allegedly smiling to himself while we worried where he was.
I made what can only be described as a first class
crosswind landing with nobody watching (typical) and backtracked hurriedly
still not knowing where Mike and Carol in MP had gone and parked up.
Southwold and Beccles
One by one the circus landed and without doubt, despite
the crosswind and blustery condition, all the landings look good - Carol
should be proud! We all signed in paid our fees at reception. Then we
spotted the aggressive dog on the couch, wishing that Jane would stroke it
and bite her, but she spotted the warning sign up on the wall!! After some
coffee and a chat with some of the locals we decided to go for a wander.
Click the aircraft to see the landing
Food then became the priority. Shane said there was loads of good
food at the Kart track. Out came the maps and of we trotted to the karting.
At least one mile later, freezing cold and hungry our target came in site.
Unfortunately the burger van was not open; you could see desperation and
panic in people’s eyes, all this way and no grub, this wasn’t in the script.
The long march
Diarmuid by now had spoken to a local who said there
was a pub about 10 minutes walk further on. After some discussion the vote
appeared to go in favour of bacon sandwiches back at Andrewsfeild. 1 mile
back to Beccles, we all hurriedly started engines and got the heaters going.
Beccles kart track from the windows of
XK. The XK crew - no sunglasses Shane?
The trip back was uneventful; the only aircraft we saw
was Ed in the Aeronca when we overtook him south of Earls Colne and Rod and
Jane whizzing in on the circuit causing Rob to do a go around on final, all
good practice.
Woooooodbridge. Ipswich
When we finally landed and were taxiing back towards
the clubhouse we couldn’t help but notice Ed doing a spectacular one wing
low landing with the Aeronca. Never realised he had become a stunt pilot.
I’ll say no more in case his Dad reads this but it was interesting to watch
and when I mentioned it to Ed in the clubhouse quite a few expletives flowed
from his mouth !!!
A boat on the Orwell. That Aeronca
In the clubhouse at last, with the lovely smell of
bacon, beer, tea and coffee and all the usual good hearted micky-taking and
criticism of each others flying, etc.
Despite the lack of food it was a good day and I hope
has encouraged more people to join us on the circus fly outs.
[Text: Steve R "Once again excuse the grammar, if it’s that
bad Jane you had better set me some lines and keep me in for detention."]
[Photos: Rob, Shane, Glyn and Diarmuid. Click here for the rest of the
photos]
