The day’s participants were:-

When I originally planned our flying calendar, I thought this trip may have come too soon for many of our aviators, just two weeks after our trip to Le Touquet, but how wrong I was, we had a fine turnout.

Things seemed to conspiring against us as Rob and Peter’s normal steed ASUD was in for her annual and not feeling too well according to her oil, (shavings of metal were detected). This meant that in early February, they needed an almost unheard of two consecutive days of good weather to allow for a checkout in the club's PA28 on the day before the trip. Forecast’s earlier in the week predicted fog for the weekend but the “weather god’s” duly obliged and the weather stayed fine for both days!!

Take off. Bye bye.

The early flurry of phone calls between the three departure aerodromes took place and a take off of just after 10am was agreed. At Andrewsfield, Mike was first away closely followed by Pete and Rob. North Weald saw the departure of Shane in front of Bob. We had decided to take the low level corridor between the Stansted and Luton zones, but with Elaine in the back doing our navigation we could not be seen to be following Shane. So after both of us avoided a microlight coming directly towards us, Charlie Charlie showed a turn of speed and passed Xray Kilo allowing Elaine to navigate us to Grafham Water and then on to Leicester. Just before Grafham Water, Nick spotted a 172 crossing our path on a more direct route, which turned out to be Mike from Andrewsfield.

Canary Wharf through the mist. Looking happy!.

Elaine’s expertise made our arrival track perfect for a downwind join, but this was refused, which caused confusion for both Mike and Shane as we then led them on a little meander over Leicester before turning onto final. We had an excuse, but I can’t remember it at the moment.

172's at Enstone. GSMRS & GBXXK.

Charles-Charles, VOID, XK and the MRS. Comparing landings.

Over the next twenty minutes, Wingco, Rob & Pete arrived. With landing fee’s paid and the petition to save the airfield signed, it was then time for lunch. Some opted for the traditional bacon sandwich, while others chose the slightly larger cheeseburger and chips. Rob however appeared not to have eaten the previous day judging by his plate, which was served with a huge gammon steak, eggs, chips and peas. Alan meanwhile reflected on his first flight in a light aircraft - even Shane’s performance as P1 had not spoilt his enjoyment!!

Enstone Control. Circuses welcome.

Balding fat bloke. Powerless.

Thoughts then turned to the next leg, Enstone. On a previous visit this had been tricky to find, however Bob remarked it would not be a problem, it was on his GPS. This was a bad move as now everyone was going to follow CC, no pressure then. As we all fired up our aircraft it seemed that WW3 had broken out on the radio. An unfortunate pilot had called runway vacated 5 yards too soon!! A Pitts pilot (no pun intended) had picked the poor chap up on this, but with one of the best put downs heard over the radio to date, the pilot was told firmly to shut his mouth and fly his aircraft by the very quick thinking chap in ATC!! The embarrassed pilot then caused mayhem in the parking area until a work party was dispatched to push him out of the way.

Rob & Darren. Elaine, Shane M, Nick, Mike, Bob, Shane H & Alan.

The Pitts. Light aircraft.

Elaine rose to the challenge, and thankfully navigated us straight to Enstone, which as it turns out was not so easy to spot, (but it was hazy). Nick got good value out of the landing fee, but it was only his second landing in CC. After everyone had landed we made our own tea and coffee and went to sit in the sun. At first we thought the incoming pilot might have failed his medical due to poor eyesight, as he seemed to be going to miss the runway which was on our right, we then realized that we were directly under the flight path for the parallel grass runway and less than a hundred yards from the threshold.

Kitfox. Super Dimona.

Shane M. Hair-dryer.

Rob, with just over an hour gone since lunch, now had room for a flapjack or two for dessert. It would seem that now the Jabiru has gone to pastures new and there are no kitchen utensil joke’s to be had. The cup holders and G1000 in CC are the new targets for humour.

Leaving Enstone. Where did you park the car?.

Peter and Rob had decided to fly into White Waltham to extend their journey home. Darren, P1 in XK for the final leg, amended Shane’s original course for a more direct route that did not take him over Bitchester (Shane’s pronunciation of Bicester)!!

CC had an aborted attempt to back track, meanwhile a nifty piece of pushing in by Mike saw him get airborne first. We followed with Elaine calling the shots on our course back to North Weald.

St. Albans Cathedral. Final approach North Weald.

Home safe, Wingco and Shane joined the North Weald crews for a deserved pint and reflections on another enjoyable Circus Flyout. A great day with near perfect conditions and great company. Only two weeks into February and one unofficial and two official outings completed.