Well the excuses poured in, family birthday, sickness, work and that was before anyone looked at the weather forecast. It was clear there would not be a large turnout for the third trip of the season.

However six intrepid aviators agreed to make the trip. That is until Peter looked at the weather forecast the night before and decided to believe what he read and not what Bob had arranged for the following day! Rob also elected to have a jaunt around Essex rather than chance the weather. There endeth the Andrewsfield contingent.

At North Weald Shane, Bob, Steve and Nick all piled into Charles Charles. With the late addition of Shane on top of nearly full tanks, weight and balance went out the window. Thank the lord for North Weald's 1300 metres of tarmac!

Hurley. An airfield - it's a field for aeroplanes.

We decided to head to White Waltham and see what the Weather Gods had in store for us along the way. Nick was P1 for the first leg with Mr. Rolph making his first appearance of the year P2. All went smoothly and the visibility was much better than we had expected. We had decided to give all three Farnborough LARS their opportunity to fly with us for the day and first up it was the newly opened Farnborough North. Steve having fiddled for a while with the Squawk (Squelch)!! made the first call, with some trepidation, only to be greeted by the booming voice of ATC. Whoops! Turn the volume down a bit. This is a great system, no need to talk to individual airfields. As we approached our first destination we were handed over to White Waltham for joining, a slick circuit and in for a cup of coffee.

Lasham, gliders and airliners. Steve's flight plan for Shoreham.

A phone call to Shoreham and they were happy for us to visit, they were obviously unaware who was navigating this leg!! Bob was P1 and you guessed it, Mr. Rolph was P2. Soon after take off Steve was seduced by the dark side of the G1000 and his flight plan, instead of going via Blackbushe, had us going direct to Shoreham. This became apparent when Shane noticed Heathrow left abeam and a 747 taking off with another at the hold. Fortunately we were only at 1700 feet and had not encroached, but it was close!!

Shoreham. Worthing Pier.

Unperturbed Steve had another go at the flight plan. By now we were overhead Lasham. Farnborough West asked us to avoid the zone as there was gliding activity, Steve by his own admission not having his best nav & radio day then aimed us for the wrong circuit as we approached Shoreham. Shane and Nick watching a 152 on a parallel course for the correct circuit suggested we followed them in. Down in no time, now for lunch.

Seaford VOR. Sedate Eastbourne.

Fed and watered it was time to depart for Headcorn. On the phone they asked us to call early as they were parachuting. Steve was making his debut in Charles Charles as P1. Nick as P2 would try to keep Steve’s head out of the cockpit and not studying the sexy glass panels. After a competent first landing, on a somewhat bumpy runway, we sat outside and were treated to the sight of the parachutist’s landing in the drop zone, and a display of aerobatics by the resident Tiger Moth. The clouds looked to be building to the West so it was off on the last leg back to North Weald.

The world hanging upside down. Gold!.

Steve again P1, had to dodge a few heavy rain showers, but it was still clear out to the East. So down to Southend, along towards Chelmsford, then dart west to North Weald. A swift circuit and positive! landing saw us safe home.

Rain and gloom and London. Vampire lust!.

As we put the flight bags in the cars, the Vampire tore along the runway at about 50 feet and then went vertical to about 1200 feet. The noise was fantastic. Stanstead must have thought North Weald had launched the European Rocket.

Tales told it was a day of great achievement; we cheated the predicted elements and had another great Heelan's Flying Circus day out. Well four of us did !!