And so it was to be, a blast to Bruntingthorpe in a Seneca from Cambridge with me as VIP pax number one, Gavin as P1 and Shane as P2 and navigator to see the fine people of the ‘Lightning Preservation Group’ ground run some Lightning’s, a Canberra, a Hunter, a Jet Provost and a Buccaneer down the 3000m tarmac!

The weather in the morning was as we have come to expect, typical for a British summer - low level cloud and rain. Ah ha, today this would not stop us! Gavin has a full Instrument Rating so we were going regardless!!

Westland Scout. English Electric Canberra.

We climbed aboard G-BAIG and taxied out to depart on Cambridge’s south-eastern runway. Soon after departure we were into cloud and tracking towards Cranfield’s VOR where we intended to turn north and track away from Cranfield. This worked well for the inbound journey but on the leg up towards Bruntingthorpe the VOR had us crossing a motorway where we should have been running parallel with it – it’s a good job we had flown clear of the cloud by now to be able to spot what was going on. Bruntingthorpe was soon sighted and we joined and landed just as they were pulling out the first Lightning.

Jet Provost. English Electric Lightning.

We spent the next few hours watching and covering our ears as they ran the Lightning, Canberra and Jet Provost. We were lucky to get a ride in the fire engine down the runway behind the Canberra as it did its run. (One of the fire officers was a colleague of Gavin’s) Thanks guys, we loved it!

Inside the Scout. Outside the Guppy.

A walk around the static aircraft on display led Shane to rekindle some memories from his days as a boy in the Army Air Corps where he spent many hours in the good old Scout. We dragged him kicking and screaming around the rest of the aircraft on display and were even able to get a chance to go into the cockpit of the huge Super Guppy.

Inside the Guppy. "String, String is a wonderful thing".

As the rain began to fall again we quickly made for the Seneca. On the walk back the second Lightning to run shot past us at full chat – an impressive sight indeed.

Inside again. Outside again.

We were soon taxing the long way round to the threshold to depart in style as we became an exhibit! Despite the recent the rain the clouds were much higher than on our journey over and we were able to fly VFR at 3,500ft back to Cambridge joining right base for a greaser of a landing.

Going back home. A very British summer.

Thanks Gavin for taking us there and thanks to the people of Bruntingthorpe for allowing us to drop into their event.

The Lightning Preservation Group, Bruntingthorpe: http://www.lightnings.org.uk/