Recipe for a perfect afternoon
2 Cubs, 2 Austers, 6 friends, visibility for ever, Autumn colours.
One new strip for all of us (challenging enough to be interesting), like-minded souls to chat about aircraft and widgets and engines, someone to take for a joyride who has never been in a light aircraft before, some boys to sit in the cockpit and make aircraft noises with, then a wave goodbye, waggle the wings, and all of us off to...
One old strip for all of us, cup of tea waiting, homemade biscuits, more talk of aircraft and places and people, then off to...
Another old strip for all of us, one-way, uphill, murmurs of understanding for the one who got swindled by the tailwind and had to overshoot late, despite the Mother of all sideslips, then back home for...
Low level circuits, sun low and orange in the sky, curve from downwind to final, roll out in the flare, rumble, rumble, blast of power, back to the hangar, push, pull, heave-ho, post-mortem of the afternoon ("Nice strip!" "You were heading straight for France!" "He said it was 600 metres, but it never was...") to the ticking sound of engines cooling down.
Cars doors slam, blue dusk, "You coming up tomorrow?", "Great day!", "See you!"
Ee, it were marvellous.