...though it was hardly East Anglia, since we didn't manage to land at any airfields in either Norfolk or Suffolk.
Still, landing at an airfield called Fenland has gotta be considered as East Anglia.
Anyway, to the beginning....
Friday
I get to Sleap around 9 am. Weather is lovely, forecast is great, and KF's instrument panel has been fixed (see thread on non-working balance ball, DI, and AI if you really want!). Everything is hunky dory till I call Sleap for a radio check....
"Station calling Sleap, readability 2"
We have two radios, and Box 1 has always given problems, but this is Box 2! I try again, same thing. I switch to Box 1, and it works perfectly! I get out my handheld radio and put it accessibly on the spare seat, re-fuel, and fly to Wellesbourne to pick up Tricia. I talk to Shawbury and London Info with no problems, and when I ask after landing, Wellsbourne says they heard me fine.
Tricia has been held up, as she said she would be, and doesn't get to Wellesbourne till 12 o'clock. We decide to go to Fenland, then Old Buckingham, then Earl's Colne, where we're booked to stay the night at the Golf and Country Club right by the airfield. We leave, then have to return due to a minor problem, leave again, and eventually Tricia flies us to Fenland. Great fun to find, grass runways in the middle of grass fields, in an area where people keep mowing grass strips in their fields. Tricia won't let me put on the GPS, but we find it anyhow, and land. Lovely little airfield...but not sure about the people. No-one really seemed very friendly. Maybe they were just having a bad day. Anyway, we have a late lunch, then realise we're never going to make Old Buck and land at Earls Colne by 6pm. I phone them to ask if we can come in late, and they say legally we can't. So we abandon plans for Old Buck and fly straight to Earl's Colne.
Earl's Colne is lovely. Really friendly, free coffee, a great welcome, and a lift to the Country Club place...only a ten minute walk anyway. They told us to say we were flying club members and we'd get a reduction. We did, and the price reduced to £25 each...for a "suite" (actually a very large room) with a great view, and they had a swimming pool and jacuzzi and sauna - which we were early enough to make full use of. Bliss after a day's flying. We'll be back!
Saturday
I really didn't want to go to the BWPA fly-in at Duxford, but for various reasons we more or less had to. I wanted to fly to Seething, or Old Buck, or Beccles, or Cromer! But it wasn't to be, this time. Anyway, it was an uneventful half-hour flight to Duxford, where we met various people, including our own Penguina. We looked round the museum etc, then took off after lunch for Wellesbourne. The predicted high pressure haze hadn't happened; the wx was still lovely. I dropped Tricia off, had a snack, and set off on the final leg to Sleap. There should have been no problems. The radio had worked fine for the whole trip, so I didn't even think about getting my handheld out of my bag in the back. I talked to Birmingham, then at Shrewsbury tried to call up Sleap.
"Station calling Sleap, unreadable"
Oh no. Not now! And they're crowded with people returning after a nice day (the radio is receiving fine); I really don't want to join non-radio. I switch to the previously non-working Box 2...and it works.
I land safely, put KF to bed....and start planning for the next trip to East Anglia. It may not have the scenery we have over here in Wales, but it's a friendly place, and we heard even more reports of how nice all the airfields were.
So, sorry not to have taken any of the advice I asked for...but that's aviation for you. But we'll go back, that's for certain.
Hopefully with a reliable radio!