Between Thursday evening and Friday morning the TAFs improved enough that I decided to try flying in. I also found I had a cat sitter, and accommodation at Kemble, so decided to stay all weekend!
Flying in f/w, for the first time, to an airfield I'd never visited except by helicopter (so not to the runway) was much easier than I expected. In fact, Friday morning was so quiet that there were no other aircraft to follow in! The plan on the AIC had fallen on the floor of the aircraft, so just as well I'd memorised it. Great fun taxi-ing in though, loads of spotters taking photos and registrations...hey, this is a very ordinary old C150; I like it and take pictures of it, but why are you?
Managed to meet a few prooners in the afternoon at the Flyer stand, sorry to have missed FD and shortstripper. Had a good time, meeting people, arranging to write more articles for the mags, helping on the BWPA stand, buying stuff...all filled in the time till Sunday morning, when I decided to leave before the general rush. But I agree, quieter than previous years. I think the slightly iffy wx (technical term that
) put off some flyers. I'm sure the inflated entrance prices put off many people...I'm a member, so £5 was fine, but £25 for a day is ridiculous. And stallholders said prices had gone up, hence the empty stalls and lack of fun-type stalls as in the past.
I had a great weekend, but that's me. But PFA, I think you need to re-think this one a little bit for next year.