This week will hopefully see a British Hat Trick
1. Return to the Sky for XH558
2. England to win the rugby World Cup.
3. Lewis Hamilton to win the F1 World Championship.
BEags - that’s what airsound was telling everyone at Brunters who would care to listen. And - going to be in Paris to try and help celebrate the achievement of item 2. Only problem is - am trying to change Eurostar booking so as not to be on a train when item 3 happens.
But back to Brunters - it was a uniquely inspirational moment when those four Olympi gave their unearthly howl as they spooled up. Then when the Grand Old Lady picked up her skirts and rotated off the runway like a teenager, the Rolls Royce roar was almost drowned out by the sound of beery tears coursing down a few hundred seamed old cheeks and pattering onto the concrete.
And as for that landing. Wow. At the informal press conference afterwards, airsound asked ‘who did the landing?’ The first response was ‘why do you want to know?’, at which the fabled titter ran round the crowd. But then Dave Thomas graciously pointed to Al McDicken, who was roundly applauded again.
It was a day in a lifetime. The first day of a completely new life.
Btw, my impression was that she took about 5000ft of runway, for take-off and for landing (run). Marginally overpowered perhaps?
airsound