Hey Winney, I'll let you into a little secret, you don't actually need lessons to fly a plane. There was a bloke on
The Gadget Show who just spent a long time on a PC simulator and went to fly a circuit, (including the landing) straight away.
Of course I'm only kidding.
My old fella' used to take me Barton as a nipper, either to just marvel at the aircraft, (in them days you used to be able to wander round the hangers. My dad was an engineer, and was amazed that some guy was filing an engine block with what looked like an old "bastard" file, so that he could get over the pylons at the end of 27, rather than fly under them. (Or that's what he told us
).
And the airshows were magnificant-seem to remember a low level pass by concorde some years ago.
Try and get hold of
Three Score Years and Ten by Peter Maher, some great stuff in there about the history of the place.
Years later, managed to eventually to gain my PPL there and spent many an hour flying around the Northwest. Everyone I met there were truly friendly and helpful.
I don't fly now, mortgage & work being my poor excuse. I don't even visit the place, because it would serve as a sad reminder of how I used to spend my time there.
But boy oh boy, how I yearn to be back in India Lima, getting thumped on my shoulder, with my instructor tapping the airspeed indicator with a pointy telescopic thing, reminding me of my airspeed on finals
