Glorious Evening!

[Aussie Andy]

http://photos22.flickr.com/26100764_82ea2c9e13_m.jpg http://photos23.flickr.com/26100518_6e03a4715a_m.jpg http://photos21.flickr.com/26101377_11dff70951_m.jpg

I never get to fly on weekday evenings - but I did yesterday and it was beautiful! Yesterday I enjoyed a rare day off and spent the afternoon and evening flying with my brother John around a few airfields including White Waltham, Wycombe and the lovely Old Sarum near Salisbury in Wiltshire.

Conditions yesterday evening were absolutely perfect! The forecast convective weather didn't materialise, and we could see for 50 miles plus in perfect blue skies! Evening flights in the British Summer are truly lovely - the air is calm as the heat of the day and thermals diminish, and especially on weekday evenings there is very little traffic around.

And the views! As you can see, England truly is a "green and pleasant land" at this time of year. When we have a good summer (as it seems we have this year) July and August here are brilliant!

As we departed Old Sarum, we were treated to gorgeous views of the eponymous Iron Age Hill Fort and the lovely Salisbury Cathedral. We returned back to RAF Benson, where the aircraft we were fling yesterday (a Piper Warrior G-BEFA) is based, at around 8pm with nearly 2 hrs of daylight still remaining, and retired home for tea and medals :-)

You can see the rest of the photos from yesterday evenings flight here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonhardy/sets/593584/

Andy :ok:

[Ian_Wannabe]

Brilliant - cheers for sharing... makes me wanna go flying right now!

[Yorks.ppl]

Reminds me of a summers evening last year, we took off from leeds and within 5 mins we could see the sun reflecting on the sea in morcambe bay 50 miles away!

The privelidge of flying is a gift indeed.

Great pics too.

[Aussie Andy]

Cheers fellas, glad you enjoyed the pics if it made everyone want to fly :ok: ! We seem to be having one of the best summers I can recall in many years; long may it last!

Sadly (well, not that sadly!) I will be away visiting family in Australia during August, so will probably miss a lot more extraordinarily good flying weather here in the UK this season... I have no more flying planned here until September :{. I do hope to fly while at home, with a mate in his Beechcraft single engine (not sure model) from Canberra to the coast of NSW, but there's every chance we won't get VMC all the way so it might not happen.

Enjoy the rest of this excellent season in this country - which is second to none when the sun's out! ;)

Andy :ok:

[Pole Hill]

Makes me want to go flying too. I love flying on weekday evenings for the reasons that Aussie Andy gives.
I remember, departing from Leeds, leaving their control zone at Keighley. As I subsequently climbing to 3000', I could see our destination, Blackpool, 40nm's away. Fantastic. :)
POL