Just about the perfect weekend...

[t'aint natural]

Only an hour's flying... in excellent vis, on Saturday morning.
Saturday evening, motorcycle to Old Warden for the show. Big crowd, and they got the Boxkite, the Avro Triplane and the Blackburn monoplane into the air, just on sunset. Warm glow.
Today, to Wellesbourne to see the Vulcan roll. Even bigger crowd than at the Shuttleworth, just to see the old lady lift her skirts and trundle down the runway. How many will turn out when she flies?
Congratulations to all the volunteers involved in both fantastic events.
Anyone who has a better weekend than me is fortunate indeed.

[DamienB]

Sadly 655 won't fly again much as we'd like her to. We got a record crowd - had to close the airfield to spectators eventually, too many people!

As for better weekends, well I had a seat in a Tristar over London for the birthday flypast (loadsa Tornado piccies e.g. this one (http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.cgi?110604)), then sat on the tower at Kemble watching practice displays, then went back on Sunday for the Classic Jets show (piccies in Av. history & nostalgia). So I must be a fortunate chap :)

[Aerobatic Flyer]

Not necessarily better, but a pretty good weekend all the same.

Went for some late-season glacier flying earlier on Saturday morning. Beautiful weather, not a breath of wind, and still some pretty reasonable snow conditions above about 10,500 feet. Finished off with a low-level (10ft) flight over the Glacier du Géant, underneath the cable car, and down the Mer de Glace. Fun! (And before anyone complains, much safer than trying to climb over the cable car cables.)

DamienB - superb photos, as always. If you ever ever want to take some ground-to-air or air-to-air shots with an alpine background, let me know.

[ratsarrse]

I had a similarly good weekend. Friday consisted of a dash down the M1 to a location near (but not in) Milton Keynes for a few beers with friends back from Australia for a few days. Good to catch up.
Saturday, I treated my Dad to the Shuttleworth Evening display as a Father's Day pressie. I have great admiration for the people flying the Blackburn, Boxkite et al - they must have cast-iron gonads is all I can say! Equally, the pilot of the Chipmunk in RCAF colours put on an impressive display. My jaw dropped when I realised that he was going to collect a ribbon on the ground with a wingtip. It dropped even further when he actually achieved this feat twice! I wouldn't fancy being one of the blokes on the ground holding the ribbon with a Chippy approaching at a rate of knots either. I also enjoyed seeing the Miles Gemini - something else I hadn't seen before - a lovely looking aircraft.
Fantastic weather, although an awkward crosswind must have caused a few problems for some of the types flying. Said wind disappeared miraculously when the Boxkite etc. were scheduled to fly - I think the weather gods must have wanted to see them too...
I really cannot recommend one of these evening displays enough. The museum, the setting, the ambience, and the smells (castor oil, anyone?) make for a great evening.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

What a difference the weather makes! Off to Barton on Saturday on the Bike, shorts and sandals together with headset, GPS, map etc in the tankbag.

Out of the bike gear as soon as I arrive. Super Chippy flight, and some good socialising.

Sunday, 176 miles on the bike around Bowland, including the 'Trough'. Increadilble scenery, and lunch at the absolutely amazing pub at Whitewell (could have used the shorts and sandals again!).

And it was dad's day, so lovely home-made cards etc from the daughters (which I'll keep).

Replete!

SSD

[Wycombe]

....I got some home-made ones from my little ones aswell (twin girls, 4 going on 14!) and spent a great day with them and their Mum on the (packed, but very pleasant) beach at Bournemouth yesterday.

Replete...me too :D (but would have liked to have been at Old Warden or Kemble aswell, now that I've heard about them!).

[Mr Wolfie]

Perfect Weekend - Agreed.

Bimble over the mountains and up the coast & back on Saturday (by C-150 - first flight since skills test) - magic.

Bimble down the coast, picnic on beach and then along the estuary on Sunday (by BMW R1100 motorcycle).

Seem to be a lot of motorbike / flying types on PPRUNE. I'd be interested to know the percentage of GA pilots who are also bikers. I suspect its pretty high.

Mr. W

[SevernTMA]

All as above except I have a boy, a Gilera Runner SP180 scooter and a Beechcraft Sundowner. And I had to wash the wifes car before she let me out to play with the boys toys!!!

[Ringway Flyer]

OK, didn't make to the shows, but we enjoyed Saturday by going from EGCC to Elvington. I booked us in on Friday and was told to come p.m. as they were expecting 6 aircraft in the morning!! Wx was exemplorary, museum superb, especially the Barnes Wallace bit. Highly recommended, but allow 1/2 a day at least, there's loads to look at. We'll be going back for another look...

[Dude~]

I rode my Honda CB500S (can't aford the insurance for a car) to the airport on saturday, flew to Le Touquet in the Arrow, strolled on beach, flew back then decided it was such a lovely evening I took off again for a sunset flight with zero turbulence and no traffic, little RT. Beautiful. Excellent greaser and short landing to top. Back out on the bike on sunday running in a new set of tyres! Wow what a difference.

[Fuji Abound]

Went to Le Mans and back on Sunday. Cars, bikes, people, noise, wall to wall sunshine, and some pretty exotic bus jets to boot. Never knew the cars were that noisey though.

[FloatLikeAButterfly]

That's a brilliant photo Damien - congratulations.

Floatie.

[Rallye Driver]

We were at Stapleford on Saturday to watch Damien fly past (if we'd known it was him we'd have given him a wave), then went on to Old Warden for the evening display. Brilliant as always.

Sunday morning - down to Rochester for the aerojumble fly-in, the on to Duxford for the Spitfire Day. Nice display flying and a re-enacted scramble.

RD

[DamienB]

FloatLikeAButterfly - cheers! Rallye Driver - I shall post a pic of the Tonka over Stapleford later tonight in that case!

[DamienB]

As promised...

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/pprune/stapleford.jpg

[t'aint natural]

More fabulous pics, Damian.
Just to put the top one in context - it's the Cromwell Road, corner of Earl's Court Road. Cromwell Hospital just above the efflux; I used to work one street over, regrettably out of shot.

[DamienB]

Cheers t'aint natural - this one any good to you?

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/pprune/cromwell.jpg

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

DamienB

Excellent pics as usual. How did you take those from the Tristar? They look far too clear to have been taken through the perspex and glass of an airliner window.

I'm too jealous to ask how you even got the seat in the Tristar ;~)

SSD

[DamienB]

They were indeed taken through a window - scratched, dirty and warped. Took piles and piles of photos and have deleted piles of them too for being ruined by the window but got lucky with lots of them thankfully. Would hate to have done that with film!!

[Rallye Driver]

Thanks for the EGSG shot, Damien. Great stuff!

RD :ok: