Combined Ops

What a busy weekend! Hard on the heels of a Friday Night Ride to the Coast (Whitstable edition - one of the nicest ever - dry, not too cold, light tailwind), Adam and his son and I headed off on Sunday to the Headcorn Aerodrome in Kent, for The Military Show & Vintage Aircraft Weekend. 

The main draw for us was the scheduled appearance of the only two airworthy Lancaster bombers (one kept by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the other by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum), reunited here in the UK this summer to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. They were to be based at Biggin Hill airfield for the weekend but scheduled to do fly-bys and aerial displays over airfields all over the South East, including Headcorn. Adam and Sam went down to Eastbourne last Friday for the airshow there, and saw the Lancasters along with a number of other WWII-era aircraft. But Sunday would be my chance to finally see them, too. 

The forecast was for partly cloudy skies, sunny spells with a few light showers passing over through the afternoon, with the rain-producing system clearing to the east by mid-afternoon. However, the forecasters may not have agreed this with the weather system itself, because we got was a steady series of showers, some quite heavy with thunder and lightning, interspersed with a few brief spells of sunshine. 

And so the Lancasters were grounded. 

Nonetheless, we saw some fantastic displays with large model planes. 

 

As well as watching the de Havilland Dragon Rapide based at Duxford taking up groups of passengers. 

Taxi-ing down the field to the east end of the runway

Taking off into the westerly wind

Landing

Disembarking

A group of skydivers (some solo, some tandem - a total of 10 parachutes) went up and then came down again, right onto the eastern end of the airfield. I understand that parachutes are now so sophisticated, you can aim and execute your landing within a few feet of exactly where you want to come down.

And we had a fly-by and brief display by two Folland Gnats (flown by members of the Red Arrow squad). 

(C) Adam Bell

When we were not staring upwards and oohing and aahing, we wandered around the Military Show. The atmosphere reminded me strongly of county fairs when I was growing up, albeit this one had a definite theme, one that did not include livestock!

While we were watching the air shows, behind was a Mini Tank Yard with vehicles that provides kids (accompanied or unaccompanied depending on age) with the experience of "driving a tank". It sounded like about a dozen lawnmowers behind us!

There was also a market. Sam was looking to plug a few holes in his Air Training Corp. kit. He picked up a particular type of cap in the prescribed camouflage pattern.

I scored a small US Army "tool bag" that almost exactly fulfils the design brief I had sketched out a few weeks ago for a rack bag with handles for easy use on and off the bike. I'll post up more details once I've had a chance to try it out. 

As you can see, we couldn't help but notice any and all bicycles anywhere on the grounds, including our own. 

Our journey involved nearly five hours in total on trains. From London Bridge to Headcorn, Adam had to balance the tandem on its rear rack to keep the aisle of the carriage clear! 

And yes, that white bike is exactly what you think it is!  Details coming soon.