Auster Club AGM & Fly-in, 6-7 June

Unfortunately, due to the weather, the fly-in at Leicester airport this weekend was more of a drive-in, but stilll a superb three days for those that turned up on Friday, with several intersting aircraft and their crew taking the best of the small opportunity of suitable weather on Saturday to turn up for the AGM by air.

The club certainly deserved the title of International Auster Club this weekend, with one Auster and it’s crew travelling eight and a half hours from Denmark just for the weekend, and as I speak are on their way back, as well as an Australian member present

Beagle Husky

This pretty much sums up the weekend – watching the weather from the lounge of the Leicestershire Aero Club (in the WW2 control tower), listening to the rain and watching windsocks!

Richard Webber’s Auster J5R Alpine, with lovely markings on the wings

G-AGTO from Duxford, the first production civilian Auster

G-AIBW from Breighton

Tail art on the Alpine

Mike Cleaver from Australia won the award for longest distance travelled, as you can see, it’s a framed Fosters beer advert, with Ayres Rock suitably garnished by an Auster!

The ‘French Horn’ trophy for those that best epitomised the spirit of the club went to the owner and wife of the civilian marked Husky, who can be seen at most of the fly-ins

Villi Seeman, who as I write this is somewhere over Europe on their way back to Denmark, won the award for best new aircraft, which was very well deserved…

…and this is his aircraft, Auster V OY-EFI, made in 1943 but commissioned in 1944, owing to the fact the USA manuactured Lycoming engines for the Auster IV and V aircraft were at the bottom of the Atlantic.

For a few hours there was a good line up which represented a good chronology of post-WW2 Auster history, starting with the first production civilian Auster and ending with two Husky’s