My 2015 Season – More Busy Than I Expected

I had a bit of a Google to see if I had missed anything, and an article said that the owner hopes to fly in the spring. Fingers crossed.

I was asking Simon about it at the event, and he said there’s still lots of little odds and ends to sort out.

Great stuff.

Has G-MUTS flown yet?

Nice selection.

Nice photos Stephen.

I was at Croft and must have been standing quite close to you as I got a photo of the Bestmann as it taxied back to the hangar area after it arrived from Breighton.

Also took a classic car over to Fishburn for the Wings and Wheels, hope they do it again next year and have better luck with the weather.

Fishburn Airfield Fly/Drive-In – October 3rd

The Fishburn Fly/Drive-In was my last aviation related event of the season. It promised to be a great day out, but sadly after a week of pretty good weather, thick fog for most of the day kept away all but three visiting aircraft on the day. There was a great turnout of wheels, from military vehicles, to classic cars, bikes and a bus.

Most of the public seemed to enjoy what was on display, and later in the day, the fog lifted enough for the Harvard to do some joy riding. It was a cold and very damp day, but with great support from the vehicles and public, so hopefully the event will be repeated and will be more lucky with the weather in future.

The clipped wing Spitfire and P-40 were from the Fighter Collection. The program said Spit and Sea Fury, but this must have had a technical problem, being replaced by the P-40. The Anson had also dropped out due to a problem. However, there were still plenty of warbirds and other aircraft displaying, and I don’t think anyone could be disappointed by the quality of the aircraft and displays. Two local aircraft in the display were the Jungmann and Yak from Breighton, while a number of other Breighton aircraft were in the static aircraft park.

The Vulcan then closed the show, flying a full display in fantastic sun light, ending the show with a near vertical climb and flying off into the Sun set and into history.

There were plenty of warbirds too, with a C-47, three Spitfires, P-40, P-51 and Hurricane. The C-47 put on a great low level display. Slowing the displays down a bit were two helicopters, a Bell UH-1 Iroquois and a Hughes OH-6 Loach. The MiG 15 put on a great flat display, and the silver finish looked great in the sun light.

As the morning moved on towards lunch, the sky got brighter and it got warmer when flying started. The show had a very retro feel with so many classic jets, and the most modern aircraft were probably the Raven display team. The jet displays included the Gnat Team, Meteor and Sea Venom, Provost, MiG15 and the Avro Vulcan.

Church Fenton Air Show – Sept 26th

This was the first air show at the former RAF Church Fenton, now renamed Leeds East Airport. The Yorkshire MVT were to display a number of vehicles as part of the ground attractions, and I tagged along too, although I possibly travelled the furthest, with a three hour, 100 mile drive each way. I got there about 10am, and it was still quite dull and overcast, but there were however over 70 military vehicles on display. There were also a large number of aircraft that would be flying later, or were just on display in the static park.

Clacton Seafront Airshow – August 27th

We had a week away in Suffolk late in August, staying in a friend’s vacant rental property near Eye airfield. By chance we found out about the Clacton airshow on Thursday 27th, and having seen the aircraft line up, decided it was worth a day out. It was rather cold and windy on the coast, ‘though we should have known since it was an English Summer! For a free airshow, and our first time at Clacton, we were very impressed. It was certainly better than our local freebie at Sunderland seafront. The displays spanned a few hours over the afternoon, with probably no more than 5 minutes gap between each display, rather than the 20 to 30 minutes break we’ve often seen at Sunderland. As a result, the show flowed well, with little down time, so I’d recommend Clacton to anyone who is in the area at the time.

It was nice to see the MiG 15 for the first time and the Chinook was impressive for such a big machine. I thought that Croft would be the last time I saw the Vulcan, but it was there and gave a full display, and of course, the highlight for me was B-17 ‘Sally B’.

NELSAM Victory Event – August 15/16th

A quiet day at the museum today, with not many public about, but a chance to relax and have a chat with friends. The weekend before when I was at Croft, had been a big open day with hundreds of people attending, so I wasn’t surprised the following weekend was quiet. I took my Dodge along, and there were a few other military vehicles on display including a couple of Jeeps and a Harley. I’d not been since May, so this was my first chance to see the Vulcan with the fin painted and the new Saunders-Roe Skeeter helicopter in the military vehicle shed.

Croft Nostalgia – August 8/9th

For the Nostalgia Festival this year, we had some nice visiting aircraft on static display, along with some great flying too. Two Breighton residents were on static display, the desert Auster ( the owner escapes me ) and Bestmann/Gomhouria of Tony Brier, and also the Pitts of Paul Gabriel. Clive Butler also did a display in the Extra 230.

I expected the Croft Vulcan display to be the last time I would see the aircraft.

The weather wasn’t as kind as everyone was hoping for, and it kept visitor numbers down, but there was still plenty going on. One Jungmann had flown in from Germany for the Buckerfest part of the weekend and there was a good turnout of wheels for the Drive-In.

Breighton Airfield Buckerfest and Fly/Drive-In – July 18/19th

I’ve tried to make it to Breighton’s Summer Fly-In every year since first attending. It’s a really friendly venue, and being close to the runway and with the sun behind the flightline, it’s a great place to watch or photograph aircraft. I took one of my Jeeps on display, camping from Friday afternoon. On Saturday evening, there was the usual hangar party and hog roast.

The F-15 was looking smart, fresh out of its respray and the other big US jets always have a presence.

Even though the B-29 was behind barriers, it was an impressive sight, and seemed bigger than when in the AAM building.

It was also nice to see the American Air Museum aircraft out of the cramped confines of the museum building, particularly the B-29. This allowed a number of photographs of aircraft at angles that were impossible while the aircraft were under cover. B-17 ‘Sally B’, Catalina and the Blenheim were all off to shows. The last time I saw a Blenheim was in 2003, flying over Blenheim Palace!

There were four Spitfires flying across the day, two of which were two seaters.

Duxford – ‘V Force’ Tour – June 28th

The following day, was my first Duxford visit in five years. While it started off raining and gloomy, it slowly improved, so I spent the morning looking around the hangars. The MkI Spitfires, Blenheim, silver P-40 and Ambassador were newly completed airframes I hadn’t seen finished before. Since it was day two of the V Force Tour, I started with a look at the IWM Victor and Vulcan.