Nice pics Darren, were you wearing a red or yellow reflective jacket, distant dots to me I’m afraid. I’m trying to find the lead to download the video, I should have done this sooner but I had another meeting this afternoon.
Whats the significance of the visit to Biggin, not preparing for an unauthorised trip to Berlin I hope.
Incidentally, have any of the crew been to DX before.
It was nice to see 4 Spits, 2 L-4 Grasshoppers, the Nimrod and a Harvard plus Sally B parked out the front at DX, with the Cat lurking in the background, along with the usual suspects parked around, coupled with the perfect weather, it must be a pretty interesting looking place to land at after all that flying.

I was very lucky, my site meeting over ran, but while I was on my way to another site visit on the top end of Saffron Walden, I made a run for the lane the other side of DX to see what was happening, it only took 10 mins.
I got there just before 11:30, no sign of Liberty Belle, but Caroline was doing some aeobatics, followed by another Spitfire.
There was no-one about and the crowdline didn’t look very busy. Then the Arctic Survey aircraft came in.
However I noticed a TV camera appear at the end of the runway and the fire engine looking interested ( I had my bins, incidentally).
At nearly 12:00, way in the distance, coming from the NW, I could see a shape and sure enough it was Liberty Belle, she came round from the east in a leisurely turn, the sun glinting on the silver finish, I was lucky to have the sun behind me.
A quick spin down the runway centre line, then turn in over my side for finals, at which point a bloody tractor appeared to spray the field, must have done it on purpose.
A nice landing then she followed the jeep to the parking spot next to the tower and I watched the engines swing to a stop.
I found the whole thing quite emotional actually, but a bit of an anti climax in a way, it would have been nice if the 2 spits had formed an escort, LB didn’t appear long after they had landed.
I also found it strange how few people were about, certainly no-one where I was, I would liked to have gone in but I had to shoot off to another site meeting, but I really didn’t think I’d see it anyway, I got lucky for once.
I have to say that I love the markings, especially having the sun behind me, at least I got it on video, unfortunately with lots of tractor noise.
I’m sure it will be on our local Anglia news broadcasts tonight, those who can, look out for it.
Just one sad comment, Sally B was looking a bit forlorn with a blue tarpaulin where the port outer should be.
Can’t they fly her on 3 engines at least, or borrow a Merlin.

You will never believe this, while writing this, I heard the sound of engines, and Liberty Belle has just flown over Braintree and past my house, escorted by what must be a camera plane. No chance of pictures, the old girl next door has nearly broken her neck to get out the front and see it.
Are we off for a jolly over London then, she’s heading that way, what a fantastic sight, I can’t get over it.

Wasn’t the sole remaining Rolls-powered 707 recently chopped up at Cosford?

It was, and it was a bloody disgrace.
In reality, the Concorde is swooned over in the UK, it’s sacrosant, it also seems to be forgotten about that it’s an Anglo-French product, though no doubt either country has claims to be originators of the project.
Percentage wise it must be the most preserved a/c in the history of aviation.
The fact that I can go and see one of these pointy things in various places sums that up, the fact that I can’t think where I can go in this country and see one of the greatest airliners ever built, the Boeing 707, is pretty sad.

Where are all the idiots who used to hold the anti-apartheid concerts and anti-Rhodesian and anti-South African marches, particularly in England? Where are they now indeed…….

Here I am, I put my hands up, I admit it, it was good fun, I even got on the telly, then back to the student union bar for a few pints of Brickwoods Bitter, and Black Sabbath appearing for a £50 preformance fee, 5 shillings to get in. Those were the days, it was the 60’s after all, being a student was fun then, you’d go and protest against anything then, not that you really knew a bloody thing about life, the universe and it’s consequences, though you thought you did, thats what being a student was all about in those days.

Mind you some things never go away, I work from home, I’m expecting a phone call from a very important man over a multi million pound development that they’ve cocked up, I know he will be sitting in his office sweating in his Armani suit, me I’m sitting here in my shorts and Che Guevara tee shirt, well thats what I was wearing at an important meeting over this issue last night, if you are in business, try it, it puts them at a disadvantage, if you hold all the cards it winds them up even more, it was an attitude impressed on me by a multi millionaire business man that I worked for, it didn’t do him any harm, he’s bloody rich, even I was embarresed by what he would be wearing at some of our meetings.

Sorry, I digress. After discussing the Mugabe problem while cooking dinner, which I’ve know doubt most average British Families do, My missus told me an interesting story last night.
She caught the train to Chelmsford to do a bit of shopping on saturday. She found herself sitting with a group of South African whites/Afrikkaans over here on holiday.
Now my missus is a clever sod and latched on to the fact that they were taking the mickey out of an English black girl and her child sitting behind them, not being totally up on the history of African politics, she didn’t understand the constant use of the word Kafir, she said that they were making an issue of this, well they were safe on a British train weren’t they, there were alot of them and she thought that quite frankly from their attitude, that they were a bunch of rascist bullies, a few less and she would have waded in I reckon.
As she said, Mugabe is a complete b#####d, but if thats still the whites attitude, it doesnt help does it, though given the circumstances, you can’t blame them.
Its a shame Mandella isn’t younger, if he had youth on his side, he may have had some influence, bottom line is, Mugabe is old, he ain’t going to live much longer, as far as the African Congress are concerned, it’s the easy option to wait for him to die until the next dictator comes along and make a few quid out of the populations misery, black or white.

With respect to our American friends, they tried to ban it from their air space when it first came out, why should this example of Anglo-French one-upmanship fair any better now.
It’s not part of their US heritage, I don’t blame them for neglecting it, it’s sits there as a reminder of a race that they lost to perfect a supersonic airliner, given the power, money and technological acheivement available in the States at the time, it must have really hurt.
Imagine if the situation was the other way around and some Boeing jobby was parked up at Heathrow as an example of what we were’nt able to achieve, apart from us keen types, would the authorities and the general public care a damn, I doubt it.
Whose idea was it to park it there in the first place.

Oh, and we’d still come help ya again if need be.

Please come and help us to reinstate the Mildenhall Air Fete, we miss it and don’t deserve our subsequent loss of UK/US relationships, it’s passing has become a great big hole in our airshow calendar, I miss my Polish sausage for a start, life over here has suffered as a consequence.