The organisers of G-VFWE are obviously stuck between a rock and hard place when they order, and pre-purchase fuel. A few days of bad weather leaves them with a bowser full of AVGAS and a dent in the finances. Spectacular weather on any one day runs the risk that they will sell out, disappointing those who arrive in slow old aircraft with small endurances.

What Ian doesn’t recognise in his reply is that many of these aircraft are so slow and come from so far away that making enroute diversions to pick up fuel would risk an arrival so late as to shorten the day and lessen its attractiveness. Much better to be able to fly in direct and benefit from a decent period of time on the ground.

In our case, we ended up going to Kemble for fuel, and enjoyed the experience so much that by the time we had finished eating, there was no time to fly around to Keevil and then onwards to home base.

I don’t think our day was any the poorer for missing out on Keevil, nice as it would have been to support a good cause. Sadly, the onus will always be on the event organiser to make their event as pain-free as possible to fly to. Pilots can only do so much.

Frankly, ermm Frank, you’d be surprised how few clothes I wore on the trip, and indeed Moggy seemed to need no encouragement to shed his either.

It did mean that we handled the heat rather better than some of our fellow Flyers. Having seen it for myself now, rather too closely for comfort, I can confirm that there is nothing worse than the sight of two fat middle-aged men squeezing out of a tired old 152 after a four hour sector in an OAT of 35C.

The Chippie is always referred to as a fine aircraft. When discussing the Auster, most will agree that it has “character”; a euphemism to cover some of its less-than-perfect handling characteristics.

The Auster is undoubtedly great, but not quite as great as the Chippie.

Didn’t we have a fine time Moggy.

I love to fly down to Italy at least 12 times a year, just to top up on the latest fashion.

It was just unfortunate that the Colt has so little room for new frocks.

It is possible to make this more complex than it actually is.

If you hold a JAA licence, you qualify for an FAA licence without further exams or flight test (or finger-prints). Such a licence, issued under what is known as “FAR 61.75” requires the following process.

1) Pay fee to CAA so that when asked by the FAA, they will authenticate your CAA/JAA licence. About £19 I think

2) E-mail FAA applying for FAA licence and providing CAA/JAA licence details.

3) The FAA now checks with the CAA that your licence is valid. When confirmed, they come back to you and ask you to nominate an FAA Field office (FSDO) at which you wish your licence issuing. Now comes the tricky bit. There are no FSDOs outside the US any more, so you need to be visiting the US to collect the licence.

4) Turn up at your nominated FSDO on the nominated date. Show passport, CAA/JAA licence and medical, and receive FAA licence with all class ratings endorsed over. No fee.

Hope this helps.

I am assuming that you are aware of its current status at Shawbury?