What nonsense! What “risk” is someone putting themselves in by being in a farmers field (taking care not to destroy any crops) over the road?
Er.. no. Those who stand in that field, under or near the flight path of approaching aircraft are, believe it or not endagering not only themselves and the aircrafts crew, but also the very existence of flying at Dx.
I have it on very good authority that the airfield manager himself has repeatedly asked the landowner to give the Police permission to move said bystanders out of that field and, if they so wish, to other areas outside the airfields boundary.
Common sense will tell anyone that aircraft are at their most vulnerable when landing or taking off, and in any such emergency the last thing a pilot needs is a group of people standing right where he needs to put his machine down. You only have to look at the tragic case of Martin Sergeant, lost with his Spitfire in France due to bystanders in his flightpath which forced him to stay in the air longer than was necessary, leading to him stalling and crashing.
On top of that it was only last year that P51 ‘Miss Helen’ literally just made it onto the airfield at Dx after suffering power loss on approach.
If, heaven forbid, members of the public were injured or killed due to standing in that very spot when an emergency arose, do you really think that would do anything other than irretrievable damage to not only flying at Duxford but also at any other active airfield in this country?
Where you stand sir is your choice, but you need to be made very aware of the potential consequences of your actions.!
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