The last time feels like yesterday, although it was around 12 years ago. Jeffrey Quill and Alex Henshaw were being entertained by BBMF/RAF Conningsby. AH sat in AB910, the Major on the port wing root complete with helmet (comms with the tower). Engine started, chock away, brakes off…good God, he’s going too fast!! Out to the taxiway and back as if he was a 22 year old. Quick, sharp and accurate. But he wasn’t 22, he was 82.
After lunch, AH and the Major off in Maurice Bayliss’s two seater for a twenty minute flight. After 30 minutes Maurice, slightly concerned, comments to me that there must be a problem as they had not returned. CAS, Sir Michael Graydon comes over and chats to Maurice. From nowhere at no more than 60 feet the Spit roars over our heads, commences a 4g 270 degree turn and zooms over the hangar. We stop worrying about where they had been and start worrying about what CAS is going to say about the very LOW flying. No worries. His words ‘WOW, that was beautiful’.
After shut down, with two smiling pilots on board, the Major holds his hands up in the well known ‘well, I wasn’t flying it’ attitude. AH’s comments after thanking everyone for making it a truly memorable day ‘these modern helmets are a bit heavy’.
For anyone that might like to see it, there is some good coverage of this wonderful event with Alex on the Prime Time video/DVD ‘Classic Warplanes Of The BBMF’, which is still available via their website-
http://www.ptvideo.com/videos/Aviation/classicwarp.html
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