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We had booked landing
slots for the Friday and Sunday and intended to go on the best day, which
for our aeroplane translates to the day with the lightest wind. Friday
appeared to be the day and with a landing slot time of 11:39 we were
airborne about 1 hour before this. The day was pleasantly calm but the
visibility was not quite as good as one would hope for when heading for an
area with lots of aeroplanes.
With Sywell information
dialled in we headed North while listening out for that first transmission
which would give the landing details at Sywell. The first transmission
overheard was somewhat confusing as it mentioned a runway, which wasn’t
relevant to Sywell. We were hearing Compton Radio and it was some time
before we heard any Sywell traffic. Worryingly during most of the journey we
saw almost no aeroplanes in the air and the traffic on Sywell Information
was very light.
We took the normal route
North crossing the M4 by junction 13 and following a track past Didcot,
Buckingham and Towcester racecourse before arriving at Pitsford Reservoir.
We had some reserve time that could be spent in the hold but with the
traffic light and well spaced out we proceeded to join for 21R and touched
down 10 minutes before our slot time. After taking on fuel and then parking
in the highwing tailwheel line we headed for the hog roast and coffee.
Later we went to see our
friend Paul who was displaying his Escapade on the Reality Aircraft stand
and then wandered the many lines of parked aircraft and talked with some of
their owners. Although it was a good turn out many of the people we spoke
with were fearful for the future for GA in this country and dreaded the
level of draconian stupidity that is coming out of Europe.
The weather remained good
although the wind progressively picked up during the day giving quite a high
crosswind component on departure. We flew home on the same track and was
pleased to find that back at base the wind was still very light compared to
Sywell. This had been a really good day out and some days later we found out
that our friend Paul had won a trophy for the best part built kit aeroplane.
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