13 March 2005

Flying with Martin

in our Vintage Cessna 170B

Home

Pictures

Story of HW and AY

VAC Fly-ins

Devon Strut

Model planes

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

13 March 2005 - Bodmin, Cornwall.

At long last the weathermen were reporting lighter winds and from a westerly direction. So we took the plunge and decided to take advantage of a free landing pass and head for Bodmin an airfield we had not been to before. We flew in great visibility seeing the Isle of Wight very clearly. We met the coast by Lyme Regis and then along to the mouth of the river Exe, where we headed inland across Dartmoor.

Princetown and the prison looked very bleak. Then we flew onto Bodmin Moor and our destination. We filled the plane with fuel and had coffee, regrettably the lady who cooks does not do Sundays.

Bodmin airfield

So with rumbling tummies we took off again and headed for the Cornish coast around Bude. We flew up the coast around Hartland Point with great views of Lundy Island. An airstrip we must visit later. Then on past Clovelly, Bideford, Barnstaple with great views of Chivenor runways. Then as a special treat past Croyde Bay the home of many childhood summer camping and later caravanning holidays. On past Woolacombe, Ilfracombe , Combe Martin, Woody Bay, Lynton and Lynmouth, Porlock and Minehead where we headed inland. Over the Somerset levels, Glastonbury, Salisbury Plain and home.

The weather had been kind if a little cold and the plane performed well, even if she was a little slow to start, but who could blame her when we had left her unflown for so long and she still has not got used to the UK winters, having spent the most part of her life in sunny California.

Serendipity happens often in genealogy but it happened also in Bodmin. While drinking our coffee Martin whispered "I know that guy" the one who had just arrived in a Jodel. Many moons ago Martin and a friend flew to the Isles of Scilly and the weather became silly, as it is prone to do and they had to look for somewhere to stay. That achieved they tried to find somewhere to store their plane. A gentleman came to their rescue taking back the netting at the end of his garden and exposing a garage/hanger into which they placed their plane. He and two other friends were rebuilding a Jodel in the clubhouse. There is more to this story but another day.............. The man drinking coffee was that man. So Martin was able to rethank the good samaritan and swap stories about the now completed Jodel.