| 16 July 2006 -
Devon Strut fly in on Lundy Island |
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| For many years as
a child Jan holidayed camping at Croyde Bay looking out at Lundy
Island. She often thought she would like to visit the island but
never did. So she was rather excited at todays final destination |
| Having telephoned
the evening before, the organisers assured us that we did not need to
remove our "pants" and that the right hand side of the runway
was free of rabbit holes. |
| So having set the
alarm clock 6:00 am we rose early and headed for the airfield. We
were in the air by 9:30 and heading West. |
| Unusually Martin
flew higher than normal taking advantage of what tailwind was
available. We flew past Henstridge, making excellent time |
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| There is no fuel
on Lundy so we stopped off at Eaglescott for coffee and to fill the tanks
with fuel. |
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| Lundy Island is
but a short hop from there, in fact 10 miles off the coast in the Bristol
Channel. Lundy is three miles long an half a mile wide. They
were using runway 06 with a right hand circuit so we hopefully got some
good footage on the video |
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| Successful
landing and being met by such friendly people made the early start and
effort to get over the "fear" factor all well worth while.
Fantastic BBQ and thoughtfully selling stamped postcards. Just right
to send to the family, even offered the loan of a pen. |
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| Now refreshed we
headed off to climb he old lighthouse. One hundred and forty seven
steps and on the last lap the steps were so narrow. But oh boy what
a fantastic view we had of the airfield and the island from the top.
Well worth all that puffing and panting. We were delighted to see
the Birddog take off and perform a fast fly past at the level of the top of the
lighthouse. He circled over the sea and back over the runway before
waggling his wigs and off to the mainland. Why did we not have the
video working at that time. . |
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| Not finding a
lift we headed back down and then across the fields to the pub and shop
and to find the postbox |
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| An ice cream from
the shop which opens between 1:00 and 3:00 on a Sunday and a look around
the pub before we headed back to the airfield |
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| There are twenty
three self catering cottages on the island, definitely worth thinking
about for the future. |
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| Back at the
airfield planes were still landing, last count we heard was 59 but I am
sure that rose above 60 |
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| We took off and
headed for Woolacombe, passing Ilfracombe, Lynmouth and on to Minehead
before heading inland and home. Fantastic day, but exhausted |
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