Last Sortie of a Legend

As a lifetime aircraft enthusiast and ex-Army Air Corps Tech, I have taken every issue of Flypast for years. My No.2 gson stores the collection at his dad’s (who is not too happy about it) and one of gson’s presents is always a Flypast Binder.

I count myself very lucky to live in the area over where so much RAF activity takes place. When the BBMF are ‘working up’ for the Display season, I often see Hurricanes, Spitfires and the Lancaster overhead. A rarer sight is the DC-3 Dakota, which takes longer to fly over than the fighters. I hear the Merlins and Griffons before I see the fighters of course, it’s an unmistakeable racket! Typhoons often go screaming out over the North Sea in response to the latest ambling Bison from Putin. They come back a lot slower, at lower heights. Sometimes the Sentry AWACS goes over on its way out or in from the Middle East, that still cracks me up, to see the huge “flying saucer” above the body of the aircraft.

June 8 and 9 is Duxford Flying Legends and I am trying to convince SWMBO that I should take my grandson. Can’t make my mind up whether to do that one or the 23/24 September Battle of Britain show. Maybe if I am very, very good I can make both. B-)

I used to see the Red Arrow Hawks quite a lot around here until a few years ago. Nowadays they practice around South Lincs, until they go to Cyprus. I have another Gt-nephew who is RAF groundcrew tech and goes everywhere with them, lucky lad! Don’t see him much, as his mum and dad (my deceased nephew) parted years ago. The Hawk is built at BAE Brough, over the Humber from me in East Yorkshire. Last year the factory almost closed, until the MOD gave another order and HAL (Hindustan aeronautics Limited) bought even more, for the Indian Airforce and Navy:     https://tinyurl.com/nx4p8tm

As they are wont to do, the Indians have taken a British machine and reworked it, then improved it. The Hawk is a very long-lived aircraft, being used as a trainer since the late 60’s, with ongoing improvements. The predecessor was the Folland Gnat, two of which formed a Display team at some shows. I have seen them twice at Cleethorpes Airshow: unfortunately, this year the town cannot find enough sponsors to fund it. They were really good shows, 2 Para carried out a Free Fall drop over the estuary beach and the town was absolutely packed, it was really good for Cleethorpes businesses. It was quite hazy closer to the ground. mist was moving in over the Humber as 2 Para made their final drop, see pic’s –

PlaneMan wrote:

Tippon wrote:

No worries, I’ve been called worse

So have I!

And Me! Much Worse! Sometimes it was even my own fault, but not often… B-)  :yahoo: