My Finest Hour…

It was a warm August day and all around  the drone of spitfires flying overhead filled the air. The  small but strategic Cambridgeshire  airfield was playing host to a very special event that would bring about a lasting and abiding memory for a (young?) trainee pilot who would be taking his first steps into vintage powered flight.

Well this weekend I was the” trainee” and I got the opportunity this last weekend to do just that. For my Birthday this year Carol bought me a 30 minute flight in a Harvard T6. This aircraft was the trainer of choice for those plucky pilots making the leap from the Gypsy Moth to the Hurricane, Spitfire or Mustang.

I skipped the step on the Gypsy Moth – well you would wouldn’t you given the opportunity to fly in a 500 hp single engine but two seater World War II aircraft.

The venue was Duxford and we travelled down to Cambridge to spend Saturday evening in this very charming and historic city. It was also conveniently located for the airfield and after breakfast on Sunday we set off for opening time.

The flight was booked for 11.30 and the weather was perfect. The trip was organised by Classic Wings who operate regular pleasure flights from Duxford and at certain times during the year ups the anti and gets some “heavy metal” for the public to try. The pilot was Anna, a civilian pilot who happened to be a fully trained acrobatic pilot for Spits, Hurricanes and Mustangs – some weekend job eh!

She was really friendly too – the Health and Safety police were there in the background but it wasn’t going to stop Anna making the trip enjoyable. The plan was that she would take off, after the briefing, and then she would run through the controls with me in air and then let me have a go. Following that she would go through a few aerobatic moves.

Well it was brilliant. The plane was set up to mimic the movements of Mustang control set and it was amazing that the controls were very light to the touch – Anna complimented me on my gentle touch – that’s not been said  to me for a few years now. We tried a few turns and then came the serious stuff starting with the loop the loop and a barrel roll. Well I thought that I would be eating my breakfast again as we pulled around 2g in these manoeuvres.

My favourite however was the Victory role. A sharp pull on the stick and suddenly my world turned upside down – literally. I enjoyed it again so we did it again twice more in fact. The previous victim had made a low pass across the runway but we had a friendly intruder that stopped us – a Spitfire was practising a display and flew past us as we toyed around – what a sight!!

All too soon the time was up in fact we had an extra 10 minutes making it 40 in total. When we landed and I got out of the aircraft it was all slightly surreal. Carol commented that I was slightly subdued – in fact it was more reflective really. The whole event was a bit of a sensory overload trying to pack so much in to 30 mins or so. Too expensive to repeat too often it was the best present that I have ever had  - so far…

BTW see the photos of my finest hour and a few of Cambridge too, by following this link…