Stitches, Beads, Rock N Roll: My Dad The Spitflyer

Wednesday 10 August 2016

My Dad The Spitflyer

Sunday 7th August 2016, I'm pretty sure that no date in history has been more anticipated within the Richardson household. The day had finally come ..... Dad was going to fly with a Spitfire!

We were off up to Duxford to meet with the Classic Wings team who would be taking a small group of people, including Dad, up in a vintage Dragon Rapide passenger plane which would be joined in flight by a Spitfire.

Duxford is about 2 hours drive from here on the South Coast but Vana & I were kept entertained by Chris's commentary on other road user's driving abilities (or lack thereof)... Dad's flight was supposed to be at 11.15 but ended up being pushed back to mid-afternoon due to the strong wind. Not that it mattered as there was so much to see and do around the museum.

The museum is made up of several aircraft hangers, one of which was accidentally blown up during the filming of Battle Of Britain (co-incidentally one of my favourite films), and workshops full of rare and interesting aircraft and other exhibits. There was too much to photograph everything so here are a few of my 'Hanger Highlights'.

From the Air & Sea hanger -

A Blackburn Buccaneer (one of the aircraft that Dad and I would most like to see fly)

A Sea Vixen, we'll be seeing one at Airbourne in a couple of days!

From the American Air Museum

Yes that is an SR-71 Blackbird! The fastest plane ever to have flown (unless, like me, you believe in the existence of the Aurora like I do!). The Blackbird is so fast that it has been known to outrun surface to air missiles!

A-10 Warthog

And finally from the AirSpace hanger -

De Havilland Mosquito - the other plane that Dad and I would most like to see fly

I miss the Vulcan so much!

Concorde

My favourite plane the Tornado!

TSR-2 the greatest plane never to have flown?

There are also some aircraft outside including this beautiful VC-10 -

Duxford is also home to Sally-B

Chris even found some cars to look at

And anywhere that boasts a play area shaped like a Lancaster Bomber is pretty good in my book -

Whilst we were waiting for Dad's flight we were kept entertained by a Harvard that was doing is CAA Validation Display -

Lucky shot with the moon behind the Harvard

Dad had to go one better and watch from the control tower!

Then it was time for Dad's flight!

Climbing in to the Dragon Rapide

He's up!

Then the Spitfire took off to join them.

Dad says that the Spitfire couldn't have come in any closer to the Rapide without crashing into it! I've stolen a couple of his photos (un-zoomed!) so you can see how close they were -

Just wow!

Not that I'm jealous you understand!

When the Spitfire came in to land those of us watching from the flight line were treated to a spectacular low pass into a victory roll, seeing a Spitfire in flight never fails to move me.