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'.
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!
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.
Doesn't get much better than an, almost, private Spitfire display!
He's back!
World's biggest smile!
A couple of other photos from the day -
Me & Mum celebrating the best of British - tea and a Spitfire
Vana, Chris, Mum and Dad
Chris, Me, Mum and Dad
Luckily not pictured are me and Vana attempting to buy ice cream from a van that was actually an exhibit .......................
What a wonderful day and thank you so much to Classic Flight for a unforgettable day for us all.
Love Jen
XxxX
PS the bar is now set for my 30th next year people!
The summer is nearly half-way through meaning so is Jen's Airshow Season. I therefore feel a review of proceedings thus far is in order!
So far I've been to two airshows, Biggin Hill & Farnborough, with Airbourne to come in a week and a half - always my favourite four days of the year!
Biggin Hill.
Biggin Hill is always helpfully close to my birthday - making present options for me very easy! This year's line-up wasn't as good as other shows have been over the last few years, the only jets were the Red Arrows, but there were still lots of warbirds to swoon over.
I particularly enjoy Biggin Hill because of it's history as a fighter station in WW2, you're actually walking on history. In light of this I felt it was a good idea to dress in an appropriate 1940s influenced dress ....
Meeting one of Biggin's resident Spitfires
The flying got a bit hampered by the rain (gotta love the British summer!) but there were still plenty of things to watch -
The Blades put on a great display as always, in fact this year will be their 10th season!
The Red Arrows were fantastic as always, they really do make me feel proud to be British.
I'm pleased with this shot of one of the reds taking off over the warbirds!
I have a few more highlights on my YouTube channel -
Farnborough Airshow -
This year's Farnborough also caught the joys of the British summer! The first day of the trade week had it's flying display cancelled because of heavy rain. Me and Dad try to go on the Friday of the show which has a restricted number of public tickets which means there is far less of a crowd and you can wander around the static park far more easily and get a decent spot next to the runway!
In case you couldn't spot the A380 ...
Dad looking every inch the 'enthusiast'
The other benefit of going on the Friday is that you get a lot of arrivals for the weekend -
B25 Mitchell
Gnat Display Team
Yak
P51 Mustang
Catalina
The show kicked off with the Royal Navy Raiders parachute team carrying what may have been the biggest union flag I have ever seen!
The Airbus A380 kicked off the flying, I love the A380, it's utterly huge (the world's biggest airliner) but it's still so graceful and a really nice looking plane.
Big is beautiful!
Airbus also showcased their new airliner the A350
We even got treated to a flypast of the A350 & The Red Arrows (check out my video at the end of the post)
The Airbus section of the show was finished by their military transport plane the A400M 'Atlas', Airbus seem to be the experts in large, attractive, highly maneuverable aircraft!
A400M
The main event of the afternoon was the public debut of the F-35 Lightning II. The F35 will be the RAF's newest multi-role aircraft and will also be operated by the Royal Navy from the new Queen Elizabeth Class carriers.
The F35 was fantastic, there's nothing to beat the sight and sound of a jet screaming towards you at full throttle. It's as agile and impressive looking as I hoped it would be. It didfeel strange though, to see a jet that wasn't a Harrier in a hover (although it definitely needs to introduce a bow to the crowd!).
In the hover
We were treated to a role demo from the Army's Apache AHDT (Attack Holiday Display Team). I love the Apache, it's fantastically mean looking!
The final item was the Eurofighter Typhoon, it was the first time I'd seen a Typhoon this year and it still never fails to impress with it's speed and agility.
Here's a short video I took of the day -
Next up is Airbourne my favourite 4 days of the year! And please pray to god that it doesn't rain!!!!
I'm super happy to report that turning 29 wasn't nearly as traumatic as I feared! I had a really lovely and relaxed birthday (I even wore a dress!) spending the day in Brighton with Helen wandering in The Lanes and spending far too much money on Vinyl! It was topped off with an evening of playing 'Fibbage' with Helen, Amanda, Chris & Vana.
Lemon Sorbet!
How adorable is the window display at Cyber Candy?
It was such a lovely day and gave me a gentle nudge to remind me that birthdays are something to celebrate rather than to be used as a tool to berate myself about my perceived lack of achievements. I've also been trying to remember each day that life really is so short and instead of moaning about things I should make the effort to change what I can. Some things just aren't changeable, I can't change that I have a mental illness but I now have a key worker to help me learn to work with my condition rather than allowing it to work against me.
I've been doing so much wistful thinking about it being 5 years this year since Helen & I did all our travelling and how much I miss those days. Aside from those 3 trips it's also the 2010/11 Jen that I miss. Although I did still spend a lot of that year battling bad anxiety issues, relationship break-ups and the passing away of my Grandad I also was much more resilient and bounced straight back from the dark days. Whereas now after a crisis I can barely lift my head up again. Back then I was still pretty positive about life and confident in who I was and what I wanted. I was a lot slimmer then, about a size 14 compared to the 18 I am now (more of that later) but more than that, I'd started to like how I looked after years of feeling ugly and unattractive, I also felt 'worthy', worthy of being happy, worthy of wanting to have fun and go places.
This picture sums up that entire time period for me. Aside from the fact it's a photo of me and my favorite band it represents how happy I was - look at my smile! How good I felt about myself and the get up and go that I had to fly around the damn world!
Big smiles!
So instead of feeling miserable that all those days are long gone I want to try and recreate that state of mind and that feeling. Whilst I doubt a trip to America with it's perk-up qualities is on the cards (unless I win the lottery .... in which case see ya!) it's not to say that some other super fun events aren't on the horizon ready to be grabbed.
So in an effort to re-create 2011 Jen I've set myself some goals to reach by the time I turn 30.
Diet - I eat like crap, I really do, there's no hiding it. I'd lost weight last year but have put 6 kilos of it back on since the start of this year comfort eating because I've been so damn miserable. Although this goal isn't about aesthetics, if I lose weight then great, this is about looking after my body. Ditto with exercising, when I worked at the library I was walking around all day every day whereas now I'm on my butt all day every day. And being brutally honest it makes me feel sluggish and quite gross really. So I intend to try walking home from work and (with Helen's er encouragement) get off my arse and do something at least one day of each weekend.
Learn a new craft. I love my photography, jewellery making, drawing, sewing and cross-stitching - surely adding another one on top of that can only make me happier?
Go to the places I keep threatening to go. If I had a £ for every time I said "I really want to go to The British Library/National Portrait Gallery/Tate Britain etc" I'd be able to afford that trip to America! Plus for the most part they're free, all it'll cost is a train fare and my time.
Basically the goal is to have more days like these -
