In Reach blog

Thursday 7 July 2022

Shuttleworth Fly Navy pt2

Contributing to a great air show is of course some great flying so here are a few shots of the aerial action from Sunday.

Monday 4 July 2022

As mentioned in a couple of posts below, yesterday was the Shuttleworth Fly Navy show and was my first visit to Shuttleworth since 2017 and I was reminded what a great venue it is for an air show. There is a great museum on site full of airworthy aircraft, a restoration workshop where work in progress on aircraft that will return to the air can be checked out and a viewing area that is close enough to the grass run way not to need a mega zoom to catch the flying display.

The event management was seemingly caught out by too many people arriving 'early' although in this instance 'early' was well over an hour after gates opened but it did lead to some slow queues early on whilst they sorted themselves out. But we were in long before flying started giving plenty of time for a look around and the event was made better still as we shared a good part of the day with my man Gaz along with Mrs Gaz. A shower later on put a literal dampener on things for a while but it brightened up again and we enjoyed a post show drink in the sunshine.

As is often the way there were a couple of tech issues with the Bristol Fighter starting up but not flying due to a magneto problem, The Wildcat taking off to perform with the Corsair and Bearcat not to be seen again and the Gladiator staying on the ground, as did the Boxkite and the really old contingent but no surprises there as the weather really needs to be perfect for them to go aloft.

Anyway, here are some shots of static stuff to get started.

Friday 1 July 2022

RAF Detling

The former airfield at Detling, near to Maidstone in Kent, dates back to 1916 when it was RNAS Detling. It was closed to military flying in 1919 but was used by Short Bros for test flying. However, come 1938 the airfield was reactivated as RAF Detling under Coastal Command control. It suffered several heavy bombing raids during the Battle of Britain although it served mainly as a stopping off point for fighters rather than as an operational base but did become a Fighter Command airfield ahead of D-Day.

However, being a grass runway its operational days were numbered and flying ceased by the end of 1944. There was some use by RAF and civilian gliding schools post war but the RAF disposed of the field and all flying ceased in 1959. There is now some light industry at one end of the old airfield but the site serves mainly as a show ground for agricultural fairs and the like.

An impressive memorial to the airfield was erected near the village some years ago.

Friday 24 June 2022

Firefly flies!

Good to hear that the Canadian Warplane Heritage Fairey Firefly flew again today after an eight year hiatus. I last saw it back in 2012 and here are a couple of shots from then.

Monday 20 June 2022

Duxford mishap

This Dragon Rapide had a bit of a mishap at Duxford yesterday. Apparently caught by a gust of wind on landing it ended tipped up on its nose. It was carrying passengers at the time but there are no reports of injuries and I suspect that the tales of horror and the like in the media are more dramatic than the incident itself.