Duxford drop in

On the way home from a couple of days away and it seemed rude not to pop in to Duxford as I was kind of passing by. After all, there is always something to see.

Midland Air Museum

So today we headed over to Coventry, or Baginton to be more precise, for a visit to the Midland Air Museum which is on the edge of an industrial estate next to the airfield. There is quite a large collection of aircraft, most of which are situated outside although  a few rarer older aircraft are inside a display building along with a number of artefacts and historical displays.

If, like me, you time it OK you can have a tour of the Vulcan cockpit and the staff seem quite prepared to go out of their way to give you a closer look at some of the aircraft. We found them very friendly and approachable. Certainly a museum worthy of a visit.

Sywell

Second port of call today was Sywell Aerodrome, rumoured now home for future Flying Legends shows. Today was my first visit and its a nice airfield with a good car park for visitors who want to watch the comings and goings or head to the Aerodrome Cafe. As for hosting a major air show I have reservations about the roads handling the traffic flows efficiently but I guess that time will tell. Today there was enough to keep us interested for a while and we were lucky to catch a Mustang and Spitfire giving flight experience trips so worth dropping in.

De Havilland Aircraft Museum

 Today Gaz and I headed off from an overnight near Cambridge to this museum at Hatfield. A communication breakdown meant he headed off down the M11 and I took the A1 but we arrived at more or less the same time so no harm done.

As the name suggests the museum is dedicated to all things De Havilland although pride of place goes to three complete Mosquitos together in one hangar, including the original prototype. The survival of a WWII prototype is indeed a pretty rare thing. I was last at this museum a good many years ago since when it has expanded and the latest new hangar opened not so long ago. There are a mixture of aircraft inside and out with the usual artefact displays documenting De Havilland history.

Staff were friendly and there is a little tea room are if you need refreshments.

Headcorn Battle of Britain Air Show

 A return visit to Headcorn after the disappointing wind affected event last year. Still a good degree of Covid related segregation but nothing too onerous to deal with but we thought we had picked the wrong day when it was cool and overcast and the event started with the Red Arrows in the overhead being unable to display as they could not see the ground - and us see them by the same token.

However, later news showed that Sunday was a washout with just a bit of ground taxiing to keep the attendees entertained so we did not doo too badly and things brightened up - figuratively if not literally - with the arrival of 5 Spitfires and a Buchon from Duxford. Since the older aircraft were less affected by the low cloud ceiling we had some decent displays, the highlight of which was probably Sally B with the resident Aerolegends Dakotas.

Not the biggest or greatest show ever but in these Covid times it was great to see some decent flying action.