Ups, Downs, and Tumbles

This last week has been rather interesting. In terms of aviation, I’ve missed five PC-12s, papped a Rotors Running Refuel, and seen some beautiful vintage aeroplanes. Saturday was incredibly busy with 24 visitors around. Sunday was mostly dead with only a quarter of Saturday’s tally. Monday was very much similar to Sunday in terms of traffic, although Tuesday and Wednesday were equally busy and we welcomed double figures of visiting aircraft, albeit only just.

Saturday and Wednesday were my major ups of the week as it was busy and there were plenty of interesting aircraft about. My highlight from Saturday was G-ADUR, an 82 year old De Havilland Hornet Moth going to the Moth fly-in at Shobdon in Herefordshire. Sunday and Monday weren’t overly spectacular, but Tuesday provided the first flight of G-AXXV, a Tiger Moth, since an awful lot of work was carried out. From what I hear, she flew excellently and her test pilot was impressed. Wednesday was an interesting day with some points being incredibly busy whilst others were as quiet as an empty library. We had an interesting mix of visitors including a King Air (M-POWR) who came in to deliver a vet. Unlike me, she is expected to return to Turweston tomorrow. My favourite visitor, however, was an 81 year old who showed no signs of slowing down. G-PTBA is a pre-war Boeing Stearman and is painted in a stunning greeny blue. Personally, I prefer it to the garishness of the blue associated with most ex US training aircraft. It used to be registered as N731 but was transferred to a G-Reg in May 2016.

I think I may well have summarised the ups and downs experienced when working on a small airfield, particularly when the mornings are blighted with low cloud. What  haven’t discussed though, is the tumble. Although I don’t really know what happened, I came off my bike last Thursday and left a good bit of my right leg and shoulder on a junction near the airfield. Fortunately, the damage was only superficial and is healing nicely.    🙂

These are the visiting aircraft I photographed:

Gallery: