Well, this time we made it! After our first attempt to get all the way to Duxford by air in July was frustrated by weather which had us sitting on the ground at Redhill as the time for our landing slot at the other end ticked by, Mike Cowles and I were hoping for a better day for our second try.
Initial indications weren't that good when I opened the curtains at 6:30am and looked out to see a rather blustery day outside. Still, hope springs eternal, so I headed down to Redhill to see how it looked from the airfield. A small band of us assembled there from about 8:30 in light rain, and performed the usual rituals of gazing up at the clouds assuring each other that the sky was brightening and that we could see all of the Reigate radio masts. This time it actually paid off and we were left with a clear-enough sky but still some concern over the wind which was forecast to be at least 30 knots at 2,000 feet from the north - not ideal for a trip up to Duxford.
Ashley and Howard decided that the Shadow probably wouldn't be able to make enough headway against that sort of headwind to make the pre-allocated landing time we had each been given. They decided to do some local flying instead, but Mike and I decided that we'd give it a try in the faster Jabiru and see if we could make our 11am slot.
After a delay caused by having to taxi across to the tower to refuel (disguised plea to fill the Jab at the end of the day!) we set off. The wind didn't give us too many problems and we followed the M25 around to Dartford and over the bridge with great views up and down the Thames estuary. We kept on around the motorway passing North Weald and Stapleford before passing Harlow and turning north towards Royston to head up the western side of the Stansted zone. We called Duxford from Harlow to say we were going to be late for our slot and were relieved to hear that this didn't seem to be a problem.
As we approached Royston they called us back to ask where we'd got to, wondering if we were having trouble with the headwind. Our GPS was showing a groundspeed at least 20 knots less than our indicated airspeed, so the landscape was passing by at a fairly leisurely pace.
The approach to Duxford from Royston was easy since we were effectively on a long downwind leg all the way. After Redhill's very disciplined and controlled ATC world things did seem a little anarchic in Duxford's AFIS environment, with aircraft popping into the circuit in front of us (including one which was doing a circuit in the opposite direction from everyone else), but we made it down onto the nice long concrete runway in one piece, followed by a Red Arrows Hawk.
After my first experience of being marshalled (should have concentrated more on those little stick-man figures in the Air Law book) we parked the Jabiru and caught a minibus to the pilot reception area where we paid our fees and got our return passes. We met up with Chris Cowley and Dave Littlewood who had driven up and then spent the day watching the excellent show which included a whole range of aircraft from the likes of Spitfires, Hurricanes, and a Lancaster up to Hunters, Tornados, Harriers and the latest Apache helicopters. We also had the chance to explore the very extensive museum collections which are housed in two large hangers; one devoted to American aircraft, the other to British. The collection includes a B52, a Concorde, and what I assume is the only extant TSR-2 amongst many others and is well worth a trip in its own right.
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The show finished at about 5:30pm which meant it was Mike's turn to fly for the return trip to Redhill. The wind was still fairly strong, but with a nice wide runway stretching out before us we were soon underway with no problems. The countryside looked lovely in the early evening sunlight as we retraced our route south, this time making good progress with the wind behind us. We had some great views over London as we passed to the east, with the Dome and the Canary Wharf towers standing out clearly in the low sun.
View of the Thames Barrier, the Dome and Canary Wharf
As we reached the Downs and started the home stretch we felt a bit of buffeting from the wind as it curled over the hills, but the Jabiru carried us through it without complaint. We touched down on runway 01 at just after 7pm at the end of a great day out. We paused at the tower to refuel and then taxied back to Cloudbase to tie down the aircraft. Chris and Dave arrived back by car just as we were finishing and we all went off to the pub to compare notes on the day.
All-in-all a great trip. Duxford is well worth a visit even if there isn't a show on since you could easily spend several hours looking around the museum and it's an interesting flight there and back. It took us about and hour and a half on the way up and about an hour on the way back cruising at around 80 knots. The trip should be perfectly practical for a Shadow too on a less windy day, especially with a supplementary tank fitted. Stapleford would be a good stopping-off point on the way if you wanted one, and Andrewsfield (at the north eastern corner of the Stansted zone) is a nice spot too.
View towards London from the Thames Estuary