Wings

A mate invited me to RIAT last weekend, I saw an old friend I hadn't seen in about 15 years.

It was the first aircraft I ever did aerobatics in and the first time I flew a light aircraft. It went out of  service the following year to be replaced by bulldog (also a lot of fun to fly). Prince Philip learnt to fly in one back in 1952 so it did pretty well for itself. I'll always remember AEF days in the chippy.

Couldn't see any of the stealth aircraft. They must be pretty clever.

Altitude

Very relaxing weekend for me last weekend, how was yours?

Signed up at a gliding club nearby and they got me airborne on the day. I'd forgotten how much fun winch launches are :) The instructor was pretty nice about it - "Yeh, you can definitely fly a plane, you're just a bit rusty". I'll happily take that!

Pretty impressed with the new phone, too. Seems to cope with pretty much anything although I'm not sure I remember the pre-flight briefing from the stewardess mentioning turning off my phone so...

Please note: I was P2 in the aircraft and not in control at the time this photo was taken. Do not try and juggle text messaging with aviation.

Got a couple more ideas for phone apps and some sunburn out of the day. Sometimes you need to get up and away from the grind to really relax.

Good bunch at the gliding club and a far better way to spend a sunday than sitting in front of the TV.