Costock (29-01-2011)

A call the day before allowed us access to the home of East Midlands Helicopters


G-BYZA    As355

G-DMRS    R44

G-EFOF    R22

G-ISPH    Be206

G-MUSH    R44

G-REMH    Be206

G-SCHO    R22

Barton (EGCB) 27-01-2011

An evening visit to Barton to hopefully catch the return of G-VJMJ from a PLS turned out to be a very good idea as G-DCPA was in for fuel for a second time in a day on its travels.



G-BOIL Ce172

G-DCPA Bk117

G-GOTH PA-28

G-VJMJ Be 206

Chester (CEG, EGNR) 24-01-2011

A fruitless chase for some Moroccan T-6's on delivery that were supposedly due in on there delivery flight. There was a few things that hit the bag though, making 3 aircraft in the end.

CS-DFX    125   
CS-DMB    Beech 400   
CS-DNO    125   
CS-DNT    125   
CS-DNU    125   
CS-DRL    125   
CS-DRN    125   
EI-JJJ    125   
EZ-B021    125    

F-GSTB    A300ST    Airbus
G-EGEE    Ce 310   
G-SVSB    Ce 680   
G-WYNE    125   
M-LION    125   
N258RP    Beech 58   
N80056    Ce 421   

Barton (EGCB) 23-01-2011

Finally some weather & activity to draw me out of the house! Nice to see a few more visitors in Barton than normal & a generally very busy airfield!


G-ASHX    PA-28

G-AYEF    PA-28

G-BEZZ    Jodel

G-BITM    Ce 172

G-BOJI    PA-28

G-BPVA    Ce 172

G-BZGO    R44

G-CCEZ    EasyRaider

G-CDTU    Eurostar
G-CEMC    R44

G-CEMD    PA-28
G-CFZX    MTO Sport

G-CGBM    CTSW

G-CGND    R44

G-GFIF    Ce 152

G-GMCM    As350

G-GTJM    Ec120

G-LUBY    Jabiru
G-MYBM    MiniMax

G-NWEM    Ec135

G-ODGS    Jabiru

G-RVRU    PA-38

G-XBJT    Eurostar

Barton (EGCB) 02-01-2011

The first trip out of the new year was to the local for the visiting G-CBOT. Shame there wasn't any light!


G-AYEF    PA-28

G-CBOT    R44

G-NWEM    Ec135

G-RVRU    PA-38

My Top 10 Of 2010

With the year coming to a close I thought it was appropriate to pick out my 10 favourite events in 2010! Each picture will link to the full blog post, now then here goes:

In at 10 was a visit to Over Farm back in April, a little private microlight strip near Gloucester. It came to life with a microlight regional competition was hosted, with what must be a normal month's movements happening in one weekend!


Number 9 is a visit across t'hills into Yorkshire, the Hull Aero Club at Beverly to be exact! It was there summer fly-in and while well attended it was a little down on there total from 2009. However it was the fantastic atmosphere that earned this its place in the top 10. Now burger anyone?


Placing at 8 is a little different from the others in the list, in that its the only post from a trip not related to an event. We had put the frequency's from all the local microlight airfields into the scanner in the hope of getting something a little different & we hit the jackpot because as one of the touring pilots put it "The French have arrived"


7th is a visit to Fenland for a Vintage Aircraft Club rally, it certainly lived up to expectations with a lovely mix of classics dropping in throughout the day. All capped off with access to the parking area, given the definitely non-vintage hi-vis jackets were worn!


Another period event comes in a 6 with the De Havilland club rally hosted at RAF Halton in June. The collection of De Havilland classics that had arrived by the afternoon was most definitely a seen more fitted the 1930's, although if you walked over towards a burger bar the price was definitely from a much more modern era!


Half way now and number 5 is something that you knew was going to place in this list when it appeared on the calendar. It is of course the LAA Rally at Sywell, in particular the Saturday of the event was very impressive with a constant stream of arrivals for much of the day!


Another event that stood out on the calendar is in at 4, it is of course the Microlight Trade Fare at Popham in May. While not at the bursting numbers of previous years there was still a very respectable turn out considering the weather must have put off a good number of long distance visitors. Once again the Saturday was the best day, with Sunday being washed out & Monday a always destined to be the lessor of the 3 days.


Just getting onto the Podium is a bit of a hidden gem within the calendar, a late season fly-in at a strip near Hereford called Broadmeadow Farm. I honestly don't believe that its possible to have a more welcoming approach to visitors! All funds from landing fee's went to the Air Ambulance, a very worthy cause indeed. And no thank you, I've honestly had enough to eat!


Collecting the Silver award is an event that has earned its reputation as Europe's answer to Oshkosh, it is of course Tannkosh. The event has grown from a gathering of a few local microlight clubs into the biggest GA fly-in in Europe! Its a very good job that the owners of this Bavarian airfield own all the land around it, as it is needed for parking space! There was so little to pick between the 3 days of the event links to all are below. Oh and I've still got some of the free Red-Bull in the fridge!




Finally the number one spot goes to my trip to Hungary, I could have easily filled this whole list with different places from this trip so what I've done is pick out my favourite 3 places we visited. One word that I'm not going to forget in a hurry is "gumiszervíz" the Hungarian for a tyre fitters, this became very necessary after we developed a flat in rather dramatic style just before the arrival of a severe storm! Right on with the top 3 from this trip!
A small gliding field in central Hungary called Dunaújváros, helped by a regional championship taking place.

I doubt that I will ever see more Antonov 2's in one place than this airfield, Nyíregyháza.

Finally my highlight of the year, Papa AFB. Where the ex-Hungarian AF Mig 21's (and a few other bits) are stored. An utterly fantastic place.



And there we have it, my pick of 2010. May I wish you a Happy New Year & hopefully 2011 will be another good year for spotting!