I am way behind with posting the logs of my last few trips. Now the last one is finished I'll try to make up for this.... There are still trips to the UK, Latvia/Lithuania, Slovakia and France to be logged, and I'll start with the most recent one.
As always I'll try to give some useful information apart from the logged aircraft. Information between ( ) is looked up, the reast is actually read off.
Like every year the RIAT is reason enough to cross the Channel. Often only for a few days, but this year we had decided we would take two whole weeks off for it. One of the reasons was the better chances for good weather compared with our "regular" trips in spring and autumn.
Frank already flew to Stansted on Monday the 12th, to do some civil spotting, but due to work I had to follow one day later. I was supposed to fly in early on Tuesday morning, when Frank would be waiting for me at the airport. Unfortunately my journey was extended a lot, since my flight got cancelled without any explanation (thank you Easy Jet). So I had to spend all day at Schiphol airport, waiting for an evening flight. That one also got delayed, so it was almost dark by the time I finally arrived. At Luton, not Stansted as planned..... Frank still had a nice day though: he visited Heathrow, Stansted and Luton today
Since we wanted to start at Cranwell the next day (and already had a hotel booked there as well) after my arrival we immediately drove to Lincolnshire without stops. The only (mil) aircraft seen was the well known gate guard along the A1....
RAF Wittering
(XV779) Harrier GR.3 pr, 20 sq mks
This was not exactly the start we had planned obviously. But hey, what can you do? Hopefully the rest of the trip would be better....
So this post is more like a "teaser" than an actual report, but it really was the first day of our trip after all!
That's all folks!
Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation