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Gatherings of Warbirds and Veterans
Weald Aviation and their allies promised, and delivered a fantastic weekend and North Weald. Spitfires, Mustangs, Hurricanes, a newly painted Me109. All there to be viewed in their glory. But, most important of all were the superb gathering of so many warbird veterans from all across the UK. Here's a short summary of the entire weekend.
The North Weald weekend was fantastic. Saturday I was given a personal tour of the airfield by a member of a forum I’m active at. He showed me various of hangars, including where they work on a Seafire. Looks to be a long time before we see it flying, but they are getting on it, and that’s what counts. The work these guys put in are breathtaking. Also got to see the Seafury with her engine covers off. What a sight!
The highlight though, was the flight I got over Epping and North Weald. My contact was extremely generous, and had asked a mate of his for a favour. We were in the air when two Spitfires and a Hurricane came in over NW. In fact, we were second down on the runway after the Hurricane. Not to brag, but I seriously doubt any Norwegian have been second in to a Hurricane since WW2 at North Weald! So, that’s one down on my list of interesting credits!
Sunday was the official event and signing session with WW2 veterans. I stood in line for about an hour before the crowd started moving. I got all my autographs from extremely nice gentlemen signing them. They truly are the greatest generation. Only bad thing was; I was supposed to meet a gentlemen I had talked to on Friday at noon. I was in que, waiting for my autographs when the time came, and passed. I was one hour late for the meet-up, and he wasn’t there. I am very sorry Simon, if you read this! It was not my intention to not show, but I had been in line for so long and if I had left, I would most likely have started all over again. It would have taken another 2 hours.
Funny and proud moment happened when one of the veterans took a look at my ‘Gladiator’ book. He most likely couldn’t really tell my age, and thought I was simply a young chap with little knowledge of anything aviation related, looking for the odd autograph in a random book.
“Have you read it?” he said, pointing to my book.
“No” I replied.
“I wrote it”.
The shock on his face, continued with a tremendous burst of laughter from him and everyone around was a very proud moment.
The North Weald guys are a very friendly bunch of people, and this approach was transmitted over to the entire event on Sunday. Laid back, peaceful and little barriers, people got extremely up close and personal to the aircraft. Maurice Hammonds two Mustangs were the stars of the show, with their arrival when the event was ongoing.
There might be more events this year at NW, do show up if you can!
Pictures of this fantastic event can be found here
Me109 and 2x Spitfire flyby on Saturday:
@spitfirepilots.com