Ok not quite north but its as north as I normally go.... East Kirkby in Lancashire and Cromer on the East Coast.. What a day!
For most of 2019 I had been meaning to tick off a few of the items I had long awaited to do when I got my licence through and myself well accustomed to Dizzy (G-CDZY Medway Microlights SLA Executive AKA 'Dizzy' as pictured above). As life got in the way and summer started flashing past I came to the realisation I had to get on with these things or life will past me by in the blink of an eye, an all to familiar sensation I am sure most of you will agree with!
So the date was set rather hurriedly late on a one Thursday evening sometime mid September (I did say the summer was flashing past!) for myself and my brother to get out and do a proper trip the coming weekend due to the prolonged good weather we had been seeing! Many places were suggested for our trip but I had been wanting for a long time to visit the small airfield of East Kirkby and specifically to visit the 'Just Jane' Lancaster that was being prepared for its return to the air! As many of you will know there are currently only 2 airworthy Lancaster's in the world and I wanted to be part of the support effort and to witness first hand the journey of this aircraft back to flight.
East Kirkby is a now tiny grass airfield on the outskirts of the Conningsby Zone in Lancashire but was once a sprawling WW2 Bomber command base. Opened in 1943 as RAF East Kirkby it had a major part to play throughout the war in housing 57 & 630 Squadron's comprised of of course... Lancasters!
Preparations were made late Friday night with all the necessary planning in place and we set off around 9am Saturday morning in to the glorious blue skies of East England. Departing Stoke we turned immediately northwards and received a zone crossing through Southend. We carried on north skirting the right hand side of the Stanstead TMZ and on towards Mildenhall overflying the Newmarket racecourse. It was a novel experience to receive a transit from the Yank Controller from Mildenhall and made me come over all Topgun like.. It took all of 5 seconds for the dreams of flying an F14 to subside to the hum of the little rotax beat back though the headset! (One day it might be a possibility! Never say Never!)
Carrying on north we skirted the end of the wash and routed directly north towards East Kirkby! I had a small heart attack when I realised I probably should be monitoring the and asking permission to enter the AIAA Zone over the Wash... A few moments later and some research on the zone the fear alluded when it was clear it wasn't active at the weekend and a quick call to the London zone to confirm so helped out my heart rate massively! ( On reading after the flight it seems you don't need permission to enter the zone after all! You learn every day in this game!)
During whole first leg the sun was above and behind us giving us issues with the camera. I have manged to lighten up the pictures above as they were coming out very dark.... It wasn't the only thing looking dark in the cockpit! If you notice the I Pad is off and this is because it was overheating from the direct sunlight. Not to worry as we had a two Spare devices with Sky Demon on and a well marked map..... Or so we thought...... Dizzy's primary instruments are on a EFIS LCD display which for the first time in my experience was also suffering heat soak because of the direct sunlight! For those of you who are not in the know, LCD displays start to blacken (sometimes to the point where you cannot see anything on the screen and it looks like the unit is off) when the display gets hot. A well placed map as a shade over the dash and careful monitoring of all displays allowed us to safely get to our destination without a further hitch.
None of the above detracted from the beauty of the area outside the window! Although flat, Lincolnshire is stunning from the air and the vast colour ranges from the flower farms are amazing. We could even smell Onion's in the cockpit as workers were out on mass bringing in the years crop. Its hard to imagine what it must have been like returning to such a place after a bombing run over Germany.. Surreal is my guess.
Approaching the Coningsby Zone, although not mandatory I put out a few calls to get information on any movements from the MATZ. After being met with with silence and three further calls made, the decision that they were quite obviously shut was taken and we resumed making calls on safety com for our arrival at Kirkby. The field is not hard to find but I can tell you now that working out where the runway is is another story! We approached overhead and joined cross wind for a good view of the field. To my dismay (And this wasn't printed on the plates) there is no obvious runway and it is just a field and it was up to our luck and judgement on where to place the aircraft on the ground. Once the decision was made for our arrival point on the field the rest was uneventful and we taxied up to the front of the hangars to be met with this glorious site!
East Kirkby is a fantastic place and reeks of bomber command history through and through. It is a worthwhile visit just to come and stand side by side with Just Jane and admire its beauty! on the day we flew up there was a classic car photo shoot going on and there was around 40+ cars onsite all lining up to get shots of their vehicles with Just Jane (We tried our best to sneak Dizzy into the line up for a picture but it wasn't going to wash as it was a sell out event!). We will how ever return at some-point to have this photo opp come to fruition as I don't think there is a better photo to adorn my office wall of my own aircraft nestled under a Lancaster!
We were also hoping they would be doing ground runs of her on the day but sadly this was not the case. We will be 100% returning to partake in the ground runs as you can even pay for a ride down the runway in it. Its expensive at £400 but I would put it as a once in a lifetime experience. Note the Mosquito that is nestled in the back of the hanger in the below pictures... This runs too and is available for photo shoots also!
For more in formation on the airfield and the possible activities please visit:
So a good walk around the museum and a few hours of taking in the sunshine and setting while enjoying a coffee and a cake took us up to around 12-13:00pm.. What to do next??
The decision was taken to start heading back home but via Cromer for a late lunch of Fish and Chips! Departing Kirkby we turned South-Eastwards on a fairly aggressive climb to around 4500ft to get as much height as possible for crossing the Wash at one of its widest parts. The views were spectacular from this height and the air was deadly smooth.
Arriving at Cromer there was a flexwing doing a few low passes over the short runway which was awesome to watch from the air! First impressions on the place are that it is what every small airfield should be like in the UK.. Friendly, Well organised and great looking... We can all only aspire to to be like this place..
There was a very nice taxi man waiting in the cafe for us as if by design to take us straight down to the seafront for our fish and chip dinner! This day was getting better and better by the hour :). The town is so picturesque and is the quintessential British seaside town. This is the first time I have visited Cromer and I will 100% be coming back.
Again what a fantastic little place Cromer is with such friendly people.. It is quite possibly best fish and chips I ever have had but it might be the culmination of the setting the fantastic day we were having that sets that mood! Due to the fading light, unfortunately this was a short stop for us at around 1.5 hrs and we decided around 15:00pm to get back to the airfield, refuel and set off for our journey back. The short taxi ride to and from the airfield into the town centre as you can see is well worth it and it came to around £10 per trip which I didn't think was too bad.
We managed to get the last Jerry Can of fuel from our fabulous hosts at Cromer and were off back into the now fast approaching dusk.. The light fades fast in mid September and you have to be on your toes with planning if you are doing a long flight around this time! We planned to route to the east of the Norwich CTA but managed to receive a transit clearance very close to the Norwich ATZ straitening our route which was a great help to reduce my worries about the fading light. Carrying on down the coast over head Harwick and Ipswich the journey home was a breeze with spectacular views to be enjoyed. It literally is possibly the smoothest flight I have ever had and was like having an autopilot!
Crossing the Blackwater we even managed to get a glimpse of the old Radio Caroline boat moored in the estuary (top left in the below gallery).
A few video's and pictures of the fading light..
Thanks to a transit direct from Southminister over head Southend to Stoke we were able to make it back in time to have a few circuits on home turf watching the Sun go down..
What a magical day and is what I believe Aviation is all about! The day had everything.. Good Views, Good Aircraft, Good People, History, and Good Food! It about sums up exactly what ignited my passion of flying when I was a child and its living up to being everything I thought it was going to be and more!
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