North Coates Autumn flying meeting
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The last meeting of the year proved to the best of the year with a total of 87 aircraft attending, the majority of these arriving on the Saturday.
Aircraft came from all over the UK and the longest distance travelled was from Honinton in Devon and this was a Rans S6 Microlight. There were some rare aircraft amongst the list including the only surviving UK example of the Tipsey Belfair and Swastika adorned Casa CAS1-131 Jungman plus the new registered recent import Bushby Midget Mustang and a first time type visits from the Sting Carbon and Pottier P80.
The brilliant weather on the Saturday brought a 50-50 mixture of Group A and Microlight aircraft. There was only one Helicopter, a Robinson R22 which was a Godsend in one way as parking space was at a premium.
The club took the opportunity to park the two resident replicas together for the benefit of the photographers these being the Royal Aircraft Factory Se.5a and the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.26.
Pete Willmot took his Autogyro up to 10,000 feet on The Sunday, he stated “ It was a bit scary as the moon was still out and was getting larger by the minute, I though for a minute I had overdone it a bit”. From the ground he looked like a tiny star in the sky.
Sunday’s weather was not as forecast with the wind increasing by the hour, this kept a lot of aircraft firmly on the ground and it was a disappointing total of 20 that eventually turned up.
The club always tries to attract other organisations to the event and this year the Lincolnshire Blood Bikes, the Grimsby Radio Club and the ‘Over the Hill Bikers’ attended. There would have been others but the nearby North Thoresby 1940s weekend had pre booked and beat us to it. But there was a surprise visitor in the form of UKIP MP and MEP Godfrey Bloom.
It’s now time to have a rest of sorts as the next meeting is the Brass Monkey Rally on January 5th & 6th 2013. Traditionally this is always well supported and given good weather is often a record breaker. So come on down and see the great variety of aircraft on display.
Brian Stafford
North Coates Flying Club
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