Flying Legends 2017

Flying Legends is my favorite airshow   And worth the long trip accross the Channel   Weather predictions for Saturday looked favorable...   We left by coach on Friday evening at 21h30 ... picking up more people along the way during the night   It's always something special for me to arrive by ferry in Dover at dawn   After another 2 to 3 hours of driving...   We arrived at the entrance of the Imperial War Museum ... which only opened at 8AM   Once inside - we secured our seats   Admiring the first aircraft   Including the Blenheim Mk.I   Volunteers pushing a Hurricane into position   The location also offers several hangars ... filled with iconic aircraft   Shopping opportunities !   Including Klassic Kits   With big tempting boxes...   ... and many old and not so old kits   Matchbox nostalgia...   Do I see some interesting Pegasus kits... ?   Yes...   There were also a lot of book vendors   ... trying to tempt your wallet as best as they could !   3 for £10.00   Something to brighten up a wall in your little chateau...   A lot of reference material...   Former Vulcan crew members signing books   The worlds premier nose art shirts...   I love these guys...   The R/C folks   With some very fine equipment...   My friend fancied a ride in a Dragon Rapide   ... so we queued to pay the £49.00 fee   And a little later we found ourselves in the briefing area   Our ride arrived...   And a little bit later we were airborn...   ... for a 10 minutes trip around the airfield   You can clearly see the Catalina - and the flightline...   A cool stylish souvenir (at £10.00)   Next, we headed for the flightline   Entrance fee was £5.00   "Berlin Express", a welcome visitor - which came all the way from the US !!!   "Frenesi" (pronounced free n' easy) - also visiting from the US - though by sea and road...   You can make some nice (almost) period shots   The coolest surprise of the show ... at least for me   Together with another racer... a Travel Air Type R Racer (replica)   As usually... plenty of Spitfire fun   Two early Hawks...   And the Sea Fury in a new "prototype" scheme (at least for me)   The Buchon doing some pre-show test runs...   Not a warbird ... but a beautiful type I don't see everyday : a Dornier Do-28A coming in   I got hungry... Must've been the sight of the bulky Ambassador   But it was about lunchtime anyway   ... and a Sally B burger sounded just fantastic   It tasted fantastic too   The beginning of the show in the afternoon   Soon the first Spitfires were thundering by - just a few meters from me...   The Sea Hurricane waiting it's moment for take off..   The Sea Fury on it's way to the sky...   The Spitfires coming back in...   Followed a little later by "Berlin Express" ... which had lost it's Malcolm canopy in flight ! Luckily the pilot was able to bring her back in without any further problems...   The show must go on...   The "Shark" visiting from Norway   The next day (on Sunday) - "Miss Velma" had to make an emergency landing - luckily without fatalities ... but here she is, still in all her glory   Skipping several heartbeats as "Sally B" was approaching us...   It got too hot at the flightline - really ! ... so we moved to the welcome shade of some trees in the rear   From where it was more tricky to take decent pictures...   But at least we found some cool refreshments...   The end of the show with the "Balbo" fly over...   A last trip through the vendors area before going home...   For the last few years - Romain Hugault with Cockpit Collection - is a regular visitor/vendor   ... making it really, really difficult to resist so much temptation   I bought the Angel Wings box collection   ... consisting of these 3 albums   Back to the coach - at 18h30   For the long trip home...   ... waiting for the ferry in Dover   Boarding around 22h30   And soon we found ourselves in the restaurant at the top deck ... for a classic fish 'n chips   Past midnight we arrived in Calais   And in the early hours of Sunday we were dropped off again at our starting point   We could drive home   After having dropped off my friend at his place ... I hit my bed around 6AM For a good long sleep All comments, remarks, corrections, suggestions are welcome

William De Coster / Belgium e-mail  Page created : 29 August 2017