What a great day this turned out to be. It started out with very unpromising weather. The TAFs and METARs all seemed to promise a ‘reasonable day of 13 mph max crosswind getting better during the day, but the actual weather outside my window was cold blustery and miserable. We decided to go down to the airfield to see what it was like, on arrival it was cold, blustery and ‘nearly’ miserable which was a slight improvement. :-)
I fuelled Hotel Sierra up and got her ready and decided it was less than the 13mph forecast, just, most of the time, so we would go for it. The flight to North Weald was uneventful except for a few showers and a 30mph head wind. On arrival we did one of our FAST landings as the runway was long and the wind was a crosswind. (Oh all right! I could not slow her down enough and we landed fast, all right!) she stayed nice and straight and I was pleased with the landing.
We were marshaled passed the crowd line where we seemed to have lots of photos taken.
I later heard we were described as ‘constructed from a large metal tube with a fabric covering that is pulled over it and laced up at the bottom’ and ‘Wasp like colours’. Well I can’t complain about either of those statements as they are both very true 
As soon as we parked up the plane spotters started to come around and photograph Hotel Sierra. I am sure she enjoyed it as she knows she is pretty and seems to strike up her ‘look at me’ pose.
Hotel Sierra 'posing' at Air Britain
Walking to sign in we were stopped by someone and asked’ were we the ones in the Rans?’ after I admitted that we were, he went on to say how he used to own a Rans and what did I think of her, so we had a conversation about Rans.
The day was really good looking around the many aircraft that had arrived, meeting people we knew and having a good chats. We even had a play on Saxon Microlight’s Thruster simulator. Joan and Ginge have really improved this and I did enjoy it, even if I did crash it on the first attempt.
The flight back was a lot bumpier as the thermals had set in, but it was still a good flight, and I did a GREASER of a landing!! (though as usual with great landings no-one was there to see it!). All in all a really pleasant day with a lot of crosswind practice, an hour and 15 minutes of flying for 10 litres of fuel, now that is what I call cheap fun.
Well done to Air Britain for organising a great day.. as usual!
