Never give up

Today was the ‘Annual Girlie Flyout to the IOW’ … except that Mother Nature conspired against us to make sure we didn’t go!! So although Essex and Eastern areas basked in warm sunshine and good visibility all day the IOW and surrounding areas weather was forecast to have rain, poor visibility and low cloud from mid-afternoon.
Decisions – decisions … what to do now?? We both decided it was pointless flying to the IOW as we don’t like to stay at the airfield but always find somewhere to visit (it was to be Godshill this year!). with the weather forecast to turn rubbish it would be a pointless exercise as we wouldn’t have time to do this. We looked at various other airfield options and in the end decided to fly to Goodwood … it was in a similar area (so our flight planning hadn’t been in vain!) but was on the mainland and was an interesting airfield to spend a few hours.
Carolyn flew the leg down whilst I did the RT chatter and nav. Nice little flight down with a smooth transit through Southend and our ‘traffic’ on the left-hand side being an Airbus!! Weather wasn’t as nice being overcast but still warm and no rain (yet!).
We had lunch in the old control tower (very nice) … watching some old cars racing around the track (secretly wishing for a go!) … and explored the setting up for the Goodwood Revival. We even met up with a pilot friend who was unfortunately working (!) and Carolyn managed a ride on the fire truck (as you do!!).
This famous chap was overseeing proceeds and seem to give his approval to the going-ons around the airfield. Douglas Bader – the famous WW2 pilot who despite losing both his legs in an earlier flying accident – never lost his determination to get back in the cockpit and to fly. He never gave up and went on to become a famous flying ace
Our visit was cut short with the arrival of some light rain and the weather starting to go downhill. I flew us back and with a tail wind it was a swift trip and the only dodgy bit was the ominous big black clouds we were under along the South Coast. Weather soon improved the closer to home we got and we landed back in the lovely afternoon sunshine.
So despite the day turning out differently to what we planned we are glad we had the ‘Douglas Bader spirit’ and never gave up on going flying today.