Aircraft Bonanza

Sometimes I wake up in the morning with a yen to shoot aircraft. No good heading over to Stow Maries as the aerodrome is closed, other than to aircraft, until the New Year. In the past I would have gone to Panshanger but that is no more. I decided to fire up the TR4 and check out North Weald. She started immediately and I had a lovely top down run in the sunshine. I parked close to her near contemporary, a sixty-year-old French navy Nord and watched amused as a gaggle of men, one with a fire-extinguisher and another with a can of Plus Gas tried unsuccessfully to start it. The grass was set on fire at one point. 

I had a lovely latte in the The Squadron’s "NAAFI" restaurant, which is housed in one of the two original 1940s RAF buildings which were dismantled and moved from the south-east side of the airfield to their current location. I like meeting and chatting to the pilots.


Nothing particularly interesting flew in or out while I was there. My pic is of a six seat Hawker Beechcraft Bonanza G36 taking off. I like my aviation pics to be anchored to the ground if possible, in common with my heavenly bodies. This plane was built in 2009 but bears a passing resemblance to the revolutionary original, which Beech Aircraft began selling in 1947. No other aeroplane has been able to achieve such a lengthy production record.


2016 is the 100th anniversary of North Weald airfield. Hope there is an event to commemorate this.