Chocks Away!

It's not every day you step out of the office to find a Spitfire parked on the pavement outside reception. When I left work this afternoon, my attention was drawn to the World Piazza beside Broadcasting House by a huge amount of racket going on. It turned out to be Megaphone Man having a rant at the ground crew of this beautiful aeroplane, which had been set up on the Piazza ready for its appearance on The One Show this evening.

I was instantly reminded of the day when I was learning to fly gliders and was landing the aircraft myself for the very first time. I was just about to touch down on terra firma when I heard a loud droning sound. "What's that noise?" I asked my instructor Alan rather nervously. "Don't worry" said Alan, "it's just a Spitfire landing alongside us". What an honour! Sadly, I couldn't turn my head to see it, as I had to look straight ahead at the far horizon in order to land the glider safely. I saw the Spitfire many times at Wycombe Air Park after that. There's nothing more exciting than the thrum of that wonderful Merlin engine as she takes to the skies and flies off into the wide blue yonder.

Here's the Spitfire from another angle with Old Broadcasting House behind her.