It's far too late now to write much and my brain and body have nearly given up but it was an incredible day of stunning weather and two wonderful flights in a balloon and the Beech!
This was a day that both Phil and I had waited for a long time.
And it couldn't have been better! At 6am Darren Lewington himself opened the crash gates at Gloucester Airport for the balloon teams (thank you Darren!) and within 45 minutes both balloons lifted off slowly into the beautiful clear and warm air.
Winds were perfect for many air to air/balloon to balloon/aeroplane shots and we even managed a change over so that Anne could also have a ride.
Many thanks to our great team with Anne Herbert, Tash and son Harry, Charlie Sanger-Davis and Steve Richards as crew, pilots Nick Dunnington flying the Cameron 0-56 G-DKGM, me and Phil in G-CIND.
Coming back to the airfield though the mood suddenly turned sober and serious as John and Roger had found several issues with the aeroplane. And if that wasn't enough trouble, John heard that his mum aged 87 had slipped and broken her hip! All not good and a great worry.
Despite all those adversities John carried on with the proposed plan of a formation photography sortie with Andrew Holman-West in his Yak taking Richard Paver, a well-known aviation writer and photographer.
At 12pm the Beech 18 and Andrew's Yak took off with myself and Nick Dunnington on board. A stunning formation flight up to Worcester followed.
Whilst the rest of us returned to Bristol by mid -afternoon, engineer Roger worked hard on trying to mend the final issues. Bless him! It was the hottest, sunniest and nearly longest day of the year!
So enjoy those photos and more to come hopefully soon!
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