Zuffen
We are sharing a container with general cargo. It knocks about $5.000 off the cost.
Our start point and pre-departure "pit lane" is Brooklands Museum. Brooklands hosted me on the Vickers Vimy flight (the Vimy is now on permanant display there) and my AVRO Avian flight. I have been back several times to functions. Birthplace of British Aviation
A.V.Roe did the first British flight there. The circular steeply banked car race track was built at a todays cost of hundreds of millions - first car to ever do 100mph. If you are in UK it is a must with both cars and planes all in the old buildings.
Barnes Wallace designed the geodesic airframe of the Wellington Bomber, they have one in the museum and tradition has it he was a rare Pom who actually bathed every day.
The story goes he thought up the bouncing bomb for the Dam Busters by skipping the soap off the bathwater at his toes. The bath is still there but now in the Ladies toilet and "powder room" no longer in use. Quite a few years back before an annual dinner there I put a sign on the door directing the ladies to the facilities down stars and lay back in the huge bath with brass taps skipping the soap at my toes. Never got more than one skip!
www.brooklandsmuseum.com/
For those who are interested here is our first landing at Brooklands in 1994. We only had 26 hours from new on the aircraft and we had to build the engine cowls there in the two weeks before we departed from Farnborough Air Show for Australia. I had just flown the aircraft from Mildenhall RAF/USAAF base where we pulled it out of the USAAF Galaxy and stuck it back together. Only half the original strip was useable (see the road and trees built across it. First "short landing" for the Vimy and I was a bit hot on approach and the bugger floated before touching down. You can see my enthusiastic touch on the brakes which were only sufficient to just slow it down before exiting the runway towards the waiting mob. The main crowd were at the far end out of sight of the camera. I was still going so fast I was ready to ground loop it (stomp on one brake and make the aircraft spin around) to avoid an unpopular mixing of man and machine with the smiling throng. Luckily she stopped about 10 feet from the barrier.
A few thankyous for the "snappy" arrival thrilling the herd. Accept the trophy and learn the lesson.
If anyone is interested here is the full National Geographic movie of the UK=Australia flight.
