Glorious Goodwood 2012

Two days of promoting 'Glorious Goodwood' with a flying banner along the sun-soaked beaches between Portsmouth and Brighton on the warmest week of the year. Lots of people on the beaches and the sea, unusually clear!

Gal Loves Al

Tonight's the start of the Olympic Games and a very special celebration over at Hoath this evening, a wedding reception and a special message that "Gal Loves Al' from their friend Steve.

On Brighton Beach

Congratulations Amy and James at Brighton seafront on Friday afternoon. A great wedding and a great success!

Durham Miners Gala 2012

The message from Bob Crow of the RMT Trades Union to Labour leader, Ed Miliband at the annual Durham Miners Gala

Congratulations Nurul and Nargis

A June marriage proposal at the romantic Leeds Castle in Kent. Unseasonable weather didn't prevent a romantic marriage proposal for Nurul and Nargis.

P&O Down the Line

I have been struggling with the P&O 175th anniversary extravaganza at Southampton.

Over at the docks, the line of cruise ships, Oceana, Adonia, Azura, Oriana, Aurora, Arcadia and Ventura was certainly impressive, that's if you could actually see them in pretty awful conditions. The Red Arrows cancelled their display but I managed a single pass down the line before running for cover at Lee on Solent airfield. I'm reminded of the quip by Mel Gibson in the film, Air America: "Here at Air America, what's considered psychotic behavior anywhere else is company policy.."

The view down the line of great cruise ships was great but to be honest, you can see I was a little preoccupied with the bad weather that ambushed me when I got there.

Surprise Surprise

Out to Brighton on Monday for one of our popular 'end of the pier' proposal. Ravi proposed to 'Sexy' and she said 'Yes.' How could any girl refuse such a romantic and dramatic gesture?

 

ForgotYourPhone.com

Over at Brighton Beach today to fly a promotional banner for www.forgotyourphone.com.

The Jubilee Bank Holiday Monday started with awful weather but improved just enough to get airborne to Brighton for a display at 3pm.

Here's a look at Brighton Beach from the pilot's perspective.

Save the QDG

Saturday proved to be a bit of a trial thanks to the weather.

I made an early start off towards Wales with a banner asking the public to "Save QDG - Wales Only Tank Regt,' before any of the airfields at the other end were open, relying on a reasonably positive forecast and low  cloud lifting for around 9:30.  So making my way off towards Kemble to take on fuel for the job and skirting  around London on instruments, I wasn't too happy, when I called-up Kemble on the radio from about 20 miles out and heard they had a blanket of fog and a ceiling of 300 feet.

Everywhere else for miles seemed much the same and with limited diversion fuel and needing to make a decision I had to drop into Oxford for a full instrument approach, which popped-me out of the cloud at 500 feet above their runway. Just enough time to land, take-on coffee, full tanks and then jump back into the clouds towards Wales, hoping it would be a little better when I arrived, given the call I had made earlier, on the ground at Oxford to the owner of the small private airfield  at Abergavenny.

It wasn't. Descending from 6000 feet over the Severn Estuary, visibility was non-existent, which gave me quite limited options, as on the opposite side of the road from Abergavenny, there was a rising, 2,000 foot mountain or in this case, a cloud with a very hard centre.

Using both GPS units in the aircraft, I spiraled down looking for a gap in the thick cloud cover and eventually found one, quite close to the ground on the eastern side of the airfield; dropped quickly into it and managed to find my destination, more a stroke of luck than judgement.

After that most of the day was spent sitting at the airfield waiting and hoping for the weather to clear sufficiently to get airborne over Cardiff. The first schedule, which was a parade from the castle went out of the window and so did the second, which was the start of the Wales vs Barbarians match at the Millennium stadium but by 3pm, the cloud base had lifted just enough to get going and catch everyone coming out of the match; tens of thousands of red shirts, pouring into the surrounding streets and so everything worked-out in the end.

It just goes to show that even the most accurate aviation weather forecasts can be completely and utterly wrong, which is how unwary pilots encounter unpleasant and unexpected surprises. Here's a short video of the pick-up so you can see the conditions.

Congratulations Steph & Christian

A wedding at Aynhoe Park today, a fabulous sunny day in May but with very gusty wind conditions.

It took three attempts to get the banner flying from Turweston but in the end and a little late, we managed to put the aircraft right over the wedding reception at the right time at this spectacular wedding venue near Banbury.

It all worked-out in the end and as I commented to air traffic control when I finally managed to get the banner airborne without a problem: "Miracles do happen."

Happy Birthday Betty

Airads was over the town of  Colchester, early on Friday morning with a special birthday banner for Betty. It's a pity we can't deliver breakfast as well!

A Woburn Abbey Birthday Message

Hardly what you might call a regular day today, which started-out with a 50th birthday banner for the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey,

This job had taken some planning, not only keeping it a secret from the Duke and most of the estate staff but also creating a landing strip adjacent to the 'Shoulder of Mutton Pond' for me to operate from, organising a five minute private road closure, liasing with the police and keeping the deer away while I was working.

As it was, the weather was far from great and when I transited over the 26 runway numbers at Luton, the visibility was awful and getting worse all the time. In fact, without my GPS, I doubt I would have found the abbey at all.

I dropped into the rather tight and bumpy runway with the light wind all over the place and had immediate help to set-up the banner. Ready to go in ten minutes, I got airborne for a display right on time although the conditions were at their visual minimums.

Afterwards, the Duke and Duchess came out to meet and thank me and kindly helped  collect up the banner and I took his small son (pictured) for a brief ride, which I'm sure he enjoyed.

After that, it was another very misty transit over Luton and back to Rochester to refuel and then on to the next job for the afternoon, which involved locating and photographing, in equally poor visibility, the Sussex houses of celebrities Jordan, Adele and Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, which are all within two miles of each other and Jordan and Maude as neighbours. Why I had to do all this I think you may find out in the Mail on Sunday!

Airads Over Warwick Castle

A very special day for Richard and Yana at Warwick castle on Tuesday, when an Airads banner 'popped the question.'

Richard wrote afterwards: "Thanks again for all your help, the day was fantastic, everybody was congratulating us and the owners in charge of Warwick Castle even came over to where we were sitting to congratulate us and bought us over a free bottle of champagne too. It caused a stir and put a smile on everybody's face -more importantly I will get brownie points for this for the rest of my life;)"

Kim Pops the Question on Leap Day 2012

Congratulations to Kim and Brian after a successful flight over Dartford on Wednesday 29th February.

Kin used the opportunity of an extra, 'Leap' day to use the traditional right of a woman to propose to her partner and Brian was duly ambushed by an Airads banner over the pub-garden on what turned out to be a fabulous spring afternoon in Kent.

Romance was very much in the air once again with a little flying help from Captain Cupid and Airads