Somerset has been my playground since I was 7 after I moved to Weston-super-Mare as a young boy. I went on to live in Taunton, Yeovil, Burnham, Halse and many places in between as I grew up and started to explore and work. It’s a beautiful part of the country, steeped in aviation history and this is where the next trip took place.. Weston-super-Mare (and was the reason for the overnight stay at Blackmore Farm!).
As I have eluded to before, in previous blog posts, I had started as a volunteer at the Helicopter Museum aged 12/13. Here I met my good friend Chris Donald, now also a helicopter pilot, and Emily Stagg also, now a helicopter pilot. Emily has posted an event invitation on Facebook, with her intentions of flying into the Helicopter Museum on the 1 Jun. As previous volunteers of the museum too, Chris and I decided to join her and this soon turned into an event of 5 helicopters visiting for a picnic.
As any helicopter pilot will tell you the romance of rotary flight falls in the versatility of its manoeuvrability, being able to approach and enter into the hover is a dream. It also opens many opportunities for places to visit, and places to stay.. unquestionably more than those achievable by the fixed wing community. So lifting off from the manicured lawn of the farm was a real buzz and brought home just how much I’d learned over the course of the last year.
To get the timings to work, and for us all not to arrive at this meticulously planned HeliPicnic at the same time, ontop of each other, we staggered our arrival times as best as we could. I lifted at 11:30 and took the R44 South West to explore the countryside and the Clatworthy Reservoir. The 2 Cabris flown by Emily and Elijah were already overhead Long Marston, Rachel was lifting from Wellesbourne and Chris was en route from Gloucester.
Following the 0.6 out to Clatworthy, I ran in along Burnham-on-Sea beach, and put out an initial call on SAFETYCOM, Chris’ voice crackled back, saying he was on approach to the museum, so to give him some space and time I took Golf Sierra along the length of Brean Down and around the Fort at the end of the peninsula. This separated us nicely, and just as I gave my approach call over the frequency, Rachel buzzed in with ‘G-EWAD overhead clevedon’.
I approached in to the North West edge of the perimeter fence. Into a flare and a 90 degree turn facing the old wrecks of the museum graveyard. There I saw Chris next to G-JKAT, a stunning Red R22 smiling smugly.. the timings has gone to pot! We had arrived before Emily! As I was throttling down Golf Sierra I looked over at Chris who just shrugged and we laughed heartily.
I stepped out to shake hands with the Marshaller, just in time to see Rachel approaching to land over my right shoulder, with her kiss of the skids on the helipad the 2 Cabris appeared over the airfield boundary and in they came. A spectacular sight of 5 aircraft all neatly parked, with an audience of family and friends all waiting eagerly to share a picnic and enjoy the sunshine. It was such a heartwarming and humbling moment.
Of course the Helicopter Museum had a photographer on hand from the local paper and after an obligatory ‘Ex-Volunteer’ photo was taken to be in the Weston Mercury, I tottered off to do the paperwork and get the Picnic basket. We all had a lovely lunch in the sun with family and friends, and the weather could not be better.
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After lunch both Cabris had already departed. One flown by Lucy-Rosa for a cross country Nav via Compton Abbas before returning to base in Leicester. Rachel and I started up and departed following the M5 towards Clevedon and then along the coast heading north up the estuary. Chris was rotors turning by the time I lifted and we would catch him on the ground at Gloucester.
The flight back was blissful. Running along the Portishead coastline and skirting the Avonmouth docks towards the Severn bridge. Rachel in G-EWAD was way ahead by this time and there was no chance of catching up! I turned in across the Forest of Dean, heading towards Arlingham and contacting Gloucester for joining instructions for an arrival to the North.
After an approach to Heli Northwest, I did a turn about the nose whilst waiting to get in a taxi call to a very busy tower. Touching down on the Heliflight pad just before 4, we shut down and headed over to The Aviator to meet Chris for a well earned drink following a very successful outing.
Hourbuilding Adventures 