VISIT TO LMA SHOW - RAF COSFORD

Last Friday, a party of nine Club members travelled to Cosford to visit the RAF Museum and attend the LMA's (Large Model Association) two day show.7

Situated in the picturesque countryside of Shropshire, RAF Cosford is not only home to No 1 School of Technical Training as part of the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering but also No 1 Radio School, with both coming under the Defence College of Technical Truaining.

An early flight with Flybe meant hungry mouths had to be fed, so a stop-off en-route at a 'Toby' was a top priority.

Plates were generously loaded with a full English breakfast to satisfy the travellers' appitites and, like 'Oliver', one man stepped forward for seconds!   Why not indeed?

After an enjoyable high calorie intake of bacon, sausages, eggs and mushrooms,  it was off to the Museum where we spent some five hours touring the various hangars and marvelling at the wonderful exhibits on display.  Everything from Spits and Hurricanes to Vulcans and Victors and much, much more.  Well worth a visit should you happen to be in the area.

A magnificent static scale model of the P51-D Mustang.  Rivets, screws, hydraulic lines and an abundance of fine scale detail, all could be seen.   Ten years in the making and donated to the museum by its builder in honour of  the American pilots who lost their lives in WW2.  Truly wonderful.

Steve poses beside a Harrier.  Fond memories.  He served his apprenticeships here and worked on these aircraft.

Saturday and Sunday saw our group at the LMA show.  The weather was sunny and warm and with quite a breeze on both days.  It's not just at Kirkistown where the wind blows.  There were many trade stands on site, though probably fewer than in previous years.  We were able to pick up the odd bits and bobs for the workshop and impending build projects and fortunately, we managed to get everything through airport security!

Amongst the spectators were Colin L and Graham D who had made their own way over.  So, a total of eleven club members showed interest and attended this popular event .

The trip home was on a FlyBe 'Embraer' jet.  Manufactured in Brazil?  Lovely aircraft.  A very tight turn onto finals to the City Airport completed what turned out to be a comfortable and uneventful flight.

(I'm sure I heard from the flight deck, 'bank angle, bank angle, bank angle'!!)

Taildragger43