| Broadmeadow
2002 - by Dave Jones |
| Friday
evening weather looking good, forget those dreadful weather blues and lets think
about where to go. |
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 Pete
Banks, Mike and Simon Swift were intending to set off early Saturday morning from
Finmere whilst Dave & Liz and I from Cranfield half an hour earlier (the time
it takes to get to Finmere. I got to Finmere
just in time to use the facilities before we all set out for the Broadmeadow Flying
Club site. |
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 The
weather was great, not tremendously hot, but sun with high mist and just a gentle
breeze. The trip over was fairly uneventful with the others in their high speed
machines dashing off and me meandering behind in my trusty XL 462. Not a fast
machine but well behaved (most of the time) and economical. I must say that the
burden in the cockpit these days is a lot less since Jean splashed out on a GPS.
I wonder, is she trying to tell me something about my navigation ? Having said
they all dashed off is not quite true, Pete was having fun buzzing around seeing
all the sights. Including where he learned to hang glide on the side of the Malverns
(at least I think that was the site). |
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 Broadmeadow
came up right where it should be. I heard the others calling finals when I had
about 5 miles to run, so not too far behind. Care has to be taken there as they
have at least one local nimby who of course came to the area long after the strip
was established. Their site is really nice just the other side of the Malverns
a couple of miles below Hereford. It has a nice long strip and parking area with
a hangar at the top end. They had really gone to town to make us welcome, with
a great barbecue side salad and all the trimmings. I think the count on machines
for the day must have been about 60 to 70 as not long after one of their member
estimated the mid day figure to be about 50. |
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  After
filling our bellies with good food, there were the usual lengthy discussions as
to where we should go next. After all, no point in going that far, and not taking
in at least some of the local sites. Redlands at Swindon was eventually decided
as a good intermediate stopping off point, after taking in the scenery along the
Wye valley on the way down to the Severn bridges on the way. I must say that the
scenery down that way is well worth the trip with the hills and valleys surrounding
the Wye River quite spectacular. There was quite a pronounced sea mist beyond
the estuary and the ride over the hilly bits was mildly turbulent. After turning
East toward Redland I found avoiding the various hazard sites was quite a challenge,
probably about time I invested in a new map. |
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 It
was my first time into Redlands. It is a good strip with some interesting new
hazards like hay harvesters and the vehicles collecting it. They are very friendly
and were more than interested in dropping into Weston but we did not see anything
of them there. All in all it was a really
good trip as you can see from the pictures. |
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