Those magnificent men in their flying machines...

Well, after a few weeks away on holiday, it was a great weekend to bring 326 back out. The occasion was RAF Cranwell Flying Club's 'fly-in' weekend where people fly in from all over the country to meet, chat, relax and perhaps be entertained.

So, I wandered along with the chaps from the NFS-AFS group who have a number of world war 2 grey National Fire Service appliances.

We arrived at RAF Cranwell on the Saturday afternoon (after a few stops to make running repairs to the turntable ladder which was with us) and went straight to the airfield to await the first aircraft arrival - a Spitfire mark Vb from the Historic Aircraft Collection at Duxford. After a couple of short, low flypasts it landed and taxied in. Once on the apron, we then assembled the appliances for a super evening shot with this superb piece of aviation heritage, built in 1942. The history of G-MKVB can be found here. In addition to spending nearly 30 years as gate guardian at RAF Church Fenton in Yorkshire, it saw initial aervice with the Polish Squadrons based at RAF Woodvale near Southport close to where I grew up.

Spitfire Mark Vb G-MKVB just arrived:r:k Vb G-MKVB just arrived:

 The Spitfire with fire appliances:

 PGW 326 and G-MKVB:

Once done, we helped to put G-MKVB to bed before putting our own vehicles to bed in an adjacent hanger:

After a liquid dinner in the Daedalus Mess bar, we retired for the night.

After a herayt breakfast we were at the airfield early in order to collect the vehicles foir a photo call in front of the college buildings at Cranwell:

Then it was back to the airfield to set up for the day which consisted of watching the planes, slavering over the Spitfire and conducting a few evolutions of fire drills. Also, we tested 326's pump for the first time from a 500 gallon dam - and after a bit of coaxing, it pumped extremely well, especially considering it is some 7 years or so since it was last used! All in all a great weekend.