I wrote the piece below on the 28th February during a rainstorm,
it has been terrible weather for some time; in fact most of the month had been abysmal.
Monday 01st March, wow unbelievable, the sun is out, the sky is blue, the wind calm.
Am I dreaming, nope.
Goodwood however is flooded and that means the Jungmann has to stay caged up for just a little while longer. Of course this could be just a fools gap.
On the news today, we are told that after all the the stories of bankers getting bonuses even if the bank has a gross loss.
We are now told that the Meteorological Office are to pay out a bonus of some 12 million pounds.
Apparently their forecast was looking for 20 million, well no changes there then.
Anyway here is the piece I wrote to see the mad Month of March in.
In comes the mad month of March, the rain is beating down on the roof and the wind is rattling the hangar doors. When is this atrocious weather going to cease?
Poor old Becky Bucker is in need of an airing and so are Phil and I.
The Tigre in G-BUCC likes to be started every two or three weeks or it gets very ‘ornery’ and plays up refusing to fire in low temperatures. Hot water bottles and even hairdryers, tucked into the engine compartment, have been used to encourage that engine to show some life. There also seems to be a critical point about how much fuel it requires to stimulate the engine to run, not enough fuel and it will occasionally just spit sarcastically at you tempting you to feed it with more fuel. However if you over fuel it the plugs fowl and it’s time to have a cup of tea and let the plugs dry out before proceeding again, sometimes it can result in us pushing her back into the hangar and going down the pub for a beer or two.
Of course that is the negative side, should she fire up, enthusiastic pumping of the primer can be required to keep the two cylinders running that have decided to wake up, this eventually brings the other two online. The airframe shivers the wires tremble and the orchestral sound of a Tigre running is then very satisfying indeed.
Who would have it any other way, this is a vintage aircraft it comes as part of the job and apart from your arm aching it brings a smile to your face once she settles down and ticks over at a slow indicated 600 rpm, the needle on the tacho appears to bounce on the stop pin. But the engine is as smooth as a babies bum. A kind of BOP, BOP, BOP, BOP, BOP. BOP, quite distinctive.
Of course this is all just memories at the moment, memories that keep us on our toes waiting for good old Mother Nature to finally roll back those storm clouds and reveal that round yellow orb that is still up there, somewhere, hopefully.
The sun has managed to hide itself for some considerable time now and it is reverting back into the realms of local folk law that states it may not actually reveal itself again.
Part of that folklore was started by the United States Army Air Force.
During the Second World War ( The Mighty 8th ) declared that the only navigation that was required to return from a raid was to pick out the biggest damn cloud they could see and head for it, because England would be right under it.
It would seem that they had a point.
Meanwhile we do have a short video clip that we often watch to keep our spirits up whilst drinking that beer I mentioned earlier. I had purchased a camcorder late last year, so we decided to try it out at the end of the flying season. The quality does not come up to much, I am no Alfred Hitchcock.
We tried to get the shadow of GBUCC onto the cloud but the cloud was just a little to thin for that, but we danced around for a little while and here it is. Hope you all enjoy it and also hope that the weather where you are is fairing better than ours is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omet3bw4jio
Remember, if or when the sun does appear, try not to keep the sunny side up, it could get boring.
Happy Landings
Bev (onlyvfr) Pook