Nice day for a drive to Headcorn Aerdrome 26/2

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Weather is great for the time of year .

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A wonderful place is Headcorn Airfield in Kent. It is the home of the Tiger Club. This is a special flying Club dedicated to Tiger Moth and Stampe vintage aircraft. Membership is granted only to experienced pilots holding a commercial license. It featured in a modern day series of TV programs where several RAF pilots were selected to go through an identical selection and training procedures to ab initio pilots joining the RAF in 1939 with a view to flying a Spitfire. The instructor in the series was the well known Brendan O`Brien, one of the best flying instructors and aerobatic pilots on the scene in the nineteen sixties and seventies.

I have a memory of Headcorn around 1995 when I was in training as a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. We had a requirement as part of the course to secure a field based workshop training experience for a minimum of 126 days during the three year duration. I`d therefore dropped into Headcorn for a chat with the resident establishment in the hope of a placement there. An interview of a sorts was conducted in a period World War Two dispersal hut oozing a period atmosphere that would be impossible to re-create. I was totally captivated and sat opposite a fellow armed with a tumbler and a bottle of something slightly stronger than tonic water. Both feet rested upon his battered desk and a massive cigar smouldered angrily in an overflowing ashtray. Two dogs that clearly hadn`t had a bath in years, slept quietly on the floor.

Our discussion was interrupted by VHF radio traffic from a near flying aircraft requesting landing permission. The man picked up his radio microphone and replied "Echo Alpha, ok,yes........ if you really must. Don`t make a mess if you crash, please. The fire tender has broken down and I`ve just emptied me bladder on the tulips. You will just have to burn if you screw up. Come and pay me landing fees if you survive. Best of luck ,old boy. Headcorn Tower, out"! I declined the eventual offer to spend time there for one simple reason. I surmised my college placement lecturer would have been less than pleased had he come to check out the facilities. A shame really because Headcorn is an idyllic spot and I wouldn`t have minded getting to know this character better.

Headcorn in more modern times hosts an excellent annual airshow. Well worth visiting and similar in content to the wonderful veteran flying displays put on by the Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire.

Mike K