Sunday afternoon flying

The wind that prevented us flying yesterday had died down today, so we enjoyed a lovely potter in the motorglider this afternoon and tried out the new zoom lens we bought for our DSLR camera recently. I haven’t written about flying on here yet, so I thought I’d share a few photos of our flight to give you a different perspective on this weekend’s gorgeous weather. For readers who aren’t aware, I’m currently in training for my Private Pilot’s Licence, which I plan to complete in May, and my boyfriend Lee is a commercial pilot. We do a lot of flying one way or another and I shall be sharing many more aerial photos on here in the coming months.

It’s amazing to be a pilot on days like today; there’s a buzz at the airfield with everyone relishing the weather, and lots of aircraft movement and people standing around watching. Once in the air, you can see people on the ground out enjoying themselves and watching you fly over. It was quite hazy today, as you can see in this iPhone shot looking towards Leamington Spa and Warwick:

We crossed the M40 to get a shot of the old windmill you can see not far from the Warwick services. This was taken with the new lens, and the detail is superb – right down to the people enjoying a picnic!

I photographed the same windmill from the ground yesterday on a little country drive we did after our walk:

One of my favourite things about flying is spotting things from the air. I was really hopeless at it when I first started flying, because everything looks so different from the air, but your eye gets used to it; it becomes a lot easier to get your bearings and you learn what to look out for. I’m not sure where this little church was, but it was all on its own, seemingly not serving a village. It’s quite a long one too.

Here’s a shot of us pilots:

This is RAF Gaydon, an important Second World War and Cold War airfield that’s no longer in use. Its long runway is now used as a test track for Jaguar Land Rover, which has production lines there.

After Gaydon we flew over to Stratford for the customary flight over our house and the town centre. Here’s a shot of Shakespeare’s birthplace.

Finally, a shot from the trusty iPhone camera showing lots of people out basking in the sun by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In the haze just along the river you can see a church with a tall spire; this is the church in which Shakespeare is buried.

All in all, a beautiful afternoon for aviating!