VSOC
Virago Star Owners Club
SCRUMPIES CENTRE 17
Cruisin in the clouds
Home Centre Info County reps News & Rideouts WOTS On Me & My Ride
Past Events History Membership Merchandise For Sale Links

CRUISIN' IN THE CLOUDS

(Scrumpies take to the air)

Well the day got of to a good start, with sun in the sky as I rode down to Compton Abbas airfield to meet Steve and Kev. Steve had booked the plane for three hours and our destination was to another flying club at Exeter where there was a plane rally being held. Yes, flying clubs are just like bike clubs but with bigger engines!
 
I arrived at 11am to find Steve pouring over the flight plan and calculations, even with Kev and me being under 24 stone the weight of the fuel was crucial and we'd only have 5 litres to spare. On a bike going to Exeter and back that would be fine but not when you've got a 7 litre engine, so in goes an extra 30.

Down the runway we went and slowly took to the air where we took a long slow upward spiral to reach 1600 feet. Steve heaved a sigh of relief that we didn't appreciate until we took of from Exeter with a lot less fuel onboard, that time we were in the air and at 1600 feet with little effort and a great deal less time!
 
Looking down on rural dorset you notice the abscence of roads, farmers must spend hours crossing field after field to reach the one that they actually want to be in. There are houses tucked away that can't be seen from roads and some that can't even be reached by road, who'd pay millions for a house that's not on a road? Thats privacy for you.

 

The first large town that we flew over was Dorchester, its not that big really. Then came Weymouth and our first sight of the coastline which we followed down to West Bay and Lyne Regis before turning inland to Exeter. They've got a tarmac runway which gave us a perfect landing. It took an hour to cover all that ground yet most of the time we seemed to be motionless.

 

 

 

WEST BAY LYME REGIS

EXETER

After coffee and a smoke or two Steve did his pre flight checks and we were off again, this time it was a straight line back to Compton with the wind behind us and we hit 130 mph. The cloud was low and we skimmed just below it as we flew over Chard, Crewkerne and Sherborne.

All too soon it was over and our return  journey took 35mins. Even landing on a grass runway produced little more than a jolt. That was a brilliant day out and we only had to pay for the plane when it was actually in the air not when we were sitting around at Exeter, bargain!
 
Waiting for us back at Compton were Terry and Dave, they still wanted their Sunday rideout, so where better than Shearwater for more tea, cakes and nubile waitress's, and this week she was a peach.......I should be on a register somewhere.
 
Many thanks to Steve Rhodes for making all this possible.
 
Live the life you've got left.
 
Blackjack.bob