WIX Archives

Sally B in the mist

Posted by Damien Burke on Fri Mar 07, 2003 06:08:54 PM

In reply top Magical Moments posted by Mike Henniger on Fri Mar 07, 2003 12:16:08 PM

Possibly the most evocative of my memories was the Mildenhall show in, oooh... 2000? I was staying in the camp site just under the approach to runway 11 and the night before the show Sally B was heard on the scanner calling up to land. This was late evening, raining steadily (as it had been since about mid day) and visibility quite poor - very misty. Anyway, I was the only person on the camp site who ventured outside to watch her come in. Deathly quiet outside bar the gentle hiss of the rain on the assembled caravans and tents, and then came Sally B, just an indistinct shape in the mist at first and then swelling into a powerful bomber sweeping overhead and past, over the perimeter fence and settling on to the runway out of sight.

That for me was truly a magical moment - my own little private vision of a B-17 that could have been coming in to an East Anglian airbase some time in WWII for all anybody would have known.

It was also probably the moment when noisy jets were well and truly replaced by warbirds as the thing that moves me the most. I still like the noisy jets - but the warbirds really touch me.

Hmmm must stop posting after a bottle of wine!!

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