MCC Rally - Headcorn Aerodrome

We decided to do this rally as soon as we saw it was published. Luckily it was the week before we were to go to Yorkshire for the Van Love Festival.

It started on Thursday but we had other commitments and only signed up for two nights from Friday the 11th July and coming home on the 13th.

What a great time we had.  We were on the third row of vans from the front and so didn't have an unrestricted view of the take off and landings of the aircraft. But it was a short walk to the runway fence to stand and watch the spectacle as it unfolds every hour or so in front of you.  It's so popular that on Saturday there were so many cars in the parking lot that shares the grass area we were in, that the cars were almost upto the MCC boundary.  It would have been nice had the site management put up a small barrier to show them where the extent of the public parking was.  The Rally was £15 per unit per night.  Day parking is £3.50 and payable by a token that can be bought from the cafe or the Wings bar.

Saturday evening was a "Sixties" themed evening. Some people had made a lot of effort, some less and some none!  It's fine if you want to join in or not.

It was blazingly hot on Friday and Saturday and the sun came around with little shade from the van. The Dometic awning was pretty useless most of the time. Even with the Flex-Shades being deployed for the first time (since we had this van) the sun was simply too hot and in the wrong place.  If we had parked sideways with the habitation door and hence the awning facing the runway it would have been much better.  The van would have shaded the awning and sitting area.

The main event of the weekend though was the flying. In particular the Spitfires. There were other planes but it was the Spitfires that made the day.  As soon as you could hear the Melin engines everyone was glued to the railing! 

On the Saturday evening after the really difficult quiz we heard the Merlin and everyone came to watch.  The plane was taking off for a short flight to Leeds Castle to do a fly past over their evening concert. He was gone for maybe 20 minutes. On his return he did a low level pass and victory roll before coming around to land.  What a show.

By the end of the evening the vans were covered in dew and it turned cold. I closed all the windows and roof vents! On Sunday morning the van was still very wet and the Silver Screen needed wiping down with a cloth to get it as dry as possible before packing it away.

We left about 11am.  The alarm was going off inside and after a few stops the warning came up to say the back doors weren't shut!  Somehow the right door was closed and the left door was just resting against it. It should be the left door first and the right side door second!  DOH!

We were home soon afternoon and then we had to empty the van of all the stuff we had only packed in on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning! It has to be done but it is a chore.

Where next? We have a few trips planned. The main one is in October to France and Spain, but there are a few things before then.