Bagby

Yesterday was the first decent day after quite a long run of wet and windy weather. My friend Mike and I had hoped to get up to the Glenforsa fly in last weekend but it was a washout and in the end we didn't event attempt it.

I'd promised to take one of our Air Cadet instructors flying and we decided that a trip to Bagby, near RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire would be a pleasant excursion. The weather on the way out was OK but there was still some low cloud scudding around, so I decided to route via the Hexham gap, towards Newcastle, rather than try to get up to 3500ft VMC to clear the high Pennines on the direct route.

Although all the MATZs were closed (the RAF doesn't do weekends and does bank holidays even less), nearby Topcliffe was active with motor gliding so we had to give that a wide berth, resulting in a rather circuitous approach to Bagby from the north. In all the faffing around I carelessly managed to completely mislay Bagby airfield and ended up more or less overhead before I'd realised what was going on! No problem - a quick reposition to downwind right for 06 and a minute later we were on the ground.

What a thoroughly delightful airfield! Within a few minutes of landing JONL had gathered a group of enthusiastic onlookers and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them for a good hour. There is a friendly little clubhouse where you can get coffee and snacks. Much to my surprise I found it impossible to pay a landing fee, even the offer of a contribution to the grass cutting fund was politely declined.

All too soon it was time to start heading back to Carlisle. In the meantime the cloud base had lifted considerably so we routed directly back home, once again giving Topcliffe a wide berth after departure. Although the return journey was shorter, it was slightly into wind and as a result the outbound and return journeys took exactly the same time: 65 minutes, chock to chock.

I'm very taken by Bagby International. It's one of several airfields that I've visited on the east side of the Pennines and all have been remarkably friendly, delightful places to visit. A return trip will have to be scheduled!