Wow! This was a very special trip for me. Going to the ‘home’ of the RAF, where Douglas Bader flew from, and home airfield of the Imperial War Museum. Well I had to look my best, so I popped up to Freshair at Dousland where a very nice lady called Tracey gave me a quick trim.

It’s a very long journey to Duxford but it is worth it. I enjoyed visiting the various stands, making new friends, enjoying the flying displays and going round the museum’s hangars full of aircraft. Here’s me and my minder having a sort of ‘selfie’ in front of the planes!

One of my favourite aircraft here was the Avro Lancaster (just visible behind me) and you can get really close to it. It has  ‘Barnes Wallis’ Bouncing Bomb beside it. What a feat that was.

We spent ages looking at all the planes here but too many to photograph. I did get my picture taken a lot though. Felt a bit like a film-star!

Still, didn’t spend all day in there and I soon got ‘out and about’ meeting people. Here’s some chaps celebrating the Royal Flying Corps.

Then we found a Home-Guard unit. They looked really smart. Didn’t offer me a beer though!

Then I spotted an Observer Corps Post, (see what I did there? Spotted an Observer Corps post?? Ha! Ha!) and had a go at looking through the eye-piece. No enemy aircraft in sight luckily!

Then I met up with a new friend. He’s called Uncle Sam and he’s the mascot of the 8th AAF Combat Camera Group.

Here’s one of their chaps. My minder forgot to write down his name though. Tsk! Just can’t get the staff……..

And then, as we were walking amongst the crowd, this young lady asked to have her picture taken with me, wearing her Red Arrows flying suit. One day she said, “I want to fly with the Red Arrows”. Well Good Luck and please can I come with you if you do make it??.

Her brother on the other hand (he was too shy to be in the photo) wants to build the planes! Sounds like a good combination to me! Anyway, this is titled “When Harry met Megan”.

Now, talking of planes…….

These people (I think) are mad! They want to build a replica Hawker Typhoon aircraft so they can fly it. Now we had several Typhoon Squadrons at RAF Harrowbeer and I’ve spoken to Typhoon pilots and they all say that, although it was a good solid plane, it was quite tricky to fly. It was beset with problems from the start and one of them at Harrowbeer had its tail snap off during flight. The pilot, though injured, escaped from the plane and lived to tell the tale. Here are the RB 936 Team with me, sitting on their engine. A mighty Sabre engine.

And earlier, I had a look into a Typhoon cockpit.

It was almost time to watch the flying, but just time to squeeze in a visit to Duxford’s WWII Operations Room. This is where the Station’s Squadrons were controlled from during the Battle of Britain.

That’s all for now! Hope to see you all again soon. if you see me at a show, do come and say ‘Hello!’.

Harrow ‘Harry’ Bear