Well I certainly didn't need my coat !
Weather at Sywell last Sunday was supposed to be around 21C and cloudy, but it turned out to be light cloud, virtually zero wind, sunny, and around 28C, resulting in Karl and I getting rather heavy sunburn !
Temperatures here in Norfolk have been very hot too, reaching 41C (105.8F) and crystal-clear skies the last few days, although today it's cooler at 20C (feels cold after the high heat !), with light cloud.
I was due home last Thursday, but had a car problem. On the journey down, around 20 miles from the Tin Tent, the nearside front wheel of my Nissan X Trail dropped into what turned out to be an open drain, where the grid cover was broken, which resulted in rattling, banging and shuddering steering, as the traction control, ABS etc went crazy trying to compensate.
This settled down (although we used Karl's car for Sywell), and I decided it was probably OK to drive the 200 miles home, and then get it checked out.
Big mistake !
I travelled around four miles on my way home on Thursday, then braked for a roundabout. Violent shudder, bang, wobble, sliding to the left, and I was off into the scenery !
Managed to recover and pull in to a lay-by, and found one wheel pushed back, with a shredded (new) tyre on the offside, and what turned out to be a broken wishbone on the nearside, and the anti-roll bar and drag links also totally bolloxed !
Obviously, the front suspension was seriously damaged by dropping into the open drain, and eventually suffered catastrophic failure under relatively heavy braking.
Got recovered back to the campsite, and the car taken for repair at the recovery company's workshop near the former 8th USAAF airfield at Eye, just a couple of miles from the Tin Tent, and I should have it back tomorrow (Monday), and, all being well, I'll drive home on Tuesday.
As it was too hot and exhausting (and I was rather stiff and painful), we didn't get to Lakenheath on Monday last week, as planned, but we can go another time.
Once I'm back home and settled, I'll sort and post the pics from the Sywell airshow, including some examples here in this thread, with the main coverage in a separate series of posts in the "Warbird Display" threads.
It was a fantastic show, especially for a "new" event, and just as good, if not better, than the former "Flying Legends" shows at Duxford, more of which will be explained in the pics thread.
Back in a couple of days with another up-date .................
www.americanairmuseum.com
Thanks! That's all I have. I plan to do more research as it gets closer to finish, color and markings. Allen's younger brother says the got very little family info on their Dad's wartime life.
