On 21st and 21nd June, 2008 Air-Britain held its 29th Fly-In event, which was again organised by Stansted Branch with support from our hosts The Squadron and Suffolk Coastal Strut of the LAA. The hard work and efforts by the Fly-In team were badly thwarted (again!) by the only factor the organisers have no control over, namely the British weather, nevertheless the event once again proved popular as a social occasion for many who attended.

Prior to the event responses from invited aircraft for our themes of aircraft built in 1948 and 60 years of the Piper Clipper/Vagabond family, which was linked to Air-Britain's own 60th anniversary and the 75th anniversary of the Stampe, exceeded recent years and hopes were high that a good selection of aircraft would turn up.

Antique Aeroplane Company Trophy winner Stampe SV.4C F-BNRZ and best Stampe F-BCQM

Saturday found low cloud and rain right across the South of England as forecast and it was clear (I wish!) that this would deter many aircraft form joining us. However as the rain began to ease Mr Thomas, Chairman of the Grumman American Owners Club (UK) in AA1 Yankee (G-BFOJ) crept in under the 500ft cloud-base from Bournemouth. Slowly as the afternoon progressed and the weather improved aircraft did start arriving, including AB stalwarts Peter Bish in his Clipper G-BIAP, Terry Dann and Mike Cain in Tiger Moth G-AIDS and Peter Chamberlain and Roger Syratt in Robin G-CBEZ.

If we thought Saturday's weather was poor, Sunday, though bright, was worse given that we had a 25-35kt "gale" blowing across the airfield. Clearly few pilots would brave such conditions and for the four that did, we were most grateful.

Stampe SV.4E OO-KAT and Yakovlev-3M D-FJAK alongside Yakovlev Yak-12M HA-HUB