Bear Force One

Blackbushe became our unofficial base for the weekend, as we returned on Sunday morning for another flight in the Jabiru. This time Cath Spence was the pilot with Brendan co-piloting and acting the human helper.

While at Blackbushe, we got to meet their own Teddy, Blondie, who is also a flying Teddy! Paddy took charge of the introductions to Blondie.

The weather looked promising although there was an inversion hampering visibility. Paddy helped removed covers from the aircraft and go through the pre-flight, before both hoped in for a trip to the fuel tanks.

With bear supervision, there was no overfilling, and 50L was soon uplifted. “Bear Force One” was ready to go, with everyone strapped in!

The inversion played havoc with the visibility, and 10miles south of Blackbushe, with maintaining VFR proving difficult, a very wise decision was taken to return to base. After a trip around the circuit and a gentle landing, the bears were met by the Blackbushe Fire Team, just to check these VIBs were all ok! Paddy and Lucky love a fire engine (like everyone else) so were delighted to get a tour of Blackbushe’s airside engine. The team at Blackbushe were so welcoming to our high flying pair – thank you!

Having arrived from Ireland commercially, it was time to do the same journey in reverse. Paddy and Lucky acted as navigators in the hire car for Microlight Flying Editor Geoff Hill, steering him to Bristol via Stone Henge and Cheddar Gorge – these guys like the sights!

A late arrival into Belfast City and it was off to bed again, both bears tired out after a very busy weekend at the Popham trade show. We grabbed a cuppa and tried to catch our breath aswe had loads more adventures to come!  

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