Over the course of the next month or so, the venue (Sywell) and date (9th June) were agreed upon and a vote was called to elect Steve Morley as the official organiser of the event.

The event was kept hot on the forum to keep everyone's attention as the collective (though distributed) anticipation grew until finally the day of the first Flyer Forum Fly-in dawned. Or, rather, dragged itself out of the mirk!

I downloaded the weather from the Met and it was not looking too good. A pretty rotten occluded front was sweeping the country with rain and low cloud forecast for most of the day with only a possibility of it clearing by the evening. Steve and I were intending on flying together as we both fly out of the same club, so off I went bright and early (I thought I'd make the effort even if the weather didn't) to Denham to re-check conditions. The school was full of instructors sipping coffee, looking at the weather, sucking through their teeth and shaking their heads. It was looking like we would be putting Plan B into operation.

It had been suggested on the forum that if the weather was pants that we could turn the event into a drive-in and enough people were eager to do so that this became the official Plan B of the event. As Steve drove the two of us up the M1, however, we started to see various amounts of clear sky and were getting concerned that we would be the only ones to chicken out and would be the laughing stock. It was a strange feeling to be gleefully pleased at every dark cloud or shower of rain during the journey so that we might be vindicated in our decision!

We met Mike (Poetpilot) after arriving and were guardedly pleased to discover he had also driven. We bought our coffees and settled down outside the restaurant to watch for arriving aircraft. By the time our lunch table was ready, there were seven of us and it turned out that everyone had driven thinking that they would end up the only ones arriving by ground transport. Everyone was much relieved to discover their integrity remained intact.

We were settled into our meal with much banter of aerial derring-do when there was another arrival. Richard, who had actually flown in. From Biggin Hill! The envy around the table could have filled a bucket. Possibly even a skip.

The raffle was drawn, and virtual prizes distributed (the real ones were still at Flyer headquarters), however I think it fair to say that everyone agreed that Richard deserved recognition for being the only one of us to actually prove themselves a pilot.

Everyone enjoyed the event tremendously and many thanks, again, to Steve for organising it. Here are a few piccies just to prove that we were actually there ourselves:

	On arriving at the car park, you are greeted with an impressive collection of aircraft, old and new.
	The attendees pose enviously next to Richard's aircraft (G-ATXN, the red Kittiwake featured on page 78 of the current issue of Today's Pilot, no less) all pretending that they were the one who actually flew it in! The back row are: Rod, Richard, Pete, Jane, Kate and Steve; front row: Me and Mike.
	Richard staking his rightful claim after chasing the imposters away!
	The art Deco look to the restaurant, complete with vintage car.
	The attendees regroup admitting that this is how they all actually arrived (though not in this actual car!).