Day 2 Woodhall Spa to Green Hammerton

Not too much driving today, as most of our time was spent at the active RAF base at Coningsby, just a few miles south of our hotel. However, between breakfast and our arrival we had to make a quick pitstop at the Thorpe Camp museum which has a superbly restored Lightning F.1A displayed outside. I cannot tell you about the rest of this small museum as it was closed at the time of our visit.

On to Coningsby, which is one of the most popular air bases in the country with aviation enthusiasts. Why? Because it houses several Typhoon fighters and one of the squadrons specialises in operational training for the type, so there is always something happening. We actually chose a pretty good day, as besides it being sunny and warm, the base received visitors in the shape of two Xingus from France, a C-130 from Sweden, but the most surprising movement was a Fokker 100 from a small contract airline called Avantiair. This had apparently come from Manching in southern Germany so no doubt was full of technical people to do with the Typhoon.

I should add that Coningsby is home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, famous for operating the Lancaster, Hurricanes and Spitfires. In addition, they have a Dakota and a 1950s Chipmunk trainer, so to conserve airframe hours on the more prized possessions, the latter are also used. The day we went, the Chipmunk was being flown, but it is quite possible something like a Spitfire went up later after the fast jet activity had reduced. 

So by mid afternoon, we had to be on our way again, but at my request we popped into the little museum at nearby Metheringham as last time their Jet Provost was all covered up so I thought I could give it another try. But upon arrival, we saw the Dakota, which I suddenly remembered they received last winter. This machine is finished in typical wartime camouflage and looks fairly decent even though it has a couple of external parts missing. Again, the museum building itself was closed at the time.

So soon we were on the road again with a pretty uneventful journey (and that includes the Little Chef coffee) before we checked into our accommodation at Green Hammerton, a few miles west of York.