Following our decision to move to Yarmouth Heliport, also known as North Denes airfield, the opportunity to make an event of the first aeroplane's arrival occurred with Tiger Moth G-AOIS completing her Annual maintenance with our friends at Touchdown Engineering.
Tiger Moth G-AOIS / R5172 completes Annual maintenance with Touchdown Engineering (Lewis Hurley)
With the Tiger being led by Citabria G-CIDD, we're not ones to miss an opportunity to record the aeroplanes over the sights of our new operating area, so we routed via the historic airfields of Fersfield, Thorpe Abbotts and Pulham, before passing Lowestoft and following the coast to Yarmouth.
Tiger Moth passing Fersfield Airfield (Lewis Hurley)
Tiger Moth over the 100th Bomb Group Museum at Thorpe Abbotts (Lewis Hurley)
Each of these locations has a fascinating history, with Fersfield the base for Operation APHRODITE, the remotely-piloted B-17 Flying Fortress, Thorpe Abbotts the home of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, of 'Masters of the Air' fame, while Pulham was one of the main British airship stations, one of its hangars stilll standing today at Cardington.
Tiger over the former Airship Station at Pulham St Mary (Lewis Hurley)
Tiger Moth G-AOIS / R5172 passes Great Yarmouth for the first time (Lewis Hurley)
'IS lands at Yarmouth Heliport for the first time (Lewis Hurley)
Our next job was to introduce the first of our new volunteer groundcrew to the delights of operating the Tiger. Alex, Ian and Stephen remained keen despite the cold and made great progress; it seems we've started to build a team :-)
Finest Hour Groundcrew Training at Yarmouth Heliport (Lewis Hurley)
With the late afternoon light perfect for photography, there was only one activity likely to occur, our first local air-to-air-to-ground photographic trip, with Stephen winning the draw to occupy the spare front seat in the Tiger. We couldn't resist the opportunity of a trip up the coast to picture-postcard perfect Happisburgh Lighthouse and back to bag some shots of the Tiger in her beautiful new location.
Tiger over Yarmouth Heliport (Lewis Hurley)
Happisburgh Lighthouse (Lewis Hurley)
Groundcrew 'End of Day' Training (Lewis Hurley)
Finest Hour Tiger Moth tucked up in her new home (Lewis Hurley)
