The 2019 bus trip to the Flying Legends air show at RAF Duxford was the 10th 4Aviation visit to the event in the United Kingdom. A double decker bus packed with 74 aviation enthusiasts started its short journey across the Channel on Friday 12 July 2019. The drive to Calais was smooth, as was the ferry crossing and the remainder of the journey in England. On Saturday 13 July 2019 we arrived in time at the venue again not to miss anything.
Unfortunately the area was cloudy for the major part of the day. This didn’t stop those travelling with us from enjoying the event, nor did it stop the aviators taking their aircraft to the sky or the re-enactors from adding to the scene.
The event brought together an interesting mix of warbirds again. Apart from the great Balbo at the end there was an interesting formation of a P-47D, Spitfire, Buchon and Mustang for the first time.
Another interesting visitor was G-IRTY. This aircraft, former Spitfire Mk.IX MJ271, is now known as Silver Spitfire. Newly restored and in polished aluminium, the aircraft will try to make a historic around the world tour in 2019.
After the event everybody was back at the bus in time (1900 local time, as always) and the return journey went according to plan again. We could even take an earlier ferry from Dover to Calais, which is always appreciated by the majority of those participating. By the time the bus driver was able to drop off the last passengers in Nijmegen it was early in the morning on Sunday 14 July already.
Obviously, in 2020 4Aviation will run another bus trip to the Flying Legends air show!
