Page 109 - Demo

107My %u2018chum%u2019, who had set me the original task, was on the apron to welcome us, and he seemed well-pleased that we had arrived %u2013 so was I ...! It was Wednesday, and the display at Deblin military airfield (20 minutes flying time to the south of Warsaw) was not until the weekend, so the prospect of a relaxing couple of days in the Polish capital was at the front of my mind. I should have seen it coming.....I really should have seen it coming. With his most engaging smile, my chum %u2013 who was organising this mass push to the air show at Deblin %u2013 asked, almost casually, if I would mind heading back to UK and picking up the Hawker Sea Fury. I actually laughed, because he was obviously pulling my leg; but, he had made this request as if he was serious.......and he was! An hour later, I was in the international departure lounge and, two hours later, I was winging my way back to Heathrow. A night in my own bed was welcome, but my longsuffering wife was not best pleased when her initial thought that I was back early (shopping, see kids, spend money etc etc) was dashed as I said I was going back to Poland the following day %u2013 or so I thought; silly boy!An early rise, and a 45-minute trip to Cranfield, where I had positioned the Sea Fury just a week or so earlier. The promise that I would be met by one of the engineers, with the aircraft fuelled and ready to go, did not happen and, when he did turn up, it was clear that he had only just heard of the change of plan. A good chap nonetheless, and he quickly set about preparing the aircraft, while I did some further route planning %u2013 my initial thought of straight-lining from the other side of the English Channel was really a non-starter.Some of the most congested airspace in Europe, and the pleasures of marginal weather in the German Ruhr, persuaded me that looping north through Holland, for my first stop at the Friesland Airport of Groningen/Eelde, was my best bet. The total journey was over 800 nautical miles and, even with the speed of the Sea Fury, the late start was probably going to mean a night-stop somewhere en route. Many pilots will tell you that the most difficult part of aviation is the messing around on the ground and, true to form, when the magnificent Centaurus radial engine growled into life, I was back in my comfort zone. Not too comfortable though, as the 2400 hp in the