Today my co-pilot Mike suggested a visit to Shobdon airfield in the west of England, near Leominster, and close to the Welsh border. The terrain in this area changes abruptly from the rolling farmlands of rural English Herefordshire to the start of the Welsh mountains and was ideal as a training area for the Arnhem and Normandy landings. During World War II the Royal Air Force School of Gliding was based here and even today much gliding still takes place. Indeed we saw an ex RAF Chipmunk trainer take off with a glider in tow. The RAF continue to use the airfield to practice short field take offs and landings in mountainous terrain with their C-130's. This was our first sighting of Shobdon aerodrome.

Plenty of surviving World War II infrastructure.

Inside the Nissen Hut good food awaits. Because of its central position between north and south, many light aircraft use this as a staging post in the long flight from Scotland or the North of England to the English South Coast. We were hungry after our two our flight and soon got tucked in - note the chocolate cake - Shobdon's superb chocolate cake has a well deserved reputation among pilots.

Mike with the Shobdon aerodrome cat.

Me with our mount for the day, a 1976 Piper Cherokee Warrior, G-VIVS, owned by a mutual firend.

I wouldn't normally photograph aeroplanes which are partly covered over in tarpaulin but I just had to conclude with a view of this lean mean machine, an ex Soviet Yak-52 fighter trainer.