More tea and overcast

I purposely posted the Varks vid yesterday without commentary. In some sense I wanted you kind readers to have the opportunity to come to it cold and without a lot of hoopla, the way I did.

A lot of stuff in that video caught my eye and tugged at the heartstrings of memory. That probably won't happen to any of you -- at least not in the same way -- but you never know.

I flew out of Upper Heyford a couple of times more than 30 years ago. Both times in Sea Kings. One built by Sikorsky and one built by Westland. Both times the weather was as depicted in the Vark video. Typically snotty, lots of overcast, sun occasionally breaking out for a few moments, but all in all dank, damp, and chilly. The video took me back, in a manner of speaking.

But there was something else, too. I never flew in an F-111 of course. But I did slip the surly bonds from the right seat of an Intruder a time or two, and the feeling of those also long ago hops came through in the video. Something about the side-by-side seating perhaps. The sights and sounds resonated a bit.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw this one up today. It's a recent interview with the pilot of the lead Vark in yesterday's video. Kinda cool.



And while I'm at least tangentially on the topic of Jolly Olde, here's what it looked like in Herefordshire over the weekend.

Elwyn tells me they get snow about every third December, and a storm like this less than once a decade. Meanwhile, it's warmer and drier than usual here in Nebrasky.

On the upside, there are Mooneys.