'Battlegroup North’ at the Elvington Air Museum

Yesterday I went along to ‘Battlegroup North’ at the Elvington Air Museum. I had a choice of attending on either the Saturday or the Sunday, and decided on the Sunday as it was forecast to have the better weather of the two days. Leaving home at 08:20 I rolled in with my CCKW into the vehicle show area adjacent to the museum at 09:00 and joined the other 150+ vehicles parked up. Mainly WW2 there was however a spread of more modern vehicles. I had hoped there might be the odd WW2 tank but the most heavily armoured vehicles from that era were a couple of half-tracks, both in beautiful condition it has to be said.
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I met up with a few GMC owners I knew and had a good natter about the vehicles foibles. I thought there might be an extra GMC to add to my CCKW Photo Blog, but as it happens I already had all seven vehicles already recorded.
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An old friend of mine Chris Jenkins along with his sons Graham and Gareth was part of 25pdr display team who put on an excellent little firing display.
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One of the wiper blades on my GMC has been knackered for quite some time, so I was pleased when browsing the outdoor stalls to pick up a pair of replacements for £10.
The air museum as well as throwing open its doors as part of the joint event fired up a couple of its aircraft, and we were treated to a Buccaneer and Victor tanker charging up the 3,094 meter runway doing fast taxi runs.
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They have one of my favourite aircraft at the museum an English Electric Mk 6 Lightning, although it is not a runner like the Buccaneer.
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Unfortunately the weather forecasters got the days mixed up, and for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon we were subjected to quite persistent rain that saw most people leave early. Still not a bad day all in all, and I'm already looking forward to next year :)

Yorkshire Air Museum

We had a fine day yesterday here in Yorkshire on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to go the the Yorkshire Air Museum at the old Elvington Airbase. I have been before but it is so many years ago I didn't have any clear recollection of what the place was like at all. I was pleasantly surprised at how much there was to see, with quite range of aircraft and general exhibits. They also have a small range of vehicles including a Chieftain tank, although due to a shortage of hangarage they were stored outside, and beginning to be slightly worse for wear. The twin prides of the collection I would say are a Nimrod and a Victor aircraft, both of which are in truly fabulous condition with virtually all systems functioning. On select days of the year they do fast runs up and down the runway.  Here are a few pictures.
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Victor Tanker
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Control Tower.
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Grand Slam Bomb.
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 Chieftain (1000) Tank.

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 GR3 Harrier.
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Buccaneer
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