North Coates Icicle Fly-in, 3rd January 2009.

I took myself to the North Coates icicle fly-in at New Year. If they are brave enough to arrange it they need support. A mainly bright but cold and frosty day brought a good turnout.

The airfield traces its origins back to WWI, though its not until WWII that it became really busy bombing German shipping in the N Sea.

I met a very friendly serious amateur photographer there who gave me these excellent pictures, so I thought I would share them since he had no objection.

G-IKON is approaching completion of her first 50 hours, so we are getting to know each other. Still much of my flying is testing and calibration, but she is performing well with only the most minor snags. Dirt in a drain valve has been my most frustrating recent problem.

One issue I am close to giving up on, is that there is no doubt the statics under record the pressure, leading to a 7mph over reporting of speed. And no, they are not leaking to cabin pressure!