Gorse Farm
GORSE FARM: Temporary aerodrome
Operated by: Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Day No.2 Tour
Location: Just W of Mareham Lane, E of Silk Willoughby village, about 2nm S to SSE of Sleaford town centre
Period of operation: 23rd June 1933
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The third item, the newspaper article, was published in the Sleaford Gazette on the 10th June 1933.
Note: The fifth and sixth items, a newspaper article in two parts, (to make it easier to read), was published in the Grantham Journal, also on the 10th June 1933. The local area and area views are from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: This is a very interesting situation. Of all the dozens and dozens of temporary venues already identified and listed for the 'Flying Circus' era during the 1930s, all have appeared to have had a display arriving on schedule. Except this one, which was in the original schedule planned to take place on the 21st June 1933. But of course, we have two newspaper articles reporting that the display was to take place on the 23rd June.
Seems unlikely they both got the date wrong? In the original schedule a display at Scunthorpe was planned for the 23rd June. Did Cobham decide to divide the team to display at both venues? Probably we will never know?
Seen from our viewpoint today, it looks quite remarkable given the vagaries of our weather, being situated on a small island off the coast of Europe and mostly affected by weather systems coming in from the Atlantic, that they managed to comply with schedules that mostly gave no leeway for very poor weather, and Cobham especially, did not take weather into account.
But, flying around the UK in those days was vastly different to more recent times, indeed, even after WW2. There was virtually no controlled airspace anywhere in the UK, and military restricted areas were few and far between. The '500' foot rule hadn't been applied, prohibiting flight within 500ft of a person, vessel or structure, so the pilots could 'scud run' below low cloud virtually down to ground level. They were also pastmasters at low level navigation in poor visibility, and, for example, they had a lot more railways in those days that could be used to follow.
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