AWA Club helped host a visit by Polly Vacher to Coventry as part of her Wings Around Britain charity flights, in support of the Flying Scholarships for the Disabled Charity. The Airport management had laid on a full red-carpet welcome at Anson House, using Rangemile's lounge and with AWA providing extra space, making cups of tea and generally helping out. Polly arrived from Bruntingthorpe about 13:15 carrying two disabled passengers and departed at 14:45 to Sywell with another two. As well as the formalities and exchange of passengers, the visit included a book signing, interviews with Cov and Warwick Radio, and with the local paper. The attached photos show Polly's PA28 Dakota on the Apron, and Antony and Rosemary at the book signing.
Antony Butcher having his book signed by Polly
Polly with Rose Clemo
Polly's PA28 Dakota parked amongst AWA's aircraft at Coventry
Polly's PA28 Dakota parked outside AWA Flying Group
Polly taking a well deserved break.
Just a small excerpt out of Polly's diary for this days flights. For further details and more diary entries etc. Click here to go to Polly's web site
"Akash Ram, a 15 year old blind boy was my next passenger with his Aunt, Sal. They were full of questions and I felt bad, but I really had to ask them not to keep talking as I had to talk to controllers and concentrate on getting them safely to Bruntingthorpe. I had rung Bruntingthorpe to ask for a briefing as they use the huge large tarmac runway for testing cars and driving events and normally you have to use a grass runway “We will close half of the tarmac runway for cars just while you land” they told me over the phone. What kindness and trouble people are prepared to go to. I landed on this huge runway. The cloud base was about 1,200 feet and the countryside around there is flat, but the pelting rain made it difficult to see. David Walton the owner led us to a parking spot so that the cars could continue on the runway and took us to the controller to get the books signed.
Victoria Barr who has been awarded an FSD scholarship this year has Muscular Dystrophy. She is a ray of sunshine herself and her mother Maggie came with her in the back of GN. By then, I was running nearly two hours late which made me feel very bad. Coventry had laid on a huge event and the Lord Mayor had a busy calendar. We took off from Bruntingthorpe. This was not a problem as Coventry have an ILS so I knew I would be able to get in. In the event, we managed to do the flight visually in spite of the rain. Chris Orphonou the Managing Director of Coventry Airport was waiting with a huge bouquet of the most beautiful flowers. “The Mayor waited for as long as he could but he had another appointment” he said. I felt dreadful as they had gone to so much trouble, but I could do nothing about the weather and everyone understood. A lady from the BBC was there and we did an interview with my croaky voice. Everyone was waiting patiently in the executive lounge. I was able to give a short speech and thank everyone for their patience and understanding. Coventry had laid on a delicious lunch and at last everyone was able to dig in. I was busy signing books. Everyone was queuing up to buy them. “This is not a fund-raising flight” I had said in my speech “you can fund-raise for too long and your friends do a ‘180’ and run in the other direction” I joked, but several people insisted on giving donations. I feel totally overwhelmed with people’s generosity. I eventually managed to grab some lunch. We rang Sywell (Northampton) and they had a cloud base of 1,200 ft so we were ready to go. Timmy Lang aged 13 was my next passenger. He was like David and unable to speak because of Cerebral Palsy. His grandfather, Maurice Mann, a delightful 84 year old ex Mosquito pilot came with us. Maurice is partially blind and had to be helped into the aircraft, but he was smiling and laughing as was Timmy although Timmy couldn’t speak. We set off for the flight to Sywell."
