Sunday 17 July 2011

Nuts About Sketches week 168 :: Dad's Plane

I am doing a bit of a catch up today, with  DT layouts for the Nuts About Sketches sketch blog.

This is week 168's sketch, and it was a 2 pager, but I chose the right hand side of the sketch to do a single page layout. You can find the full sketch here.

These photos were taken at the Friends and Family Day at RAF Kinloss in 2006. The kids always wanted to go and have a look around the Nimrod - Dad's Plane. They liked to go and sit in his seat, look at all the kit he worked on, and even look at the toilet! Sitting in the pilot's seat wasn't as much fun, as that wasn't Dad's seat...  I enjoyed it too, as I could visualize when he was at work, what he was doing, where he was doing it etc.

The Nimrod Mk2 was a big part of our lives. Yes, it's interior may have been held together by bits of bodge tape, but it did it's job and it kept my husband safe for 15 years. Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as I was, and the loss of an aircraft over Afghanistan in 2007 started a chain of events that eventually led to the retirement of all the Mk2 aircraft. The proposed replacement aircraft - the MRA4 - was scrapped by the government in October 2010, leaving Mark with an uncertain future. It still is uncertain. All of the aircraft have been broken up, so all we are left with is photos and memories of this magnificent aircraft, and a keyring.  No, the Nimrod certainly wasn't a pretty thing, and it certainly wasn't a quiet thing either - but it still brought a lump to my throat to see it in the air, to hear the roar of the Spey engines, and to see and smell the huge amount of smoke it kicked out the back...!!! It has always been beautiful to me, and always will be.

We don't know if there will be another "Dad's Plane". I really hope there is, as for Mark to be able to go flying again would be great. He loved the flying aspect of his job, he joined the Air Force to fly and see the world. Yes, he has been lucky to do that, but flying a desk doesn't really have the same appeal somehow.

TTFN


xxxx 


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