Landing Stoke Runway 06

I’d flown from Linton up to Whitstable on the north Kent coast and then westerly across the Swale that separates the Isle of Sheppey from the rest of Kent. Once I’d reached the Isle of Sheppey I’d dropped down to low level and flown the length of its coastline at anything from 20 – 50 feet or so above the water, below the level of the low cliffs that form the shore. It was the first time that I’d done anything like it and it was both exciting and slightly scary all at the same time. When I’d reached the port of Sheerness I’d climbed to cross over the Medway estuary to the Isle of Grain on which Stoke is situated. After a brief introductory clip of the low level part of the flight, the video picks up at about that point.

The approach and downwind leg into Stoke was on a westerly heading into the sun, so that part of the footage is of rather poor quality. Having said that, this is another video of its time that was shot on my old Canon video tape camcorder and on top of that, the original footage was lost when I had a computer hard disk crash a few years ago. Nevertheless, it gives a good flavour of the approach into Stoke 06 at that time as the Isle of Grain power station is long since gone. Watch out for the man crossing the railway line ahead on short final.

This was one of my earliest cross-country flights in MYRO after I’d restored it and got it back into the air. Reprocessing this video more than 10 years later I remember it and this approach and landing as if they were yesterday. Good old MYRO, sadly gone but not forgotten.