Adamanda's blog

For some reason, I'd never thought of writing about crafty things on here, but a thread about blogging on the Do Crafts "Designer Chat" list made me see the error of my ways, so here it is.

I'll start things off by sharing my most recent crafty purchases - I went shopping last week

I have a bit of a thing about papers, and treated myself to 6 sets of the 6x6 Dovecraft Designer papers. The "abstract" prints by Kelly Harwood are my absolute faves. Also in the shopping bag were 2 Papermania Designer paper packs (green and purple) that I'd somehow managed not to buy before, and various stamps and stickers from the shop's clearance table that I couldn't afford not to have.

Sunday was Shuttleworth's Military Pageant, and the forecast wasn't good. Heavy rain had left the airfield waterlogged, so it didn't look like any of the "heavies" (Sea Hurricane, Gladiator, Lysander etc) would be able to go out, and the wind was expected to be far too strong for the Edwardians to come out to play either.

In the event, a day of sunshine on Saturday dried out the grass just enough for the heavies (the Hurricane was towed down the runway to check it didn't sink), and Sunday's weather was hot and still, so we had a fantastic show. Virtually all the Collection's military aircraft flew, and there was a good range of visitors too, including the Seafire and the BBMF Lancaster.

As you can see from the piccies, I did quite a bit of holding tails during warm-ups: the Sopwith Triplane (Dixie) during a ground run for the crowd, the Bleriot (which dragged Adam and I several feet) and the Deperdussin.

Yesterday the weather was finally calm and nice enough, and work stuff quiet enough that we could have our first flight for over a month. We took a picnic to Great Oakley, near Walton, and had a lovely flight along the coast to Maldon in Essex. This shot is of some boats near Mersey.

Stitching the wing fabric to the ribs is my favourite job, but I'd managed to miss all the stitching on the SE5a until today. Unless you like running backwards and forwards, it's a 2 man job on a big wing - 1 to do the main part of the stitches, including the knot, the other to push the neede in from the other side. I wonder how many other couples have done wing stitching together?

A long hot training week was brought to a close with pilots mopping up one or two final aircraft types, and experience flights for those among the engineers and volunteers that wanted them.

Adam and I both picked the Tiger Moth as our favourite choice - it has an open cockpit, it can do aerobatics, and it's very special to me as the first of the Collection's aircraft that I worked on when I became a volunteer.

I get travel sick quite easily, so took a bag, but didn't need it. The pilot is extremely fab, and the only time I felt slightly queasy was when I took the controls. The Tiger is lovely to fly in, and you get such a brilliant view of the chequered wings from in the cockpit. As well as being my first flight in a vintage plane, it was also my first go at being upside down in a plane, as we did a couple of loops. Very fun.

I was lucky enough to have a second flight in the afternoon too - this time in a Miles Magister that's part of a private collection hangared at the collection. Thanks to all involved - you know who you are!

This week is the training week for the Shuttleworth Collection pilots. It's an opportunity for the ground volunteers to brush up on their technique too. Today was extra fun, as the Gladiator took to the air for the first time in its beautiful new colour scheme

Yesterday was our first trip over water. Not much water, just over to the Isle of Wight, but that counts The view around the Needles was completely fantastic and we did a couple of laps of them. It was hazy over the whole mainland, but luckily the island had much clearer weather. Can't wait to go again!

The Rainbows made daffs this week, to celebrate St David's day, and I'm ridiculously proud of them! I cut all the components out and explained in stages how to turn them into daffs. I thought I'd made a big mistake at first, as they all said it was too hard. A little one-to-one time though, and suddenly I looked up to see a table full of completed flowers!

We're dog-sitting our friend's two gorgeous labradors this week - a black puppy and a 'golden oldie'. We took them for a walk across the fields yesterday and got very muddy. The poor doggies didn't know what had gone wrong with their paws!

The Gladiator's current Norwegian markings were only painted as a temporary scheme for a film, but other priorities meant that the scheme remained for much longer than planned. The poor old girl has been looking a bit tired recently, so it's time to give her a face lift. The new scheme is a secret, but will have an RAF roundel. Unfortunately, that means that the existing red paint needs to be rubbed off with fine sandpaper and water, so that it doesn't bleed through the white of the roundel. My job is the undersides of the bottom wings, so I'm suffering from a bit of Michaelangelo neck and have spent today quite cold, as all the water ran up my arms! Perhaps not the best job for December!! Luckily the Gladiator is one of my favourite planes, so I'll just concentrate on how fab she'll look when she's finished