It’s disappointing. I had this great idea of flying to various little airfields and compiling a list of the best cakes in southern England. Enstone usually has slices of home-made carrot cake on the counter (next to a tin where you drop in your coins) and North Weald have a coffee shop with the cake-of-the-day out on the counter. I would discount any major restaurants or canteens and no pre-packaged goods. I wanted to go searching for all the real cakes made by little old ladies who live locally and post the list to compete with the American idea of the $100 burger. Just much more genteel: a cup of tea and a piece of homemade cake.

So here I am in England and the weather is amazing: clear blue skies, crisp horizon, chilly but not icy. Ben, who used to work as an instructor and now flies jets, is in the local area and has free time to go flying with me. Unfortunately the gyro on the plane has failed completely and although functionally the plane flies just fine, I really don’t fancy navigating by compass. It turns the wrong way and lags behind the plane, so it’s a rather bizarre feeling. I did it once as a part of my training (so that I could fly it in exactly this type of scenario) and the instructor and I both agreed it was not something anyone would want to do for fun.

Ah well, I’m supposed to be on a diet anyway.