One of those was to fly in a Spitfire. To most people with petrol in your blood the sound of a Merlin and the sight of a Spitfire/Hurricane/Lancaster is enough to make your remaining hairs stand on end.
As my 50th was a washout due to a variety of shite personal circumstances I took this year as time to treat myself.
So earlier this month I went down to Goodwood and signed any number of disclaimers and watched safety videos about parachutes…
And finally I was sat in the back seat of a Spitfire.
This plane was built as a single seater and was converted after the war (after being rescued from a scrapyard!) to a trainer with dual cockpits.
The rear is an exact replica of the front so don’t touch anything and keep your feet out of the way of the control rods moving under them!
It was all a bit surreal and I kept needing to reality check myself that this was happening
Engine start was as noisy and explosive as you’d hope and finally settled down before we taxied out onto the grass runway, weaving from side to side so the Pilot could see where he was going.
Once the preflight checks were done he gave it everything and we were off. Acceleration was amazing and whilst still low and at full power he banked it left off the end of the runway to avoid going over the Rolls factory and as a bonus buzz the aerodrome cafe
From there we climbed out towards the coast and caught up with a chase plane that my family and friend Glenn were in. We spent about ten minutes in formation for a few photos, literally 3m away with wings almost overlapping.
Then banked away and out over the sea where I was offered the chance to fly it… needless to say I said yes and (under instruction) turned it around and followed the coast line back towards Worthing. At one point when I was banked over the Pilot showed me his hands above his head just to make the point I was in control
Not sure who was more scared 
I then turned back through 180 again and the Pilot took over to do some aerobatics. Started me off gently with a barrel roll, checked I wasn’t going to vomit, then did another and said did I want to do a full loop?
Stupid question by this point
Full throttle climb and then over we went, pulling 3G in the process. Truly amazing. We then flew back to Goodwood where we needed to circle for a while whilst they cleared the runway but I wasn’t complaining.
Just the most amazing experience I’ve ever had and the customer service and engagement was exceptional from start to finish.
Costly? Yes. Expensive? No. Not when you considered exactly what you are doing and what it takes to keep these planes in the air.
