Japfest – What a day !
The ATROC Admin met at 5am and stopped for breakfast on the way. A quick inspection of why one of the ATRs was running unusually and smelling of fuel soon identified that someone had forgotten to put the oil cap back on the day before! A quick drive back home for a spare and we were on our way again.
We hit traffic at circa 7.30am and were 0.3 miles from the turn off on the A43 from the South. Those 0.3 miles took 1.5hrs and as we got there the police closed off the exit and sent us along the A43 to then queue for another hour from the North side. We eventually pulled up to the stand at 10am. So 5hrs in all to do a 1hr journey! Absolutely dreadful organisation by the Japfest team.
Then, as the other Admin went to straighten up his parked ATR, the barrel failed with the steering lock on. One of our members was an absolute star and spent the best part of day on his back under the dash and eventually got it 90% there, but that 10% was too risky to drive home in case the steering lock came on. A recovery truck turned up and our Admin got home safe.
Our Dutch friends arrived in the UK on Friday, but even this wasn’t without problems. One of the group had mislaid his passport and border patrol sent him on his way home. He then found it exactly where he left it and where he had previously checked, so headed back to the UK 4 hours behind the others.
Other than that, the weather was really good, the show was busy, the ATRs got a lot of attention and it was great to catch up with everyone.
Our new club flags had their first outing and looked great. A big thanks to Stoo for sorting them out.
Didn’t get many pics due to the way the day panned out, but still a great day after all.