Sunday 28th May saw the return of the Kirkbride Open Day & Fly In. This was the first time since before the Covid pandemic that we have opened our doors and held such an event. This event marked the retirement of our long serving airfield coordinator John Plaskett who has been involved with Kirkbride for over 30 years. For many years the Fly Ins have been plagued with inclement weather, in fact i can remember years with only having a mere two arrivals! However if anyone was 'owed one' by the weather gods it was John and for once the weather decided to behave itself! With months of planning having gone into this event it was fantastic to see the airfield come to life. There was plenty to see on the ground with several stalls, flight simulators, multiple military vehicles, hot air balloon basket and a burger stand all seeing a healthy stream of people through the day. It was however the aircraft people had come to see and there was one of, if not the biggest turnout of visiting aircraft we have ever seen with over 100 aircraft visiting us during the day. The team had managed to attract many interesting visiting types to the airfield which had certainly not been seen in such numbers at the same time. There were highlights parked on the airfield wherever you looked, we had examples of a DH Vampire, Yakovlev Yak-3, Yak-52 and 18, Bell Huey, T-51 Mustang, WAR FW190 replica, Christen Eagles, DH Chipmunks, Bulldogs, Pitts Specials, SF260 and an immaculate De Havilland DH87b Hornet Moth from 1935 all on the airfield at the same time! It was a truly magnificent turn out and our heartfelt thanks go out to every single one of you who decided to come and visit us! Special thanks go out to Mark Hooton, Bob Davy, Phil Connolly, Mark Hanson and Bob Stinger for their fantastic support.