donnington castle – STOPJABBAINGON

So, unless you watch my daily vlogs (stopjabbaingon) you will have no idea that once upon a time I had my PPL. Now this was nearly 7 years ago and I’ve literally not flown since passing as I simply couldn’t afford to.

It was always a dream of mine to be a commercial pilot but I let that dream pass me by many years ago, so when I could afford to learn I took the opportunity with both hands, I even did some of my hours over in Florida at Daytona Beach.

Since passing a lot has happened including meeting a new friend of mine Jeff. He also has a huge passion for flying and has his own sailplanes and a share in an aircraft.

So, we’ve spoken many times about going up together, but, even though it’s been fantastically sunny lately it’s also been quite windy too mean the plane was grounded.

Well, last Monday night I got the email from Jeff, if I was free the next morning we’d be heading up for a flight, but, yet again the wind was going to pick up so we only had a small window to go up.

I arrived at the airfield at 9am. After a brew, we got the plane out the hanger, did all the pre flight checks and got on board and away we went.

Jeff had control for the take off etc and then just chucked the flight into my hands. Gave me a course to fly and away we went. We flew over the White Horse, back down over Watership Down and then around Newbury (Donnington Castle, my home area) a fair bit before coming back down again.

DONNINGTON SQUARE — DONNING TON CASTLE, BERKSHIRE

I really can’t thank Jeff enough for the experience of going up flying again after all this time and I can’t wait to do it all, and next time I’ll buy us lunch wherever we land.

After a crazy busy day with admin and editing videos for clients on Wednesday morning and afternoon, I decided to spend an hour or so at the end of the working day capturing some footage for my daily vlog and take a few photos too.

I wandered my way up to a local historical area at Donnington Castle in Newbury. It’s a stunning area with lots of park land around it and some fabulous views of the local area from it’s peak.

The striking twin-towered 14th-century gatehouse of this castle, later the focus of a Civil War siege and battle, survives amid impressive earthworks. The gatehouse, which is two storeys high and is roofed at battlement level, serves as evidence for the luxury and privacy enjoyed by Sir Richard Abberbury, whose private quarters would have been situated within this part of the castle.

The gate passage has a finely vaulted ceiling, while elegant stone string courses with carved gargoyles decorate the outside. At the rear of the gatehouse the fireplaces and doors indicate the floor levels. Patches of brickwork show where the gatehouse was damaged during the Civil War sieges.

*history courtesy of English Heritage

The pollen count was high and frankly almost killed me, but it was such a stunning evening I really didn’t want to leave for home.

Tag: donnington castle

FLYING OVER NEWBURY

Local Photography