Touch-down after pre-acceptance flight

Another shot from Cessna 172 G-ATLN during this test flight out of Southend over the Essex countryside before acceptance by Falcon Airways

A very rare visitor at my home airport.

A shot of this amazing beast from my Cessna 172 camera ship

Working at Southend Airport in the 'Seventies produced some great opportunities. Just before N80FA departed on its ferry flight to Texas, I was able to fix up an air-to-air session from Cessna 172 G-ATLN. We flew as fast as possible, the Carvair as slow as it could with everything down. I can still hear those P&Ws roaring over the sound of my open window and the general racket in the Cessna. I even sold my car to one of the Falcon directors who duly loaded and flew home to the States with it - truly Car-via-air as Freddie Laker originally intended. This aircraft crashed in Alaska in 1997 as N103; another of the few remaining Carvairs suffered a similar fate up there in May 2007, so now only two survive