Moray coast tour 9th April 2022

Many thanks to all who went on the Moray Coast Tour on Saturday 9th April on a cold but sunny day with some short wintry showers. We motored first to have our Coffee/Tea stop at the Househill Café on the Grantown road near Nairn and we received excellent service there before moving on to the Morayvia Air Museum at Kinloss, where they were expecting us and opened the gates so we could park all our cars next to the planes and helicopters. The mainly ex-service staff there were all so friendly and informative and gave us an excellent tour of all the many exhibits, the highlight of which was a great visit in the Nimrod fuselage and of course there were many Nimrods stationed at RAF Kinloss. Covid rules were relaxed in the nose-cone of the Valiant V Bomber when they learned that one of our members James Campbell was an ex RAF Radar Fitter that worked on the Valiant that carried out the testing of the Blue Steel missile in Australia in the 50s/60s. James was able to sit at the 3 seater desk that was below the 2 seater cockpit for the 2 Pilots and revive old memories of the radar and associated electronic equipment installed there. We were very impressed at the spacious layout and many exhibits and the place requires a further visit to do it justice.

We then carried on along the coast road to Lossiemouth where we had an excellent lunch at the Firth Hotel – they provided a menu to Gil who circulated all members and they made their choices known before arrival and the service and quality were first rate. Our thanks goes to Lynn Clark who sold the scratch cards for club funds. The winners were Steve Byford who won the club torch and mug and Gil Graham who won the bottle of Cava and club mug. Some members stayed on to sample the sea air and inspect progress on the new bridge access to the outer beach area as the old structure has been closed for over 2 years then we all returned home after a memorable day out.

The next trip will be on the 13th, 14th and 15th May for the few who are going to the Jim Clark Museum and the East Fortune Museum of Flight. For everyone else there will be a run to Mellon Charles/ Arctic Convoys Museum on the 14th May, details will follow nearer the time.

Gil Graham and James Campbell