The keen Royal followers amongst you will know that Her Majesty The Queen has several official engagements this year to celebrate her 90th Birthday which was actually in April. One such event was to be a large street party, held on the Mall leading up to Buckingham Palace, officially known as the Patrons Lunch.

This party celebrated all the charities the Queen is associated with and attended by 10,000 people made up of members of those organisations and some lucky members of the public chosen through a ballot. The British Aerobatics Association are members of the Royal Aero Club along with many air born related sports from Balloons to Helicopters and as members we were offered 2 places at the Patrons Lunch. Paul Conran and I duly volunteered to represent the BAeA which clashed with the National Championships leaving us little competition for the top table. Sadly, Paul later had to give up is seat for a family engagement which meant I could take my wife Sam Murfitt, a once keen glider pilot, so power and gliding could still get a mention.

The forecast was not expecting fine weather and the strict security meant no umbrellas were allowed so as you can see the morning started rather wet but in true British spirit the party went on with the free issue of ponchos given out in the entrance queue. By 11:00 Sam and I were by the Royal Aero Club tables looking like drowned rats admiring the resolve of the long line of people queueing for a cup of tea on a wet English Sunday. Fear not as we could see on the weather radar a hopeful suckers gap coming from the west, just in time to tuck into our amazing M&S hampers. I will not bore you with the contents as that has been well documented but I can say this was no ordinary picnic hamper this was a M&S hamper, which held up to their reputation in my view. Remarkably the tea tent continued to support a queue all day so a number of us on the flying table chose another quintessentially British drink, where there was never a queue and bought jugs of Pimm’s, after all it wasn’t going to be a flying day.

Not only did the rain stop but as the Royals came out, so did the sunshine. Sam and I had a great view of the procession with the tables lined up on both sides of the Mall against a small security barrier. Military bands and hundreds of people marched and danced down the mall to represent and celebrate their charity and then the Royal family walked the crowds followed by Her Majesty The Queen, driven down in a stretch open topped Range Rover.

Prince Harry walked along our side for many hundreds of metres so when he got to us it seemed appropriate to say hello and i ntroduce our table representing the Royal Aero Club, made up of Aerobatics, Gliding and even parachuting. The first thing he asked was “who does aeros?” So we got a good plug as seen on TV (no sound). Maybe he is still dreaming of his time when he flew the Slingsby T67, a fine machine. With another 100 or more people to greet he was soon on his way and our encounter quickly a distant memory. Everyone slowly dried out which made the final drive by for the queen all the more enjoyable with blue sky showing its face.

It’s not every day you get to take part in a national event and while our Unlimited and Advanced pilots were doing their best at Sywell in our own national event, I am pleased Sam and I were able to represent the BAeA at the Queen’s Birthday for a little bit of history. I am looking forward to see how we can top this in 10 years time. Long live the Queen.

Left to right: Carolyn & Rob Hughes – Sam & Julian Murfitt – Diana & Phil King