What you see below is Warwick Castle (pronounced War-ick). It is one of the many sights we saw from the cockpit of a Piper Warrior flying over the British Midlands.
Here is a little photo-essay of the experience.
It's not obvious from this angle, but Warwick Castle sits atop a sheer cliff down to the River Avon.
Janine and I took turns flying G-BSLK. I flew from Wellesbourne Airfield to Seywell, and Janine flew back.
The Wellesbourne Control tower is pretty cute. List most English airports, flight operations are not permitted when the tower is closed. Even taxiing is restricted.
We weren't sure if it was ok to go knock on the tower door. Then, when we saw this sign, we figured it has to be ok.
In the tower we met Frankie - an 87-year-old licenced air traffic controller! She retired from Heathrow 25 years back and came to Wellesbourne. Nobody could tell us her last name because she just very recently remarried.
This use to be the summer home of Princess Diana. It is reputed that she is buried on a small island in the lake you can barely see on the left side.
Sywell airfield has been meticulesly maintained since its origin in the 1930s. This is the terminal building. The restaurant and hotel have also been kept in their original Art Deco style and music from the 30s can be heard inside.
It was considered "good form" to call and get permission to fly over the various estates in the area. They were all perfectly happy to say yes.
The summer home of Judy Dench. Wow!
This odd-looking tower is not an antenna array or a smoke stack for a factory. This is where the Otis Elevator Company tests their elevator designs. How cool is that?
The Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. We flew right over his birthplace as well, although I didn't get a picture of that.
