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Up, down, round and around…

Reporter Jo Macdonald enjoyed a new perspective on life in East Anglia – when she took to the controls of a light aircraft to be put through her paces above a patchwork of fields.

But she was to see the fields, towns and villages merge into a blur when she sat alongside aerobatic display team leader Brian Lecomber.

Jo, from the Ipswich Evening Star, said: “Having taken off from Duxford airfield Brian gave me a quick run through of the basics of flying the dual-control Extra 300L plane and how to control it with the stick between my knees.”

“With hardly a touch – more a mental willing – I took control and gently moved the plane left, right, up and down.

“It was the gentlest of warm-ups to what would be a vigorous stomach-churning sky-high routine.”

She was handed the controls and was soon performing her own barrel rolls and loops with the air of a professional.

Then her tutor took charge again to show her what the plane could really do…

She said: “Flying vertically skywards, the plane was thrown into a fast spin. It was followed by several more climbs, flips and spins and though my enthusiasm never diminished my ability to show it outwardly with a smile or chuckle gradually took more effort.”

“With only enough time for a sharp intake of breath I found myself watching the horizon appear and disappear in every direction in quick succession.

“One moment hanging upside down, the landscape below me in the “wrong” direction, the next instant spinning at every conceivable angle my view of earth and sky blended into flashing blurs and the next feeling as though the plane was in momentary free fall.

“Eventually coming back to a steady line – the clouds and ground back in their proper places, above and below accordingly – my head and heart were crying out for more.

“However, overriding their decision was my stomach and its contents, the latter of which reappeared and thus put paid to the one last stunt I had hoped for.”

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