One may not have a Spitfire at their disposal, or even know how to fly, but, one can hoist a glass of ale with the Spitfire logo on it in honour of the actual aircraft and pilots. Possibly in a glass that allspitfirepilots.org puts in your hands. Shepherd-Neame makes the ale which they call a 'Kentish Ale'. They also make Spitfire Gold and Spitfire Lager. They all "take off" and land well in the Shepherd-Neame curved glass with SPITFIRE lettering and logo and that's what we'll have to give away this summer 2017 on our UK visit!
The potential allspitfirepilots.org cycle trip this summer along England's coast is an effort to collect more pilot biographies from people, see some of the sights, and, then host two group meet-ups (pub) with guest speakers. We'll have 20 SPITFIRE glasses (a squadron of glasses) to give away at these events. We will have two or three brief presentations, including one from author Ron Powell, who penned the popular "Wings Over Summer" and "Wings Over Malta" novels. Ron has had a distinguished career as Group Captain in the RAF, and, is now matching that enthusiasm with several novels from the WWII period. We reviewed one of his books earlier, a historical fiction that gives you the sense of what it would have felt like to be a Battle of Britain pilot.
We'll be handing out 20 of these sleek (like the aircraft) SPITFIRE glasses, real keepsakes and we owe a big thanks to Shepherd-Neame for supporting us with these for our 2017 UK meet-up honouring all Spitfire pilots. It's part of the effort to encourage users add their uncles, fathers, mothers and grand-fathers / grand-mothers who may have flown the Spitfire in combat, training, or in ferry service. Please bring your stories and biographies or just show up to say hi.
If you think you'd like to join in on a day of cycling (Aug 12th to 18th), or just meet up in at any stage to meet and share you images / stories, please use the 'contact us' at the bottom of the site to make arrangements. We'll set up some meetups based on RSVPs.
If think you'd like to attend the group meet-up with guest speakers in Biggin Hill on Aug 19th (the Old Jail Pub) or Duxford (location TBD) in particular, where we'll have Spitfire beer glasses on hand to give away, please let me know/RSVP. If you have imagery for me to scan and load onto the site, I'd be glad to meet up with you at any time along the route so I can interview you and you can have your pilot's story added.
And there are those beautiful glasses we have to give away and maybe a few other goodies we'll see! Stay tuned for the detailed itinerary once we press the 'GO' button for the trip. If you happen to add some pilots to this site between now and trip, and then meet up, let me know, there will be a SPITFIRE glass waiting for you there.
Kurt - Founder
