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The Grumpy Gang

The Grumman Aircraft Pilots Association European Branch

Friday, 15th. Marianhamn to Jämijärvi, Finland. 136 miles.

And so on to our planned destination. Jami is in the middle of nowhere. We did not find the dragons, only miles of beautiful forest and lakes. We were among the first to arrive for the fly-in. We had tried to book hotel accommodation in advance but there was no room at the inn. We thought that we would rent a car and find a hotel further afield, but with the distances involved that proved to be difficult. In the end we were all put in a room with four single beds and two bunk beds. In the middle of the night we were awoken by three more who had been allocated the same room. In the end one of them claimed the lower bunk bed and the other two slept on mattresses in the hallway. They turned out to be the crew of an Antonov AN2 and we were invited to fly with them on a brief circuit to reposition onto the other runway.

Jörg and Peter arrived just before us, having done the reverse of our route and with the intention of flying on to North Cape, 500 miles north of Jämijärvi. We would have liked to join them but time and wives would not allow.

Lauri and his wife arrived on Saturday and camped on the airfield while Paul and his two passengers somehow managed to find a very comfortable cabin somewhere in the woods.

At this point we assumed our first official task which was to see whether M Chirac was telling the truth about Finnish food being the only food that is worse than English. My personal conclusion was that I had eaten far worse in Russia when on a package tour. We did note that the prices increased substantially when the crowds arrived for the fly-in on Saturday and for the 70th anniversary celebration of the building of the airfield on Sunday. What did upset us however was the price of the house plonk, 4 Euros for 20 cc, 8 Euros for a decent glassful. We drank beer after that.