title	Flying to Cherbourg on a C-47 Dakota, Normandy, France - 1st June 2026
intro	It's long been something of a pipe dream to do one of the flights on a C-47 Skytrain, a.k.a Dakota, that Clive has been doing for several years until, out of the blue, word comes along that there's somehow actually a spare seat available this year for the D-Day week. It takes all of three seconds to decide to sign up, and around a week later - after an emergency trip to Peterborough to get a new passport - Nosher and Clive are actually there at North Weald aerodrome about to take off on a true aviation legend, in this case called Pegasus. From there it's pretty much ear-to-ear grins as we fly at around 1,500 to 2,000 feet all the way to Cherbourg in Normandy. Once we get there and go through a vague sort of passport control, it's back out onto the airfield to watch one of many parachute runs, as fellow Dakota "Drag 'em Oot" - a reference to its role as a glider-snatch C-47 - loads up for a drop. Finally, we get a lift into the nearby town to find our hotel, after discovering that our hire-car doesn't actually exist and that of course Enterprise doesn't have any more vehicles, before heading out with Clive who's meeting up with one of his mates for dinner.
imgp9174	Clive chats to the pilot and crew
imgp9176	Our plane - Pegasus - waits at North Weald
imgp9182	An RAF roundel and D-Day invasion stripes
imgp9183	There's a Provost trainer in a hangar
imgp9187	Clive grins
imgp9190	Pegasus the Dakota gets a fuel top-up
imgp9194	Podge watches the refueling
imgp9200	Clive looks at something on a phone
imgp9201	The luggage "hold"
imgp9203	Pegasus's flight deck
imgp9205	Clive checks his phone out
imgp9207	Pegasus is nearly ready to fly
imgp9234	Within a few minutes we're nearly over London
imgp9239	London City Airport from about 1500 feet
imgp9258	A view of the flight deck
imgp9261	West Sussex and the wing of a C-47 Dakota
imgp9265	We buzz the Goodwood racetrack
imgp9269	Chichester from the air
imgp9273	The rivers and estuaries of Chichester
imgp9291	The shadow of a Dakota in its own rainbow roundel
imgp9295	Wiring for the navigation light
imgp9300	Calm blue ocean under the plane
imgp9311	The first sight of Normandy
imgp9315	Three of the USAF's C-130 Hercules on the stands
imgp9321	Peter Kuypers the pilot
imgp9323	The Dakota's structural fuselage frames
imgp9324	We're on the ground at Cherbourg Airport
imgp9328	Robert hauls his case away
imgp9329	The other Dakota - Drag 'em Oot - is already there
imgp9330	We amble over to immigration and customs
imgp9332	Pegasus at Cherbourg
imgp9334	At Cherbourg Airport
imgp9339	A group of parachutists gets some practice
imgp9340	A first sight of Cherbourg proper
imgp9344	We walk back to Pegasus
imgp9348	All the seats have been removed for parachute drops
imgp9350	The seats are on a trailer next to the plane
imgp9356	Clive hauls his luggage away
imgp9363	A Hercules from Montana is also unloading
imgp9371	A line of paratroopers waits to board
imgp9374	The paratroopers line up
imgp9378	Drag 'em Oot starts engines
imgp9400	We hang around on the grass near the aircraft
imgp9406	A parachutist looks out from Pegasus's door
imgp9433	The two aircraft head off down the runway
imgp9449	Drag 'em Oot flies off
imgp9463	A new line of paratroopers walks past the C-130
imgp9476	The next batch of paratroopers hangs around
imgp9479	Thumbs up from a parachutist
imgp9488	The parachutists march to Drag 'em Oot
imgp9494	Another loading operation commences
imgp9498	Clives counts the parachutists onto the plane
imgp9502	The previous session's static lines are hauled off
imgp9505	The last few parachutists are loaded on
imgp9528	We push Pegasus's seats into a nearby hangar
imgp9530	Clives gets a coffee from the airport café
imgp9532	Cherbourg's terminal is empty for once
imgp9533	The brutalist 1960s concrete of the control tower
imgp9535	Clive outside Bodrum Kebab
imgp9537	A heavily-postered closed-down restaurant
imgp9541	We're on a mission to find a restaurant
imgp9542	The fontaine Mouchel
imgp9543	Clive's on his phone by the Bassin du Commerce
imgp9544	We have dinner on the Quai de Caligny