An extract from the diary Capt Smith of 2 Sqn RFC for 10th Apr 1915 graphically depicts the challenges of getting a BE2 across the Channel in the early days of World War 1:
“Weather did not clear until yesterday. It was still cloudy this morning but we decided to 
cross if possible after lunch. There were 14 machines in all, ready to start 8 REs , 3 Vickers Gun machines, 2 BE2c’s, 1 Avro. I was about seventh to leave ground – found it very gusty. On reaching 6,000 ft headed across channel – bearing 160. Half way across I entered a cloud, on emerging three minutes later saw Cap Gris Nez directly in front of me. Followed coast to Calais and railway from Calais to St Omer.
One RE machine smashed up when getting off the ground at Folkestone & was burnt. Two of the Vickers machines did not arrive nor the other BE2c piloted by Eichermain.”
Regrettably, our attempts (yesterday and today) to fly our 2 BE2s in company with a BE2c (belonging to Steve Slater and Matt Boddington) to France to commemorate the deployment of the British Expeditionary Force has been stymied by strong winds. As we do not have any operational imperative, safety and security figure most in our decision making when it comes to flying the aircraft.
The flight was to have been part of a RAF 100 initiative drawing together opportunities to commemorate key moments in RFC and RNAS history in the build up to the centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 2018. The 13th Aug 1914 was the date that the first BEF aircraft launched for France from Swinegate near Dover. Our flight was to have included a fly past of the RFC memorialon the Cliffs of Dover filmed from the ground and a Sea King with a 2 Sqn Tornado flying past at the same time signifying the old and the new. The BE2s were then to herald the start of the Drumhead Service for the whole BEF at Amiens tomorrow and a fly past at the Flying Services Memorial in the evening.
As Stu Goldspink pointed out to me when making the NO GO decision, the BE2 design is only 3 years younger than the design of the very first aircraft to cross the channel that Bleriot flew and is very challenging to fly in gusts which is why the original deployment in Aug 1914 took 3 weeks. We were hoping to do there and back in 3 days! The BE2 also makes like a kite on the ground if out in the open when gusts occur and there is no crew on board. This would have made our 2 BEs very vulnerable at Headcorn and Abbeville where gusts over 20 knots are forecast.
WAHT would like to thank the pilots (Stu Goldspink, Rob Millinship and Jean Munn) who tried their best to make this happen, Steve Slater who incorporated us into his long planned project at the eleventh hour, and the Royal Air Force for including WAHT in this inaugural RAF100 flying commemoration and hope that the weather will be kinder to us when the next opportunity presents itself.