Great-VintageFlyingWeekEnd  

 2005 

Hullavington

 

A weekend of blustery winds and showers with some particularly heavy downpours made for a miserable time for aviating and earth-bound participants alike.  I only attended on the Sunday, but driving on the M4 to London on the Saturday through the very heavy showers at less than the legal limit made me glad to be able to slow down a bit.

I was impressed that there was still a good range of aircraft which had been flown in, though inevitably many fewer than in 2002 and 2003 at Kemble..

It was lovely to see an Avro Anson, and better still when it went flying later in the day - a mainstay of RAF multi-engine training during the war years and beyond.

There were actually two examples of the Antonov AN-2.  Curiously, the Antonov fuel primer is like a  motor-bike kick-start, a foot pedal in the gangway beside the pilot's seat.  

The Air Atlantique Twin Pioneer is a very smart aircraft altogether, three tail-fins and immaculate paint in the colours of the Empire Test Pilots' School, with a tidily re-trimmed interior to suit.  It's very tempting to get a flight in this one - can't be any more expensive than dual in a PA28, but in the back!

 

Percival Pembrokes came as a pair too, tidy-looking craft, while the DC3 from Air Atlantique was also there, complete with external Jet-A1 turbine generator attached to the side - functional if not that elegant - and a huge radome on the front, like some unseemly goitre.  Another regular from Coventry was the Dragon Rapide, along with a DHC-1 Chipmunk.  The DH?? with front enclosed passenger cabin was just quaint.

 

The Miles Gemini, recently re-imported from Belgium, was the only Miles aircraft there this time, due to the weather conditions.
The ChrisLea Super Ace was there, unusual with tricycle undercarriage and twin tail-fins, as well as several Luscombe Silvaire, in my book one of the most elegant light aircraft with its delicately-shaped ailerons and a friendly face.  The Dove (or was it a Devon?) is a very pretty miniature airliner, looking exactly as a classic airliner should, but what's this?  A Rans Coyote II; a brave pilot indeed, even if quite local...

©  Dave Hall 2005