During the recent Easter Course run by 621 VGS the Historic Flight was visited by Peter Garwood, Honorary Secretary of The Barrage Balloon Reunion Club.
‘The Babe’ winch is a rare Wild Winch and Hullavington was the home of the RAF’s last Balloon unit.
With the grass too long for Air Cadet operations, the Historic Flight seized the opportunity to fly on Saturday as well.
The MKIII and Primary, having just had their C of A’s, had their test flights first on Friday. Then a few others had a chance to fly before the drizzle arrived. According to John the performance of the Primary does get worse with wet wings! Once back in the hanger, the BBQ taken out onto the patio – where we need to get a light fitted! Top nosh – thank you!
Saturday was a better day, not great, but plenty of flying. The Swallow and MKIII were out. Good fun!
Just a quick report on last Friday. We have learnt a lesson that our ageing kit cannot be left unattended for 5 months over the winter and then be expected to work! The car temp showed -8 as I turned up Friday morning and we were faced with flat batteries in everything and a flat tyre and seized brakes on the Peugeot, having sorted that lot we then had to unfreeze the hangar doors. I didn’t help by letting the winch stop once it was on the airfield so had to use the world’s most expensive battery charger ( the Van Gelder!).
Fortunately two pleasant weather days fell on two consecutive Fridays and a good time was had by all. Some more of the ex Air Cadets that were unable to make the August date came along and flew the Sedbergh with big grins all round. We then said goodbye to WB981 as it returned to Keevil with Rick flying his first Sedbergh P1 trip and James Blake experiencing his first open top glider flight, first aerotow and first cross country! Rich Manara also converted to the Sedbergh and Swallow
The following week saw the Prefect and Swallow flying, a very nice and gentle September evening. Andy Trickey flew the Swallow for the first time in many years and Rich Manara converted to the Prefect, I think he’s gone into hiding with three conversion rounds pending! PT and Rich also got to grips with the winch!
I have received the following e-mail and fabulous photos
Dear Adam
I was in contact with you some while ago with the intention of visiting your unit at Hullavington. At the time my daughter was living in the area, so I was there quite often. However, she has moved over to Ireland now, so I no longer pass that way.
I recently scanned all my old colour slides into my computer and found the attached photos. The first five were taken at Weston and the rest at Halesland. The last three depict myself, about to depart in a Prefect, John Stride (who eventually became CFI) and Mark Rudd (Instructor} with John Abell (another Staff Cadet). John carried on to have a career in the RAF, flying mostly Javelins and Phantoms.
Yours sincerely
Chris Roberts
I have been in contact with Chris and hopefully we will be able to get him along to visit us sometime soon.
621 VGS Historic Flight answered the call from the Air Cadet organisation to assist them in their 70th Anniversary Celebrations in the form of a flypast at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford last weekend.
The Historic Flight aircraft were joined, on the Tuesday, by the past aircraft flown by the Air Cadet organisation: a Tiger Moth, Chipmunk, Bulldog, Tutor, Venture, Vigilant, Viking and another of Al Stacey’s gliders, a Sedbergh to replace WB922 that is currently being recovered. A Chipmunk, Cub and Robin were used to the five gliders.
After practice on Wednesday, display approval was given on Thursday, with the first flypast of Fairford taking place on Friday evening. Sadly Saturdays display had to be cancelled due to wet weather. It was a close call on Sunday with wet and blustery conditions calming just in time for the display to go ahead.
At the Hanger Party, RIAT’s traditional closing event, the display was given special mention by Air Commadore Nigel Wharmby of the Air Tattoo’s Flying Control Committee. “The display with training aircraft and gliders was truly remarkable given that the wind and weather made conditions phenomenally difficult,” he said, adding: “I salute you.”
Mid summer week seemed a sensible time to pick for flying vintage gliders! With a not too promising forecast we started the week with Al’s Sedbergh having to stay at Keevil due to strong winds. In fact the strong winds were set to stay until Friday along with heavy showers. It turned out that on most days we wouldn’t have been able to fly the Sedbergh due to the wind strength so instead turned to the MKIII which coped admirably with 25kt gusts! Joined by Rick and his SHK and the Astir DNE, our Swallow completed the line up for the majority of the week. Only on Friday did the winds abate and the Prefect came out on what turned out to be a soarable morning.
With large chunks of the midweek days washed out we spent some time cleaning the gliders, the MKIII had a brand new front seat fitted whilst KK and Dom fitted a new canvas tilt too the winch.
A couple of successful evenings allowed Martin Wintle and the Summerells to get airborne with a typical English summer BBQ after and just to prove we did get some decent weather I’ll insert the following photo! Along with a nice one Rob took of Tony on the approach.
All in, a great week despite the weather. Mike Newton flew the MKIII for the first time since 1979, KK also flew the Swallow again after a similar time. Dom Polhill converted to the MKIII and then the Swallow. We managed 109 flights and a bit over 18 hours airborne.
Another Grasshopper has found its way into the hangar. WZ798 has been rescued from storage at the Bournemouth Aviation Museum and it has been permanently loaned to the Al Stacey collection. It will be stored for a short time with the Historic Flight whereby it will be assessed if it can be returned to airworthy status.
The first full Friday of the season was blessed with fine weather and a good breeze. This helped the MKIII get reasonable heights as it was being used to get some back into current practice before stepping up to the Swallow. A rare 1250′ was seen on one launch but that might have been due to Oliver Summerell being in the back seat!
Phil, Darren M, Daryl, Jim and Jono all converted to the Swallow with Nick B re-converting after some 30 years! Jono got the best of the breeze and nearly made the magic 2000′ on the launch.
The Prefect also came out to play, can’t be many times that the Prefect and Swallow flew together in VGS use! Phil also discovered that extra cocpit weight causes the Prefect to stop quite quick!!!
Towards the end of a very hot and long Easter course the Grasshopper came out to start flying operations again after the layoff whilst efforts have gone into the Sedbergh recover. Rich Manara had his first flights on type with emotions ranging from initially quite nervous to being completely speechless and then with a massive grin on his face couldn’t stop talking about it!!
Then the moment we have all been waiting for as the shape of the Swallow appeared in circuit. Not to pass up an opportunity I took a tow behind the Rotax Falke as it departed for Keevil, it is a delight to fly and thermalled very nicely. I’m sure everyone will enjoy converting over the next few months.
