Hughie Green ..The Pilot? (Be wary: old thread)

He also had a Cessna 336 bought through Rogers Aviation at Cranfield.

Was it this aircraft that flipped over when taxiing behind a DC-6 doing engine runs at Manston. ?

As posted recently (prob in wrong forum) I was actually present in the report office on the night a shaken Hughie Green landed after his MIG encounter. Fair do’s to him though, in spite of his alleged short fuse
TT

He should have just kept his trousers on……

Just a shame that his later years were surrounded in so much controversy.

Hopefully this link will work – Hughie Green involved in a docu at Coltishall with Javelin/Hunter footage + Johnnie Johnson,Colin Hodgkinson,Bob Stanford Tuck and DB

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/209623

Hughie lived on Essex Way, South Benfleet for a while. Although the road ran behind my school, King Johns Sec. Mod on Shipwrights Drive, I never saw him. For you youngsters who also never saw him, here is the man we’re talking about.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]237168[/ATTACH]

How right you are, Moderator! He did give them the Harvey Smith. Am 90+% sure he was flying a Cessna on the evening he was ‘buzzed’ by the Migs. If I were keeping a diary back then it would be so useful today, maybe even valuable………. The year was somewhere between 1963 and 1966 which is the period during which I came in daily contact with aircraft arriving and departing Heathrow. It was a strict requirement that the ‘ship’s captain’ must report with a manifest of the aircraft’s cargo within a very short time of landing from abroad. In the case of the major scheduled operator’s eg BEA, BOAC, PanAm etc etc there was a concession allowing cargo agents to represent ‘the captain’, a reasonable thing since the aircraft might be turning around in short order. No such concession existed for private a/c in the main as I recall though I don’t ever remember seeing the Duke of Kent or King Bernhardt standing opposite on the other side of the hatch with his papers in hand. I was however present when a visibly shaken H Green arrived with a couple of handlers, and his papers. At this remove the details have become a bit hazy but the gist of it is this ; he had taken film of the buzzing and there was a cockup regarding the unexposed film which was to be processed urgently as the film was required for the next evenng TV News bulletin. He had a TV person with him.
The cockup was (and here I’m relying on fading memory – but cockup for sure) that the film had already cleared the office properly some minutes previously and properly by my colleauge and whisked away but H Green was expecting to meet up with it there. His TV person was either BBC or ITV and we gathered that one had stolen a march on the other and Mssr Green was not best pleased. He struck me as being somehat short tempered if not outright rude in the presence of lesser mortals, mere public servants. However, my friend had done it all ‘by the book’ but still had to endure the verbal abuse. The hazards of any public-facing job no doubt.
I very much regret being unable to give you a more detailed account of the incident which was surely a liitle historic though I never did see the TV News item through working all the O/T hours God sent but on the other hand Heathrow and Britain in general was such an un-dull place in the 60s – Beatles, Harold Wison and daily sundry national and world dignitaries etc etc In that climate Hughie’s adventure was far from an isolated excitement
TT

G-APZA picture in post#4 is taken facing East (SMunicipal flying school in background)
picture in post#39 is taken from northside of the apron, with a Continental Viking parked tail towards the railway track = Southend.
HG was not a partner in the purchase- he just made a visit to look at it.

Bit of an old thread but never mind….

I flew in the SoB Husky in 1978 at 5AEF at Marshalls. Lovely old heap 🙂 . I still have my 3822 all signed up

Hughie Green used to fly a Piper Aztec in the 70s. He visitied RAF Swanton Morley in ’78 when I was in 1249 East Dereham Sqn – Did the Guard of honour bit with .303s 😀

Dennis……….

Welcome to the Forum !! Wonder if you now hold the record for reviving the longest “dead” thread ?!!!

Guess the Aztec must have come after his Cessna 310 G-AROK.

Planemike

Bit of an old thread but never mind….

I flew in the SoB Husky in 1978 at 5AEF at Marshalls. Lovely old heap 🙂 . I still have my 3822 all signed up

Hughie Green used to fly a Piper Aztec in the 70s. He visitied RAF Swanton Morley in ’78 when I was in 1249 East Dereham Sqn – Did the Guard of honour bit with .303s 😀

Hi, just thought I would add something to the ‘ongoing’ thread!
I happened to be aquainted with Hughie Green as an occasional business associate – ( he was, in my limited experience a tough and I would say good businessman… Liked to keep you waiting tho’ !)
At the time, the story, current among those who knew him, was that he regularly dealt in surplas military a/c. His main claim to fame being the sale of US surplus Skyraiders to the French Navy and subsequent resale back to the US at the time of Vietnam.
Although the story had strong currency among people I would consider both sober and trustworthy correspondents I am not in a position to confirm it one way or the other.
I am afraid I can only contribute it ‘as is’. Perhaps someone may be able to throw some light on it.

Hi Mark – thanks for the post before last. You probably gathered I was a bit sceptical about G-APZA having been at Croydon 😉 so your message seems to give the explanation. Loved the photos though. The four Catalinas that I know for certain to have visited Croydon were N5593V, N4938V, SE-XAD/SE-BUB and CF-GKI.

Humble pie….no need at all

Its so easily done with negs in packets, Mark….in fact my collection has got more messed up since I started uploading them to websites…they tend to go back into wrong sleeves….I’d never heard of the Typhoon cockpits….sounds like a cue for a new thread!! 🙂 Mick

David L,

As Hughie Green used to say – “Now I mean this most sincerely, folks”

Apologies and humble pie time.

I ran this conundrum past Phil Butler to scan through the Air-Britain Digests of the period. Nothing, but he also added that he thought the geography was Southend rather than Croydon and he had visited both.

I decided to see if I could locate the negatives of both the Typhoon and the Catalina, they would surely match up…and I found them. The Typhoon cockpits are on a single 127 sq neg in a packet marked ‘Autumn 1958 Croydon’. The four Catalina negs are on a 35mm strip packet marked ‘Croydon’. Both these neg packets had been written up some time in the late 1970’s in a general sort out and filing of accumulating material. I only ever went to Croydon once, so what has happened here?

It looks like the Croyden visit in 1958 captured the Typhoons and the ‘other Catalina’ there was probably out of range or sight and not photographed. I started work in the spring of 1960 and remember buying my first 35mm camera pretty soon after. I have no recollection of going to Southend at that time yet I am sure they are my negatives. I believed my first aviation visit to Southend was circa 1969 to a BAPC meeting and to see Les Hunt.

It looks like my mind has blended events in the intervening years.:o

Mark

There was a visiting Catalina at Croydon 3.2.57 all grey N4938V,with cowling,floats and trim in red.

Just picked up on this thread for the first time; a couple of bits of info. to feed in:-

AJJ’s British Civil Aircraft 1919 – 1972 Vol II states G-APZA (1619) N94574, delivered Rotterdam – Southend 17.2.60 for T.D.Keegan and partners, did not fly again, scrapped at Southend 11.60. Wonder if Hughie Green was one of the “partners?

The Cessna 310 invovled in the Berlin incident was G-AROK. I remember having the aircraft pointed out to me at Kidlington the w/e after its return to Britain.

Planemike………….

Catalinas

Mark….I like the 3rd photo of G-APZA best….the Viking in the background is a problem, though….they were not at all common at Croydon ….and I have to say I still don’t think its Croydon….a win-win solution might be that you saw both Cats…….an enviable thing….(did you visit Southend in 1960?)….I saw N5593V at Croydon summer 1959 according to my spotters logbook but can I remember anything about it?….Nope!! Mick

David….The CAS had a newsletter piece a couple of years ago about N5593V being repaired by a mechanic who worked on it….brakes well seized up etc….did you see it?…Mick

[QUOTE=RPSmith;1236151] Still got to find that “Flying Review” article:o QUOTE]
At last – it’s in Vol. 20 No. 10 (June, 1965) pages 55/56.

Written by C. J. Luxton who was one of the three occupants of Cessna 310 “Oscar Kilo” – HG was pilot, CJL co-pilot (operating the radio) and the third person was Jim Preston a journalist. HG was travelling to do a show for the Services.

They were flying from Stuttgart to Gatow via Frankfurt at 9,500ft cruising at 200mph. Ten minutes after entering the 20 mile wide corridor Berlin radar told them of another aircraft “approaching fast from five o’clock” – a MiG flew past/in front of them. After flying past a second time very fast the Russian pilot extended flaps and undercarraige and made signs for the Cessna to follow and land – which were ignored.

The MiG opened fire although not hitting the Cessna and a Yak-25 joined in flying across their path at supersonic speed making the Cessna rock violently, almost rolling on it’s back and the left engine stopped. The two Russians repeated their manaeovres and the occupants of the Cessna agreed they would have to give in and turned right. However, informed by Berlin that they were only 27 miles away, the Cessna was turned back on course and dived to gain max speed. The MiG returned and started firing again but, fortunately, the Cessna found a little cloud cover and made it to Gatow.

The sequel was that the Russian Commander would not then grant safe passage for the aircraft on it’s flight out of Berlin so the three occupants returned to London by BEA Viscount. Eventually told by the British Embassy in Bonn they could fly it out “at their own risk” they returned to Gatow by Viscount and sneaked out early one morning without using any radio and flying at low level along the shorter corridor to Hanover thence on to London.

Roger Smith.

Mark – I agree that you were not suggesting that the two Catalinas were one and the same aircraft. I was merely adding a tad more detail about N5593V which had most certainly been a Croydon resident in 1959, pre-closure. So, it seems as if, from your recall, G-APZA must have gone to Croydon although the 1959 date does not seem to tally. Fascinating stuff.

Well the Catalina in the above web link (N5593V) is not G-APZA but N5593V was a Croydon resident for a time and is the one now well known for being abandoned in Saudi Arabia after being shot up by horsemen whilst part-way through a world tour. It is still there! During the time it was in Europe it was used in the filming of The Guns of Navarone and it sustained some bow damage which was patched up in the UK. It was one of the last, but not the last, aircraft out of Croydon before closure on 30th September when it departed for Gatwick. But, as I say, this was not G-APZA but it was parked at Croydon in such a way that it was widely photographed. I would love to know if G-APZA really was at Croydon – what I do know (from its FAA file when it was N94574) is that it flew from New Guinea to Holland in September 1959, was not registered as G-APZA until 14/1/1960 and did not get delivered to Southend (from Rotterdam) until 17/2/1960.

G-APZA. I must have imagined that I went to Croydon specifically to photograph it then.:rolleyes:

I wrote – “Another Catalina perhaps, dated 1959”. This means that it is not the same Catalina.

Any comment on the common scenery in the photographs of the two different Catalinas at Croydon?

Mark