Your favorite moment in historic aviation…

I can’t say I have one particular moment or memory that I could call extra special. However I would say that everytime I found another piece of the jigsaw or another person connected to some particular piece of research that I am doing, that gives me a buzz.

Schooldays to Spitfire

In 1985/6, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire, Gordon Mitchell wrote and commissioned a book about his father the legendary RJ Mitchell. He invited eighteen contemporaries of his father to contribute a piece or a chapter relating to RJ or his engineering masterpiece. There were names here to conjure with – Quill, Henshaw, Deere, Tuck, Johnson, Duncan-Smith, Snaith & Lettice Curtis on the flying side, Davis, Clifton and Mainsbridge on the technical side, Sirs Humphrey Edward-Jones & George Edwards on the managerial side, a sprinkling of others all topped off with a foreword by Lord Balfour of Inchrye, former Under secretary for air in 1938, who had given the Spitfire the political shove and even flew an early production model. These were my heroes all.

I was invited, and indeed honoured, to write the last chapter on the current, as then, Spitfire scene and population.

The book was to be launched at the RAF club and about 60% of the contributers managed to attend the event. I was able to acquire, ahead of the official release, one of the leather case bound limited editions on which I duly ruled up one blank page into 20 boxes hoping to get as many signatures as I could.

Well my special moment came when my all time hero – ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, asked me to sign his copy of the book. I was on a high for a week.

It took some time but eventually I managed to get all of the other boxes filled with the missing signatures except one. Group Captain Leonard Snaith, of the 1930 RAF High Speed Flight and Schneider trophy team, unfortunately passed way before publication and is chapter was headed ‘by the late etc’. In due course his son managed to find his signature on a pristine ‘bus pass’ which he gave to me and I duly mounted in the book.

The book is my most prized aviation artifact.

Mark

When I was about 9 or 10 seeing A-4 Skyhawks at a local air show in New Zealand. Then, at the Imperial War Museum in Canberra, seeing a real Lancaster and a Spitfire up close for the first time, and I think a WW1 biplane, possibly a Camel I think. More recently in South Korea, at the big War Museum in Seoul, seeing a real B-52D parked outside the main building on a very beautiful day! Now that was good! 🙂

Flying with the Red Arrows, going over the top of a loop with smoke from the rest of the team going past the canopy -18th May 1988!

Don’t think I can pick just one, a few that spring to mind include……..

The spontaneous round of applause that greeted the shutdown of Black-6 after that first public display at Duxford.

Getting to clamber over PA474 at RAF Northolt Families day in Sept 1980.

Seeing Yeager and Anderson waving to the crowd as they taxiied down the crowd line in Glamorus Glenn and Old Crow before their display at the USAF 50th Airshow at Nellis AFB.

I’m sure I’ll think of others……… :rolleyes:

..my first spitfire scramble at Legends 98′

…24hrs to go…
Flo

All those “your favourite…” are difficult. So many things to choose from.
But I think this was summer 1995. We managed to bring a real flying Spitfire to an air show in Poland, the first time ever. When F/Lt Stanislaw Bochniak DFC (then about 80) entered the cockpit he was the first (ex-) Polish Air Force pilot to sit in an airworthy Spitfire on free Polish soil.
Exactly 50 years later than all other Allied nations…

My favorite moment is difficult to pin down, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience some fantastic moments in aviation. The temptation to pick my first Mustang flight is very strong, but maybe a little predictable. My first trip in the Stearman was great as well and another ambition realised.
I would say that my favorite moment must be meeting a gentleman who has over the years become a good friend and has enabled through his incredible generosity many of these things to happen. Cheers M.

Sitting in the LHS of a seneca being used as a photoship for the old RR Mossie HTE as a preview for an airshow at Humberside airport yonks ago.
Yum Yum.!
Oh to see the old gal again!

After watching the planes display,seeing them all land safely and the pilots safe and enjoying themselves.
For flying stuff watching the B17’s and the fighters flying over Duxford during the filming of Memphis Belle,no crowds,no noise ,well just the engines as they throbbed overhead,the birds singing and the wind rustling the crops in the fields,lovely. 😀

Much as I love old aeroplanes – and I do, for me Dan has struck the right chord. It is meeting the people who flew these machines in anger that have given me the warmest glow. For example, at a recent Aces High gallery signing, the line-up comprised no fewer than three Fw.190 pilots who had all flown on the same unit on the Russian Front – quite amazing guys, and so matter-of-fact about their experiences.

In that regard, I am hoping that two of my favourite moments are yet to come, since next week I am taking a Halifax crewman over to Germany to meet the night-fighter ace who shot him down in 1945, and next month I am having a lengthy meeting with Gunther Rall, the third highest scoring fighter ace of all time.

favorite historic aviation event.

Balbo!

The wonderful Mrs Growler treated me to a flight in an ex-RAAF Tiger Moth for my birthday this year. A sensational half hour – I keep meaning to get round to posting the photos….

I got a ride in a T-6 Texan once. But the COD ride to the USS Ranger, a landing and then a Non-catapult takeoff the next day are the highlight of my aviation lifetime. Even better than the tour of the inside of a B-52 and the ride in a KC-135 during refueling operations.

Scott

41 Squadron Reunion RAF Coltishall, July 1985.

Being able to meet all those former Spit pilots and get in the B of B Spit II in 41 Squadron markings, as well as being a part of all the reunion events with the former 41 Squadron members is a time I’ll never forget.

A very close second was helping the brother of a MIA B24 co-pilot get a marker placed and have a memorial service at the Fort Snelling National Cemetary here in the Twin Cities in the mid 90s. Tracking the story and helping him find closure with the loss of his brother was a wonderful feeling. Being considered ‘part of the crew’ by the surviving crew members was also very meaningful to me.

Dan

Spending some of my 17th birthday in the cockpit of the mummy of all the bombers, in it’s pre-perch days.

I won a Breitling Fighters bag full of shirts, posters and patches.

Joining OFMC’s Tiger Squadron. At the 1st convention my name was 1st out of the hat for a flight in their P-51.

Jammy Git! 😉 😀

I was gutted when I didn’t win anything last year (my first OFMC convention). I really wanted one of those enamel Breitling Fighters signs – as seen on the OFMC building. :rolleyes:

Joining OFMC’s Tiger Squadron. At the 1st convention my name was 1st out of the hat for a flight in their P-51.

I am quite new to all this…..

Two years ago I went along to Legends on the Sunday, mainly because I didn’t have anything better to do. I had been to a couple of Duxford shows before, but didn’t really know that Legends was any different to the others.

So, my favourite memory is of being totally amazed and awestruck at what I saw before me on that Sunday.

Two years later I am completely lost to aeroplanes, checking here every 5 mins in case anything has happened and spending almost every weekend this summer at an airshow somewhere!! :rolleyes: