Vintage Aircraft Group 1969

They are but I’m not 100% sure of the registrations as I didn’t record them and had to rely on memory,
Cheers,
Jim

Jim I think you will find that they are at the very start of your log that is shown as a PDF file on your other Gaydon post.

The registrations in your log all look OK for aircraft that would have still been flying in 1969 except for the Fox Moth. G-ACCB ditched in the sea off Southport in 1956 although I am sure substantial parts of it are still aound somewhere.
The most likely candidate for the Fox Moth at Gaydon would be G-ACEJ which I think was still owned by the Tiger Club at that time. I am pretty sure the only other Fox Moth flying in the UK at that time was G-AOJH but OJH was quite distinctive as it had a canopy whereas CEJ had an open cockpit.
Perhaps someone else can confirm this or alternatively blow my theory to bits.

Just as a grey cell jogger, here’s an image of G-AOJH. I know that I have several of G-ACEJ but I don’t think that I have scanned those yet.

I knew CEJ quite well for a while as I worked at the Southend Museum during school holidays at the time we had the Tony Haig Thomas Moth Collection housed there. One of my first jobs each morning was to dust the aircraft although I was told to stay away from the airworthy ones so I had to walk past CEJ and all the other Moths. Unfortunately I never got to fly in her as she didn’t move much during the time I spent at the museum.

The registrations in your log all look OK for aircraft that would have still been flying in 1969 except for the Fox Moth. G-ACCB ditched in the sea off Southport in 1956 although I am sure substantial parts of it are still aound somewhere.
The most likely candidate for the Fox Moth at Gaydon would be G-ACEJ which I think was still owned by the Tiger Club at that time. I am pretty sure the only other Fox Moth flying in the UK at that time was G-AOJH but OJH was quite distinctive as it had a canopy whereas CEJ had an open cockpit.
Perhaps someone else can confirm this or alternatively blow my theory to bits.

WJ244, you are quite right in your recollection of the cockpit layout of the two Fox Moths. I was lucky enough to fly in both of them and the attached pictures show the colour schemes they were in at the time.

G-AOJH was first, via a pleasure flight around Blackpool Tower from Squires Gate in October 1966, while CEJ was at the 1971 PFA Rally Sywell with Stan Bosley of the Tiger Club.

Although never knowing the name of the pilot of OJH, I strongly suspect it would have been long-term owner John Lewery. Years later I got to know him quite well, flying with him occasionally in his Piper Caribbean G-AWLI, now owned by the North Hangar Flying Group at Shoreham.

He was a real gentleman, quiet and unassuming and never mentioning his wartime exploits, which included a forced landing in the sea off North Africa in a Wellington and a year as a POW in an Algerian prison and after his release over 100 missions against the Germans – see http://www.aerodrome-gruyere.ch/hommage/Lewery/htm[/url]. Thanks by the way AA for the translation.

Sadly John died last November at the grand age of 89 and as an aside I believe he was closely associated with Norman Giroux of Giro Aviation and the Southport Beach flights. As such he no doubt regularly flew CEJ.

Before he had his own Fox Moth he was also one of the first to have a personalised registration, when he and John Pothecary had Tiger Moths G-APJL and PJP respectively, probably at Christchurch.

Wicked Willip :diablo: