Chipmunk WG272 – C1/0336

Interested to see this ex Kenyan Chippie made it over to the States.

Now to introduce some thread drift………sorry! Twelve Chippies were registered in Kenya VP-KLM – KLY inclusive. Does anyone have photos of VP-KLN, KLT, KLU or KLV? These were respectively WG356, WG312, WG276 & WG285.

Any help in locating images of these Kenyan registered Chippies would be most welcome………. Thanks.

Planemike

N4TG, 08/21/1984 – 07/23/1998

FAA register:
Cancel Date: 07/23/1998
Reason for Cancellation: Destroyed
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=4TG&cmndfind.x=19&cmndfind.y=11
(scroll down)

Martin

Odd that I cannot trace an accident report for this ‘happening’?:confused:

If the owner, B.W. Skinner was the pilot, he does not appear to have a current pilot’s licence.

Hi all

A good friend of mine did his ab initio RAF pilot training in Rhodesia in the early 1950s and his first solo was in the above Chipmunk. It was subsequently sold to the civilian market and went to the States as N4TG.

I understand it may still be flying in the US but under a different registration, any information on its current status would be much appreciated as my friend has great interest in the aircraft.

Just been browsing this forum and came across this mention of Chipmunk WG272.

I was stationed at RAF Thornhill (5 FTS) S. Rhodesia arriving there in August 1951. When I arrived Tiger Moths were used for primary training, but starting in September 1951 Chipmunk T.10s started to replace the Tiger Moths at 5 FTS.

5 FTS was allocated 27 Chipmunk T.10s. Built at Hawarden near Chester, they were crated and shipped out to Durban in South Africa and transferred to rail trucks for the journey to 394 MU at RAF Heany near Bulawayo where they were assembled, flight tested and then flown up to Thornhill.

WG272 was the first Chipmunk to arrive at RAF Thornhill and I photographed it shortly after its arrival in September 1951.

When the Rhodesian Air Training Group closed in October 1953 flying clubs in South Africa and Australia realised that the many surplus RAF Chipmunks now on offer were an economic alternative to the purchase of new aircraft.
Eleven used Chipmunks were imported into Australia via South Africa. They proved so popular that when the RAF released further aircraft in 1956, W.S. Shackleton Ltd were appointed to purchase Chipmunks on behalf of the Federation of Australian Aero Clubs. In total some 80 ex-RAF Chipmunks were exported to Australia.

Hi Lion Rock,
just got this tiny pic and info.
‘I photographed this Chipmunk, N4TG, at Florida’s Tamiami Airport in February 1984 – apart from sporting a modified engine, what stopped me in my tracks were visible traces of its former identity – 5Y-KLS: the very aeroplane on which my father learned to fly at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport in 1970. Later he took a very small P2 flying in it occasionally (no doubt bolstered by many seat cushions!). It started life with the RAF, perhaps based in East Africa and “disposed of” locally in the late 1950s; a batch of RAF Chipmunks joined the pre-independence Kenyan civil register in the VP-KL* batch. N4TG is now a Beech T-34 and the Chippie’s whereabouts unknown.’
Julian Treadwell

Martin

Chipmunk T10 C1/0336
WG272, d/d 27/04/1951 – sold 29/10/1953
VP-KLS, until 1963, Kenya
5Y-KLS, rereg 1963, Kenya
N4TG, 08/21/1984 – 07/23/1998

FAA register:
Cancel Date: 07/23/1998
Reason for Cancellation: Destroyed
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=4TG&cmndfind.x=19&cmndfind.y=11
(scroll down)

Martin