1954 Tiger Moth crash Wimbledon Common

Hi everyone,

A while back I uploaded some of late Dads vast collection onto the net, one of the photos he had was of a Tiger Moth that crash landed onto Wimbledon Common in 1954,
Link is below to the photo ( hope its ok to post that).
A couple of weeks ago I got an email from one of the guys that was in that Tiger Moth when it crashed !
With the permission of Bill Fagence, below is the text of the email he sent to me describing the events of that day back in 1954, hope its of interest,
Mike

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled/De-Havilland-DH-82A-Tiger-Moth-II/1090190

At that time I was working at RAF Booker, just outside of High Wycombe in Berkshire, For a company called Airworks. Their job was to maintain aircraft for a university air squadron. I was responsible for the aircraft instruments. One of the men working there was Bill Sipple who, apart from being a good friend, also held a pilots licence.
We were told that Tiger Moths were being sold for low prices up in Wolverhampton. There were a couple of reasons for this, the number available together with the cost and facilities required to obtain air worthiness certificate, maintenance and a place to keep it. This was going to be no problem for us• So we decided to hire one for the day from Croydon Airport on that Saturday.
Bill did a check flight on G-LOX and left it be fuelled for the flight. The TM is very basic on instruments, things kept to a minimum. No radio, cockpit communication by Gospor tubes -rubber tubes between mouthpiece and helmet, and no proper fuel gauge. Only something that look like a bubble level stuck on its end and mounted on the top wing, over the head of the front seat. The pilot always flew from the rear. Fuel was calculated for flying time, plus an allowance for safety reasons and supplied by weight.
We took of and got to Wolverhampton with no problems. Remember, no GPS or Radio Compass then, only magnetic compass, folding map and Mk1 eyeball. Unfortunately for us, the sellers had decided to finish for the day, so we’re off home. Still nice day clear sky light winds, all fun! After getting a weather report from the staff at the ‘drome we took off.
As the one navigating It was important for me to use sight to pick out land marks that would give us ‘way points’ at which to alter course. Flying over London and the airport were, and are, definite no no’s, so there is an exclusion area, which no direct flight from A to B. This is always calculated in the flight time. When we were nearing our fist point, I saw that the things that should be on the horizon weren’t – like certain towns.
I asked Bill to make a 90 degree left turn in order to make a search. A couple of minutes later we were over a town which had a large building with the words Huntley & Palmers painted on the roof. We concluded that this was Reading, so we weren’t too far from White Waltham ‘drome. So I plotted best guessed) a course to land there and get a more reliable weather situation. We did this and told after being told that the weather report we’d been given was 8 hours out of date, and being provided with an up to date one. We went on our merry way.
All went well until, flying over Wimbledon Common, the engine started to pop and spit; the well known sound of an engine running short of fuel. As we over a nice flat field, which was empty, we thought ‘no problem’ and we started to descend. It was at this point that the world and his wife decided that it was a good idea to all come into the field and stand in our path, pointing at us saying ‘look, do you think they have a problem’.
As there was no way we could land there, we tried to go round and find another place before they got there. Unfortunately, as we turned in over a golf course the engine cut out. By this time the we had lost all flying speed, which meant no control. It was a matter of all switches off and brace for the bump.
We hit the ground just as the ‘plane veered to the right. The wing hit first (got bent), the wheels hit (broke off) and as we flipped over the prop touched (went off into the blue just missing me).
I’ve been told that a good landing is one you can walk away from. This was definitely a good one.