Avro C.19 Anson D-IDEK (G-AGWA)

The terms ‘nose’, ‘cockpit’ and ‘forward fuselage’ are frequently used interchangeably to describe the same section of an aircraft.  One person’s reference to a cockpit, could well be another’s nose section.  Also photos of aircraft on private property, do tend to be much rarer than aircraft at an airfield location. 

I have Don Stephens’s, the compiler of W&R I & II (1961 & 1963) b&w photo print collection.  Probably too early for information on D-IDEK’s survival to have spread north to Merseyside, even so I’ve checked and no photo there.  It would have been Ken Ellis who noted the demise of the cockpit/nose section of the Avro C.19 in the 8th edition (1982).

Thank you, viscount. I suspect that what was left, in 1978 and possibly in 1980, was more than just a ‘nose’. After all, putting a full set of instruments into a ‘nose’ would be a strange thing to do! Perhaps what survived, until the scrappy took it away, was the cockpit section of D-IDEK.

Returning to my original question, what I find strange is that D-IDEK could have been at the school for twenty years but either no photographs of it were taken or these haven’t found their way into the public domain.

I think that is the news we were all secretly dreading, as if being reduced to just a nose was not indignity enough…

To pick up on a request a few back:

Wrecks & Relics 7th Ed (March 1980) simply records the continued existence of Anson C.19 D-IDEK and Widgeon 5N-ABW.

Wrecks & Relics 8th ed (April 1982) provides the information: “Sadly the nose of Avro Anson C.19 D-IDEK (ex Shoreham) was broken up for scrap in 1979. Replacing it that year was a Whirlwind 3 VR-BEP ex Bristows, Redhill.

”Great photos Dave, for information sake re D-IDEK Anson, it was at Warden Park School Cuckfield not Wealdon. I was a pupil and you can imagine my surprise when on my first day back in Sept 1971 I found the Anson frame and
5N-ABW Widgeon Bristows parked behind the School gym. The Widgeon moved on to the Museum at Weston Super Mare in 1996. Thanks again for the LGW photo’s how about the 70’s.”

https://aviationforall.proboards.com/thread/13866/gatwick-1960s      see post June 14th 2020.

Both the Whirlwind and the Widgeon were disposed of in 1986. 

Perhaps the facility had to close for some reason, and the aeronautical items were re-homed then? 

https://www.cuckfieldconnections.org.uk/post/1986-museum-lands-rare-hel…

Thank you, both of you.

Yes, Prop Strike, D-IDEK is mentioned in W&R from the third to the sixth editions. I do not have the seventh and eighth editions, but there is no mention of it in the ninth edition. If someone out there has the seventh and eighth editions, perhaps they’d be so kind to see if they contain any reference to D-IDEK at Cuckfield.

The mention of D-IDEK in the sixth edition of W&R does not suggest that the airframe was about to shuffle off this mortal coil. It says:

‘At Warden Park School under the eye of Mr M.A.Langley an aeronautics course is taught to CSE level. The school has built its own ‘hangar’ to house this department and it can only be said to be flourishing. Widgeon 5N-ABW (ex Shoreham) has been painstakingly restored and is capable of being ground run. The nose of Anson 19 D-IDEK (ex Shoreham) is being restored with a full set of instruments. As with many locations in this work, the school must be visited only with prior permission.’

By the ninth edition of W&R 5N-ABW was still at the school and had been joined by Whirlwind VR-BEP. Both helicopters had originated from Bristow Helicopters.

I’m afraid that I’m facebook averse, buster_the_bear, so I can’t do as you suggest.

I’d search for a Facebook group of the school and Cuckfield, then post a request. So many images are shared on Facebook that Google fails to find.

My Wrecks and Relics are in deep storage, but I think it got a mention, don’t know about photo, I am afraid.

You have those, perhaps?