Chipmunks in UK

Indeed, Sir Charles Masefield is the son of Sir Peter Masefield, and whilst Sir Peter is no longer with us his son Sir Charles most certainly is. Incidentally Sir Peters autoboiography is a very good read.

http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/m/19155/Charles+MASEFIELD.aspx

http://www.amazon.co.uk/books/dp/1840372834

Yes I used to fly this plane at Norwich Airport if you want a photo of it let me know
A man called peter Mallender used to own it then
email me at [email]parafinburner@gmail.com[/email]
Colin Ogilvie

The flight manual states that if you change the canopy to Canadian part number then you have to change the front screen as well as this provides the crash pylon. The Canadian POH states that the canopy must be open for take-off and landing but the UK one does not.

Bristol Plastics ‘blew’ the canopies for the ‘ Masefiled’ conversions but they may well have fitted them to the existing front screen which is what other conversions such as that of Darryl Gilbert in Canada have done.

For the record the conversions were:- GAOTM Sir Peter Mssefield
G-APOY Airways Aero Club
G-AOST Proven of Scotland
G-ARFW Hon Miss Felicity Willis
‘RFW was in fact the ex DH demonstrator G-AJVD – it crashed 13 miles East of
Cherbourg due to engine failure June 20th.1966

The Royal Flight Chipmunk WP 903 for Prince Charles also received attention
at Bristol in March 1961 when they added the canopy beacon a photo of which is attached

Best

Chipmunkflyer

Rod, slightly of topic but have you checked out this site and forum yet?

http://www.caledonianchipmunks.co.uk/history1.html

🙂

Is Sir Peter Masefield related to Charles Masefield who raced the P-51D N6356T in the 1960’s? Are any of these gentlemen still alive?

T J

chipmunkflyer

The flight manual states that if you change the canopy to Canadian part number then you have to change the front screen as well as this provides the crash pylon. The Canadian POH states that the canopy must be open for take-off and landing but the UK one does not.

Bristol Plastics ‘blew’ the canopies for the ‘ Masefiled’ conversions but they may well have fitted them to the existing front screen which is what other conversions such as that of Darryl Gilbert in Canada have done.

For the record the conversions were:- GAOTM Sir Peter Mssefield
G-APOY Airways Aero Club
G-AOST Proven of Scotland
G-ARFW Hon Miss Felicity Willis
‘RFW was in fact the ex DH demonstrator G-AJVD – it crashed 13 miles East of
Cherbourg due to engine failure June 20th.1966

The Royal Flight Chipmunk WP 903 for Prince Charles also received attention
at Bristol in March 1961 when they added the canopy beacon a photo of which is attached

Best

Chipmunkflyer

Mike – your memory does serve you well

G-AOST was modified to Masefield spec in 1959 whilst owned at Renfrew by
Proven of Scotland Street Ltd and was based at Kidlington in June 1961 when owned by Oxford Aviation Co Ltd and later British Executive Aviation Services.

It was sold to Speke and reverted to a standard spec with a change of canopy and front screen and later served with Norwich School of Flying.
Sold to the USA as N 2790 and is presently N 101JF based in Delaware.

I attach a photo showing the two flash tail scheme which it arrived with at Kidlington which later changed to the white/dark blue one applied by BEAS.

Best

Chipmunkflyer

Thanks for posting that pic, brought back some memories for me. LOnger ago than I thought but , upon forther consideration, it could not have been early ’70s as I was in Germany then.

Shame there are none in this country with the bubble canopy any longer, I think they look quite smart. Having said that I have such a soft spot for the Chipmunk that I think there are too few about regardless of which canopy they are fitted with.

I believe there may have been an issue with the CAA over the canopy which would have prevented the aircraft from doing aerobatics, as this type of canopy was never certified in the UK

chipmunk G-AOST

Mike – your memory does serve you well

G-AOST was modified to Masefield spec in 1959 whilst owned at Renfrew by
Proven of Scotland Street Ltd and was based at Kidlington in June 1961 when owned by Oxford Aviation Co Ltd and later British Executive Aviation Services.

It was sold to Speke and reverted to a standard spec with a change of canopy and front screen and later served with Norwich School of Flying.
Sold to the USA as N 2790 and is presently N 101JF based in Delaware.

I attach a photo showing the two flash tail scheme which it arrived with at Kidlington which later changed to the white/dark blue one applied by BEAS.

Best

Chipmunkflyer

Yep, you are probably right. Like I said the brain aint what it used to be ( if it ever was anything)

Mike – I would love to be proved wrong but I think you will find that it’s on of the RAF GSA machines that was fitted with a bubble canopy for a while. The machine that springs to mind is G-ATVF – she lost her bubble which was a modified glider canopy when she was converted to Lycoming power. I am sure if there is a picture of a Canadian Chipmunk with canopy at Old Warden someone will come up with the goods.

You may well be wrong there as I vaguely remember seeing one in Canadian markings with the bubble canopy a few years ago(quite a few,like early 70’s) IIRC it was a visitor at one of the OW shows I attended, even had the long Canadian pattern exhaust too.

There hasn’t been a Canadian bubble canopied Chipmunk in the U.K in RCAF markings ever if my memory serves me right. Certainly there are two in RCAF colours (G-BNZC and G-TRIC) which operate in the U.K but both are British built and retain their ‘greenhouse’ type canopies.

Pretty – I want one please

This was taken by a friend of mine at the Niagra Falls Airshow (Canada) last weekend (4/5 June).

Could this be the same Chippy posted by geedee? Is it the one being sought?

😎

I think I have pics of one ,teardrop,yellow Canadian markings taken at Duxford late 80s early 90s ,not on comp so must not have them scanned yet ,I will look them up over next couple of days.

Wouldnt be this one by any chance would it ?.

Found this babe lurking in the fields at Oshkosh last year. One of two Chippies…the other was in RAF training colours if I remember correctly…

Shame there are none in this country with the bubble canopy any longer, I think they look quite smart. Having said that I have such a soft spot for the Chipmunk that I think there are too few about regardless of which canopy they are fitted with.

I was thinking of the Airways Club, and AOTP not G-AOTM.

Anyway. The Airways livery was a dark blue fin with two parallel white stripes running horizontally across the fin and rudder and a small civil air standard on the upper part of the fin. The fuselage was either silver with a dark blue cheat line or white on the upper part with a double cheat line, one comig back from the anti dazzle panel and getting thinner towards the tail, and the other from lower edge of the spinner and also thinning rearwards.

The Air Britain publication on the Chipmunk has another similar shot of G-AOTM/WP988, describing it as a Masefield conversion. Last identity for it noted is N122DH in Georgia, USA

You wouldn’t, by any chance, know what the colour schemes were? If my memory serves me correctly the one I’m referring to was overall silver with Oxford (or similar shade) blue trim stripes and registration.

I *think* G-AOTM was a Surrey Flying Club machine, based at Croydon. The SFC colour scheme in the 50s was indeed silver (nat metal) overall with a dark blue cheat line and fin.

I will have to check later on this evening.

Thanks again guys. Your assistance is much appreciated.

I belive G-APOY was owned by Bob Mitchell and was converted to be flown solo from the rear cockpit. Dont know what became of her?

G-APOY was sold to Norway, and I saw the dismantled a/c in a barn back in 1986-87. The owner moved a little later and the plane is still stored as far as I know. I will try to check out the current situation of the plane! I was given this photo of G-APOY from Duxman on an earlier tread!

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=77714 T J