Eon Olympia VV400 BGA No 1697

WB920 has recently moved on to a new oner, at Teuge. It is currently not airworthy, but in good condition.

The Grunau Baby 11b LN+ST (BGA2400) was later part of the Russavia collection. I think this was built in Denmark, then captured by the Germans, then by the British. I believe it is know back in Denmark being restored.

Dave

I did a couple of dual sorties of 20/25 min. in WB920,Upavon `68, on the course,and then let loose for a 10 min solo in VV400,followed by 1h20m soaring along the `ridge`. Looking at the `Barge `pics from `69` I can`t remember if it was painted that `yucky` colour,looks like it was repainted
that year,as I have a pic of it at F`Boro when it was in silver /dayglo stripes.
T21- it now resides in Woensdrecht coded `FFG`.
I also flew `Sky `59` XA876,but forgot to log the time.!.
Did towing in Chippies WD 321(3) and WB549(7) during May to July..
An excellent way to `relax` a bit at weekends/summer evenings from writing reports,and analysing tapes…
I don`t think there are many aircraft that can claim to have flown with so many `itinerant`,and staff TPs ,even future Astronauts,so you have a fair `piloting provenance` for it`s restoration,and I wish you all the best..
ETPS also had a Grunau Baby in `46,coded LN:ST?, and apparently a KA6OR,XW640 from `69-75`….
My info comes from the book ,`Learn to Test,Test to Learn“, the ETPS motto,published in `91`,so I can`t say if the info is valid after that..

Off thread but very interesting the T-21 Sedbergh WB920 in camouflage finish not seen that before. Thanks BAZV.

Is it camo or just overall green ?
Yes I had not seen that colour scheme before either,will try to find some more info about BD gliders.
I believe they had a Kranich here at some point too (but perhaps not etps)

cheers baz

Good luck with the restoration. If you need a skid, there’s a guy on segelflug.de in Germany selling a bunch of Olympia skids for 40 euro’s each.

Off thread but very interesting the T-21 Sedbergh WB920 in camouflage finish not seen that before. Thanks BAZV.

Good news to hear the pending restoration (welcome to the Forum)

Would be great if you could occasionally revisit this thread with updates on progress.

Roger Smith.

All the best with the restoration Alan,I will try and remember to ask if etps have a photo archive for their old gliders,but remind me in a couple of weeks if you hear nothing !
rgds baz

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my original message. The glider is in a rather sorry state but is restorable and is in my workshop. The documentation for this glider has been found which is brilliant, considering it has not flown for 26 years. Hopefully in a couple of years it will return to its former glory.
regards
Alan

Congratulations to Alan for saving VV400!

Put VV400 into the search function in “Navigator”

http://navigator.rafmuseum.org/search.do

Robert

Try searching the RAF Museum site as Robert suggests, but just put in EON GLIDERS and you get some more of VV400 taken at the Lasham Nationals of 1955.
Richard

Seems fairly certain that VV401 crashed at Farnborough 1952

EoN/O/029 BGA 559 VV401

Crashed, Farnborough 23.3.52

Firstly good news to see this Olympia survive. Next a ‘fess up regarding the entry on UKSerials, checking my own BGA list what is currently on the site is incorrect. Our one time ‘glider guy’ left the updater team some 2 years ago and its an area which we are still getting to grips with in terms of correcting/updating.
Thanks for the observations and I’ll be ammending once I’ve done some more research of my own.:)

EDIT – I have now updated both VV400 and VV401 to more accurately reflect reality, and if ‘AJP’ wishes to divulge VV400’s present whereabouts I would be most interested!

ETPS still give the students a taste of gliding at Upavon,if I get time next week I will try and find out if they have any archived Glider pics,if I forget – please remind me LOL

Congratulations to Alan for saving VV400!

I think that the picture from Janes is part of the Cyril Peckham archive, which is now held by the RAF Museum, and was actually taken by Charles M Brown at Lasham. Here is another one. It is possible to see some other pictures taken at the same time:

Put VV400 into the search function in “Navigator”

http://navigator.rafmuseum.org/search.do

Robert

In Jane’s World Sailplanes and Motor Gliders by Andrew Coates (1978; Macdonalds and Jane’s Publishers. London) there is a nice photo of VV400 with number “60” under the wing and (presumably) on the tail. There is also “Empire Test Pilots School” on the nose. Photo credit is to Cyril Peckham. I hope it is OK for me to copy it and paste it below.

Laurence

The UK Serials site says:

“EoN/0/029 VV401 EoN Olympia I to BGA1697/BTQ”

It looks as though someone has confused this aircraft with EoN 463 serial no. EoN/S/029, which is BGA 1225/BTQ.

VV400 became BGA 1697/CPK. . .

http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VV

Says VV400 was w/o in 1952. VV401 is BGA.1697. However several other internet sources contradict. I’m sure the new owners will be able to sort out which is which…

If you scroll down this picasa page…some views of etps by an american ex stude at etps

One pic (olympia) clearly marked VV400…but they possibly had 2 Olys (400 +401)

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=16&ved=0CDoQFjAFOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fcaptaindi%2FFromCD4708NumberTwo&ei=oZLfTKOPFILOhAeXtP2eDQ&usg=AFQjCNGFA3-nw22Bn3g0BAzqGHMYjOIRKg

VV401 was the military serial alloted to the a/c…if you look to the right of the link column it does mention the civilian BGA number as well !

rgds baz

edit…disregard that …sorry didnt see the discrepancy with the serial numbers…should not post before being fully awake LOL

This glider which started life at the Empire Test Pilots School in 1947 has been saved and is about to undergo restoration. If anyone has any photographs or information on this glider I would appreciate it.
regards
Alan

Welcome to the forum, Alan!

Here it was VV401
http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VV
and here VV400
http://rcawsey.co.uk/Olympia.htm
:confused: