Fokker Triplane Built @ Southend 1979?

jaiyen

Welcome aboard the Southend threads 🙂

I was wondering ……. what ever happened to the Vulcan bomber that came to Southend in 1988 ? Or around that time. I was working on Purdeys Estate and saw it coming in to land but it aborted and went home to get a Parachute, runway was too short. It came back the next day and landed OK. I did once see it in a news shot sitting over by the railway line. I have been in Australia for 22 years so I am am well out of date with local topics.

The one you saw was XH558 the crew made a couple of missed approach and go arounds to prep the crew for the delivery of XL426 the following day.

I guess that is XL426

Nice website here

Richard

I was wondering ……. what ever happened to the Vulcan bomber that came to Southend in 1988 ? Or around that time. I was working on Purdeys Estate and saw it coming in to land but it aborted and went home to get a Parachute, runway was too short. It came back the next day and landed OK. I did once see it in a news shot sitting over by the railway line. I have been in Australia for 22 years so I am am well out of date with local topics.

Harvest Air

I’m sure many remember the Harvest Air DC3`s when they won the Pollution Control contract, but does anyone remember the US registered DC4, that arrived complete with spray bars?

This was just after i left so i guess around 80/81

Hello, ‘real gent’ here!!!
I still have the 50 cal, photos of G-iddy, and others.
Nice that people remember me, and my Dad Roy, who sadly passed away several years ago.
Oh, and am currently living in Swampsville !!!!!

Harvest Air did built a Fokker DVIII for Leisure Sport in 1979/1980 powered by a Warner Scarab engine. It had some bad luck, unfortunately, being turned over on landing during one of its early flights at Southend and then it was written off at White Waltham.

It certainly looked good while it was about.

The bits a bobs languished at Lands End for many years, not sure what happened to it in the end.

I have a picture of that somewhere, I’ll have to look it out.

Harvest Air did built a Fokker DVIII for Leisure Sport in 1979/1980 powered by a Warner Scarab engine. It had some bad luck, unfortunately, being turned over on landing during one of its early flights at Southend and then it was written off at White Waltham.

It certainly looked good while it was about.

The bits a bobs languished at Lands End for many years, not sure what happened to it in the end.

That must have been shortly before Robin had the engine failure in Germany!! He had a Lycoming 0360 in it after that, I flew it with the Lycoming and it went very well! Interesting to see the Crunchie Syearman in the back ground, Robin flew these alot at this time as well.
Thanks for sharing the pic, brings back happy memories.

I wondered if this photo might be of interest to the thread,it was again taken in early 90s at Finningley.:)

A WW1 Bi-plane crashed at North Weald during the 80’s, possibly 90’s, during an airshow practice. Was this a Sky Sport one?

It was a Leasure Sport A/C not Sky Sport. It was a Nieuport Replica that sadly claimed the life of Tony Harold 🙁

Swampsville, Norfolk

Ahem…..

I’ll have you know there’s plenty worse places!

A WW1 Bi-plane crashed at North Weald during the 80’s, possibly 90’s, during an airshow practice. Was this a Sky Sport one?

The Canvey Island B-17 would have been the one which crashed off Canvey Point after a mid air collision with another B-17.

My late father grew up in Benfleet and witnessed this collision as a teenager. He recovered quite a few 0.5″ bullets and these were duly swapped at school etc, though we still have some. His abiding memory was of a flat bed lorry driving out onto the mud and a group of pikeys emerging and making off with the ball turret and sundry other items! Metal theft, even then! 😀

Did Kim,s dad also work for Nigel i think he was called Roy ???
Roy came to work for Routair and used to tell stories about Nigel.

Nigel had a house at Milden with a small airstrip by the side. He apparently landed one of the Daks there.
Another day Nigel was doing some flying around in his Gyrocopter there was a Orchard in the Garden and Nigel went between the tree,s and then hit a tree, apparently they found Nigel a little shaken but the gyro totally destroyed.

Brian Sims is still around local LAA(PFA) inspector.
Morris Jackson built a Rans S7 but sold it on as his health was fading , i think he,s still about.

Also was,nt one of the engineers Peter Hamilton. I saw him working on one of the 748,s at Southend late last year.

trevor s

Mike was indeed Hanger Foreman, sadly he passed away last year, didn’t know Morris myself, but think you may mean Morris Jefferies.

Sorry to hear about Mike Fry. I worked with him at Southend for a number of years 🙁
The guy you allude to is/was Maurice Jackson. He was at Harvest Air together with Brian Sims..

The Canvey Island B-17 would have been the one which crashed off Canvey Point after a mid air collision with another B-17.
The museum at Southend recovered an undercarriage leg and various other parts in the 70’s. I remeber those who went on the dig, which included Stan and David Brett saying that they found a lot of live rounds during the dig.
I believe other parts were recovered at various times by a museum at Tilbury and possibly Blake Hall museum as well.
The mud and sand out there shifts constantly so parts get uncovered and then disappear again. Canvey Point area can be a very dangerous place with strong currents when the tide is in and mud and sand which can be bottomless in places when the tide is out.

Kim Stazaker

sorry AWOL again,
I’m back, Kim was a real gent, we went to ” canvie Island ” one day when the tide was out to dig up bits of a downed B17, on a previous trip Kim found one of a pair of 1/2″ turret guns and brought it to the hanger for cleaning. To his suprise there was a live round in the breech. I have 2 black and white photos of Kim working on the gun. I’d love to connect with him and share some memories.

And now for a short Nigel story,
On a cool day(because the hanger doors were closed) we heard the unmistakable sound of an aircraft taxi-ing up to the doors, I think I was the one to open up and found a revolving spinner about 12″ from my nose, then it shutdown. Nigel emerged from the piper 140 and reached into the back seat where his wife was sitting and pulled out a carrycot, plonked it on the wing and said “well there she is lads,3 days old and already flying.” we all had a good look and congradulated them both.
I never saw his daughter again, hope she’s well.

pete

Bill Gent told me that Southend tower had words with Nigel about his low passes over the museum in Super Chipmunk G-IDDY. Bill reckoned that it was only a matter of time before Nigel took the roof off.
He also told me that Nigel reckoned he could fly through one of the Dartford tunnels provided the fans had been turned off for a while beforehand to let the turbulence tie down. He said that the authorities weren’t exactly enthusiastic about the idea and Nigel had to shelve the plan.
It was very sad that someone who was obviously a very talented pilot and a real character met his end in such a needless way.
I met Kim at Duxford many years ago when I helped measure the Beaufighter bits for Revell – a great bloke who gave us access to anything we wanted and couldn’t have been more helpful.

Just had a thought, was Mike the head of engineering in Harvest Air? with a guy called Morris a director I think.
I’m starting to ramble now and could go on for hours, alot of memories flooding in.
Oh and yes I have alot of Nigel stories.

Mike was indeed Hanger Foreman, sadly he passed away last year, didn’t know Morris myself, but think you may mean Morris Jefferies.

And just a brief Nigel story,

Not sure which Leisure Sport A/C it was, but some had simulated Machine guns fitted that sounded like the real thing, and operated on some sort of gas.

Those that know Southend will know that when on short finals for 06, there’s a main road passes right on the threshold ( Eastwoodbury Lane), all I need to say is it was an early morning test flight, Nigel on short Finals, and a Unigate Milk Float passing from left to right…….Naturally he dived and hit the fire button.

I`m not sure if the milkman ever did recover 🙂

You couldn’t do that these days 🙁