Gary Numan

Actually, about a week ago I saw a blurb on TV about Tom Cruise going to speak with a corp[orate body of folks at Yahoo!.com in southern California, and the part recorded and shown on TV showed him mentioning to the crowd that he’d just flown down in his P-51 to be at this event, and then he asked the crowd if they knew what a P-51 was and explained to them that it was a WWII fighter….from there the show showed a photo of a P-51 (not his) and then they went on about Katie Holmes and her pregnancy…

Mark

On the subject of Gary Numan, I remember him learning to fly at Three Counties Aeroclub Blackbushe. Anyone else remember one of his first ventures “NumanAir” flying PA31 G-NMAN 1981/82? see photo (sorry for poor quality scan and my first attempt at an upload :rolleyes: )

On a celebrity warbird owning tangent – i read in the latest Warbird Digest that Tom Cruise is being checked out in his P-51 at the moment, as Matt puts it – the more celebrities involved in the industry the better….

TT

Anthem to the Sinclair C5

Moggy :p

Which was effectively killed off by the sketch on Spitting Imagae that showed the Artic driver mowing em down & plastering “kills” on the door of his truck 🙂

I had left the keys with Rob Pauldings wife at Biggin as she was pregnant and I said if u need to have a sleep use the car, Rob drove back to DX then I took Gary home and Rob back to mine to pick his car up, the funny thing was my ex wife was pregnant too at the time with my youngest and had banned me from flying that weekend but Gary said he would get me back ok if she started giving birth !

I’m glad that all turned out ok in the end. I take it you got back to Biggin hill somehow to collect your car. 😀

We had managed to gain quite a bit of hight and gary was very confident tthat we could make it to DX, Norman was flying alongside us for a while with Rob Paulding shotgun with Norman, the other problem was my car was at Biggin and we were diverting to DX and I was more worried about getting the car home than the engine failing and we end up in a field.

I thought it was around then, It made me smile when i heard Gary insisting that Norman carried on to go and get some display money rather than fly back to duxford with him.

it was 1992 we had displayed at Swanton Morley and were heading back to Biggin when it developed the power loss.

Yes 92 fis,,, I remeber that very well I was in the back seat at the time !!!! landed at Duxford with fire engine escort.

That was a few years ago now.

Yes 92 fis,,, I remeber that very well I was in the back seat at the time !!!! landed at Duxford with fire engine escort.

I remember one saturday hearing a couple of harvards flying over so i turned on my scanner and listened to them talking to Honington, Gary’s harvard had just developed a problem and he was losing power. Honington said that he could land he if wanted but he insisted he could make it to Duxford, Norman wanted Gary to land as soon as possible but Gary insisted that he carried on towards Duxford and told Norman to carry on as planned to Biggin hill to get some of the display money as they wouldn’t get any if they both didn’t go. In the end that’s what they did and i could just hear Gary talking to Duxford so he made it safely in the end.

I remember reading in his Biography that he was hurt greatly by the loss of many Pilot friends, In particular it mentioned “Hoof” Proudfoot who i believe helped teach Gary Numan to Display fly.
I do miss seeing Gary Numan on the scene, He was very friendly when i met in at a Fighter meet at North Weald many years ago, And had time for people which was very nice to see.

Hoof was a mentor to a lot of pilots, but think Gary’s initial warbird training was in the hands of Dizzie Addicott. A number of HFT members were sadly killed through their love of flying (Peter Snell, Pete Treadaway and Euan English), but we must not forget Norman Lees who was tragically killed in Spitfire PV202, as it was him that formed the Radial Pair with Gary. The loss of these gentlemen was great to a number of people and having been personally involved with them myself through my interest in the Harvard, I too ‘lost’ all enthusiasm in aviation for a year or two. Was it all really worth it, I thought. But then I suppose life has to go on.

Martin

Here’s one from the archives, Fighter Meet 1990 ( I think, t’was a long time ago).

Shame how things change . was a bit of a fan of some of is music in the early 80s. and then to find he was a aviation buff not long after was very fitting,
i met him last at swanton morley about 90-92 ish. at one of the last shows there , his havard was parked in front of us and my then girlfreind now wife got to speak and meet the chap . very nice and very polite to the crowds and was a good pilot being the baddy in the zero he flew, was a good show that year with mr blobby and noel edmonds and other celebs in on the show on the ground,anyone have any photos of that show . i took some but i cannot find any of them . i did suffer a house fire in 97 so may have lost out to that . nothing major just the back bedroom and a dodgey light fitting going up but smole damage was a issue and black dust and water got to a lot of boxes in the loft.

I think he’s now moved to a different part of the country Pete. 🙁

I saw a TV programme recently on which he was talking about the cars he owns / has owned and flying was mentioned alot. He said that he decided to give up display flying after he went to an airshow and realised he didn’t know anyone there, he then stopped to think about all the people who weren’t there and realised most of them were dead.

It’s a shame but you cant blame him especially as he’s not long become a dad for the second time.

I remember reading in his Biography that he was hurt greatly by the loss of many Pilot friends, In particular it mentioned “Hoof” Proudfoot who i believe helped teach Gary Numan to Display fly.
I do miss seeing Gary Numan on the scene, He was very friendly when i met in at a Fighter meet at North Weald many years ago, And had time for people which was very nice to see.

If I have the nerve, the next time I see him in Tesco’s at Dunmow, I’ll ask, as he seems a decent bloke, I still have 3 very dusty albums of his on vynll.

I think he’s now moved to a different part of the country Pete. 🙁

I saw a TV programme recently on which he was talking about the cars he owns / has owned and flying was mentioned alot. He said that he decided to give up display flying after he went to an airshow and realised he didn’t know anyone there, he then stopped to think about all the people who weren’t there and realised most of them were dead.

It’s a shame but you cant blame him especially as he’s not long become a dad for the second time.

not for at least the last 7 years….

My belief is suspended.

Moggy

I believe he’s still a display examiner for the CAA

not for at least the last 7 years….

Care to name any others?

Are Friends Electric? Anthem to the Sinclair C5

Moggy :p