North Weald Diary 2019

Oooh, we have a photo thread back, there is hope!

A Puma helicopter – XW224 – from 230 Squadron at RAF Benson and two Chinooks – ZK559 and ZK560– from 7 Squadron at RAF Odiham came in for a brief visit on Sunday 13 October to drop off some passengers after performing a flypast over Tottenham.

The movements had been briefed to us a couple of days before and we were lucky that the disused part of Runway 12/30 was available for them to land on because they needed a fair bit of separation for the effects of rotor downwash.

Just around the corner, the Navy Sea Fury T20 was doing an engine run …

… and then the  Wasp  XT435/G-RIMM was off on an air test

Later in the afternoon Jet Provost XN637/G-BKOU also went out for a local flight

Lt Col Francisco ‘Pancho’ Ramirez last saw his UH-1 Huey helicopter at Port Stanley in 1982. On Thursday he was flying in it again at North Weald….

Back in March we were contacted by former Royal Navy Sea King pilot Bill Fewtrell with an enquiry about who operated the UH-1 Huey helicopter, G-HUEY, which is based at the Airfield’s Hangar 4a and had originally served with the Argentinian Army. We were able to put him in touch with the owner, Mark Fitzgerald.

Bill had flown Sea Kings in the South Atlantic with 846 Squadron in 1982, serving initially on HMS Hermes and the roll-on-roll-off ferry Norland, which carried 800 men of 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment and men of 848 Naval Air Squadron to San Carlos on 21 May.

Bill also ‘flew shotgun’ with Royal Marine liaison officer Col Peter Reynolds on many missions. In 2004 Peter was the British Defence Attaché in Buenos Aires and had met ‘Pancho’ Ramirez there and they had become firm friends.

It turned out that Pancho had flown G-HUEY with the 601 Combat Aviation Battalion in Port Stanley. He later expressed an interest in seeing the helicopter again when he visited England. And this is why we received the original query.

The trip finally came to fruition on Thursday 10 October when Pancho along with his wife and daughter (who had flown in from Texas) visited the Airfield. Peter, Bill and their families came along too. Mark Fitzgerald later took Pancho and his wife for a short flight in the helicopter.

We were delighted to welcome these veterans to North Weald for a reunion in happier circumstances and for Pancho to be able to fly in ‘his’ helicopter for one more time!

What was wrong with the old forum, it worked really well, this is not user friendly and many of the links do not work. Why are all the pictures squashed up?

For Saturday I think it was 21 ex-military and historic types (including based aircraft), plus the Puma and some GA visitors. I had a list of around 20 historic types due in on Saturday morning with around 8 cancellations first thing. These were Chipmunks, Moth, Harvard, Auster, Cubs, Gazelle and Scout. 8 aircraft came in, including 6 GA.

What was the finally tally of static aircraft at this event ?

Jet Provost T3A XM424,G-BWDS went off on a local flight and returned to do soe circuits. After refuelling it went back to its base at Yeovilton.

The red and White Gnat G-RORI also went off for a local flight, doing some missed approches on return.

A couple of Bulldogs also made it in for the event.

The weather knocked out a lot of aircraft due to fly in for Jet Fest. The 230 Squadron Puma, XW224 / Vortex 240, did make it in from Benson for the day.

The Huey did a couple of flights as well.

very evocative night shots, have a great weekend

In the evening Timeline Events had a night shoot

Friday arrivals for Jet Fest included the Catalina from Duxford and various Strikemasters and Jet Provosts. The last one in had to dodge a downpour!

Great pics

Great updates,Always look forward to them,Thank you.

The all-red Chipmunk which Prince Charles learned to fly in – WP903/G-BCGC – visited North Weald today from RAF Henlow

Spitfire Tr9– NH341/G-CICK – arrived this afternoon from Duxford, then went out on a local flight down to Dover and back later on

On Sunday afternoon the C-47 returned from Eindhoven, dodging the showers

The Spitfire PRXI came back from the show at Duxford

The Navy Sea Fury also came in from Duxford for some routine maintenance

A spiffing update YR

Drag-Em-Oot went of to Goodwood for the Revival weekend last Thursday

It returned on Monday

After a quick turn-around it went off to Eindhoven for the Arnhem commemorations

The latest issue of the Airfield newsletter is also now available, which also features the C-47

On Saturday we had a very busy day of 288 movements, and a morning on the radio in the Tower was hard work. August was a record month, with more than 5,000 movements for the first time – a total of 5,131. The Spitfire was out for a short local during the afternoon along with the Jet Provost, G-BKOU, which had been to Duxford for circuits as we have a daily cap at North Weald for noise abatement.

And finally, Bank Holiday Monday I was back over as PT had mentioned he had a flight in the Mustang. Absolute pleasure to help him get the aircraft back in the hangar once he returned.