Simons Sircus

DISPLAY VIDEO

As Roly Beaumont said, each crew was given a copy of the BBC coverage of the Farnborough Show. It was obtained by dubious means from the BBC archive. Although it shows the whole of the formation display (about 10 minutes) it does not show the best part of the Navy’s display which came first and involved a (simulated) rocket attack by the Vixens and then a bombing rin by the Buccaneers followed by a helicopter assault by the Royal Marines, all accompanied by fashes and bangs worthy of Spielburg. It would not be allowed in todays safety first world. It is too long to put on the web as I only have a slow dial up connection but I could send a DVD perhaps.

Not Simon’s Sircus, but here is the Fred’s Five brochure from 1962:

Re the question “Who was Fred?”. According to the brochure:

About Fred

Otherwise known as Lieutenant-Commander Peter Reynolds, he is the leader of the team

Lots more photos of 899NAS Vixens at my site, here😀

The formations do appear on my double cassete ‘Farnborough the Glory Glory Years the 1960s’ by DD, however I think there maybe to different lengths of that video. Also although I’m 90% sure its Simons Sircus there is the remote chance it might be Freds Five!

It would be interesting to know if other footage exists, such as routines and air to air etc.

Hows Video did the 1968 Farnboro’ on VHS about 20 years ago. 15 minutes. I believe that is the one with the formation Sea Vixens.

Mark

Can anyone please shed any light on the video referred to in this earlier posting, e.g. exact title? I can confirm that it is not the “Classic Farnborough – the 60s”‘ one produced by DD Video.

Many thanks again,

Mark

The displays by the preserved XP924 this ‘summer’ have been very impressive (and loud!). For those of us too young to have witnessed the sight of six Vixens in formation back in 1968 it’s hard to imagine just what it was like but it must have been magnificent.

Does anyone know if any footage of Simons Sircus has ever been released on video or DVD? I’ve been looking high and low for several months now but despite the number of appearances the team made during ’68 – including Farnborough – I can’t find anything. Well apart from a frustrating few seconds (literally) at the start of the Farnborough 1968-1988 DVD – an opportunity missed!

I’m sure that there is plenty of film footage ‘in the can’ but has any made it into the public domain? Any help or advice will be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks,

Mark

Simon’s Sircus

Here are a couple of photos of the 892 Crew , maintenance crew and ‘Simon’ the Lion , courtesy P.O ‘Shady’ (Taff) Lane, Yeovilton 1968
Enjoy! Brian 😎

RE Hi buddy

Its great to hear from you nobby,I am deeply moved for your reply,send e/mail to [email]SCOOBYPILOT@TESCO.NET[/email] and we`ll talk old times,lokk forward to it MARTIN J

Albert found these after my move I knew I had them but took some time finding them hope, you all enjoy the pix

hi im nobby clark the nam in the middle with martin jones, cant really remember the lam. just joined not up to speed on computers yet all the best, its been a long time

ex happy h buddy

Hi everyone,I have just found this interesting site to air your views,the talk of SIMONS SIRCUS is of great interest as I was responsible for XJ604,No 303 as plane captain,892 squadron was the pinacle of all the vixen squadrons and anyone lucky to join felt we were the best,but I am sure 890, 893, 899 felt the same,even our ship the HERMES was called the happy H.With the reappearance of the FOXY LADY at air shows and also the 50th at YEOVILTON it has rekindled interest in probably the most dramatic aircraft in the skies,remember we had six of these in close formation,well not at the start,but with practice they were slendid,the smoke caused locals trouble with their washing,as they brought it to us complaining the red/blue dye was not to their liking!!!,any other team members out there.MARTIN JONES NAM A/E.

Hi Martin, nobby clark here. I have a picture of you me and lam edwards
with 313, i think we took over that one after a slight accident with an air rig and a expansion cyl will send photo if you havnt got it

Many thanks Martin, those are great. However, with greatest respect, the first photo is technically not “Simon’s Sircus”, but a formation of 892 Squadron Sea Vixens with the old squadron insignia on the tail when embarked in HMS Hermes. “Simons’ Sircus” wasn’t formed until three weeks after the squadron has disembarked to RNAS Yeovilton and the markings were changed and they were given ‘VL’ codes.

SIMONS SIRCUS PIX

Albert found these after my move I knew I had them but took some time finding them hope, you all enjoy the pix

,have you got the photo of all us standing alongside 313 ? I have,BEST WISHES MARTIN JONES

Please can you scan and post it Martin?

Many thanks

Adrian

CALLING MY HEROES

Having just moved I have lost track of the thread I started about SIMONS SIRCUS,the thread gained more momentum and I believe two of the team have contacted it ,ROLY BEAUMONT and MARK JENKINS ,am I right? I was your plane captain on 313 with ALEC STEWART the pilot,have you got the photo of all us standing alongside 313 ? I have,BEST WISHES MARTIN JONES

The mid-air wing collision was I think between two Buccaneers during practice.
I can’t remember all the venues as the Navy was keen we appeared everwhere that season for political reasons. You may remember that the RAF was at the time deparately trying to get rid of Aircraft Carriers even to the extent of falsifying maps to claim they could cover the world. The aerobatic teams were the Admiralty’s attempt to garner publicity, hence the big demo of an air supported Navy ground attack at Farnborough.
The one venue I do remember was at Lossiemouth where Simon overcooked a loop and we all fell out of the sky at the top, totally out of control.

Anyone interested in the Sea Vixen should check out

www.seavixen.org

Absolutely amazing that this thread has got the attention of two former pilots from “Simon’s Sircus”. I was extremely impressed by this team, hauling such large aircraft about in aerobatic manoeuvres, much like the “Thunderbirds” and “Blue Angels” when both teams flew Phantoms in the early ’70s. I am an aerobatic team historian and I was wondering if there was any official publicity material that you guys could scan and post, like a brochure,perhaps, or I would like to see that publicity shoot of the pilots on the ground at Yeovilton posing with a lion cub? Here is a shot I took at Yeovilton’s Air Day on 7th September 1968 with “Simon’s Sircus” Sea Vixens leading the “Phoenix Five” Buccaneer team from 809 Squadron. I can still hear that wonderful roar of 22 powerful engines roaring past! Yeovilton and Farnborough were the only shows I got to see these two teams perform at, but they were also at Brawdy in August. What other venues did you perform at?

Here is a photo of Sea Vixen XJ560, 892 Sqn., in 1966

I was a member of Simons Sircus flying as No 2 in the formation. 892 was my first squadron. I eventually flew the DH110 for around 1300 hours.

Thoroughly enjoyed it all.

(Sorry for the long delay, just joined)

And I thoroughly enjoyed watching from the ground both at Farnborough and during the practice sessions over Yeovilton. Didn’t a couple of you clip wings or something during one of the practices? I was on Hunters at station flight at the time and out on the hard-standing at the Westland end of 9 hangar about to get into a Hunter to do a ground run when I heard the sound of Vixens approaching fast and near overhead came the sound of clashing metal, I looked up quick but all seemed OK with no A/C behaving oddly and no falling debris.

The Farnborough display was superb. The weather was not good and plenty of moisture in the air to form those impressive compression vapour clouds around the aircraft during the fast low level passes. I was there with my father who had a couple of Dowty works passes.

I have seen a couple of pictures of the team in mag’s or books but they don’t give names in the captions.

Pete Sheppard may remember the occasion when he had to exit a Heron Flight T8 in a hurry shortly after take off. I was the last one to see the passenger’s dress sword as I stuffed it up into the nose bay with some other baggage. I then went off for a dental appointment and was astonished to find a smashed T8 canopy on 9 hangar’s deck on my return – then discovered the reason.:(

The Avon engine had disintigrated in flight from mechanical failure – suspect turbine nozzle guide vane retaining ring failure as we shortly found others in poor shape.

What a superb thread and pictures with two Vixen “drivers” to boot.

I’m an FAA buff and this kind of stuff is priceless.

miggers:cool:

As JDK always says, it depends on the source and accuracy of the information put in books. Putnams DH since and British Naval Aircraft since say 700mph at sea level and M 0.95 at altitude. One also says 645mph/640mph at altitude for F.A.W.1 and 2 respectively. I suspect I’ve got other books around with different figures again.

My understanding was that it was not supersonic in level flight. Anybody know a retired Sea Vixen driver?

Ok Ok to clear up the confusion, the ordinary standard Sea vixen, which I must add G-CVIX XP924 is NOT, was never supersonic unless in a dive. However, XP924 is the ONLY supersonic aircraft on the european register, why? well read on! As a D.3 conversion she has uprated Avon 208’s and significant alterations to her flying controls i.e. the mechnical clunky bits are now all wiggly string, with the exception of the actuators. As a result she’s lighter on her feet. But folks it get’s better, as a civlianised D.3 she has had all non-essential and military fit removed i.e. the near 1 ton of radar in that lovely nose. Therefore at 20,000ft she is capable of Mach 1.23 and she can operate at 50,000ft with a rate of climb that even the Typhoons cann’t beat…..as we at De Hav well know;)

CALLING ROLY BO PEEP

This is Jenks (304)
Do you by any chance have contact details for Pete Hardy?
I will be visiting UK in July so would be good to catch up.
If you read this can you give me a bell on:
[email]TBS.MARK@clear.net.nz[/email]
Cheers