Something a bit different, and unusual, at my local airport today.

Looks like the love child of a Gannet and a Piston Provost!

I bet shes sturdy though, whats she like at aerobatics?

I saw Ladi Marmol fly G-AVZB many times. Very short landings and almost hovering in strongish winds (both party pieces which he also carried out to even greater effect in Turboporter HB-FCL/G-AWDS) were almost commonplace. He also flew a display at a Southend airshow (held on the airfield) around 1968 where the Bumblebee and either the Turboporter or a Pawnee gave a spraying demonstration with scented water that covered the crowd. The displayincluded some impressive tight low speed turns but I never saw him try any aerobatics in the Bumblebee.
As other have said Ladi was a real character and if there was any chance of aerobating a Bumblebee I am sure he would have tried.

He used to land the Turboporter on the old runway 33/15 and made full use of the reverse pitch prop. There was a white spot which was clearly visible on the tyres and there were often conversations with tower about how many times the wheels would revolve before the Turboporter stopped.

Short SC.1

Moggy, I have never known you to be so tactful. That thing is down right UGLY.

Poor thing is so ugly I took pity on it

Moggy

They certainly were built sturdy. I’m not sure about aerobatics, the wing was optimised for low speed and low altitude operations. These days they get a fair bit of use as glider tugs.

As a crop duster by design, they pretty much had to be tough enough to handle rough field operations and all the other things that come with agricultural work.

I bet shes sturdy though, whats she like at aerobatics?

Didn’t reverse engineer a Piston Provost or did they? 🙂
mmitch.

It’s only ugly until you see the turboprop version of it, that’s hideous!

It was quite impressive to watch it landing yesterday, it did quite a short final in some nasty crosswinds and was rock solid all the way down.

In comparison, the crosswinds were giving the Cessna flyers a good tossing around and even more so to a Piper 28.

Moggy, I have never known you to be so tactful. That thing is down right UGLY.

Last time I saw one flying was at Southend in about 1968 when it hovered in a strong breeze over the railway line. I think the pilot’s name was Marmol?

That was G-AVZB, it is now impounded in the Science Museum store at Wroughton.

Last time I saw one flying was at Southend in about 1968 when it hovered in a strong breeze over the railway line. I think the pilot’s name was Marmol?

He was quite a character by all accounts. There are some stories to be told about him flying his Turbo Porter.

Last time I saw one flying was at Southend in about 1968 when it hovered in a strong breeze over the railway line. I think the pilot’s name was Marmol?

Try Ustí nad Orlici in your Northeast. There was about 35 of them there the last time I visited, with about ten flying. Overhaul facilies for a spraying company. Nearby Jicín saw another three flying.

It’s not the prettiest of airframes, but it is still flying!

Moggy