Tipsy Belfair G-APOD

Tipsy Belfair G-APOD

Only 7 years late replying to your query, Roger.
I was told I had a half-share in APOD in 1984, when it was hangared at Sywell. It appears in my log-book only once, but I remember it as a pleasant, tractable and gentle little machine. There was a rumour that it had been owned by Amy Johnson at one stage, but there was some conflicting counter-rumour that it could not have been so (due to dates and positioning). I understood that Mr Tipps named the type “Belfair” as a contraction of two significantly relevant names, i.e. Belgium and Fairey. It’s all speculative and probably completely wrong and it’s not my intention to start some sort of counter-speculative interminable argument. If my informastion is not kosher, then I accept that without a struggle.

Tipsy Belfair G-APOD

Only 7 years late replying to your query, Roger.
I was told I had a half-share in APOD in 1984, when it was hangared at Sywell. It appears in my log-book only once, but I remember it as a pleasant, tractable and gentle little machine. There was a rumour that it had been owned by Amy Johnson at one stage, but there was some conflicting counter-rumour that it could not have been so (due to dates and positioning). I understood that Mr Tipps named the type “Belfair” as a contraction of two significantly relevant names, i.e. Belgium and Fairey. It’s all speculative and probably completely wrong and it’s not my intention to start some sort of counter-speculative interminable argument. If my informastion is not kosher, then I accept that without a struggle.

David Beale, owner of G-APIE and Tipsy guru, took a look at this thread the other night and came back to me with a few comments…,.

Apparently the tail wheel on my aeroplane came not from G-APOD but from G-AOXO which crashed at Eastbach Farm after hitting a fence post and was sawn up for scrap. This seems logical as G-AISA was based at Eastbach at around that time.

‘POD, on David’s last discussions with owners son was still complete but dismantled, stored in various locations around the Dundee area. It is in need of some major rebuild work due to old age and oil soaking of fuselage timber, glue failure, time expired engine etc.

Also many mods were done. The owner wants to rebuild back to original Tipsy BC pre war spec, but there are no original detail drawings, only photos of the pre-war Tipsy BC (the Belfair name was only used for the 6 post war planes).

The three UK-registered Belfairs were all built in Belgium then shipped to the UK in the early 1950s. Although the first registered, ‘OXO was the third of the trio to be assembled after being trapped in containers in Yorkshire for 10 years due to import regulations post war.

David met, a few years ago, the guy who was first owner of POD. He put it together and lived next to Beverley Airfield. He said he crashed it on doing his first solo in it but not seriously!

Willip, if you want me to put you in touch with David, drop me PM and I will send you his details…..

I was ready with these two from Old Buckenham April 2011 ….

Keith.

Just a couple of shots of G-APIE earlier this year…

VAC Snowball Rally @ Cambridge Jan 2011

Interesting that no one picked up that the 3 UK ones were registered ‘OXO, ‘PIE and ‘POD….

Thanks to Avion Ancien for posting the pictures for me. We got the better of the gremlins – eventually.
I didn’t notice when I took the photos but looking at them now I realise just how scruffy some of the paintwork was getting in the museum building. A sure sign that money was tight.

Thanks low’n’slow.

Roger Smith.

Yes it was created from BELgium FAIRey company.

Ernest Oscar Tips worked for both Fairey in the UK and was chief engineer of the Fairey plant at Gosselies in Belgium, as well as marketing Tipsy aircraft in both countries.

As a matter of interest does anyone know where the name/word “Belfair” comes from, or is it made up?

Roger Smith.

Ah that’s better – success at last!

Wicked Willip :diablo:

Hopefully attached will be the images that WJ244 has, for so long, been trying to post!

I have responded by PM.

That seems to be the case. PM sent.
Thanks

Someone, somewhere, has got it in for you!

One last go

According to my museum newsletters POD flew in from Stapleford on 4 April 1982 on loan from owner RJ Miller. I probably took the photos when we had to clear the hangar for a custom car show held on 9 April less than a week later.

A Gremlin in the Works

Or, the mystery of the disappearing pictures.

Thanks everyone for the information regarding G-APOD and to WJ244 for trying to post those photos. I would certainly be interested to see them as I didn’t realise that the Belfair once had a place in the Southend Museum.

Meanwhile I am posting three of mine of the Tipsy. The first shows the colours it was in, when our Group located it unloved in the back of a hangar at Rochester and agreed to purchase for £525, subject to a new Permit. There were eight of us in all, six PPLs putting in £100 each and the remaining two non-pilots contributing £50 apiece.

After a few weeks of nothing much happening it became evident that the promised paperwork was not going to materialise, so the deal was renegotiated for £450 on the basis that we carried out the Permit renewal work ourselves.

Early on in our period of ownership one of our members decided that as the airframe was a bit tatty he would pay a visit to B&Q to buy a tin of paint and tidy it up a bit (no thought given to the extra weight) – hence the awful mish-mash of a colour scheme shown in the second photo.

I last saw G-APOD as ‘The Gremlin’ at a PFA Rally at Leicester in about 1981 and it would be sad if its flying career is indeed over. ‘The Fleeing Fly’, its former companion at Southend, I last saw yesterday, accompanying the Ward Gnome and others suspended in a hangar roof at Breighton.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

The Southend 1980’s album must have been visible at some time as 17 visitors have looked at it. If the album has disappeared that probably explains why the photos I tried to post here have gone walk about. Really not sure what has happened here. In my pictures G-APOD carries the name “The Gremlin” on the nose and they have certainly crept in here.
Avion Ancien- Thanks for the offer. I don’t have any time today to sort it all out again but I may take you up on your offer later.

Empathy!

I feel for you, WJ244. Sometimes I think that there is a gremlin who haunts this site and singles out individual members, from time to time, in order to afflict them in a manner calculated to irritate them to the maximum. In my case it was intermittent failure to send any notifications of new posts to threads to which I was subscribed. As I don’t seem to have had problems posting images, either as thumbnails or from photo hosting sites, if it is of help to you, I’m happy to try to post the absent images for you. If you’d like me to do so, please send me a PM and I’ll respond with my e-mail address to which you can send the images as jpgs.

Hate to be pedantic, but I don’t see a ‘1980’s Southend page’ on your personal page…………:o