Vimy over Brooklands.

I doubt she’ll fly much more as she is an expensive lady to “maintain”. I understand at least one brake needs replacing or is at least close to and that Paul is only really happy to land on grass these days because of it.
I has been a real honour for my team and myself to handle the aircraft at Turweston (Grand Prix weekend) and Woburn (Saturday). A treasured experience.

It was good to see you there. The silly grin was very similar to mine on Friday!

Here is a picture of the Vimy in the hanger after some juggling with wingtips and roadsign surgery. recognise the bloke in the flying suit?

Vimy over Brooklands

Greetings All. There I was, minding my own business at the Moth Rally when this geezer asked if I was busy on Sunday afternoon. I replied that I would still be at the Rally, he enquired if I would be willing to do a little job. That little job transpired to be assisting Peter Macmillan with a positioning flight from Woburn to Dunsfold via Brooklands. It took me less than a nano second to agree! Peter and I did a trial circuit at Woburn and then departed 30 mins later for the Guess the Height competition and flight to Brooklands.
The initial routing was from Woburn to Halton and then onto Booker,thus keeping out of the Heathrow zone. Heathrow offered a more direct routing via Ascot to the OCK VOR. This gave us spectacular views of Winsor castle and Heathrow.Visibilty was unlimited and we quickly found Brooklands and ran in for a couple of orbits – amazing to be loooking down on all those people looking up! Peter graciously allowed me to fly to Dunsfold from Brooklands – what an aeroplane! At Dunsfold we struggled to thread the aeroplane through gates and past road signs into a hangar for the night. This aeroplane requires teamwork to fly and teamwork to handle on the ground! A Cirrus arrived to transport us in 21st century luxury back to Turweston and John Flynn arrived at Turweston in our syndicate Queen Bee to transport me back to Woburn WHAT A DAY!!! My enternal thanks to Peter and all the guys who made this possible.

Would be fantastic for it to go to Brooklands due to the history between the aircraft and the site, the original Vimy’s being built and flown from there and the replica spending a fair amount of time there too.

However, the decision is up to Peter McMillan as its his aircraft, just hope it is somewhere where it is looked after well.

A few pics from the roof:

Keep it flying, although the replica has performed a triple crown of incredible flights, its long term place in front of the public will only be ensured if its flown on a regular basis.

Just remember Jean Batten and her beloved Gull Six, G-APDR was superbly restored by Hunting Aviation and operated by the Shuttleworth Collection. Sold and subsequently displayed strung up like an ‘Airfix’ kit at Aucklland International airport.

Septic.

Put her in the NASM…..she could compliment the Concorde.

She would compliment the Concorde at Brooklands too.

Put her in the NASM – she is American built and has been sponsored by National Geographic – she could compliment the Concorde.

Straight into a storage shed to be hidden for many years 🙁

Anyway I’m sure she’ll end up in good cdare somewhere. Its important however to keep her exactly as she is now, every last sticker, signature and patch.

As an aside I’m sure the sponsorship logos will make interesting reading in 20 years time.

Put her in the NASM – she is American built and has been sponsored by National Geographic – she could compliment the Concorde.

what would the NASM want with an insignificant replica David? 😉

Put her in the NASM – she is American built and has been sponsored by National Geographic – she could compliment the Concorde.

This gets my vote. Although it would be very nice to see the Vickers collection at Brooklands expanded with the addition of a Vimy, we do have one original and one replica in the UK. NASM would be an excellent home.

Roger Smith.

Put her in the NASM – she is American built and has been sponsored by National Geographic – she could compliment the Concorde.

More like build a new hangar.

Would help justify it in a big way

More like build a new hangar.

Septic.

There would be no better home for her than Brooklands where she would be well and truly looked after…after they have re-arranged the hangar to fit her in!

I do however feel such a well built and relatively young aircraft has a few years of life left on the European airshow circuit.

SteveG,

Where do they hope to finally preserve the Vimy?

Steve I would like to thank all the staff and volunteers at Brooklands today, an absolutely superb day out, which even included a spirited run around the old banking in a rather quick Aston Martin, although not as quick as the awesome Railton.

Bleriot and Dep replicas were allowed out to soak up the sun.

Septic.

PS Burgers were great too.

Totally agree Steve, After working on the Aircraft in 1994 and in 1999, and now pulling it in and out the hangers I would hate to see (should I say Distressed to see) anything happen. A good home is what She deserves!!!
Dare I say Brooklands…
Great to see the Vimy over Brooklands today, it even made the car fraternity stop and look !!! I also express My thanks to Peter for doing this..

Here’s to a happy retirement…
Nik

Managed to get a great view of it from the tower of the clubhouse seen in your last shot, and what a fantastic aircraft it is, many thanks to Peter McMillan for flying it over. Whilst I would normally agree it is a shame to ground a perfectly good aircraft I do feel this one has now done its bit and deserves a retirement. After all it has been through it would be heartbreaking for anything to happen to it now.