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ianwoodward9

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October 10, 2010 at 4:59 pm in reply to: Seaplane Activity At Southend-On-Sea #1112998

ianwoodward9
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So it isn’t a false memory, it would seem.

On the return trip in the Wayfarer, we must have sat on the left because I can recall looking out and seeing the wheel turning after we’d lifted off the ground.

At Southend, I’m sure that the ex-RAF Prentices were there but I was more excited by the prospect of the coming flight than anything else.

Apart from the dark green of Channel Airways, the only other thing I can recall is driving out to Southend and going along a dual carriageway (I think it had trees along it, possibly along the central reservation) and thinking it must be an arterial road – not relevant in this forum and I have no idea why that thought should have been in my head at all.

Nowadays, the only thing I know of Southend Airport is that the Stobart group, a local company where I now live, has an interest in it and the local newspaper reported, in short, that things were going well there – or according to plan or some such.

October 10, 2010 at 2:11 pm in reply to: Seaplane Activity At Southend-On-Sea #1113034

ianwoodward9
Participant

On the way out to Jersey, in the Viking, I can recall a stewardess bringing round a tray of boiled sweets to suck. Also, one of my parents must have told someone it was my first flight, as I got invited up into the cockpit. My memory there (and someone may disabuse me, as memory can play tricks) is that, when it came on to rain, they turned on the windscreen wipers and then, when some rainwater leaked in around the edge of one of the cockpit window panes, the crew member in the right hand seat pulled out a stick of chewing gum, quickly softened it by chewing and stuck it over the leak. Brickbats, anyone?

October 10, 2010 at 1:12 am in reply to: Seaplane Activity At Southend-On-Sea #1113343

ianwoodward9
Participant

I have really enjoyed this thread, particularly the photographs. Very much my era, for the most aprt.

Even though I lived my early life close to what became called Heathrow, my first ever flight was from Southend to Jersey in a Viking of Channel Airways. I can’t recall the exact date but probably the summer of 1958 or 1959. We spent our first week in St Helier at the time of the Battle of the Flowers, so that should pinpoint the month at least. The second week was spent in a holiday camp on the other side of the island and the taxi was late and we missed the return flight. Channel Airways put us on the next plane, a Bristol Wayfarer. I can vaguely remember the Herons, I think, of Jersey Airways and, most definitely, a Rapide of Air Caen on the ground at Jersey when we came back.

October 8, 2010 at 11:14 pm in reply to: "In The Red" BCAL 707 Into RAF..??? #1114296

ianwoodward9
Participant

Pagen01 is quite right. In my youth, I used to spend occasional days touring Greenham Common, Fairford and Upper Heyford, notebook and camera in hand. Even caught the odd B-52 and have the photo to prove it somewhere.

Hello, who’s that knocking on my front door?

October 7, 2010 at 12:45 pm in reply to: Lodesta G-AGII – a question of markings #1116608

ianwoodward9
Participant

Looking forward to it. It is a fascinating topic and worthy of a proper study in its own right.

October 7, 2010 at 1:12 am in reply to: Help Sought – early use of G-AFYO registration #1116934

ianwoodward9
Participant

We’ve gone a bit off topic now but I found this website:-

http://www.aerovintage.com/warlover.htm

It looks as though I must have gone to Bovingdon in mid- to late-October 1961 to see the three B-17s.

The rights to “The War Lover” appear to be with TCM (Turner Classic Movies) but they seem to have no plans to show it on that channel in the near future:-

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=3836

Sometimes, TCM include a film’s trailer on their website but apparently not on this occasion.

October 7, 2010 at 1:06 am in reply to: Help Sought – early use of G-AFYO registration #1116938

ianwoodward9
Participant

“The War Lover”, that sounds like it. And 1961 would certainly be the right period for my interest in such things. Recently, some old pocket diaries came to light but, unfortunately, not one for 1961. I have found the 1960 one, which records a visit to Bovingdon on 14 May 1960. That wouuld have been too early, I think, and, anyway, while I’ve noted 17 aircraft by registration, there isn’t a mention of a single B-17, let alone three. I’ve stuck an extra small sheet in the diary on that page, as though I had more to add, but there’s nothing extra.

October 7, 2010 at 12:18 am in reply to: Help Sought – early use of G-AFYO registration #1117027

ianwoodward9
Participant

I read “Blockade Runners” fairly recently, which is why the photo I saw on the website immediately rang bells. It was indeed Bernt Balchen but, as he was a colonel in the US forces at the time, this is what had stuck in my mind.

The web link with memories of Operation Sonnie was terrific. I was only standing on the north beach at St Andrews, adjacent to the R&A (as mentioned in the article) a week or so ago.

I was also interested in the mention of Bovingdon. In my youth, I seem to recall that it was there that they brought three B-17s used in a film at the time. It was a sort of open day and you could round and inside them. If I took any photos, they’re long gone, I’m afraid. Maybe my memory is at fault.

Thanks for all the help.

October 6, 2010 at 11:29 pm in reply to: Lodesta G-AGII – a question of markings #1117044

ianwoodward9
Participant

Thanks for your reply, Nils.

G-AGDD, which was purchased by the Norwegian Purchasing Commission but operated under the aegis of BOAC, certainly had the silver outline to its registration marks, so your explanation about how the difference arose makes perfect sense.

Is the book on the subject of Lodestars, of the WWII flights between Scotland and Sweden or on the subject of the aircraft markings?

Ian

October 6, 2010 at 2:28 pm in reply to: Help Sought – early use of G-AFYO registration #1117543

ianwoodward9
Participant

Thanks

David,

Thanks for your help. I don’t have the book you cite, so that was very helpful and clears up the conundrum. It seems that the Liberator in that photograph was only marked as G-AFYO for the 2 April 1944 flight to Sweden and then only because there had been a complaint about the lack of the markings on its 31 March 1944 visit when it used G-AFYO as its call sign.

These flights were in connection with “Operation Sonnie”, a US-sponsored project that had faced a lot of feet-dragging from British officials, only expedited after the intervention of Churchill.

The American heading “Operation Sonnie” referred to arriving in Sweden on 31 March 1944, being told to apply identification markings and asking how large they had to be. He was told, basically, large enough to read. The American then wrote that the markings were applied 10 centimeters high, so that, on a clear day, the black paint could be read at about 3 meters against the green background. The photograph shows that his memory was very much at fault.

Thanks, again, David – I shall PM you on a separate matter.

September 8, 2010 at 4:06 pm in reply to: WANTED: Photo of Lodestar G-AGDD #1155632

ianwoodward9
Participant

I’ve been away for a few days and, on my return, had received a photograph of G-AGDD that I had ordered from “AJJ” pictures and also one of the same aircraft in Norwegian (Purchasing Commission?) colours from around the same period. Thanks everyone for the help provided.
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