Lovely video, glad you enjoyed it!
If anybody else fancies a ride, the Rapide & Prentice are there tomorrow (Sunday 7th May) as well as Conington Airfield , on the A1 just south of Peterborough, next Saturday (13th May)…..
…nice to see the aircraft in action, even whilst having a weekend off work 🙂
Wow! That Javelin is really something, nicely faded as well. I have just showed it to Tom and he was rendered speechless, well his eyes went a funny orange colour and he could be heard muttering ‘I want one’….
brilliant stuff, keep it up 🙂
PS… Does anybody know a good supplier of Dayglo paint, we might be considering a…… well… a project!
Watch this space 😉
All very, very impressive, but a lot of this Dayglo is very fresh and shiny, how about some nicely faded orange, as beautifully shown off on the tip tanks of a certain T-33…. 🙂
D-DHDV, still going strong… see here:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47343&highlight=dove
http://forum.planetalk.net/viewtopic.php?t=1285&sid=c22d22f3de82e5c160c4acac825a18f2
Percival Pembroke….. as in very much the same as a Sea Prince (different wingspan… generally less Dayglo paint, apart from that identical-ish)…
…but not ours, although it should be flying very soon!
Hi Dave,
the membership cards will arrive with the first magazine, along with login details/instructions for the member’s section of http://www.classicflight.com.
Rapide vs. Dominie, I think that both of our Rapides were first built as Dominies, issed with millitary serials but never carried them ‘in anger’, spending time in storage before sale to civilian operators, I will check the details at work this week!
PS. DGH, we should be back for some more dates this yoear at Halfpenny Green, amongst other venues. Im just finishing off the first ‘Dakota Promota’ of the year (running a little late 😮 ), guess the cover star…..
Just to back up Tom’s statement, Air Atlantique Classic Flight will certainly remain at Coventry this year, and for the immediately forseeable future. Much of the speculation over a potential move has been fuelled by the very real problem that for organising public events, the airside hangars at Coventry Airport present real challenges, being sited on a very active portion of a busy regional airport. These challenges can be overcome, but tend to restrict our public events to occasional, stressful but ultimately hugely enjoyable events!
Our real desire is to have a public ‘shop window’ for the fleet, accesible to the public day in, day out, with the attendant gift shops and cafes that generate revenue for the upkeep of our unique collection. Behind the scenes, this challenge is still being given serious consideration, with many potential venues being looked at. The venue needs to have to have all of the neccesary factors to make such a huge undertaking feasable, an airfield with a high percentage of what is required, but a few fundamental drawbacks, simply will not do at this stage!
In the short term, we are very busy preparing a programme of events ‘at an airfield near you’, bringing our pleasure flying experience to a variety of scenic, smaller airfields around the country. The next one, on April the 15th, will be at Wolverhampton Business Airport, the fee for the flight is modest for such a unique experience….
FLY IN A CLASSIC AIRCRAFT OVER BRIDGNORTH AND THE SEVERN VALLEY
On Saturday 15th April, Air Atlantique Classic Flight, Europe’s premier operator of airworthy vintage and classic airliners, offer a fantastic chance to get a privileged view of Bridgnorth and the scenic Severn Valley from the Air. The flights are available in two fascinating historic aircraft, the de Havilland Dragon Rapide and the fascinating Percival Prentice. The Dragon Rapide was designed in 1935, and carries eight passengers in great comfort, the thirties equivalent of a private jet! The Percival Prentice was designed in 1944, as a successor to the famous Tiger Moth. Air Atlantique’s Prentice spent much of its early life involved in military training flights in the local area, based at Halfpenny Green with the No. 2 Air Signaller’s School.
Flights on Saturday 15th take place from Halfpenny Green, now better known as Wolverhampton Business Airport. Flights cost £55 per person on either aircraft, simply arrive on the day for an unforgettable flight. From the airport, your classic aircraft will fly west to Bridgnorth, offering stunning views of high town, the church, castle ruins and the furnicular cliff railway. Spectacular views of the river, the Severn Valley Railway and Victoria Bridge are included as the aircraft returns to the airfield.
Call 0870 330 4747 for more details, contact us by emailing [email]classic@airatlantique.co.uk[/email] and see more about our fascinating fleet at http://www.classicflight.com.
BOOK ONLINE AT http://WWW.CLASSICFLIGHT.COM
Suggestions are welcomed for other venues that you would like to see us visit, we watch these forums with keen interest and have taken notes of ideas already posted! Please rest assured that the classic flight team is striving, and working all hours, to secure the future of our very special collection, keeping them where they belong, in the air! Our public flights are a hugely important source of income, by checking in passengers are investing in our efforts to keep real aviation available to everybody 🙂
Thanks to everybody for all the kind words and emails we have been sent since the weekend, it really makes all of the early mornings (not to mention the frantic Pembroke polishing!) worth while!
As Tom has already mentioned elsewhere, we have plans for many more events this year, some further afield, and more at Baginton 🙂
Update on the Wolverhampton Business Airport (Halfpenny Green) pleasure flying plan, just got back from a ‘recce’ with our Chipmunk (not avalable for pleasure flying yet but watch this space 😀 ). A likely scenic route will be west from the airfield, around Bridgnorth…
(good views of ‘High Town’, the rather precarious looking castle ruins and the furnicular railway)
…followed by a scenic section downstream along the River Severn…
(with the chance of chasing a steam train if you are lucky, from a respectable distance & altitiude of course!)
…concluding with a turn around Trimpley reservoirs and the stunning Victoria bridge, which looks very impressive from the air! (This is all probably subject to modifications, but shows the kind of thing we are offering!)
The event will be something of a ‘homecoming’ for the Prentice, which was once based at Halfpenny Green. The seating capacities are three passengers in the Prentice (one of which gets to share the ‘sharp end’ with the pilot) and eight passengers in the Rapide.
Check this one out:
on the front news page, …mmmmmm dayglo! 🙂
Great to see these schemes being reapplied, as they are both full of character and have fascintating histories behind them!
I think it might just be a fuselage, and judging by the state it left Cosford in it will need some TLC by now, I reckon it is the only Varsity left with the blunt (radar?) nose, certainly well worth saving!
A bit of a typo presumably…
…I think they first appeared around 1985.
Hello everybody!
Looking forward to welcoming you all on Saturday, should be a fantastic day, I will get as many aircraft as possible open for inspection, including the fascinating interiors of aircraft not normally available for passenger use such as the Anson and Pembroke.
Does anybody know whether the early model Jindivik that was kept in the room behind the Anson is up for sale as well?