Flew in this Magister on 21st September 1958, when it was Shoreham based and remember it going to Elwyn (Mac) McAully around the following February.
Sadly he was killed during aerobatic practice at Little Snoring on 12th May 1960 in ‘The Bishop’ Tiger Moth G-APDZ – the aircraft he had previously flown inverted across The English Channel.

So strictly speaking I believe it was never operated by the McAully Flying Group as the group was not named as such until after his death and the Magister was withdrawn from use in April 1960.

In any event it was finally scrapped at Woolsington that November. Presumably it was sold and flew up there?

Interestingly it was this aircraft, which featured (as L8160) on the cover of ‘The Miles Magister’ booklet by G H R Johnson, produced by the Newark Air Museum a few years back.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

If the photo was taken of the Magister in the primary school playground at Little Snoring then, having regard to the condition illustrated, how did it manage to get to Newcastle to be scrapped there? This photo does not suggest flight as a possibility! Also how is this to be reconciled with the statement, in the earlier post, that it survived at Little Snoring until it was scrapped there in 1963 (although another post puts its demise as being at Little Snoring in 1960)? Perhaps the location of the photo was not Little Snoring Primary School. Maybe the photo was taken at a location much further north. So do we have another mystery waiting to be solved by someone with information that has yet to be introduced into the forum? I only wish that I could remember from where I obtained that photo. That might shed a little more light on this apparent mystery.

Ah, if only my surviving records were more informative! They just record the registration, type and operator. As to the latter, my records indicate that the operators were Continental Air Services (G-AIKN) and Epicair (G-AJBX). There is no operator indicated against G-AHPE. As to their locations, I don’t think that I first visited Blackbushe before 1974 – so I suspect that any Vikings would have disappeared from there long before that date. Southend would seem to be a better bet – I remember my mother taking me there, to visit the BHAM, in the late 1960s or early 1970s. However I find myself wondering whether one of those Vikings was the one which served (or, more accurately, was torched by) the Fire Service at Gatwick in the late 1960s? Any ideas, anyone?

Hmmm, looking at the size and state of the junior school playground just down the river from where I live, I reckon you could land and take off a Storch or Lysander from there, the local residents wouldn’t be impressed but I bet the kids would!!!!!
I’m going to take the dogs for a walk now and pace it out.
Could be an interesting new thread, pictures of a/c landing on school playing fields.
The amount of playing fields around my old Grammar school in Nottingham made me think that anything could have landed there, in fact every spring, the late lamented Rolls Royce Spitfire used to take off from Hucknall and carry out his shakedowns over the school, not good for concentrating on lessons but was it because he had somewhere to land in case of trouble, our two back to back Rugby pitches with further cricket, football and hockey pitches would have been perfect, who’s going to get the book out on pitch sizes and work that one out.
Sorry to sabotage the thread.

Nowadays, you would be hard pressed to put a helicopter down on the “recreation areas” of most schools. But then, why have playing fields when you can build houses on them and most games can be “played” within the 17 x 17 inch area of a PC monitor! But that’s another thread entirely and not one appropriate to this site. I’ll go away and look through my old note books for details of real “bramble lurkers” that I have come across in the past.

Well, it looks as if I will have to call it a day and turn elsewhere for leads to enable me to pursue this line of enquiry. But thanks to all who have input to this thread! A bientôt à tous!

So it looks as if there is nothing left in the brambles – or no-one who wants to tell about what they found there!

Umm . . to restrain the thread, the original question was “what is the most beautiful civil aircraft that I have photographed?” This would eliminate anything not photographed by the poster himself/herself?

You’re right! I adopted the particular approach to restrain myself from posting photos of the Miles Hobby, the De Havilland T.K.4 or the Heston Type 5 Racer. But I can’t complain at having to look at the photographs posted!