Pilatus P2
Ray Hanna sourced GBJAX on behalf of Mark Hanna and John Watts. It was an early stablemate for MH434 in the recently established OFMC operation. For a pilot, the P2 was a well-mannered, agile aircraft with a smooth (although troublesome) Argus engine. When I had a go, John was swift to tell me not to spin however!
We used the P2 as a “victim” for the Spitfire at several shows and very extensively in the publicity run-up to the first “Fighter Meet”. One poor TV journalist spent a very hot day with us at Duxford playing the part of “Jerry” with Watts doing the flying. Mark Hanna was in MH434. Boys will be boys and the pair of them forgot about the journalist behind John and just spent an hour dog fighting! The result was a 12 minute slot on TVam repeated each hour. Great stuff!
At North Weald, John was flying a certain Royal personage in Robs Lamplough’s GPTWO, which had been borrowed for press day. Due to the notorious downhill runway slope at NW, he unfortunately ground looped on landing, shaving the starboard wingtip flat as a result. Would have been less embarassing had said Royal not been aboard. Took me quite some time to “kill” the story, there being 8 national newspaper photographers present. Ray Hanna issued instructions for the rest of the day’s flying to ignore wind direction and land “uphill”
I seem to remember that “Jacko” Jackson in the BBMF Lancaster skillfully avoided the same embarassment as John the same day!
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