Clacton was very close to the Butlins camp-but was never owned or operated by them.
All sorts of incentives etc were tried though to get people-out of the camp and spend their mony on a pleasure flight-as the tendency was for holidaymakers to just stay inside the gates-as “everything” the need was available inside.

Im going for both days-and also booked on the first JU 52 flight on Saturday.
Will be my first visit and cant wait-just praying for some good weather.

WG428

Well what an amazing coincidence.
I had my first ever flight in WG428 at Cambridge in 1966. I was a young ATC cadet (308 Colchester squadron). I hadnt realised the aircraft still existed.
Attached is a photo of her taxying out-with me sitting in the back-taken by one of the other cadets. Totally unofficially of course-as we were not supposed to take photos-presumably due to the nature of the top secret aircraft that may have been in the background!!! (Note the Canberra and Valiant!!)
Incidentally the PDF about the Zambian air force indicates that this and the other Chippies-arrived sometime around 1964-5 (and that the Caribous-then came later?).
Well it was definately 66 when I flew in it at Cambridge-and in the original photo-the reg can be seen clearly-and I was also an avid spotter in those days-and pretty sure that I wouldnt have got it wrong? Actual date was 22nd May.1966.

I thought it was a very average show but agree was spoiled by the incessant rabbiting of Bernard Chabbet.
He is obviously a highly knowledgable/respected and experienced pilot and I would love to hear him give a talk at a lecture etc.
However non stop talking through the show over the sounds of the aircraft we want to see and hear totally ruined the day for me. Unless there is something exceptional planned for next year-I will not be going.
I think its acceptable to talk a bit during the morning-whilst no flying is going on-but apart from the briefest of introductions-when something was about to get airborne-I just wish he would have shut up. I was glad to hear the cheer when the tannoy briefly failed-as I thought it was just me being a grumpy old man!!

I can recall seeing Hiller G-ATED around the Essex area a lot in the late 60s.
Fisons had a base of some sort around the Boreham/Hatfield Peveral area and I often saw saw it parked up there-alongside the main railway line.
Dont know of its eventual fate-although G-INFO shows it as destroyed.

The McAlpines one you mention was G-APWY. It was actually owned by Marconi but operated by Mcalpines crews.
It was used for calibrating various new instrumentation/electronics etc and was often to be seen at Southend-due to the nearby Marconi works at Chelmsford . I had several flights in it and recall one memorable trip when we just did a few circuits to validate a pilot who hadnt flown it for a while (28 day landing check). We spent most of the time doing very tight 360`s over one of the two pilots houses!