Sunday 17 August
On Sunday the Gnats were out again at Eastbourne, with a second singleton sortie to Sywell later. The ground crew has a busy weekend and did a great job.
The Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron’s Vampire FB52 arrived later, and will be staying with us for a while. The Norwegians are always very welcome at North Weald, and a single seat Vampire especially so!
Saturday 16 August
Sorry for the recent lack of updates, the weather and my roster has taken its toll. Nevertheless we had an interesting time on Saturday.
Two of the Gnats went off to display at Eastbourne. We also had a special guest to see them off – Squadron Leader Henry Prince, who was the original Red 7 with Ray Hanna as lead. On their return the Gnats performed low level missed approaches and go arounds with smoke on to replicate Ray Hanna’s famous low pass in a Gnat. He was really interesting to talk to and had lots of great stories to tell. It was an honour to have one of the pilots on the Airfield who helped to lay the foundations for one of the world’s greatest aerobatic teams.
As icing on the cake, the two Lancaster gave us a fly-by on their way to display at the Old Warden Flying Proms. What an amazing sight and sound!
Sunday 3 August
On Sunday we had Nostalgair – the classic aircraft, car and bike show at the Squadron, with some suitable visitors on the static line to set the scene including the Dragon Rapide from Old Warden, a de Havilland Hornet Moth and Queen Bee, Boeing Stearman, Morane Saulnier Alcyon, Miles Messenger, Curtiss Wright Travel Air and Beagle Husky. The Gnats went out to display at Selsey in Sussex, so there were classic jets for people to see too.
The visitors departed through the afternoon, so some shots of the aircraft on the move…
Saturday 2 August
On Saturday G-TIMM, the red Gnat was out for a local flight and some circuits.
The Huey also departed to Damyn’s Hall for a display over the weekend.
Don’t know the reason, but it does seem to twist. Here is a similar take off picture of G-VIVM, one of our JP5s and the Thurrock-based Partenavia G-KIMK.
A few from Thursday. The Hangar 11 Mustang went off to Turweston.
The Sea Fury T20 also paid us a brief visit before departing for Coningsby and Benson.
Some activity from Sunday. The Singapore Strikemaster was out for a couple of local sorties.
The Hangar 11 Spitfire displayed twice over the weekend at the English Heritage History Show at Kelmarsh Hall. It got back just before the thunderstorms rolled in!
John Beattie also took the Skyraider up for an air test, performing one of his customary low passes on his return. He also did a ‘wing wave’ before taxying back!
Gnats in the wet today. G-TIMM and G-MOUR departed to Kemble for a display before ending up at Fairford for RIAT. They are then moving on to Farnborough next week.
Following Waddibgton, G-TIMM now sports a Red Arrows zap…
The runway was wet, wer, wet, so lots of spray on take off!
The RNHF Sea Fury did an air test on Tuesday afternoon.
After a quick refuel, it departed back to its base at Yeovilton.
Our former resident black Hunter T7 FireFox (G-FFOX) called in for fuel from Esbjerg in Denmark on Tuesday on its way to Waddington.
We had actually noticed that our 100th anniversary is in 2016 and have been working on ideas for what we can do for some time. The problem, as ever, is money. Our community days cost around £20,000 to put on for quite basic events with small amounts of flying. A BBMF flypast this year will cost us in the region of £2,000 for the aircraft and insurance. In the past we have been fortunate to benefit from the generosity of owners and operators of warbirds. Rest assured that 2016 will be something special at North Weald!
A bit of a catch-up from this week. On Wednesday evening we got a very nice fly-by from the BBMF Dakota up and down the main runway.
On Friday a Scout arrived from Lee-on-Solent for maintenance, the Napps Field Stearman paid us one of its regular visits, the Singapore Strikemaster was out for its monthly engine run and the Hunter T7, Fox 1, departed to Cambridge for the weekend. It will be displaying at Shuttleworth on Sunday.
New Hangar 11 Spitfire
I also got permission to post some pictures of Hangar 11’s new Spitfire IX, PT879,whose fuselage arrived on Tuesday from Sandown.
Sign In
