I’ve now got permission to post pictures of our latest arrival – Hawker Tempest II, MW763. This arrived on 14 May from Wickenby. There is another thread about it on the forum, but these shots are included in the general diary for completeness. The aircraft will be ready, when its ready! Another nice project for the Airfield.
On Saturday the 72 Squadron Association came to North Weald for their annual reunion. Among the visitors we welcomed one of their former Spitfire pilots from the Mediterranean as well as the current Squadron Boss W/Cdr ‘Baz’ Dale, who first of all spent some time in the Tower.
They then had a tour of the restoration projects and our classic jets in Hangar 4, where they posed for a group shot by the Vampire T11. They included some of our National Service veterans who served with the Squadron at North Weald.
The weather was very windu=y over the weekend, but the Hangar 11 Mustang, ‘Jumpin’ Jacques’, went out for a display.
Some of our Jet Provosts were out too…
The Hunter T7, Fox 1, WV372, didi a couple of sorties too. This is due to display next weekend at the first Shuttleworth show
On Bank Holiday Monday Richerd Grace flew in ML407 for a welcome visit. Great to see my favourite spitfire again
The Hangar 11 Hurricane was also flying. It performed a display the the Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey
More Gnat action on Sunday too. It started to rain as the first sortie took off, and it came back early because of the low cloud.
The weather improve for their second trip. The take off was shot from the Tower, where I had just finished a stint on the radio.
WE also had some rather nice red MGs visiting the Airifield. Suitably historic British classics!
The final sortie was a two ship which gave us a low pass with smoke on. The engineers did a great job over the weekend so that the six flights all went off without a hitch!
OPeration Crosbow
As there is a repeat of the BBC documentary Operation Crossbow on the fight against Hitler’s V-weapons available at the moment on iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011cr8f/Operation_Crossbow/
Here are some pictures of some of the filming involving the Hangar 11 Spitfire PR XI in March 2011.
PR Spitfire Jimmy Taylor and some of the other participants
The following day, the aerial sequences were filmed by an R44 helicopter and on the ground
The C54 was looking good in the sun today.
The Air Atlantique Historic Flight Venom, G-DHVM, was out on the apron too, waiting to be ferried back to Coventry.
The flight was delayed a bit by bad weather at Coventry, which prevented the pilot getting got North Weald in the morning. Nevertheless we were treated to a great cartridge start of the Ghost engine.
The it started to taxi…
The take off on Runway 02 was impressive!
We also got a rather nice low pass as it departed to do a practice display at Duxford on its way back to Coventry.
Yesterday (Good Friday) we had the Hanger 11 Hurricane doing a short air test before departing to Wellesbourne.
Our South Arabian Federation Provost, G-PROV, was carrying out training flights and a solo detail.
Our Hong Kong Bulldog, G-GPCL, was out on a local flight.
We also had another Bulldog, G-BZMD, XX554, visiting from Goodwood in standard RAF colours.
Last Sunday, there were two more three-ship sorties
The second sortie was an air-to-air photo shoot with the Strikemaster, which took off first and flew on over the Gnats as they took off.
Last weekend were the first three-ship Gnat sorties for 14 years. The Saturday one first…
There was also a two ship and first solo on type
To start things off, here are a few shots from the past few weeks.
Hangar 11 Hurricane on a run and break,then a landing
Army Air Corps Apaches are regular visitors
G-MOUR, the yellow Gnat has been working up in anticipation of their three-ship formations
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