Typical of the bureaucrats – ill-thought out measures without regard for the consequences. And because they won’t want to lose face for making a mistake the innocent suffer. I had read about this elsewhere and hoped it wasn’t true. Another major blow for airshows in Europe and operators of historic aircraft.

YR

That’s why I love digital cameras. You don’t have to pay for all the prints of blurred, out of focus or half way out of the frame pictures any more! Flying Legends used to cost me a fortune in film.

YR

I have known Bill Ash since the 1970s, and although I was aware that he was a Spitfire pilot and POW, he was typical of so many veterans in playing down what he did in the war. You could get the occasional anecdote out of him, but no more. I also knew that he was stripped of his US citizenship for joining the RCAF and took British nationality after the war, which was all to our gain!

All credit to another friend, Brendan Foley, who finally persuaded Bill to recall his exploits for a wider audience. The book is indeed a great read and not just about Bill, but the other heroes who refused to stop resisting simply because they were prisoners.

At times the book is almost surreal in describing life in the camps and on the run, with some things so absurd that if you saw them in a film they would seem to be too far-fetched. Reading about Bill’s recapture after escaping in Lithuania, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He never flew an aircraft again, and although I tried to get him to attend Project Propeller last year and have a flight, he felt he wasn’t up to it.

The amazing thing was that a few Sundays ago someone brought a DVD about RAF Hornchurch to the Squadron at North Weald and we watched it. All of a sudden there was Bill being interviewed. The next day I received an email inviting me to the launch of the new book.

It’s certainly a different sort of read from the usual flying autobiography.

YR 😀

The people who want to build 6000 houses on North Weald airfield.

YR

There is an aviation museum at Carlisle Airport – also Hadrian’s Wall (historic but not aviation!)

YR

You can afford to aviate and buy a new camera???!!!!!

Nice pic, Neal. Hope to be back in the air soon myself.

YR

I’ve flown the Bulldog a lot – in the UK. It’s a great little aeroplane, and very easy to fly. It is a typical over-engineered military trainer, so strongly built and aerobatic – with a stick rather than yoke. Big rudder means a 35 knot crosswind limit and a demonstrated taxying limit of 50 knots!

Approach speed 69 knots. Two positions of electric flap – Inter is 10 degrees (also used for take off) and full flap is 45 degrees.

Standard Lycoming IO-360 200hp engine with 2-blade Hartzell constant speed prop – so nothing out of the ordinary there. Tank capacity is 39.63 US Gals, so range is not brilliant.

Only 2 seats in the RAF version, but 3 for the Swedish Air Force and Army ones, so plenty of baggage space.

Sliding bubble canopy, low dashboard and narrow chord wings gives really excellent visibility all round. Canopy can be locked open slightly in flight below 120 knots, but all that glass does make it hot in summer.

Airframe construction is conventional, but there are a couple of potential problem areas. The oleos to the main undercarriage are located horizontally under the seats, which means their method of working is not conventional and spares may be hard to source. The other issue is the main spar life.

In the ex-RAF machines there are 6 fatigue index meters measuring positive and negative G loads. Depending how hard you work the aeroplane, the index will go up faster or more slowly, until the main spar life is reached.

While the Bulldog was still in service with various airforces and the design rights were still held by BAE, the cost of replacing them was enormous. Now the design rights have been passed to DH Support at Duxford, that should now be somewhat cheaper. I don’t know of any that have been replaced yet, though I do know of aircraft getting towards the limit.

If you are interested in the Bulldog, I suggest getting in touch with two organisations (in the UK, but able to give better answers than I can):

DH Support:
http://www.dhsupport.com/beagle/index.html

and the Beagle Pup and Bulldog Club: http://www.beaglepupandbulldogclub.org/index.html

YR