I think that we were treated as bit of a cash cow, putting 5 students at a time through 30 hours over 4 weeks was a nice little earner! But we always got the worst slots and evryone else took precedence over us, I did 4 hours in my first couple of weeks, and crammed the rest into the final 2!

I liked the runway painted on the bar, and the model Cessna, you could stand there pint in one hand, while you demonstrated the impossible approach and perfect landing that day with the other!

One of the ‘Friends’ of the club owned a Cessna 310 (G-EGEE)and an Auster, he owned a garage and some racehorses (hence the reg), I got to go in the 310 so I could camcorder another 310 that they thought the gear doors were hanging on.

Maple 01 – I only have a stand-alone combined DVD/VHS player just now (and a DVD burner on my PC) – looks like I shall be re-equipping soon!

I have just bought the Sony DVD-R that is on discount everywhere for £200, it has an I-Link connection as well as the usual Red/White/Yellow on the front so that you can plug you Camcorder straight in with a single lead (4 Pin Firewire) and the DVD recorder will automatically take the camcorder off pause when you press record, and will stop the recording when the camcorder stops….dead easy for dropping DV Tapes onto DVD!

I haven’t tried copying off of a VCR player yet, but it records off Discovery Wings very well!

I remember Whirlybirds with Chuck and PT and their Bell 47G/J. Hasn’t it been aired on Cahnnel 5 recently?

Who remembers Squadron which featured Odiham Pumas and the like. I would love to see the Redcoat Britannia in Bucaneer again and my all time favourite would be the Aeronauts (as it was called in Britain) which was filmed at Dijon with all those Mirage IIIs.

I seem to remember the Aeronauts, but I have a vague recollection of Canberras being in it, or am I thinking of something else?

I remember seeing the Redcoat Brittannia being parked up at luton, with stickers over the real markings…

The 10′ span Model DC3 used in Airline (made from the Inwood Plan) has turned up recently at a Large Model Association event, in it’s original markings.

And finally there were 2 good series featuring Grumman flying boats – Bailey’s Bird using a Mallard and Tales of the Golden Monkey, which I think used a Widgeon. (I have flown on the Mallard used in the opening credits of Miami Vice!)

I heard a story about a U2 pilot cruising at 70,000 ft over the Med, smug in the knowledge that he was in the highest flying aircraft, only to have 2 Lightnings from Cyprus fly over the top of him…..

Be good fun to rent a crane and be ‘Hovering’ outside your neighbours window when they open their curtains on a Sunday Morning…..

What Film was it with Arnie doing something similar to an office block?

I remember the incident well, I saw the practice you were probably sitting through and thought that it was a bit extreme low down. The school continued on for a few more years run by the brother. It closed when everyone moved on to flying commercially on airliners I think.
Things were different in those days!

Yes they certainly were!

the younger brother was a character, half way through the first lesson, he would announce that you seemed to have the hang of it, take of his harness and open the door…….

He would also suddenly ask you to turn onto a southerly heading, as he could only pick his nose when heading south….he would then open the door to wipe his soiled digit on the aircraft under-side…

If you saw another aircraft from the club you had to immediately engage in a dog-fight, it was bit dis-concerting to be doing Instrument practice and suddenly having control taken from you and the aircraft going onto an unusual attitude before you had chance to take the goggles off!

And of course you had to see if you could land and stop before the end of the Piano keys on the main runway…..

A very professional outfit by all accounts!

Hmm, id have to go for a Westland Wessex, probably the biggest thing that would fit, and also i could live in it :p

Good man! But take it from me the seats in the back are not that comfy after an hour or so…

I suggested that my Father buy a Hunter (saw one on Ebay recently) as he lives next door to Tim Manna, we thought it would be a good way to keep up with the Joneses………

Tim,
Thanks, that’s a shame..
This reminds me of lying on the beach at the west end of the runway, watching the Jaguars take off over you…..happy days 😎