I finally found the time to finish the report of our Scottish trip. This final day was originally a kind of "back-up" day, for locations we didn't get to earlier this trip. But there were also a few locations fixed already, starting with Dirleton.
Archerfield Estate, Dirleton (56º 2' 34.5" N, 2º 48' 25" W)
WZ784 Grasshopper TX.1 std, wings of WZ824
43-6021 L-4 (G-BWEZ) still nothing known about its history??
The Cub lives in the small hangar at the grass strip, the Grasshopper however is stored in one of the sheds at the estate itself. It seems that the identities of WZ784 and WZ824 are swopped! The one at Carlisle museum has been reported as WZ784 with parts (wings?) of WZ824, but the fuselage here at Dirleton is clearly marked WZ784, while both wings have WZ824 on them. I understand the one at Carlisle is unmarked? So as said I am led to believe their identities were switched. This Grasshopper used to be stored at Strathaven by the way before moving here.
Then we had a visit planned at East Fortune, with an appointment to see the storage hangar and also the stored Chipmunk owned by the APSS.
Museum of Flight, East Fortune
Outside:
XM597 Vulcan B.2A pr, 41 sq mks
EDIT: this obviously is not correct! It only wears a shield with the English flag colours on the tail, and no other markings.
G-BDIX Comet C.4 pr, ex XR399
Hangar 1:
TE462 Spitfire LF.XVIE pr, no mks
(VX185) Canberra B.5 pr, nose, no mks
WF259/A-171 Sea Hawk F.2 pr, 804 sq mks
WW145/LM-680 Sea Venom FAW.22 pr, is this a 750 sq code?
XN776/C Lightning F.2A pr, 92 sq mks
XT288/288 Buccaneer S.2B pr, 12 sq mks
XV277/07 P.1127 pr, no mks
ZE934/TA Tornado F.3 pr, 56 (R) sq mks
3677 S-103 (MiG-15bis) pr, Ostrava mks
(191659)/15 Me.163B-1A pr, no mks
155848/WT-11 F-4S pr, VMFA-232 mks
G-ARCX Meteor NF.14 pr, WM261 ntu
Hangar 2:
(VM360 Anson C.19 pr, no mks)
G-BBVF Twin Pioneer CC.2 pr, ex XM961
VH-SNB DH.84 pr, ex RAAF A34-13
Hangar 3 (Storage hangar):
WV493/A-P/29 Provost T.1 pr, 6 FTS mks
XA109 Sea Vampire T.22 pr, no mks
XL762 Skeeter AOP.12 pr, no mks(9940) Bolingbroke IVT u. rest, no mks
FL+S MS.505 pr, ex FAF 695
G-AGBN Cygnet II pr, ex ES915, mil c/s
G-AHKY M-18.2 pr, ex HM545
G-AOEL Tiger Moth II pr, ex N9510
Building 38 (former fire truck shed):
WB670 Chipmunk T.10 std, nose, with rear of WG303
Small building behind hangar 3:
XA228 Grasshopper TX.1 std
In here were also wings with military roundels marked SSK A3206; does this make sense to someone?
Storage building near entrance:
(WB584) Chipmunk T.10 std, PAX, 1 AEF mks
(XK533) Buccaneer S.1 std, nose, maybe XN966?
(309) SBLim-2 (MiG-15UTI) std, nose, ex Polish AF
(BF-10) Beaufighter TF.X std, in parts
? Beaufighter II std, nose
We were welcomed warmly here (again). First we had a look in the storage hangar. This has tours every day, but as we had an appointment at Glasgow UAS early afternoon we were lucky enough to get access here earlier. After that we had an appointment with the APSS, who showed us their Chipmunk (WB670). Thanks again! This one is also visible through the windows by the way, just like the stored cockpits we got and some of the gliders. Those gliders are rather difficult by the way, we saw many more (mostly civil probably) but id-ing them was not possible unfortunately. Present here should also be Cadet TX.1 TS291 and Gull 1 VW912. We also didn't see the stored Waco CG-4 nose and Monarch G-AFJU (ex X9306).
After this we really had to hurry, to get to Glasgow.
Glasgow Airport
G-BYUD/UD Tutor University of Glasgow & Strathclyde AS
G-BYVM/VM Tutor University of Glasgow & Strathclyde AS
That's a full pool! "UD" had 250.000 hours markings, and both carried an 1 EFTS badge. We learned here that all Tutors are getting this badge, since they operate from a pool. Luckily we did photograph a lot of Tutors in the past with actual UAS badges, that does look nicer....
After the visit here we quickley drove to Perth airport, to try again to get the instructional airframes. And we arrived ten minutes too late.... Again! A bit disappointed we drove on to the west, for a Piper on floats.
Loch Earn, St. Fillans (56º 23' 26" N, 4º 7' 00" W)
G-BWUB L-21B ex MM54-2586
When we apporached the lake we saw a Cub flying and were afraid we just missed it, but it made a go around and landed right in front of us. A nice sight, even in its civil c/s! The company flying it, Caledonian Seaplanes, uses the Hotel Drummond as a base, and the Cub lives anchored to the pier right in front of it. You can't really miss it when it's there. The Beaver that used to be stored at Loch Earn (just a bit further North, but on the other side of the lake) has been sold to Canada, and is flying again there (as C-FLOR, ex XP779).
Then on to the next Piper.
Easter Polder Farm, Thornhill (56º 8' 55" N, 4º 10' 50" W)
(G-E)GPG L-21B ex MM54-2369
This was inside the large hangar at the farm. It was closed, and nobody was present, but the space between the two main doors was just large enough to see (part of) the Cub. This one used to be G-BWUE by the way, which is in the register as being transferred to the USA, but that never happened.
We had one last destination for today, the airfield at Cumbernauld.
Cumbernauld Aerodrome (55º 58' 27" N, 3º 58' 22.5" W)
XV268 Beaver AL.1 std, no wings (G-BTDM)
We arrived just too late apparently. The people in the tower were just about to leave, and were not willing to show us anything unfortunately. We did get confirmed that L-18C G-BIID (ex 51-15606) lives here, but we couldn't have a look as it was in the hangar. We did see the stored Beaver however, which is stored outside next to a hangar at the far end (the place mark gives the exact location), and when we rang the bell at the local helicopter company they did show us their hangar and also some of the stuff on the civil apron. But no Piper unfortunately. Anyway, a nice end of the trip.
We decided that we did earn a decent meal by now, so we headed into the village and found a local pub. This was very crowded, we had forgotten that it was a football night and Scotland was playing against France. We decided to stay and watch the game and get a little meal as well, and this was definately worth it. Especially when the Scots managed to score and win the atmosphere was nice!
Next morning we went to Edinburgh airport to fly home, and present here was Belgian AF A.310 CA01, crippled after a flame out during landing.
All in all we had a great trip! We managed to see almost all W&R in Scotland, we only missed one Lightning, one Magister, one Meteor and three Piper Cubs. One Tiger Moth was gone for heavy maintenance, and we didn't find the Tiger Moth that should be under restoration. Apart from that I think we got all we looked for. And of course there were a lot of operational aircraft as well, with the Saudies as a big bonus. So we went home with a very satisfied feeling again.
I hope you enjoyed the reports again, I definately enjoyed writing them!
As always additions and corrections are very welcome.
That's all folks!
Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation
(please feel free to use, but with a credit)
