First of all a Happy New Year to all! I hope many pictures and serials will be collected in 2009.
I hoped to finish the logging of this long but great trip in 2008. Obviously I didn't succeed, but at least I got close: here´s the report of the last day.
As said yesterday we had changed our itinerary a bit last minute, because of an arranged visit to North Weald. That meant that the original things planned for today had to be skipped, and some new destinations had to be found. Since the weather was terrible this morning we decided to drive all the way to Southend, for the Bolivian BAe.146. We were not sure it was still present, but thanks to Peter Norris we thought our chances were good.
Southend
XL426 Vulcan B.2 G-VJET, apart from the Lincoln Cross this has a wolfs head badge, is this a unit badge?
FAB-098 BAe.146 std
G-AOLK Prentice T.1 std? (ex VS618)
(G-BEPS) Belfast C.1 being scrapped (ex XR368)
(VH-AHL)/6 BAe.748-228 std, (ex Australia A10-606)
VH-AMQ/3 BAe.748-228 std, (ex Australia A10-603)
VH-AYS/8 BAe.748-228 std, (ex Australia A.10-608)
And you see Peter was right. Good for us! I know it's not really operational, but it's a new airforce for me, nice!
Since this was a long drive we had to head back to North Weald for our visit there. But as often we made two stops underway.
1476 sq ATC, Rayleigh (51 34 50.85 N, 0 38 02.70 E)
(XG325) Lightning F.1 pr, cockpit, no mks
This was a bit of a gamble, since I had no clue wether the nose would be outside and visible, but it turned out it was. Their hut is along Connaught Road, and I *think* the above coordinates are the exact spot. If not they are at least close
We made another stop at the little airstrip at Laindon, where a Swallow and a Tiger Moth should be based, but although we did find the strip in the end we couldn't find an access road to it. And since it was still raining cats and dogs we didn't feel like walking through the fields towards it. One for another time.
North Weald
(SX300) Seafire XVII u. rest, parts only (to become G-CDTM)
SX336/VL105 Seafire F.XVII 766 sq mks (G-KASX)
VX281/281 Sea Fury T.20S no mks (G-RNHF)
WZ507/74 Vampire T.11 219 sq mks (G-VTII)
XD463/Q-Z Jet Provost T.1 2 FTS mks (real id XM129, G-AOBU)
(XN)459/59 Jet Provost T.3A CFS mks (G-BWOT)
XN629 Jet Provost T.3A std, fuselage, no mks (G-KNOT)
(XP540) Gnat T.1 std, bare metal
XR538/01 Gnat T.1 4 FTS mks, G-RORI
XR993 Gnat T.1 Red Arrows c/s, real id XP534 (G-BVPP)
XS111 Gnat T.1 Red Arrows c/s, real id XP504, G-TIMM
(XS773) Basset CC.1 Queen's Flight c/s, N181WW
XT787 Wasp HAS.1 HMS Endurance mks (which squadron??), G-KAXT, also ex NZ3905 and marked as such in cockpit
XV118 Scout AH.1 std, no mks, no tail (serial from panels)
(XW289)/73 Jet Provost T.5A (1 FTS mks, G-JPVA)
XX518/S Bulldog T.1 Cambridge UAS mks, G-UDOG
XX624 Bulldog T.1 Bristol UAS mks, G-KDOG
HKG-6 Bulldog 128 RHKAAF c/s, G-BPCL, c/n 393
NZ3909/09 Wasp HAS.1 no mks (G-KANZ)
1211 Lim-5 (MiG-15) N Korean mks (G-MIGG, really ex Pol AF)
104 Jet Provost T.52 S. Arabian mks (G-PROV, also ex Singapore 352)
(1125) Strikemaster Mk.80A no mks, Saudi AF camouflage (G-CFBK)
311 Strikemaster Mk.84 no mks, Singapore AF c/s (G-MXPH)
126922/AK-402 AD-4NA VA-176 mks (G-RADR)
56498 C-54D std, USAF ATC mks (real id BuNo 56498 and USAF 42-72525)
44-42914 DC-4 std (N31356) ex civil only
8084 AT-6D no mks, (real id 42-85068), LN-AMY
(90678)/27 SNJ-7C VS-932 mks (G-BRVG)
- T-33A std, Thunderbirds c/s, N136TH (real id RCAF 21231)
560 UH-1H G-HUEY (ex Argentina AE-413)
G-AYPS L-18C (ex ALAT 18-2092)
G-BBMN Chipmunk T.10 (ex WD359)
G-BKOU Jet Provost T.3 (ex XW637) registration under wing only
G-BWGS Jet Provost T.5A (ex XW310)
G-BYCT L-29 (c/n 395142) what's the history of this one, ex Russian?
G-DOGE Sk.61E (Bulldog) (ex Swe AF 61022)
G-FLSH Yak-52 (c/n 877409, ex DOSAAF 21 ye)
G-KONG T-67 (ex HKG-10)
G-ODAT L-29 (c/n 194227, ex Russian AF?)
G-OHNO Yak-55 (c/n 901104, ex mil?)
G-VIVM Jet Provost T.5P (ex XS230)
G-YAKK Yak-50 (c/n 853104, ex DOSAAF)
G-YKYK Yak-52 c/n 9812106, ex mil?
N4596N PT-13D (ex 42-17782)
N96240 Expeditor 3TM std (ex RCAF 1559)
We already saw the tail of SX300 at Little Haugh Hall, and now some more parts. But the main fuselage is with Supermarine (or how that's called nowadays). One to look out for in the (distant) future! A great visit we had here, many thanks again Alan! Also on the flying club side we were lucky; we were allowed to remove the covers of the Hong Kong Bulldog. I have seen this aircraft a few times before, but now I finally have some nice pictures of it as well.
We didn't have much time left by now before we had to return home, but we wanted to "complete" yesterdays Gnat!
Fyfield (51 44 23.40 N, 0 16 41.10 E)
XS100 Gnat T.1 std, no nose, 4 FTS mks
This is stored in parts inside some open barn. It looks fairly complete apart from the missing nose!
We made two more quick stops after this one. The first one was at nearby Chipping Ongar, where I had Skeeter G-BJWC in my notes with a question mark. The owner of the place was rather suspicous about our unexpected presence, but finally showed us around. Lots of microlights for Frank, but no Skeeter. I did some digging on the web and found a remark it moved to Australia, can someone confirm this?
And since there was a little bit of time left we drove to Stapleford, hoping to catch some Gazelles. Well, we did get no less than four, but all completely civil ones unfortunately. We were not allowed into hangars, so no clue what else is around here.
And with this last stop our trip ended. it was a long trip, but very very nice and succesfull! We will be back
One more thing I forgot to mention is that during our trip we also visited the scrapyard at Alton. I also visited here together with Joop in July and found L-39 G-BZVL here, but by now this has been scrapped. So if you're into civil there still a lot to get here, but for the Albatross you're too late by now.
As always corrections, etcetera......
That´s all folks!
Hielko Overeem, Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation