Well, finally some time again for more logging. I'm still hoping to finish the trip report before Christmas.....
After our long drive last night it was early getting up again; more gliders were waiting for us!
RMB Chivenor
Vigilant T.1 (624 VGS): ZH128/TP, ZH190/UC, ZH194/UG
ZH542 Sea King HAR.3A (22 sq, A flt) no mks
ZH545/Z Sea King HAR.3A 22 sq, A flt
? Chipmunk T.10 pr, PAX, no mks
Three Vigilants is all they have, but since we needed two of them it was still worth it! The unknown Chippax is in use as a flight simulator with the 722 sq ATC which is located in the barracks next to 624 VGS. And since our guide was one of the crew that turned it into a flightsimulator he was happy to show it to us. Unfortunately the id is not known. Only plate kind of thing we found read:
CIFS27A
s/n DHB732, 26-8-52
Probably not enough to id it I guess, since I have been told the important c/n plate is at the back of the rear seat, but I'm still hoping!
Only one of the three Vigilants was operational at the moment, a bad average. We heard the same kind of story at most gliding schools by the way. Serco took over the maintenance from the RAF recently (I'm actually afraid some day soon Serco will have taken over the complete Armed Forces in the UK.....), and they have a hughe backlog of maintenance work by now. Hopefully they will be able to solve this soon! Here at Chivenor they had an all week long gliding course planned, but with only one glider....
Anyway, next was three aircraft that have been around for some time, but we never had the opportunity to get them so far.
Barnstaple
(XX888) Buccaneer S.2B std, cockpit, no mks, desert c/s
XS231 Jet Provost T.5 std, fuselage, no mks
(ZD710) Tornado GR.1 std, cockpit, 14 sq mks
A small but nice private collection, shown to us by the owner. Many thanks again Tim! I understand the JP is about to be chopped in two pieces, with the cockpit going to live its own life. Tim will keep the cockpit, and the rest might be sold to South Molton if I remember correctly. (Since this is a private location I don't give the coordinates, I'm sure Tim will help people who are genuinely interested)
Next was another private collector nearby.
South Molton
(WB555) Chipmunk T.10 std, rear fuselage part, 7924M
(XM692) Gnat T.1 u. rest, cockpit, no mks
(XV806) Harrier GR.3 std, nose (frame)
The Harrier came from Boscombe Down not too long ago. Dave also had Chipmunk WZ869, but traded that for a civilian James Bond aircraft (forgot the name, sorry) only a week or so before our visit. This moved on to Bruntingthore apparently. The cockpit of WB555 should also still be alive, in Ellerton according to Demobbed. Thanks for showing us around Dave! (same remark here as with Barnstaple regarding coordinates)
On our way to Predannack we passed Helston, and there's a theme park that used to have many aircraft.
The Flambards Experience, Helston
(WG511) Shackleton T.4 pr, nose, no mks
This is the only aircraft left in the collection (apart from a plastic Concorde that is). We asked nicely if we could just quickly see the Shackleton, and we were indeed let in by a very nice staff member.
Then we hurried on to our next appointment.
Predannack airfield
Vigilant T.1 (626 VGS): ZE521/VK, ZE527/VP, ZE562/WK, ZE605/XE, ZE626/XQ
Again a full pool, this is all the unit has. Here also two are not servicable at the moment. I also noted that many Vikings don't have th c/n plate in the cockpit anymore by the way, ZE527 did have it (c/n 134) but the others I checked only had some glue remains where the plate's supposed to be. When we arrived the gate was locked, the phone wasn't answered and nobody was nearby enough to hear or see us. After trying to get the attention for about 15 minutes I had enough and climbed the fence. It turned out the boss had forgotten we were coming and was flying, and the rest didn't dare to answer his phone when they saw an unknown foreign number in the display.... Well, all well that ends well, isn't that the way you say it?
We drove back via Culdrose and read off two Sea Kings there, but those will be included in tomorrows visit as well. Since we were so close to Land's End now we decided to go there, and we arrived just in time to see the sun disappear into the ocean. Nice timing! When it got almost dark we left again, but not after Hielko had discovered the Bo.105 that's preserved here. A civil one, but still nice for Frank! Two quick stops at Land's End aerodrome and Penzance heliport didn't get us anything, at both locations they were just shutting down when we arrived. And that was it for today, we were off to our hotel.
As always corrections, additions and comments are very welcome.
That´s all folks!
Hielko Overeem, Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation
