The Anonymous Widower

Spitfire Women

BBC4 had this excellent documentary about the women of the Air Tranport Auxiliary  tonight. Marion Wilberforce wasn’t mentioned.

September 18, 2010 Posted by | World | , | Leave a comment

More R101 Pictures

They are small so I scanned them together.

 

 

The house is probably my in-laws’ house in Crescent Road, New Barnet.

September 14, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Was This Pilot Marion Wilberforce?

My post about our use of women in World War II, Why We Didn’t Lose World War II has got me thinking about the Air Transport Auxiliary, especially as a number of people have contacted me after the article.

I can remember in the 1970s seeing a book called something like Ferry Pilots Notes for the ATA, which showed you how to fly everything from a Spitfire to a Stirling or a Liberator with little or no training.  Where was the Health and Safety?  Nowhere, they were just exceptional pilots, even if some of them were amputees, one-eyed or diminutive women like Joan Hughes. 

When I was learning to fly at Ipswich Airport in the early 1980s, I can remember an elderly lady flying into the field in an immaculate vintage de Havlland Hornet Moth.  She used to come for checks on her flying skills. And also to practice aerobatics in a Cessna 150 Aerobat.

The instructor who flew with her, said that she had been a ferry pilot during World War II and was one of the best pilots he’d ever sat with.

Searching for the Air Transport Auxiliary, I found this page, which talks about the first eight women pilots of the organisation.  This is one of the eight.

Marion Wilberforce

Marion Wilberforce was an experienced pilot in the 1930’s, flying her own Gypsy Moth.

In the ATA she rose to become Deputy Commander of the No. 5 Ferry Pool at Hatfield, and later became Commander of the No. 2 Ferry Pool at Cotsford. She served the full 5 years until the ATA was disbanded after the war she purchased a Hornet Moth and continued flying until she was 80. She died at age 93, in July 1996.

I’m absolutely sure, that the pilot was Marion Wilberforce and she was doing aerobatics at an age of almost 80!

At least Richard Poad is getting an exhibition together on the Air Transport Auxiliary  at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre.

September 14, 2010 Posted by | World | , , | 18 Comments

A Photo of an Airship

Last night I was going through some old photos of my mother-in-law’s and found a couple of pictures of an airship.

Here’s the best one.

The Airship Photo

On reading the call-sign on the side as G-FAAW, it became obvious with a bit of searching the Internet, that the airship, was the ill-fated R101, which crashed on its first flight in France.

The R101 is one of those projects, that suffered from bad design and management.  It should also be said that there appears to have been a lot of political interference.  After all the R101 was the government’s project to rival the capitalist R100, so I don’t think they wanted it to fail. 

But was this pressure worth the lives of the 48 people, who died with the R101?

The picture looks like it was taken in the area of Cardington, but it might be elsewhere.

My mother-in-law and in fact others in North London, including my own mother, were somewhat fascinated by airships.  A lot of this was probably due to the shooting down of the German airship by Captain Leefe Robinson in September 1916 at Cuffley, the fire of which could be seen a hundred miles away.  I think both would have been about four at the time and it was something that must have made an impression on both their lives. Somewhere, I’ve seen a tin box of the remains of the downed airship, that had been scavanged by perhaps a child at the time.

 

 

September 5, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | 5 Comments

The Big Duxford Air-Show

Yesterday and today, is the big Battle of Britain air-show at Duxford. Hopefully, as I’m in line with the runway, I’ll get a few interesting flyovers.

September 5, 2010 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

Kiss Your Holiday Goodbye!

Yet another holiday firm has gone bust. All of those that have failed this year,  have been at the bottom end of the market.  I know it is hard for those who have lost their holidays, but surely when you book, it is sensible to do this with a company that is unlikely to fail. I’ve rarely used a package holiday company and when I’ve booked in the past, I’ve often put it together myself, by booking the flights and hotel I want.  That approach is usually cheaper and you often get a better room too!

I remember once on Skiathos, we compared prices with others, who’d used a package.  We’d booked direct and flown easyJet and probably paid about 20% less. The only difference was we didn’t get a useless rep. But as the hotel was short of De Luxe rooms, who was it that got the free upgrade to Superior?

On another point, how much do all these failures cost the taxpayer?

August 18, 2010 Posted by | News | , | Leave a comment

Travelling With The Stars

Well! I haven’t often, but seeing that Tom Cruise last night spent three hours signing autographs last night, in a very uncelebrity like way, it made me think of the times, I’d come across stars and celebrities in my travels.

Virginia Wade – I was going to Liverpool in the late 1960s and she shared a table of four, all the way to Crewe in Standard Class.  The other two at the table were both male and like myself interested in trains. One was a British Rail engineer and he gave us a running commentary of the works along the line. I don’t think she was very impressed, but we didn’t disturb her from her rest as she sat well back.

Janet Webb – She was the large extrovert lady, who used to close the Morecambe and Wise Show.  I encountered her on a trip to Darlington, when she was going with the owners to open a shop for well-upholstered ladies in Sunderland.  She was a real pro and kept the whole carriage entertained, as we ate our breakfast.

Susan Hampshire – We were travelling to Greece on British Airways in the days before cheap airlines and she  was travelling with her husband. She entertained the plane, signed autographs and generally made a rather crowded trip much better.

And then there was Joan Collins, who asked me for a light at six in the morning, after an overnight flight from the United States. I’ve never smoked so I couldn’t oblige, but I must say she didn’t quite look the glamourous Alexis at that hour of the morning. But who would be at their best?

July 23, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | 1 Comment

Only The Irish!

I love Ireland and the Irish.  My father always claimed that there was an Irish ancestor in our blood, but I’ve never found them, amongst a real mixture, of which any London mongrel would be proud.

In July 1990, our horse, Vague Shot, travelled to Ireland to run in the McGrath Stakes in the Irish Derby meeting at the Curragh. He was second and that paid the expenses of the trip. The Derby though was unusual that year in that Hamdam Al Maktoum’s filly, Salsabil, was attempting to defeat the colts. I remember that I flew myself, C and a friend, Gillian, over in my Cessna 340A to the main Dublin Airport.

I think we had lunch at the Regans close to the course andTadey and Moira came with us to the races in the afternoon. I remember that Tadey helped saddle Vague Shot and the horse duly delivered. I also remember C and Moira having a bet on Belmez in the Derby at outrageous each-way odds. When Salsabil won, they couldn’t find the ticket as their selection had been third, but Moira talked the Tote into paying out anyway.

So we had had a good day on the hospitality, racing and betting fronts.

We then left to go back to the airport in our hire car. Normally, this was an easy journey of about an hour, but as we approached the airport, the traffic had slowed to a crawl and people were parking on the roadside and running towards the airport. In the end we did the same and after half-an-hour we had dumped the keys with the car hire company and had walked to the general aviation terminal.

I asked what was going on only to be told, that the Irish team were returning from the 1990 World Cup and that Dublin had also given Nelson Mandela the freedom of the city. Only the Irish would organise three major events on the same day. But I think they had a great party!

There were people running about all over the airport hoping to greet the footballers on their return, so taxiing the aircraft was difficult and in some ways a bit dangerous for the trespassers.  In the end however, we scraped out of the airport almost in the dark and delivered Gillian to Stansted. The terminal was all locked up, so what about security? Finally, we arrived at Ipswich and went home for supper.

July 14, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , , | 1 Comment

Incident at Leeds

I learned to fly soon after we moved to Ipswich in about 1974.  It had always been something that I’d want to do.  But C never flew with me for some years.

She probably flew with me some time in about 1986 for the first time and that was rather a hary flight to Prestwick, where because of bad weather we ended up in Glasgow.  It wasn’t bumpy, but there was just a lot of low cloud and we were above it, so you had the problem of getting into the airport.  But we did safely.

But she was always a nervous passenger.

Until that is we flew to Prestwick to see a horse we owned called Debach Dust run at the nearby Ayr racecourse.

The horse ridden by Kim Tinkler had shown her usual ability and had done nothing, so we weren’t all that pleased in many ways after flying all the way from Ipswich.  But it was a hell of a lot better than driving all that way and in that the trip up took about three hours as opposed to about seven or eight in a car.  In fact one trip on a Friday to that part of Scotland had taken twelve hours, so we knew the advantages of flying, even if C was very reluctant.

September 17th, 1988 was a beautifully clear day for flying, but I remember as Tango-Tango, my Piper Arrow cruised at a good altitude over the Southern Uplands of Scotland, the wind was making it rather bumpy.  C was sitting quietly beside me, trying to make as little fuss as possible.

To say all hell broke loose would be wrong, as it was just that after about an hour into the flight, that the oil pressure in the single engine was starting to fade and drop to zero.  In other words, we were losing oil and had to get down as quickly as possible. 

But before you think that this was a serious situation, I had several things in my favour.

The visibility was good and I could see northern England laid out before me, so if I had to land without power, there would have been plenty of wide open fields in which to do what every pilot dreads; a forced landing.

But more importantly, I was at 5,000 feet or so and I was only about 50 nautical miles from the major airport at Leeds.  It also was probably the nearest airport too, so the choice of where to go was made up for me.  Many air accidents have happened because pilots attempt to get to their home base.  I wasn’t going to take that risk, but I did prepare C for a bumpy emergency landing on the moors.

Throttling back and losing height slowly seemed to be the best thing to do and as I still had some oil pressure, I hoped that this action would get me to Leeds without losing all power. 

Now in all the bad films, you always call Mayday, when you are in trouble.  But in my case, I assessed that with an average amount of luck, I’d be OK.  Especially, as I had set up Leeds airport on my navigation equipment, so that I knew exactly where I was heading.  I also knew the airport quite well and also the problems that you sometimes get when approaching from the east due to downdrafts.

So I made what is a Pan-Pan call and Leeds cleared me to come in on Runway 09.  This would mean that I had the shortest distance to travel to land, but that I would have to land with a crosswind from the right.

Very little else happened and I turned on to finals at about eight hundred feet, so that if the engine decided to go completely AWOL, I would still make the runway.  I also knew that I had 1100 metres of runway, which was quite enough for the little Piper.

C kept absolutely quiet in all this time!  What she was thinking she never really told me!

But it all happened without incident and I landed Tango-Tango successfully with no problem and was able to taxi the plane off the runway to the light aviation terminal.

It wasn’t an easy journey from Leeds to Ipswich though.  There wasn’t a car hire firm open and in the end it was a taxi to the train station, a train to Peterborough and then a lift from there with our eldest son.

But C never again worried about going in a light aircraft with me. 

So much so that within a year we flew all around Australia in a similar Piper Arrow.

But that is another story!

May 3, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , | 6 Comments

Getting an Australian Visa

Some years ago, my late wife and I went to Australia.  It was actually a flying holiday, where I hired a Piper Arrow and flew all around the wider south-east of the country.  We flew a roundabout route from Sydney via Mildura, Adelaide, Cooper Pede, Yulara, Alice Springs, Mount Isa, Cairns, Dunk Island, Mackay, Brisbane and Goondawindi.  It took about three weeks and was a very enjoyable trip.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the trip was that in the first few days in Sydney, I had to pass the exams for my pilots licence.  It would have been divorce if I’d failed.  But then I don’t fail, when there is no plan B.

But to get the visa for Australia, you had to go to the High Commission and wait in line.

For this trip, I just did it over the Internet.  It worked very smoothly. 

If you need to get an Australian visa click here.

April 22, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

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