Popham - 7th and 9th May 2008

Popham airfield is located next to the A303 a few miles south of Basingstoke. With its cafe it makes a good place to take a break and provides good views of the many aircraft.

Arriving in Feb 2008 was former RAF Jet Provest T5 XW311. This aircraft was built in 1970 and served for many years with 6 FTS at RAF Finningley near Doncaster coded as "W".


After being withdrawn from service it went on to RAF Cosford to act as a ground and technical trainer for 1 SOTT with the maintenance serial of 9180M. Local code "MF" was applied here - the aircraft also wears a DCAE Cosford badge on the intake. I understand it is here temporarily and is en route to a car dealer in Hampshire

Parked around the back at Popham was wingless Auster J1N Alpha G-AGXN


This aircraft was built in 1946 and had flown over 3,770 hours by the end of 2004 - let's hope it's back in the skies soon.


I stopped at Popham again two days later on the 9th May 2008 and found the following aircraft parked by the visitors ramp ( next to the cafe area ).



G-JFLO Aerospool Dynamic WT9 is an attractive modern Slovak design. This example was built in 2007 and is powered by the Rotax 912UL.


Representing an altogether older design is G-AYKT a SAN Jodel D117. This aircraft was built in 1957 and imported into the UK in 1970 and has flown over 2,600 hours by the end of 2006.


Two classic biplanes together - G-ADKM is an example of the pre WW2 De Havilland DH 87B Hornet Moth an elegant enclosed touring aircraft. G-ADKM was built in 1935 and was impressed into service with the RAF as W5751 during World War 2. In the background is Antonov 2 HA-MKF - this aircraft was built at the PZL Mielec factory in Poland in 1985.

Popham is home to at least 6 examples of the Comco Ikarus C42 ultralight aircraft designed in Germany. This example G-CDRO was built in 2005 is used for basic flight training and is kept very busy - other based here include G-CDMS, G-CDVI, G-CDHR and G-CCYR.



Arriving just before I departed was DHC 1 Chipmunk 22 G-BDDD - this aircraft is operated by the RAE Aero Club based at Farnborough and wears the normal RAE "Raspberry Ripple" type colour scheme. This example was built in 1951 and served with the RAF as WD387 as a basic flight trainer for many years until being sold to the civil marked in 1975. By the end of 2006 this aircraft had flown over 11,000 flight hours.