Halesland airfield - Sat 20.9.08

This grass airstrip is my local airfield - it is high up on the Mendip Hills about 6 miles West of Wells, just north of the village of Draycott.

Since my last visit many of the resident gliders have now applied CAA "G-........" registrations - outside on this beautiful afternoon were,


Slingsby T 50 Skylark BGA 1019 coded "BKA" - this old glider is exempt from having a "G-....." registration.



G-CFVC is a Schleicher AS K13 formerly BGA 3550 owned by resident Mendip Gliding Club


G-CJAR coded "P3" is a Schempp Hirth Discs BT - this lovely glider has a pop up sustainer engine to maintain flight if needed - seen here being washed prior to dismantling into a trailer. The pilot tells me he operates this glider from both here and Usk in South Wales.


The hanger had 2 gliders and one Fournier motorglider ( G-AVWY ) - this is Schleicher K8B G-DDOY formerly BGA 2307 - this is based and belongs to Mendip Gliding Club. Note that the tailcode of "DOY" was previously "DQY" when it operated as a BGA glider.

Compton Abbas airfield 13.9.08

Compton Abbas is one of the most beautiful airfields I've visited in the UK, perched high up on top of the hills just south of Shaftesbury. Viewing is easy with good public access and good cafe too.


DH 82A Tiger Moth G-AOIL c/n 83673 is based at Compton Abbas. It is painted in its old Royal Navy colour schem as XL716 and flies air experience flights and was busy on this sunny day with several passengers. The aircraft was built during World War 2 in 1940 by Morris Motors and was delivered to the RAF as T7363. It was registerd onto the civil register in August 1956 as G-AOIL. However just two months later it was sold to the Royal Navy and became XL716.


Eventually the aircraft was withdrawn by the Royal Navy and reverted to the civil registration G-AOIL. By December 2007 this aircraft had flown over 2930 hours.


Another vintage aircraft at Compton is Aeronca 7AC Champion G-ATHK in a lovely red colour scheme.




This aircraft is c/n 7AC-971 and was built in 1946 by Aeronca in the USA and registered as N82339. It was imported into the UK and first registered as G-ATHK in 1965. By December 2006 this aircraft had flown over 7395 flying hours.

G-DORS EC135 Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance

G-DORS EC135 operated by Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance visits Wells 9.9.08

Today my local air ambulance helicopter visited my own home town.

G-DORS is based at Henstridge airfield on the Somerset / Dorset border. This helicopter was delivered new to Bond Aviation Leasing and was registered with the CAA on 14th December 2006.

G-DORS was officially handed over to the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance on 15th February at RNAS Yeovilton in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal. The aircraft carries a metal plaque below the c/n plate to commeorate this.

Construction Number plate on G-DORS c/n 0517

The Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance was operating today as HELIMED 10A and piloted by Max Hoskins a former North Sea oil & gas helicopter pilot flying with Bristows.

G-DORS EC135 lifts off from a school cricket pitch in Wells 9.9.08

Lisie Katy, Poland 16.8.08

The airfield at Lisie Katy is just north of the the large town of Grudziadz. My visit coincided with 24 hour period of intense rainfall ! As such there was only 1 aircraft parked outside.

I was very lucky to find a glider maintence engineer in a workshop and he kindly opened the access doors to the two large wooden hangers for me - many thanks.

One hanger is used by the Aeroklub gliders - in here were 17 gliders, mainly Pirats, Puchacz, Bocians and Jantars. Highlights in here for me were SP-3650 PW-5 Smyk and Cobra SP-3096. Also in here and said to be based was Swedish Grob SE-TTC.

SP-2514 SZD 30 Pirat wears an attractive yellow/red c/s was built in 1970

The second hanger held 14 aircraft including two recent imports undergoing re-build, these being D-EEXK R Cessna F150L and D-ELMI Cessna 182. Polish highlights were Wilga SP-ECB and Yak 12 SP-YFA c/n 19003 built in 1959, the Yak is painted white with large red flames !

SP-CTR Riems Cessna F 150L

Also in here was Czech Cora OK-BUT-04.

Unfortuntately both hangers were very dark indeed during the rain storm outside.

Restaurant Tupolev Tu-134A at Chalpowo, Poland - 11.8.08

Preserved at Chalpowo is the former LOT Polish Airlines Tu-134A SP-LHG. The aircraft is open as a cafe /restaurant and can be found approx 2 miles West of the large town of Wladyslawowo up on the Baltic Sea coast.


SP-LHG was built in 1973 as c/n 3352008 and delivered to the Polish Air Force with serial 102. I saw this aircraft as 102 at London Heathrow LHR on 15.12.76, at the time it was a very rare visitor to the UK.

In September 1978 the aircraft was registered as SP-LHG for LOT Polish Airlines - it became a regular visitor to LHR operating for LOT. LOT retired the aircraft after its final flight on 31.3.94, the registration was cancelled in 12.96.

The aircraft sat WFU at Warsaw Okecie until 10.99 when it was dismantled for the long road journey north up to the Polish seaside at Chalpowo to begin its new career as a tourist restaurant.