"M" Shed Museum - Bristol - Flying Flea

The "M" Shed Museum in Bristol city centre is located next to the Harbour beside two old cranes - recently refurbished the museum tells the story of Bristol. Part of the collection deals with local transport and includes Mignet HM.14 Pou Du Ciel ( Flying Flea ) G-AEHM.

 

This tiny French designed biplane aircraft was homebuilt by Henry James Dolman in the Staplehill district of Bristol during the mid 1930's. He gave this aircraft the name "Blue Finch". The aircraft was registered on 30th April 1936 and first flight took place at the old Whitchurch airfield ( now Hengrove Park ).  The "Flying Flea" design became popular with amateur builders but a series of fatal accidents saw the type withdrawn from use by the authorities  - this aircraft was struck off the aircraft register on 4th March 1939.

The aircraft was stored for many years and made a static appearance at an airshow at Hendon, London in 1951. The aircraft passed onto the Science Museum collection and for many years was on display at their reserve collection at Wroughton, Wiltshire before coming to Bristol in 2011.


Steve

G-SONE Cessna 525A Citation CJ2

Seen landing on Runway 09 at Bristol - Lulsgate on Monday 8th March 2010 was G-SONE a Cessna 525A Citation CJ2 using the callsign CLIFTON 10.

If you look closely the aircraft is wearing titles "www.centrelineair.co.uk" just below the first cabin windows. Centrelineair do have a facility at Bristol - Lulsgate.



This aircraft is new to the UK CAA register being registered on 7th January 2010. It was previously on the Isle of Man register as M-XONE.

G-SONE has c/n 525A-0031 and was built by Cessna in 2001 at Wichita, Kansas, USA - it is powered by two Williams International FJ-44-2C turbofan engines. It was originally registered as N312CJ before becoming VP-BFC and then M-XONE.

The centrelineair website below suggests that G-SONE is based at Biggin Hill airport near London.


http://www.centrelineair.co.uk/our-aircraft/



Web link below to more information about the Cessna Citation executive jet range


http://www.cessna.com/citation.html

Bristol International Airport - Lulsgate 17.2.10

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours up at Bristol Lulsgate - the weather was cold and grey with mist and low cloud. This airport is the highest in England.

Despite the poor weather I enjoyed the photo opportunities.



Easyjet Airbus A319 G-EZIA c/n 2420 landing onto Runway 09 was delivered new in March 2005 - note the missing letters on the engine cowling.





Easyjet Airbus A319 G-EZBI c/n 3003 is one of the few Easyjet aircraft to carry a name "Madrid" touches down as "EASY 26X" at approx 15.44


Easyjet Airbus A319 G-EZBI c/n 3003 "Madrid" lines up to depart as EASY 8HZ at approx 16.21


Aer Arann ATR 72 EI-REM c/n 760 arriving from Cork, Eire as "Arran 31B" at approx 16.05 - this aircraft was delivered new in October 2007


Ryanair 737-800 EI-EKC c/n 38495 was delivered new in January 2010 part of the huge fleet of approx 200 similar aircraft Ryanair operate across Europe. Here EI-EKC is seen departing Runway 09 as RYANAIR 8FL to Bergamo, Italy.



Ryanair 737-800 EI-DWY c/n 33635 about to touchdown on 09 as RYANAIR 504 inbound from Dublin, Eire.


Air Southwest are based at Plymouth, Devon and destinations include Bristol, Manchester and Leeds - here DHC Dash 8 311 G-WOWB c/n 334 arrives as SWALLOW 306K. This aircraft was previously based at Bristol as G-BRYT when operating by Brymon Airways for British Airways.




Steve

Palmair Boeing 737-500 - G-PJPJ

A visit to Bristol Lulsgate on 24.1.10 saw G-PJPJ the Palmair Boeing 737-500 depart as Flightstar 324P.

Palmair are a small UK holiday charter airline and have been based at Bournemouth Hurn airport for many years.

Boeing 737-5H6 G-PJPJ departs Bristol on 24.1.10

G-PJPJ was built in 1994 by Boeing with construction number 27355 - the aircraft was initially delivered to Malaysian Airlines as 9M-MFH in 1994. In 1998 it was sold to Jet Airways of India as VT-JAZ. In January 2001 it passed to British Airways as G-GFFJ. BA sold the aircraft in 2009 to Astraeus Airlines who registered it as G-PJPJ in May 2009 to be operated on behalf of Palmair.

The aircraft is named ‘The Spirit of Peter Bath’ ( just below the cockpit windows ) in honour of Palmair’s late founder. It had arrived from Chambery - Aix Les Bains ( LFLB ) in France and departed to reposition to Bournemouth Hurn ( EGHH ).


External Link to the Palmair website



Steve

Bristol International Airport - Lulsgate 2.3.09

Ryaniar 737-800 EI-CTB departing runway 27 at Bristol on 2.3.09

A quick visit up to Lulsgate on a reasonable Spring day allowed me to catch up with some new Easyjet and Ryanair aircraft. Bristol is a Easyjet hub with approx 11 different aircraft based - Ryaniar are also operating more flights out of Bristol and most days you can see 4 or 5 of their aircraft too.

EI-DYO taking off - I like the red underbelly light reflection on the engine

Bristol - Lulsgate Wed 21.3.07

Bristol - Lulsgate Wed 21.3.07

KLM Fokker 70 PH-KZP arrived as KLM 1055

Today was a very sunny day so I took an afternoon trip up to Lulsgate. This regional airport is high up on top of a hill. In recent years the volume of scheduled traffic has dramtically increased with low cost carriers such as Go ( since "gone !" ), Ryanair and Easyjet opening up many new scheduled routes. Bristol also has regular charter holiday flights from airlines including Thomson, Thomas Cook, First Choice and Excel plus seasonal Turkish, Spanish, Austrian and Bulgarian carriers.

Easyjet A319 G-EZIJ departed as Easy 425

Thomson 757 G-BYAT arrived as Thomson 662N

In addition Bristol has scheduled services including Continental ( 757 to New York ), British Airways Connect ( to cease operations late March 2007 ), Aer Arran, Aer Lingus, KLM, Air Southwest, SN Brussels, Eastern Airways, OLT, and Scilly Skybus,

Eastern Airways Jetstream J41 G-MAJN departed as Eastern 86J to Aberdeen

All the images below were taken from the south side of the runway, near the 09 ( Western ) end of the single runway. A short step ladder is need to get good runway views over the perimeter fence. There are parking spaces here and this area can get very busy with spectators at weekends - just ensure you keep your ladder off the fence itself and remember to take your litter home too please.

AirSouthwest Dash 8 G-WOWD departed as Swallow 485B to Newquay

A three hour stay saw 25 different airliners logged with half a dozen general aviation movements too. Easyjet dominate these days with 9 airbus A319s and 1 737 seen.

British Airways Connect EMB-145 G-EMBW will disappear from Lulsgate in April 2007 having been bought out by FlyBe recently