Hinton in the Hedges - 1st June 2013

I arrived here on a beautiful evening with plenty of activity still going on. Around the field were an interesting mix of types including ZK-JQK a long way from home in New Zealand.

ZK-JQK is a Pacific Aerospace 750XL c/n 118, a large single engine aircraft - this example was built in 2005 and has operated with Hinton Sky Diving in the UK for several summers. The aircraft is powered by a 750HP Pratt&Whitney PT6A-34 turboprop. This aircraft is currently listed "for sale" on the Pacific Aerospace website with approx 3,300 flight hours.

Link to Pacific Aerospace website

Looking very smart was Swiss registered Cessna 177B Cardinal HB-CWC, this machine was built in 1972 with some 4,100 flight hours. This aircraft was recently imported into the UK and had actually been registered as G-ZION a week earlier on 23.5.13 but as can be seen had yet to adopted its new registration letters. Currently 29 Cardinals registered in the UK of which six are 177B versions like this machine.

Also dating from 1972 is this WSK Antonov An-2 HA-ANG c/n 1G132-53 - this aircraft has had this registration since delivered new 41 years ago. It first arrived in the UK in 1998. HA-ANG departed back to Hungary three days after this photo was taken.

 

"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  The "Flying Flea" design became popular with amateur builders but a series of fatal accidents saw the type withdrawn from use by the authorities  - this aircraft was struck off the aircraft register on 4th March 1939.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

Wells Somerset - Balloon launch 30th August 2010

This year 16 hot air balloons launched from the Palace Fields adjacent to the Bishops Palace in Wells, Somerset on the evening of Bank Holiday Monday 30th August 2010.

The balloons took off from approx 6.20pm and floated south towards Glastonbury. Among them were

G-POLY Cameron N-77 c/n 428 - this was the oldest balloon present built back in 1978 and features Pollywallets titles and a large pink elephant and some far out man colours. This balloon has spent its life registered to owners in the Bristol area and was transferred on to new owners in July 2010.

G-ULTR Cameron A-105 c/n 4100 has Ultrafilter titles and has been registered to the same Bristol based owner since built in 1997.

G-BOOZ Cameron N-77 c/n 904 was among the last few to depart - this balloon was built in 1983 and was originally based in North Yorkshire until 1989 when sold to the current owners in Wiltshire - this balloon had flown over 430 flight hours by 12.09.

G-FOWS Cameron N-105 c/n 3995 was built in 1996 and wears the titles of its original owners the Fowlers motorcycles dealership in Bristol, since sold on to private owners in the Bristol area.

G-CDWD Cameron Z-105 c/n 10827, this large balloon was built recently in 2006 and wears the colours of the University of Bristol Hot Air Ballooning Society.

G-BXVP is a Sky 31-24 c/n 056 one man balloon with Sky Balloons titles built in Wales - no basket just a chair frame for the pilot - real seat of the pants flying.  G-BXVP was built in 1998 - the current owner is based just down the road from Wells in Cheddar.

G-CCTS Cameron Z-120 c/n 10570 was built in 2004 and wears Snap Surveys titles - the balloon is based in the Bristol area.

G-CBLO Lindstrand LBL 42A c/n 854 is another example of a one man balloon - I would imagine that the sensation of flight must be fantastic with such a balloon. This balloon was built in 2002 and took on a new owner in 5.10 based in the Bath area.

G-CFEK Cameron Z-105 c/n 11176 is only just over 2 years old having been first registered in June 2008 and wears the titles of Penny Plant Hire and Demolition - I've seen this balloon float past Wells several times as it is locally based near Radstock.

Steve in Wells

Talgarth, Wales - 29.5.09

Talgarth - Home of the Black Mountain Gliding Club

Yet another new airfield for me. I stopped here late in the afternoon just as they were packing up the gliders and getting a BBQ ready. Friendly reception and permission granted to wander around once I had asked.

Europa G-DLCB minus propeller was built in 1996

Piper Pa-25-235 Pawnee G-AZPA - many of these old ag-planes found new life a glider tugs - this example was built back in 1970 and arrived at Talgarth for glider duties in 1982

This airfield is set in a very lovely location right at the foot of the Black Mountains - I'm told these offer excellent soaring conditions making Talgarth one of the best gliding locations in the UK. The club house facilities look in excellent condition too.

G-DEGZ two seater Schleicher ASK 21 this example built in 1980

G-DDVY Schempp-Hirth Cirrus c/n 52 is 40 years old being built in 1969

SZD 51-1 Junior G-CFHF c/n W-952 was one of the last examples to be built at the SZD Wroclaw factory - production continued at Bielsko-Biala

Altogether on this visit I logged 2 aircraft and 15 gliders.

Click Here to visit the Black Mountains Gliding Club website

Perranporth Cornwall - 18.4.09

This was a new airfield for me. Perranporth airfield is located on the North coast of Cornwall, the airfield is West of Perranporth town along the B3285 near to the village of Trevellas.

The airfield was built in 1941 during World War 2 and was home to several Spitfire squadrons. You can learn more about the history of Perranporth airfield via the link below

History of RAF Perranporth

Upon arrival at Perranporth I asked at the Control Tower for permission to walk over to the nearby new hanger - this was granted and they requested I wear a High Viz jacket. Parked by the tower itself were half a dozen small Cessna 150/172 types plus G-AZRZ Cessna U206 which was busy operating parachute jumps.



Reims Cessna F 172N G-WACL was built in 1979 and is resident at Perranporth in this attractive colour scheme. After 30 years this aircraft has flown in excess of 8550 flight hours. This aircraft is construction number c/n 1912 and was originally delivered new to the UK from the Reims factory as G-BHGG in November 1979. Initially based at Denham it became G-WACL in 1989 and spent many years operating from Booker / High Wycombe before being sold onto Exeter and then Perranporth.

You can see a good photo of G-WACL wearing its previous sky blue colour scheme applied when it operated with Wycombe Air Centre at Booker- ie WAC"L" below

Previous Colour Scheme of G-WACL


The new hanger is sub divided with three doorways. A chat with a resident pilot resulted in permission to enter the hanger. There were numerous interesting aircraft types to be seen although with just one external door open the hanger was rather dark for photos.


The hanger included the very sleek moulded composite G-JBAS Lancair 200 - this aircraft was kit built and completed in 2003. Powered by a Continental 0-200 engine this design came to market in 1985.

Update 29.12.09 - I have received an email from the Slater family which built this aircraft with more details of this aircrafts history - The aircraft was purchased as a kit from Lancair in 1988-1989, the aircraft is belived to be Lancair kit number 069. The PFA in the UK assigned it aircraft project number PFA 191-11465 - Mr Slater says - "" ( Lancair ) they totally re-jigged the tooling soon after this one, you can see a difference in the mass balance weight shape on the later ones. ""

Thanks to Mr Slater for this feedback.


Cessna T303 N289CW can be seen behind the Lancair.


Official Lancair Website



Wearing a Cornish flag on the tail is Bolkow Bo 209-160FV Monsun G-EFJD c/n 126. This aircraft was first registered in the UK recently in October 2008. It was built in Germany back in 1971 and was imported from Germany as D-EFJD - a nice simple paint change, from "D" to "G".

MBB built 102 production examples of the Monsun before MBB ceased the production of fixed wing aircraft in 1972 to concentrate on their successful helicopter designs ( MBB Bo 105 etc ). There are currently 11 examples of this type shown as registered on the UK "G-...." register.

Other interesting types in the modern hanger included G-CCJL Super Marine Spitfire Mk 26 as "PV303" coded "ON-B", L-4B Cub G-BHVV as "31430" in an olive USAAC colour scheme plus another similar Cub G-AKIB as "480015" coded "M-44".

Modern light aircraft included Skyranger G-CDWB, CTSW G-LCKY and brand new RV-8 G-GUNZ which I was told was awaiting first flight.

The hanger also included American registered Liberty XL-2 N576XL, Cessna T303 Crusdaer N289CW, Beech 76 N741D and red & white Hughes 269 N994K.