Vintage aircraft

This week was pilot training week at the Shuttleworth Collection, where the display pilots get to renew their display licences and the ground crews brush up on their plane pushing skills.


Last year's training week was a week of perfect airshow days - glorious sunshine, light winds and lovely and warm, where the biggest concern was what factor sunblock would be enough. This year's was limited by strong, gusty winds, cold, and rain - not much falling on us, but so much waterlogging the airfield that there was no chance to fly 'heavies' like the Gladiator and the Sea Hurricane.



This year, Adam is going to be IC barnstorming ground crew, so he spent a lot of the week playing with ribbons and very long metal poles for the ribbon pick-up and limbo. My job in barnstorming is the balloons - quite a challenge in the strong winds!

The pilots are all flying gods, and their skills are both seen and appreciated by many. One of the most stunning displays of aircraft handling is rarely seen by the public though - if you ever visit one of the shows, try to hang about to see one of the full-time engineers manoeuvring the aircraft around in the hangars, it's one of my favourite things to watch


I've been seriously neglecting my workshop duties - I haven't made time to go in all year and the SE5a has been finished in my absence. It looks very fab, and I'd hoped to see it fly this week, but sadly she wouldn't start. It is a lovely feeling to look at the finished you've done though

We finished a day early because of the weather, and now my feet have almost stopped hurting, so I'm all ready for the first show on 4th May

Sunday was Shuttleworth's Military Pageant, and the forecast wasn't good. Heavy rain had left the airfield waterlogged, so it didn't look like any of the "heavies" (Sea Hurricane, Gladiator, Lysander etc) would be able to go out, and the wind was expected to be far too strong for the Edwardians to come out to play either.

In the event, a day of sunshine on Saturday dried out the grass just enough for the heavies (the Hurricane was towed down the runway to check it didn't sink), and Sunday's weather was hot and still, so we had a fantastic show. Virtually all the Collection's military aircraft flew, and there was a good range of visitors too, including the Seafire and the BBMF Lancaster.

As you can see from the piccies, I did quite a bit of holding tails during warm-ups: the Sopwith Triplane (Dixie) during a ground run for the crowd, the Bleriot (which dragged Adam and I several feet) and the Deperdussin.

Stitching the wing fabric to the ribs is my favourite job, but I'd managed to miss all the stitching on the SE5a until today. Unless you like running backwards and forwards, it's a 2 man job on a big wing - 1 to do the main part of the stitches, including the knot, the other to push the neede in from the other side. I wonder how many other couples have done wing stitching together?

A long hot training week was brought to a close with pilots mopping up one or two final aircraft types, and experience flights for those among the engineers and volunteers that wanted them.

Adam and I both picked the Tiger Moth as our favourite choice - it has an open cockpit, it can do aerobatics, and it's very special to me as the first of the Collection's aircraft that I worked on when I became a volunteer.

I get travel sick quite easily, so took a bag, but didn't need it. The pilot is extremely fab, and the only time I felt slightly queasy was when I took the controls. The Tiger is lovely to fly in, and you get such a brilliant view of the chequered wings from in the cockpit. As well as being my first flight in a vintage plane, it was also my first go at being upside down in a plane, as we did a couple of loops. Very fun.

I was lucky enough to have a second flight in the afternoon too - this time in a Miles Magister that's part of a private collection hangared at the collection. Thanks to all involved - you know who you are!

This week is the training week for the Shuttleworth Collection pilots. It's an opportunity for the ground volunteers to brush up on their technique too. Today was extra fun, as the Gladiator took to the air for the first time in its beautiful new colour scheme

The Gladiator's current Norwegian markings were only painted as a temporary scheme for a film, but other priorities meant that the scheme remained for much longer than planned. The poor old girl has been looking a bit tired recently, so it's time to give her a face lift. The new scheme is a secret, but will have an RAF roundel. Unfortunately, that means that the existing red paint needs to be rubbed off with fine sandpaper and water, so that it doesn't bleed through the white of the roundel. My job is the undersides of the bottom wings, so I'm suffering from a bit of Michaelangelo neck and have spent today quite cold, as all the water ran up my arms! Perhaps not the best job for December!! Luckily the Gladiator is one of my favourite planes, so I'll just concentrate on how fab she'll look when she's finished

Beginning to peel the Shuttleworth SE5a.
For a while it looked like I might work on the Spitfire next, but the SE5a (the only flying example in the world) is more deserving. I can't say I'm not disappointed though

This was the first airshow for the Shuttleworth Tiger Moth which I'd helped with.

It looked lovely

(Photo courtesy of Rob Leigh)