Classic Wings

[Chelsea14Ian]

I have a text today  from classic  wings for two days 9 and 10 September .They are flying  from Norwich.The flight is on a Rapide.Which is a 1930s bi plane.I had a trip a few years back.A wounderfull plane.If any of you are lucky to fly on one,for sure you will have a great time.

Ian

[SueH]

I flew in the Duxford Rapide a few years back.  Well worth the trip.  They did get all the passengers to get on the scales before boarding though!

Another highlight was a trip to Coventry with the Vulcan to The Sky Club just before XH558 stopped flying.  I fulfilled a long held dream to fly In a Devon.  One used to fly into Upavon when I was stationed there in the 80's.  It was the 'scrambled egg brigades' personal taxi!

 

[Vaughan]

In the early 70's I went on a free-fall parachute course at Netheravon, and jumped several times from a De Haviland Rapide.

As you approached the DZ the plane could slow right down to 70MPH and you climbed out of the side door onto the trailing edge of the lower wing, holding on to the diagonal wing strut in front of you. Literally wing walking! When the right moment came, the jump master reached out and dug you in the ribs and you just let go and fell off backwards.

Is it true what they say, that it is better than * * * ?? Well, it certainly got very close!

[quo vadis]

51 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

In the early 70's I went on a free-fall parachute course at Netheravon, and jumped several times from a De Haviland Rapide.

As you approached the DZ the plane could slow right down to 70MPH and you climbed out of the side door onto the trailing edge of the lower wing, holding on to the diagonal wing strut in front of you. Literally wing walking! When the right moment came, the jump master reached out and dug you in the ribs and you just let go and fell off backwards.

Is it true what they say, that it is better than * * * ?? Well, it certainly got very close!

It really depends on who you're having xxx with 

[ChrisB]

In the late 60s the company that I was a Management Trainee (Engineering) with supplied machine tools to the North Sea oil and gas industry. We had a De Haviland Dove on charter on which I flew on a regular basis.

In the early/mid 50s we made a number of flights from Southampton and Lydd on Bristol Freighters to Le touquet, Cherbourg and I think also Jersey but I was very small then. The last flight was from Southend to Calais. I don't know who that was with but not Silver Wings as the plane was in different colours.

All these trips were faithfully recorded on my father's Voiglander reflex camera capturing his Armstrong Siddeleys, Sumbeam Le Mans and his first Mk8 Jaguar.

Unfortunately following my mother's sudden and untimely death my father for reasons known only unto him destroyed all his photographs and with it a wonderful record of the French Riviera, Spanish Costas, Italy and the Alpes from 1951 onwards as well as us as a family. Very sad.

[ChrisB]

Back in the 50s Ro Ro was very much in it's infancy and most car ferries were loaded by crane which was a very time consuming business. For the fortunate  the air freighter provided a fast and somewhat glamorous gateway to the Continent.

[Regulo]

1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

In the early/mid 50s we made a number of flights from Southampton and Lydd on Bristol Freighters to Le touquet, Cherbourg and I think also Jersey but I was very small then. The last flight was from Southend to Calais. I don't know who that was with but not Silver Wings as the plane was in different colours.

Probably would have been Freddie Laker's Channel Air Bridge, they operated two Carvairs at Southend in the 50's and early 60's.

[DAVIDH]

Around 1967 I think it was,  I can remember flying on a Carvair from Southend to Ostend - the first time I had flown - as part of a holiday to the Belgian resort. The Carvair, which was an "engineered" DC4 with a bulbous nose where a couple of cars could be loaded, was operated by British Air Ferries. The flight took 50 minutes which was very exciting for a young boy. I remember a trail of oil leaking from where the engine was housed creeping further and further across the wing, then one of the pilots coming out from the cockpit, stooping down to look through our window at it then returning without saying anything. We landed without mishap and just assumed it was normal for air travel.

David

[Chelsea14Ian]

When I was young we went in this plane from Lidd in kent,I think there was 2/3 cars.Back to classic wings I have flown a tiger,a passenger in a DC3 and tall end of Just Jane.Four Merlins fried up .The hairs on the back of the neck stand up for sure.As for jumping out of a working airplane no thanks.My bucket list is .to fly a spitfire and fly inverted over the Grand Cannon.

[Wyndham]

8 hours ago, Vaughan said:

In the early 70's I went on a free-fall parachute course at Netheravon, and jumped several times from a De Haviland Rapide.

As you approached the DZ the plane could slow right down to 70MPH and you climbed out of the side door onto the trailing edge of the lower wing, holding on to the diagonal wing strut in front of you. Literally wing walking! When the right moment came, the jump master reached out and dug you in the ribs and you just let go and fell off backwards.

Is it true what they say, that it is better than * * * ?? Well, it certainly got very close!

Oh dear, my youth relived, in my early 20s it's all I did, jump out of planes, you all think boating is expensive!!. Never from a de Haviland but a Cessna sounds similar, step out onto the strut. You make lots of friends and play silly games hanging around a DZ when the weather is poo.

Netheravon was a proper squaddies DZ, but civvies were welcome.(ish)

You know the strange thing is the scariest flight I ever took was when we weren't allowed to get out. They were training a new jump pilot and needed a full load of jumpers to put the pilot through some scenarios....I was glad when we landed.

Is it better than sex ?? I don't know what to say. It does leave an indelible scar on your memory which doesn't go away. It's a good scar mind.

Without hesitation I would recommend it to everyone. 

Sorry.. off topic ramblings

[Vaughan]

6 hours ago, Wyndham said:

Is it better than sex ?? I don't know what to say. It does leave an indelible scar on your memory which doesn't go away. It's a good scar mind.

Without hesitation I would recommend it to everyone. 

Sorry.. off topic ramblings

Not off topic surely? Not on this forum! Anyway, we started with the Rapide.

Another question I used to get was - what was the first jump like? Answer is, I have no idea. My brain couldn't catch up with it all. For me, the worst part was getting ready for the third jump, as by then I had begun to realise what was just about to happen to me!

You sat there facing backwards in a line on the floor of the Rapide. It didn't have any seats or seat belts on the theory that, by the time it landed again, it was empty! So as I crouched, looking down 3000 feet out of an open door, I remembered what they always tell you in the Army - never volunteer!

[Springsong]

Asa a kid we flew Bristol Freighters from Lydd a grass runway and Ferry Field a tarmac runway, both flying to Le Touquet, once with a Jowett Javlin  and once with an XK140. We also flew on a De Havilland Rapide for a day trip to Le Touquet once, the first plane I ever flew in. I have photos but cannot find them at present.

[Guest]

Great to see this beautiful de Havilland dragon rapids this lunch time over whitlingham country park , wonderful to see .

[Chelsea14Ian]

Yes she is a great plane.

[HEM]

On 3.8.2017 at 20:11, DAVIDH said:

Around 1967 I think it was,  I can remember flying on a Carvair from Southend to Ostend - the first time I had flown

The first time I flew (aged 17 or so?) was also with a Carvair from Southend to Ostend  - we were very worried as the guy driving our car into the plane seemed never to have driven an automatic before...

At that time I was scared of flying.   Now I have over 1200 hours (this was back in 2005):