NON TT BOREDOM WARNING!!!
I guess I should declare my very dodgy background here!
Not ONLY was I an Air Training Corps cadet during the 50s,
and all that THAT implies (flying in a Percival Provost, no not
the jet!) BUT, my late father had an amazing life in aviation.
He was inspired to learn to fly by seeing a certain Mr De Havilland
and other pioneers at Hanworth Air Park.
(coincidentally, there is a memorial close to here in Andover where
De Havilland made HIS first flight in 1910!)
Dad learned to fly as a member of the Royal Flying Corps in 1917.
That was in a Caudron G3
http://www.airminded.net/caug3/caug3.html
and Avro 504K
http://www.gregorie.org/gregories/history/avro_504k.htm
He was an Air Gunner in Hawker Harts with 601 squadron.
He went on to be Hurricane Liason Officer to the Minstry of Supply during
the battle of Britain reporting to Lord Beaverbrook.
In 1926, he and a group of friends formed the Singapore Flying Club (later
the Royal Singapore Flying Club.
As an aside, he worked for Thomas Cook at the time and lived at the
famous Raffles hotel. That was when he raced (and heavily crashed!) a
Norton. Its in the genes!
He flew and flew in so many aircraft, I wouldnt know where to start.
It was also the aiviation celebs he knew personallythat made him an
interesting man to. Cierva,"Boom" Trenchard, "Stuffy" Dowding,Amy Johnson,
Jim Mollinson, the honourableMrs Victor Bruce
(also a motorcyclist and Morgan racer at Brooklands)
to name a veiw.
So, I grew up steeped in aviation myself and first flew in a Kings Cup
racing Tiger Moth (got a pic somewhere of me in school uniform)
and was taken to numerous post war air displays, especially Farnborough.
listen to.
I was "supposed" to be a Cranwell Cadet but became a hippy, discovered
women and didnt get enough quilifications! Then a got my first bike.....
I think I had better stop now.
Sorry if that was a bit boring!
MV