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SPRING 2017 JOURNAL OF THE SHUTTLEWORTH VETERAN AEROPLANE SOCIETY In this issue: Scott Butler - First Season at Shuttleworth Arrol-Johnston on the Brighton Run Lee-Richards Annular Biplane South Atlantic Airmail 1 PROP-SWING SPRING 2017 Journal of the SVAS, the Friends of the Shuttleworth Collection REGISTERED CHARITY No. 800095 President: Princess Charlotte Croÿ (Twickel) Vice President: Ken Cox MBE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION Kevin Panter Paul Ferguson VICE CHAIRMAN: COMMITTEE MEMBERS Alan Reed Paul Ferguson SECRETARY: Edward Forrest James Michell Bill Grigg [email protected] Matthew Studdert-Kennedy Neil Thomas TREASURER: John Edser SVAS Contact Details: Answerphone: 01767 627909 MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Ron Panter & Rosie Hall Email: [email protected] Web: www.svasweb.org EDITORIAL PANEL Editor: Bill Grigg Shuttleworth Web Site Assistant Editor: Paul Ferguson www.shuttleworth.org PROP-SWING is printed by Character Press Limited, Unit 16 Woodside Industrial Park, Works Road, Letchworth Garden City, Herts, SG6 1LA, and published at the office of Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society, Old Warden Aerodrome, Biggleswade, SG18 9EP. We welcome letters and contributions for possible publication. These should preferably be typed. Shuttleworth-related subjects will be given priority. Prospective contributions, and also requests to reprint material from the journal, should be addressed to the Editor C/O Old Warden. PROP-SWING welcomes advertisements, which should be in pdf format. Rates on application for Whole, Half, Third or Quarter page. Discount for three or more identical consecutive insertions. Full page type height is 185mm; full type width is 120mm. Please contact the SVAS at the above address. PROP-SWING is published three times a year (Spring, Summer and Winter). Copy dates are 31st January, 31st May and 30th September. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Society. Front cover: The Arrol-Johnston at Crawley, halfway stop on the Brighton Run. Rory Cook driving, Chris Gray and John Richardson up front. Stuart Gray 2 Editorial Bill Grigg irst, a reminder to SVAS life members that they’ll receive a new membership card annually from now on. This was meant to happen last year but the cards Fwere unfortunately sent out without explanation - as many of you will doubtless have noticed! The old blue and white life membership cards will no longer be valid post 31st March 2017. I am aware that we’ve mentioned this a few times before but there’s nothing like a belt and braces. Which, as an aside, reminds me of a switchboard operator at work (that dates me) who misinterpreted a message I asked her to pass on and told the recipient that there was nothing like a belt in the braces. He was puzzled but fortunately didn’t take it as a threat. I’m sure you’ve been wondering how Bob Trickett is getting on with his Sopwith Snipe - we haven’t heard from him for a while. Well, he’s just told me that since his last progress report he’s changed his job twice and moved house three times. There’s nothing like having a stable base when you’re building an aeroplane, is there. Nonetheless, there has been some progress and he says that the firm who do some of the CNC routing for him have finally sorted out the problems with their CNC router and cut the webs for the centre section and aileron ribs, as well as four webs for the main wing ribs. The rest will be cut in the next couple of months and he hopes to have a full set of wing ribs by the next issue of Prop-Swing. He’s also made a start on the tail adjusting mechanism components and by the time you’re reading this should have finished the dashboard and rudder bar and have all the centre section and aileron ribs assembled ready to be attached to the spars. Watch this space! Lastly, I keep badgering the Chief Engineer about the self-styled Dixon Ornithopter hanging from the roof of Hangar 5. For those of you new to this machine it was donated to the Collection by a chap who had been given it by the eponymous Dixon whom he knew at the London Gliding Club on Dunstable Downs. I remember in my early Prop-Swing days trying to pin him down to tell me more as he mentioned a photograph of Dixon with the machine, but he proved elusive and I fear has long since passed CONTENTS away. Anyway, it’s not an ornithopter, could never First Season at Shuttleworth 4 have flown as the hang glider it was meant to be SVAS & Collection News 9 due to its wing area versus the weight of a typical Photo Section Selection 12 man on a Clapham omnibus and has, unfortunately, Aero Workshops 18 been unsympathetically ‘restored’. I don’t think Vehicle Collection Report 22 it has a place on display in a serious aeroplane Letters 28 collection but everybody’s entitled to his or her The Road to Brighton 29 opinion and, even if you don’t agree with me, it Agricultural Workshop 33 might encourage you to look roofwards on your The Lee-Richards Model 35 next visit to Hangar 5. Idle Wonderings - All at sea 37 Scale Model Event 42 From the Archive 44 From the Smoke Box 46 3 First Season at Shuttleworth Scott Butler Scott takes off in the Collection’s Tiger Malcolm Nash s a lad growing up in Bedfordshire, aviation was all around me. I visited the Collection many times, gazing in awe at the exhibits in the dark hangars. I Aremember the air displays and at each show I bought a ticket in the SVAS draw for a flight in the Magister. One day, one day... I learnt to fly at RAF Henlow with the Air Cadet gliding school and after university joined the RAF. Whilst in the RAF I joined the Cambridge Flying Group and learnt to fly the Tiger Moth, as Bill Ison (CFG Chief Instructor) would say, the ‘proper way’. I was fortunate to be able to fly many other people’s Tiger Moths and subsequently displayed them and my own Turbulent. I’d continued to be a regular Collection visitor and became friends with several of the pilots and engineers. In 2015 the Collection looked to recruit a few younger pilots - well, younger in Shuttleworth terms! After selection I was interviewed by the Chief Pilot, Chief Engineer and Aviation Trustee and offered a post. That ‘one day’ was getting closer. I spent the 2015 season working as ground crew which was a great way to find out about the Collection. Not just about the aeroplanes but more importantly the team that makes it work from the push out early in the morning to the push in and lock up at night. Throughout that season I watched and learnt, pushed and pulled, assisted starts, discovered the foibles of the different engines, how to correctly handle each type of 4 Flying Peter Holloway’s Magister Mark Collins aircraft on the ground, how to catch a Deperdussin and how to double chock the SE5a so it doesn’t break its own rudder bar. Training week 2016 was the start of my Collection flying. A few weeks before that, I received the checklist and notes for the Tiger Moth, Super Cub and Magister. I was familiar with the first two but had never flown the Magister. Training week brought with it a host of new rules from the CAA regarding how displays could be flown and separation distances from the crowd which was new to all of us. Thanks to a lot of hard work from the Chief Pilot and Aviation Trustee we managed to work within these new rules and they were later able to put forward to the CAA Shuttleworth’s case for exemptions, allowing us to display closer to the crowd. Before flying a Collection aeroplane every prospective pilot has to pass a proficiency check. I flew this on the Tuesday of training week, in the Tiger Moth with Dodge. We climbed up off circuit and flew some general handling, steep turns, stalls and a spin, then returned to the airfield for a display practice. Whilst I’ve flown many hours in the Tiger, I learnt a lot on this flight. Dodge used it to demonstrate how he would assess an aeroplane before displaying it. We looked at the effects of controls and stability, how to cope with control restrictions and failures. Back at the airfield Dodge demonstrated a short display and I repeated it. We flew along the runway, smoothly pulling up into a wing over, heading south and then I felt the throttle closing to simulate an engine failure...Nose down to maintain speed, side-slip to make the extension of runway 21, then power on to go-around. In a climbing left turn into downwind, abeam Home Farm I felt the throttle close again - a left turn puts us on finals for runway 30 and I land up the hill. Whilst the Gipsy Major 5 Flying the Magister in formation Darren Harbar is a reliable engine it’s important always to be able to land the aircraft safely back on the airfield if the engine does falter. That afternoon I took the Tiger up for a solo display practice, my first flight as captain of a Collection aeroplane. I’d completed a few passes when I saw something white whistle past my head. I climbed away to be told by our Air Traffic Controllers that I’d hit a bird. Quick check of the (few) engine instruments, all looked good, engine running fine, no signs of damage to fabric.

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