Flying Day at Rendcomb for RAF Brize Norton personnel
12th May 2011
A total of twenty four service personnel arrived at Rendcomb on a day of near perfect flying conditions. Lined up for them was a total of thirteen Squadron aircraft, among them some of the most desirable vintage and sporting types owned by the membership.
John Allison began proceedings with a masterly briefing during which he reminded pilots that any untoward incident would be met with the most intense scrutiny imaginable. To this, participating members responded with a display of exemplary airmanship throughout the day.
There followed a further short briefing by Vic Norman, who so kindly hosted us all in the magnificently restored RFC engine sheds at Rendcomb, after which aircew and passengers took to the skies with a most pleasing rumble of engines, both vintage and modern.
Seats were allocated by the simple expedient of a lucky dip drawn by one of Vic’s resident wing-walking team. This ensured that every participant would have a least two flights, one of which would be in either the Dragonfly or the Dragon, Torquil Norman’s magnificent de Havilland twins flown, in the case of the former, by Torquil himself, and, in the case of the Dragon, by Ben Cox, an extremely able young pilot friend of Torquil’s.
Other aircraft which participated in the morning’s flying were those flown by Henry Labouchere (Torquil’s Leopard Moth), Roddy Blois (C 172), Terry Holloway (C 172) and Tim Williams (Puss Moth).
Besides the flying, a key element of the day’s activities was a visit to Nick Mason’s world-famous car collection. Gathered in two of the hangars on the airfield, the collection is looked after principally by Mike Hallowes who, together with his team, very kindly showed three successive parties of Brize personnel round. The Air Squadron is enormously grateful both to Mike, for his time, and to Nick for his generosity in throwing the hangar doors open to our guests.
In accordance with John Allison’s briefing, no more than six aircraft were in the air at any one time – at least to begin with. The idea was for each sortie to last between fifteen and twenty minutes, during which a long racetrack circuit was flown by all aircraft other than the two aerobatic machines on the flightline – James Astor’s RV-7 and Jonatahn Elwes’ Tiger Moth.
With safety in the forefront of everyone’s mind, the intention was to avoid a lot of aircraft joining overhead at the same time and this was so satisfactorily achieved that it became apparent that it would be possible to dispatch as many aircraft as were available at any one time. Because all aircraft apart from the twins shut down after each sortie, it was found that up to eight aircraft could be kept aloft continuously. This resulted in a larger number of sorties than had originally been foreseen and in the end, all of the visitors had the chance of at least three trips, many had four and some even managed five.
Halfway through the day, flying stopped for a lunch, most kindly arranged by Anne Norman, so splendid that the trip manager was unsure whether the aircrew would ever be prised out of their seats and back into the air - and it was certainly due only to the lack of alcohol that in fact they were.
During the lunch break, a number of other Air Squadron members joined the ranks of those providing flying in their aircraft. David Ponte (C 195) arrived empty extinguisher in hand, having endured an engine fire on start-up but with apparently no other ill effects than a slight steaming up of his sunglasses; Bill Hall (Robin Aiglon) puzzled a number of those watching with an approach which, had it been flown by anyone else would certainly have ended up with a landing in the adjacent field but which, with characteristic flair, he transmuted into a perfect on-the-numbers touch-down; Martin Gosling (Robin Regent) flew in from Halstead; Greville Vernon (C 182) arrived from Tetbury and George Rolls (MD500) from Stockbridge.
With an expanded fleet, there were moments when the trip manager wondered if he would be able to find enough passengers for all the sorties now available but such was the enthusiasm of the Brize personnel that this was never really going to be a problem. One of their number had just come off a twenty four hour shift and was about to embark on another, but so keen was he to fly that he had given up his rest period in order to be able to do so.
Before our guests finally departed, they were treated to further delicious food by Anne Norman, who laid on a magnificent tea, thus bringing to a close a day which was thoroughly enjoyed by all those participating: passengers, pilots and spectators alike. Speaking among themselves afterwards, members were surprised to discover that there had been a number of service personnel among those present who had either not flown at all or flown only as passengers on civilian flights. But what they all found infectious was the enthusiasm with which their own generosity in supplying aircraft was greeted. One NCO reported to the trip manager that it was the second best day of his life, after his wedding day.
Special thanks are due to all members who gave their time and their aircraft while mention must be made of five pilots in particular: these are Torquil Norman, Henry Labouchere and Ben Cox for flying continous sorties in Torquil’s fleet, and to James Astor and Jonathan Elwes for indefatigable aerobatic sorties, their aircraft being eagerly in demand throughout the day. Particular thanks must again go to Torquil for making his wonderful collection available, as well as for jointly hosting the day with Vic Norman. To Vic, special thanks for acting in his capacity as host and also for providing not only his building but also his extremely capable work force who were on hand throughout the day to take the visitors to and from the cars, to help with serving and generally to make the whole operation run smoothly. And again, heartfelt thanks are due to Anne Norman for all her work in laying on such a marvellous spread of food. All in all it was most memorable day for all participating members.
Alex Norman
Trip Manager
