Latest / Flyer Magazine / AFFORDABLE WARBIRDS - The FLYER Show - 21st May 2026

Transcript

AFFORDABLE WARBIRDS - The FLYER Show - 21st May 2026 · Flyer Magazine

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_06: This is the Flight Show in podcast form from the Flyer Team.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's your weekly dose of general aviation news, views, and flying chat.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_06: In this episode, we're taking a look at affordable war birds, just as usual, observations, digressions, and opinions from the team, with the occasional laugh as well with a blah blah.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_06: So if you like aeroplanes, airfields, airspace, and everything else that surrounds them, you're in the right place.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_06: Hello and welcome to this week's Flyer Show from What's Week where the weather's getting better and better.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_06: My name's Ian Seeger.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_06: I'm Ed Hicks.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm Dave Calderwood.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_06: This week we'll be talking about war birds that you can own affordably, sort of affordably.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_06: But first of all, I'd like to thank Sky Demon for their continued support, and here is your top tip for this week.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, I'm Rob from Sky Demon, and here's another top tip.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: In this example, we've planned to take the low-level corridor, but we have managed to get a transit to go through Liverpool's airspace.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: So what we can do is press the Find button up here and then choose a waypoint further down our route, such as Chorley, and say, take shortcut.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now, SkyDemon has skipped the intermediate waypoints, going straight to our chosen waypoint.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: For more information, check out our website www.skydeemon.ero.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_06: That's quite a useful tip because it's not the it's one of the things that's not as intuitive as I would have I would have thought root direct or something, but that's used elsewhere.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_06: So shortcut is a is a good thing to know.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's a handy one to know, especially I mean if you're it's like so you're not blobbing around trying to mash your root on route.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely absolutely, absolutely.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, the route shouldn't be set in stone because it depends on other stuff that happens.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_06: Controlled airspace, weather, all sorts of other factors.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: All of those things.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_04: Whether you say, Well, I don't know that we even need Simon to give us a forecast.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_04: However, it'll be reassuring to hear him give us the news.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: So shall we see what he's got for this?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: Let's see what he's got to say.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone, hope you're having a wonderful evening.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to see you, and that you're looking forward to for what is for some of us a holiday weekend, and the um weather looks like it's going to play ball.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to wheez you through the weekend that will take you up to Monday and we can see what's going on.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: This is the forecast chart for Friday morning.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: The times are here in the top right hand corner.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we've got cloud, we've got forecast rain on here, and we've got forecast pressure.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So quite a bit of cloud at first on Friday morning.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Some low cloud around these coasts and hills.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, quite murky, actually, to be frank, for many, but eastern areas are tending to see that cloud being more broken.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And during the course of Friday, yes, the west, particularly the coasts and the hills, always tended to say cloud with some low cloud and some drizzle at times, some mist and some fog, and particularly across Ireland.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: More eastern areas, although fairly cloudy, should see the cloud bases rise.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're probably looking at about a 3,000-foot base, and perhaps the top is up at about 10,000 feet through the afternoon, and much better across southeast England, where the cloud is more broken.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: But that comes with its own problems of warming temperatures and becoming quite bumpy as well.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, overnight to Saturday, we see a front that clears its way eastwards.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: That effectively clears most of the clag out of the way.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: It clears away from East Anglia by Saturday morning, and then for most of a Saturday afternoon, it looks as if it's going to be one of sunny spells and broken cloud.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Could be a few showers, perhaps a little bit of drizzle for western parts of Scotland, and again, Ireland could become cloudier, and once more perhaps northwest England, southwest Scotland, parts of southwest England may see some low cloud coming in at times.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: For most, though, again, it is flyable.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: It looks like a decent weekend.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Three to five thousand foot bases in the afternoon, eight to ten thousand foot tops for the west.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Bases between a thousand or less than that and three thousand feet tops at about eight thousand feet.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, pretty warm, so perhaps becoming quite bumpy.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, into Sunday.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're going to be finding a weak front moving through Scotland on Sunday morning.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: It slips southwards.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: It takes some outbreaks of rain with it, particularly eastern southern parts of Scotland, central parts of Ireland.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And to the northwest of that, probably becomes marginal with a fair amount of cloud.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Bases here, two to four thousand feet, tops about ten thousand feet.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Elsewhere, generally, once again, it is flible.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Some good spells of sunshine coming through.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Although we may find some low cloud around western and southern coasts and hills, just need to be checking the uh forms uh 215 and the taffs and the gamut uh for that one.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um basically I'm gonna go with around three to five thousand feet, eight to ten thousand foot tops, and again getting really quite warm where the sun comes out, so it will be fairly bumpy.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on to Monday, bank holiday Monday, and uh some rain across northern parts of Scotland through Monday morning, as you see there.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: But you notice how for many areas actually we see quite a bit of clear sky, so some good spells of sunshine around, feeling pretty warm, some pretty high cloud bases, and probably at around four to six thousand feet, and the tops at around eight to ten thousand feet, a little bit lower in Scotland, three to five thousand feet, and tops at about eight to ten thousand feet, and perhaps a little bit more cloud across the far northwest, but generally it's looking pretty good, it's looking pretty warm, and again, it could just become quite bumpy because of those thermals.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's looking pretty good and spotting good weather and also weather that's gonna catch you out, is what we do at Aviation Weather School.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we just finished uh a couple of sessions of Aviation Weather School Part one, and thanks to all of you who attended.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was a great fun course, actually.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did from the feedback, it sounds like you did.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my next course, and probably the last one that's gonna be held through the summer, uh, is going to be held on the consecutive Tuesday evenings of the 16th and 23rd of June between 6.30pm and 9 pm.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can book your place now at weatherschool.co.uk or use the QR code that you see there.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I will show you how you can spot Weather Windows five days in advance, how you can forecast cloud bases, cloud tops, the winds, whether it's going to be rain, showers, mist, fog, exactly as I've shown you during this forecast.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I will build your confidence in your ability to um use official forecasts to their maximum and to be able to add to those forecasts yourself.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So go to weatherschool.co.uk and book your place now.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I will leave you that for now.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great, have a safe flying weekend.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, thanks again for watching, guys, and um yeah, I'll see you next week.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Bye for now.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_05: Well, are we together now?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: I think that looks rather fine.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_05: One, two, three, scorchio.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_05: It better be right.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing, we didn't even rehearse that.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: I I wasn't sure where it was going, but Arthur's like I can work for this.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: Should we have some news?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so I have a question.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: Does the world need a full-scale composite Spitfire?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_04: Probably, I would say.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: It depends, I would say.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's good.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's good that you think that, because a company called Great British Supermarine also agree, and they're touring the UK with a full-size rep a concept replica of uh of what they call the Spitfire Type 433.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um so Jeremy Meeson of Great British Supermarine uh says the moment is right to reimagine uh the Supermarine Spitfire in modern materials using modern avionics and a modern engine without losing what has made it exceptional.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um and basically saying it's it's basically a nine the 1940s lineage brought up to date uh uh with modern stuff.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: And it's so uh the the idea of a composite Spitfire is not without merit because back in the war, aluminium was in short supply, and a guy called Norman de Brun came up with a material called Aerolite.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: And you're like, Aerolite?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: This sounds magic.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh this was actually uh it was a a laminate of flax roving uh and paper soaped soaked with liquid phenolic resin and then cured under high pressure.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_04: So there was gonna be that sounds like blue pita.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_04: It does sound a bit a bit like blue pita.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but yeah, so there was an idea to make uh composite, uh wartime composite spray fire.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um so Great British Supermarina looking for investors right now.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um no details have been given of uh the engine that they're talking about.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: And there is I have to say it's it the idea is lacking a bit of depth.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um and but there's a there's talk of a kit being around about three-quarters of a million pounds, which seems quite spendy.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the Scale Wings Mustang, for instance, which is a lovely aeroplane.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: The Scale Wings Mustang, so is an entry-level price.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a 72% scale Mustang that's completely re completely refined, uh, and that is entry-level price, half a million dollars.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_04: So and obviously gets more expensive depending on the kit.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_04: But don't forget, I Scale Wings have that started in 2012, so it's taken a l- that's taken 14 years to get where they are with a very, very kind of focused product for the market.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: And uh when I met Christian von Kessel at Aero, he was saying that, you know, he he said, not being funny, but it's taken us$10 million to get here.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: But it's you know, it's like we say, developing any new aeroplane idea is really expensive.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_06: And I mean I can't imagine it being if it's a full-scale Spitfire, I can't imagine it being a low-powered version of the Aaron.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: No, you'll need a big engine.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: I used to be a big engine.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_04: Think back to when uh think back to 1996 when Dan Denny of Kit Fox Fame said, I'm going to make the Thunder Mustang, which was a 75% carbon fiber Mustang, uh.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: which used the Falcon R V twelve, like you know, substantial sized engine.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_04: But even that, that was$350,000 back in the late 90s.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_04: So that was equivalent to three quarters of a million dollars today.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_06: So Well, Spitfires are not cheap, whatever.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: No, Spitfir's not cheap, whatever.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: But I I wish them well, but I've it it seems like there's It's one heck of a project.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's a it's a long journey ahead.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_06: So uh Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_06: Um I'm I'm up next, and this is about the government's the UK government's love of general aviation.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_06: Well, not quite love.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_06: This is how this is a story about Heidi Alexander, who sent a 10-page letter to Sir Stephen Hillier recently outlining the priorities that they she wants the Civil Aviation Authority to focus on.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_06: And guess where general aviation came in there?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_06: No one's it making the tea in a back room.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_06: It didn't even make it make the tea.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_06: It just like General Aviation, it doesn't exist.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_06: It's not in there, it's not in there at all.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_06: There were detailed targets for beyond visual line of sight staff, the operations including uh urban delivery and urban transport and passenger services by 2028.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_06: Hands up, who thinks that's gonna happen?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_06: That that that is quite a timeline.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_06: It is.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, there might I I can imagine someone getting one little regular stuff.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_06: Regular stuff not just not gonna not gonna happen.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_06: Um so noticeably absent is any mention of general aviation, as I said.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and the long-ranging issue of things like UK not having access to EGNOS, which would be so easy to switch on and so beneficial, doesn't even get a mention.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_06: Um so it's really all about there is stuff in there like airspace modernization, which is a big project.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: She has remembered that airline pilots have to come from somewhere, right?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_04: Or does she think they come out of a uh like a printing machine or something?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: 3D printed pilots, yeah.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: 3D printed pilots, yeah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_06: Well, AI pilots is what you need, isn't it?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_06: Well there's plenty of them on YouTube.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: I it it's it scares me sometimes that that in in bold visions sometimes people can lose sight.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: Lose sight of some of the basics.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_06: And it's not it's not as if you go, here's a bold vision, the basics have all got it sorted and everything's running fine there.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_06: Um but clearly drones, EV tolls, beyond visual iron slight, urban air mobility, deliveries, you know, your Amazon.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_06: As you did the top gear thing last week, did you I haven't managed to watch it yet?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_06: Did you get the top gun?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_06: Your top what did I say?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_06: Top gear.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_06: Um did you get the line in about you'll be flying?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, we did.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_06: Excellent.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_06: Well soon you'll be able to order your own rubber dog turds from Amazon and get them dropped by drone.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_06: Dropped on your lawn.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_06: By drone.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_06: By drone, absolutely, absolutely.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: So, uh my sorry, the the boss of the World Airsports Organisation, the FAI, has decided, he's made a decree, he's decreed that 14th of October will forthwith be World Oil Air Sports Day.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_06: World Airsports Day.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_06: What do you mean that's it?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_06: I mean it with more detail.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_06: What would we be doing on World Air Day?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_06: What are we going to do?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: He hasn't quite well, he hasn't announced that bit yet.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it's um I think they've been looking at World uh Pilot Day, which is really for com professional pilots, you know, commercial pilots.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: And it's been a big success.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's for all pilots.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's for all pilots.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, but mainly it's f you know it's for uh I have a question.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yes?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_04: I surely does he know that flying generally depends on nice weather.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_04: So should we not make World Air Sports Day like in the middle of June?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I guess it's uh an annual uh a worldwide thing and then maybe parts of the world.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_06: Someone might have summer somewhere.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yep, yep.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I think he's decree it's gonna be a lovely day.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he seems to have the power.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_06: Perfect.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_06: Well, look, we'll have to think of something to do.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: We will.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: We'll have to put it in a diary and just work towards it.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_06: Um a bit of a sad section in the news now.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_06: This is about a couple of people um who who we know at Flyer who've who've flown west.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_06: Um first person is Rod Simpson.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Rod Simpson.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, he's an aviation writer.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we've known him for years.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um wherever you go around the world, you bump into Rob Sims, you used to bump into Rod Simpson.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um he's got absolutely encyclopedia knowledge uh of aeroplanes and uh written lots of books.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know until we had a little on him, and the guy wrote it uh dug up came up with some stuff.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know he was a chartered accountant.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: And uh he made made a fair bit of money, I guess, from being a corporate reorganiser.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_04: I did not know that.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: I do know him from the General Aviation Handbook.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he wrote that and uh 15 other books apparently uh for a publisher called Air Life.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: He was also editor of uh the magazine for Air Britain.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um and oh we we I mean Rod's been around for ages.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean I remember asking him once, talking to him on the first day of Aero one year, and I was saying to him, Well, how many aircraft do you spotted new then, Rod?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Twenty-two.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: Twenty-two?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: So what are they?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: So he just he kindly listed them out to me so I I could find out what they were.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_06: It was one of those it was one of those pleasures.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_06: You'd walk into a hall at Aero or something like that, or and and you'd see Rod's figure standing there, camera around his neck, little reference notebook or something, and he you'd always be dressed in a similar way, a little bit like an accountant.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_06: Um and you'd go up and you'd always get a really you know, Rod was just a super generous, super nice guy.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_06: I kind of I'm I don't know whether in his past as a corporate reorganiser he was like the super nice hatchet or something.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_06: But to us, yeah, in in the world of aviation, he was just always super generous and really knowledgeable.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well he did get to 85.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't realise he got he was 85, but that's uh that's really fair learn.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Something there, yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_06: Um unfortunately, last week uh we also lost Hal Shavers.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_06: Hal Shavers founded Sport is and worked in built Sporties over the last 60 years, really.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_06: He started life as an engineer, um, and and then developed a little airbound radio that you could listen to the tower on and was selling it at the back of his Studebaker um in Ohio.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_06: Um was based at Luncan, Ohio, Lunkin, Cincinnati airport.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_06: Um and he basically grew Sporties from there.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_06: And Hal um was the first person to develop the three-day ground school for private license and basically traveled the US teaching thousands of pilots his ground school.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_06: And then he he ended up that that kind of a bill, and his his real genius was turning that into what became and what still is the world's biggest pilot shop, an amazing facility.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, in doing that, he also took over the running of Claremont County Airport on behalf of the FAA, which is just a beautiful manicured airport with great facilities.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_06: Um, they they run uh a free barbecue every single Saturday of the week, regardless of the weather.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_06: Um, you can go along, you can have a couple of sausages, and basically, if it if it's rainy, you go inside, they've got facilities inside to cook it.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_06: They have a big table, a bit bigger than this, reserved for the senior people who go there quite a lot with a little badge on it going, this is the liar's table, where everyone's talking about their aviation stuff.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but one of the things I've I've known Hal for probably I can't remember, maybe 20 years or something now, super, super generous guy.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_06: He was absolutely passionate about flight training, undoubtedly made the company's money from being the world's biggest pilot shop, and it is a really impressive operation.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_06: But his real passion was flight training.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_06: And it's a part of 141 school, they still have a large fleet of training aircraft, they train some of the Yuloka universities, but that was absolutely and he was kind of pivotal in making sure that every time somebody went solo there was a bell that rang and everyone came out of their offices and congratulated them.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_06: He just did a really good thing of being enthusiastic about stuff like that.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_06: He built a little air park on the other side of the the airport there, so you can go and buy a house with a hangar.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_06: Um just invested an awful lot of stuff like that.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_06: So uh absolutely great legendary guy who's who's passed on.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: I remember getting a copy of Sporties Pilot Catalogue back like back in the nineties.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just like I know obviously to anyone who's had the internet since then, you know, the idea of sitting there mesmerized by a paper brochure is aliasing.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, flicking through the Sporties catalogue was just a it's like, oh, it's magic.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I I mean I was lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks at at Sporties.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_06: I did some flight training there in the past and stuff like that, and I got invited to they have like this this morning meeting.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_06: Um and Hal was there, and and people from sort of the managers were there, and they sort of gather around and they get a tape recorder and record the meeting, and they go through all the products, say, you know, and Hal was like, okay, well hang on a minute, we the the I'm gonna make this bit up, but so you get the picture, but yeah, fuel testers.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_06: Why are we out of fuel testers?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_06: You go well the company can't re well that's that that's not good enough.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_06: What our clients want fuel testers.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_06: We can't and he was just really keen on making sure they got really good products, so any complaints or anything was really looked at, they had it in stock, they gave the great service.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_06: It was just really all about delivering fantastic service and great product.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_06: Um He was a hundred percent pilot shot, wasn't he?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I'd pretty much say that before he effectively retired, he was there six, probably seven days a week, yeah, almost every week.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_06: And I've he it's kind of sh you'd occasionally say, Hey, jump into the truck, we'll just have a take a drive around.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_06: We jump in and we'd drive around the whole airport or the back rows and stuff like that.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_06: He had a little dictaphone and he he'd be going.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_06: Cut the grass.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_06: Grass by hanger A10 needs trimming.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_06: And there was just everything was the maintenance of it was just Attention to detail was Hal, I think.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_06: Complete attention to detail, yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_06: Everywhere.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_06: You know, you'd even come out of the restrooms and go, restrooms need new paper.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I and I think it's fair to say that Hal that all the guys behind Sporties today have were all inspired by Hal's kind of attention to detail and kind of commitment to that store.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_06: Um sad, very, very sad.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_06: But someone who contributed huge, huge amounts to German aviation, GA training in it in the US and worldwide.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_06: Really.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_06: So Dave.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so uh pilot careers live north, which is uh held in Manchester, we have a new venue.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um last week we we basically outgrew the old venue, um, which was uh on the airport.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: The Concord Centre.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: So we've gone to a purpose-built uh exhibition centre in the centre of town called the Sheridan Suite.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, very handy for the city centre, bigger, all the facilities you expect at a large exhibition hall.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um there's parking for up to 300 vehicles, but of course, uh it's being in city centre, it's probably easier to get there by public transport.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_06: No, it's it's really good.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_06: I mean it it was great to see the North Show, Manchester show growing and growing and growing.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_06: And then you get to that point where you go, it's growing every two months.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_06: Shh.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_06: Um and we just kind of burst out of the other one.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_06: Um and so we had to move.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it was a fun place to be.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: It was.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: It was great.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_06: Great dates for that show?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: 11th of July 2026.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_03: 10 a.m.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: to four p.m.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: And you can buy tickets uh on the Pilot Careers Live website at the moment, and there's links to that from Flyer.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: PilotCareersLive.com.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: Fantastic game.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_06: Excellent.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_06: Right, uh, next up is Club News.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_06: Before we get to Club News, just need to tell you about the club because all of this exists thanks to the club.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_06: So we want you to come and join us as members.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_06: You get access to everything we create, you get full access to all of the content, past and present, you get access to the forums, you get access to webinars, you get access to the free landing fees, and it costs you just six pounds per month or fifty.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_06: Or is it sixty two?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_06: Remember that.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_06: Sixty-two pounds a year.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_06: Bargain, six pounds a month.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks, Henry.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_06: So there you go.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_06: Flyer.co.uk forward slash membership.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_06: Please join.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: Talking in the club, where are this month's free landings?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the landing free landings are at Causeway in Ireland, Perth in Scotland, Felthorpe in Norfolk, and there is also one at Jersey, but only for five people.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I imagine that's gone by now.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: But who knows?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_06: Phone them to find out.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_06: Phone them to find out and say, Oh, please can we have it?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_06: Please come back.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_06: There's also a webinar coming up, which is on Wen Wednesday, unusually, they're normally on Tuesday.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_06: Wednesday the 27th, which is Pete Stratton, and that is all about sharing airspace with gliders.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_06: That one because it's a fairly important safety thing.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_06: We're opening that beyond the club, so that's available to everybody.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_06: And so Pete's going to come on and talk to us about operating in and around gliders without getting your wings chopped off.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_06: That's Dex Wings, isn't it?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_06: It is.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yep.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: Coming up.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_06: Yep.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_06: Looking forward to that.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_06: Plus, don't forget, there's also lots and lots of other uh webinars on the on the website.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_06: And if you're a member, you have full access to those.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_06: Warbirds, affordable warbirds, how we can own war birds.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_06: Driven really by a bit of a birthday that's taking place on Friday, the 22nd of May.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_06: Anyone know what that birthday is?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_06: Of course you do.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's the international gathering of chipmunks.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_06: It is, and that that's 80 years to the day that the first chipmunk took flight in 1946.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_06: It's amazing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_06: It is.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_06: And it's got the I think they're gonna they're hoping to have something like 70 chipmunks there.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, which will be quite probably more chipmunks than you've ever seen anywhere in the same place at the same time, ever in the world.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: That is a very good point.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: And this is going to be at Hate Me Green, otherwise known as Wolverhampton.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_06: So we kind of wondered, you know, warbirds are quite special airplanes, aren't they?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_06: They are, but they come with a price tag, don't they?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_06: They do come with a price tag.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_06: So we thought we'd have a chat and see what they are.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_06: Before we get there though, little question, just before people argue about it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_06: What what what defines a war bird for you?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, um, I would say anything with uh with a history of being used in a wartime campaign, you know, so something that was used in World War One or World War II or the World War III career.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, hopefully we won't get to that one.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um but uh yeah, anything with uh that you can you can pull up a black and white photo and go, hey look, there's there's that airplane, or there's that the there's one of those types doing something.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's got to have a military connect uh connection, hasn't it?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: A strong military connection.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_06: Well I I I did a bit of googling to see to see the various the range of views, because it being the internet, there are clearly lots of different views.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_06: Um the probably the most common view is it needs to have been an aircraft that's in military service at some time, although it was produced specifically for the military, if you like, and and is now in in in private ownership hands.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_06: So there are some people who say that a war bird is only a war bird if it took place in an actual battle.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_06: They're the kind of like the very extreme end of that.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_06: I think you put you might only say that if you own something that's like a big thing.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_06: I think you say that if you've spent a whole load of money on your very own aircraft.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_04: But I think I think the oh it has it been in military service is a good that's a good baseline, isn't it?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_06: So my my my choice of war bird, affordable war bird, is the chipmunk, unsurprisingly.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_06: So uh as we know, it was the or as maybe you don't know, it's the longest serving RAF trainer ever.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_06: Did not know that.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_06: Did not know that.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_06: It went into service not long after the first flight.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_06: The first flight was, as we know, May 22nd, 1946.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_06: Um and apparently it went in service not very long after that at all.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_06: The same year, some even said.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_06: It was designed by a Polish chap for De Haviland calendar, and Shevovod Yakimuk is his name, apparently.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_06: Very good.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_04: You've been taking lessons on that one.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's Shevowod Yakimuk.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_06: That would be my Polish pronunciation.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_06: Dave, do you fancy having a go?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, I've got to pass on that one.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_06: You're gonna pass on that one.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: Um yeah.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_06: Anyway, it was do you know when it was retired from military service?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm going to say actually it's is it still in military service?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_04: Because I only very tenuously.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: I have a feeling that the port so that I only say this because I think the Portuguese Air Force flew three aircraft to Duxford.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um for Duxford and Lit, I think they were.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_04: They should have done to Hapney Green.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um I don't know if they're still here and if they're going to Happenney Green, but um but they were over at Duxford uh and they were three that belonged to Portuguese Air Force.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: They re-engined them with Lycomings, but Puh.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, in interestingly, Port Portugal was one of the places where they were manufactured under license.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_06: Canada, UK, and Portugal.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_06: Um but so depending on how Okay.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_06: Any idea when it was retired from RAF service?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, it's 66.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: About 66, I would have said.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, I'm gonna say 70s.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_06: 1993.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_06: No.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_06: Really?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_06: 1993.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_06: And there were still a couple operating in air experience flights until 1996.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I would go model flying with my dad at Filton Airfield, the air experience flight there had chipmunks, and there are there's uh they there's I've there's photos of me and chipmunks.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that would be early 80s.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_06: Much, much later.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_06: And so 1993, just a year before Fly was started.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_06: Amazing.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_06: It is amazing.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_06: It is amazing.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_06: And of course the uh I think the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight still have one on their fleet.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_06: They do, as do as do well, it's not really Navy wings now, it's called, isn't it?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_06: Which is and and they're both they're both used for tailwheel training training.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: Tailwheel transition, yeah.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_06: Currency, really.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_06: So you could you could argue that they're still in military service, but I think that would be a slightly more tenuous argument.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_06: Um obviously, I mean, why why are they s why are they special apart from being a beautiful looking airplane?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_06: They're special because th A, they smell nice.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_06: When you sit in a chipmunkey, you just get that.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: There is there's that is not a smell that you can bottle.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: That is a smell of accumulation of oil and leather and pilots.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_06: And pilots.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_06: And it's not I mean they're gonna when if they build a composite spitfire in the scale wings composite P51, they're gonna they they they probably don't get the little spray bottle of Yes.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, that aeroplane odor.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_06: It's commonly known, obviously, by many as the kind of poor man's Spitfire because it has really well covered.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_04: I've I I've only once flown a chipmunk and had a had a quick go.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: And it was I and it was many, many years ago.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I recall it being great, but certainly everyone is positively evangelistical.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: Evangelical.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: Evangelical even, yes.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_06: No, absolutely.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_06: About uh the handling.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_06: Um great looks, great history, great handling, gentlemen's aerobatics.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_04: I'm going to be controversial here.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_06: Oh no, go on then.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_04: And say I prefer the version with the bubble canopy.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_06: No.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_06: The Canadians put a bubble actually to be honest, the the bubble canopy doesn't look too bad.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_06: Um they were they were first and it you know but I quite like the whole thing.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_06: I really like it.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: And you know why.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_04: I d but I really like that bubble canopy.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I uh again, as a kid growing up, I used to read Tintin, and the can the bubble canopy chipmunk actually featured in the Tintin comics.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_04: And then and Super Nerd, uh famous famous British aviator, Sir Peter Macefield, had his own personal chipmunk and it had, he chose the bubble canopy, he even had spats on his aeroplane.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: Trousers undercarriage.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: No trousers.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: No spats, Amy.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: So what do you think about trousers?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_06: Back from the reminiscing to 2026, you fancy a bit of a war bird yourself, and the chipmunk feels that need.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_04: What do you reckon the prices are?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: I am surprised at the values on some of these because they seem very affordable.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I just a quick look through the the classifieds, and there are chipmunks that there are some sub-50K and some around 100k.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_06: Clearly a bit of a range in there.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: This has to do with the fatigue index.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_06: There's fatigue index stuff, and there's some other stuff around the engine.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_06: So the engine, there are some engine options, but really you're talking about 145 horsepower gypsy major.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_06: Gypsy major famously inverted, so crankshaft at the top.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_06: Four cylinders.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_06: Four cylinders, carburetor underneath.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_06: Weird priming regime.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: Very weird open cowlings, poke with fingers, run round closed cowlings.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_06: And you've got a little well, depending on how depending on what modification's been done, you've got a little ring that you pull and then a little wobble pump.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_06: You also, in some of the earlier ones, or some of the ones that haven't been modified, you have to kind of move the oil filter screen thing around because it's not a bolt-on and not a screw on oil filter kind of thing.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, yeah, I had heard about that.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_06: Stuff like that.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_06: And then, you know, depending on I th I I don't think anyone runs a cartridge start anymore.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_06: No, but what that's a that's a way to get attention at the fly-in, isn't it?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_06: You could you know, you can I I have hand-started a gypsy major many times.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_06: Not my favourite occupation, no.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but generally they're electric electric start.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_06: Um and there are some people who fitted lycomings.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_06: But you know, like many things, it it just ruin it does ruin the front.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_06: I think if you put a Lycoming in it, that instantly makes it a non-war bird.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_06: Well, you heard it here first.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_06: In my humble opinion.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: But I I I would say going back to the the the touching on the values, uh low cost entry point, you're probably expecting to spend some money on your engine at some point, aren't you?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_04: So and like every like all engines, uh overhauling uh gypsy is gonna be is gonna have some cost.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_06: So those so the so the the gypsy majors, um the the the kind of go-to place in the UK is Vintech, yeah, um at Little Grandstone.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_06: And it's difficult to put your finger on an exact price because there are so many variables involved as well.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_06: But I think uh you could expect fifty thousand and north of fifty thousand without too much trouble.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_06: Probably.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and I have heard some figures more than that.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_06: So significantly more than that.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_04: So engines really where the engines really where the value is.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: But um but there's no doubting that if you can pick up a chipmunk for for fifty, sixty thousand pounds, you'll have a fantastic aeroplane.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_06: Now the other thing is, um probably a better way to own a chipmunk I would suggest is a chef.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_06: Um chipmunks really yes, you can go as far as you like in the chipmunk, we know.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_06: But a chipmunk for if I had a chipmunk, it would be a summer's evening going around, a bit of gentleros and like little, you know, maybe a bit of UK touring, but not as a touring machine.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you don't want you don't just want to be the only person, you know, covered in oil.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_04: You need to have friends who are also oily.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so so at the top end of the share cost, there was I saw a share that was for an eighth share that was just under 10K.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_06: And you were really looking then at that quite an expensive£200 a month fee that you had to pay, and then you paid£120 an hour wet for that, which wasn't that was that was good value, but the£200 a month adds up over time.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_06: Um and at the other end of the scale, I saw a sixth share for 10k.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and that was£70 per calendar month that you paid, and£60 per hour dry.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_06: You put your own fuel in.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that's actually a pretty good.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_06: I might look into that and see if there's any shares left, actually.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_06: That wasn't too far from here.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_06: Um but that seems like the that's you know, that I think that's affordable in the affordable range for GA.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: And and it and brings with it a whole lot of I it's great looking, lots of nostalgia.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: Great looking, sounds great, flies great, yeah.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's you have to take the whole thing as an ownership experience.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and lots, and like you say, uh lots of different military ownership over the years.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_06: And and obviously a bit of royal stuff in there as well, if that's your bag.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's true.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: But I would definitely have a yellow one in a Canadian markings yellow with a big canon.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I quite like I quite like I quite like the um I I quite like the sort of colours of the one we've put up here, the kind of navy colours.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, yeah.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 34:52
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_06: But you've got there's lots to choose from.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_06: There is.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_06: Lots to choose from.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: That's mine.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: Anyway, Ed.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh me.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I so it was it was a fairly easy one for me because I have love for cubs.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: And for me, probably the most well, the the loveliest affordable warbird, I would argue, is the Piper L4.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: How are you defining lovely in the Because I it's it's like it has the I I think more I'd almost go as far as saying that people have more love for cubs than they might have for chipmunks.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_06: I suppose no accounting for taste.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: The internet is probably blowing up out there right now.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um but basically so Piper developed the military version of the cub.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Bill Piper Jr.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: famously said all we had to do was take a J3 and spray it or olive drab.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_04: And it was kind of close.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: But um so basically, uh the cub, the L4, was created as an observer platform um and for use for liaison and for troop scouting, all sorts of things.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_04: And if you you basically take a J3, put a really big plexiglass glasshouse on it, um, it's fantastic.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um and they threw some military kit in it as well.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but this is not this is not a hair-on-fire warbird.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh with 65 horsepower, the good old Continental A65, top speed 85 miles an hour, cruise speed 75 miles an hour, uh amazingly service ceiling, 12,000 feet.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_04: Whoever takes a club to 12,000 feet.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_04: Someone in strong thermos, because I'm sure he's ain't enough fuel to get there, I don't think.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_04: No, I know, yeah.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um but during World War II, uh the L4s uh served all over and uh were there's places uh many places around uh the UK where they were based uh operated over in France.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I think if you've if you've been to a UK flying, you've almost seen an L4 illum in military markings.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there were five and a half thousand of them built.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um and yeah, you just used all over.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh probably the most famous example and probably the most warlike activity that one took uh one was uh participated in, uh there was uh one that was fitted with bazookas.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there was a guy, uh Charles Bazooka Charlie Carpenter, uh, decid decided to take matters into his own hands, put six uh bazooka um rocket launchers on his L4 and used it as an aerial platform and actually blew up a whole bunch of s uh tanks and armored cars.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh pretty famous.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that's it was uh uh all of that took place during the Battle of Aracourt.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that aeroplane was found and restored and is in a mu American museum today, and they still fly it.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_04: And it's got the bazookas on it.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_04: It is fantastic.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um L4s were also found operating on ships, not top gun style on a carrier deck, but using the Brody system.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_04: Which, yeah, it's like someone found a bunch of Micano and went, we'll just keep adding bits until we can find a reliable way to catch a wire on a ship.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, so uh L4s uh at war on the land, at sea.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um the last recorded aerial battle in the European theater of operations was two liaisons aeroplanes.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_04: One of those was an L-4, and the other was a Fiesler Storch.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_04: And this is famous.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so late 19 uh April 1945, uh Lieutenant Duane Francis and his observer, Lieutenant Bill Martin, uh spotted a Fiesler Storche and uh got into battle with it using only um handguns.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: And uh they won.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: So um yeah, the last the last aerial battle of World War II was L4 versus Fiesler Storch.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you can actually see there's a there is uh there's a display duo um that uses a uh someone's got a Piper L4 in the UK and a uh uh Slepchev Storch and they actually do this.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: They they have this as a display.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's probably not for real.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_04: But um, okay but okay.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you've convinced me it's a warbird.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's definitely it's definitely a warbird.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's easy to operate.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_04: There's not many aeroplanes that are easier to operate than a Piper than a Piper Cub, than the L4.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: Maintenance is easy, parts are easily available.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_04: The A65 is very it's super maintainable.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: Again, parts parts are out there, and it's just your reliable functioning friend.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna there's no starter on it, you have to hand crank it, but that is part of the mystique.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's not even it's I mystique the wrong word.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's part of just the whole fantastic package of operating a cub.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_04: Start to finish, you know, like pulling it out and priming it and starting it and flying it.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_04: So how much is it gonna cost?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's there is a some there was a time when L4s were really affordable, but the last 10 or 15 years has seen the price creep up.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_04: And what you would say is actually L4s are a good place to put your money.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because again, a bit like a chipmunk, you're looking for the there's really nice cubs, uh really nice L4s around for around about 55, 60, maybe even 65, 70 grand.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_04: But those are that's you're looking at restored examples.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_04: There is there's one for sale at the moment uh for 75,000 pounds on uh plane check.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it's with historic and classic sales, and that's literally just been restored.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um C85, because you can have slightly bigger engines, it doesn't affect the the kind of history look.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um you get a bit more power, gives you a bit more go.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, you could have a perfectly restored L4, um, literally almost like new, 75k.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um look around, there are cheaper examples, and it comes with a patina of age, and like you say, it's they are plentiful, and there's lots of shares out there, so you can get yourself into an L4 for um for under 10 grand if you join a if you join a group.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh just watch watch the classified ads.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_04: I would say I'm just a lovely flying experience.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_04: Don't expect to go anywhere fast, don't expect magical roll rate because they don't.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_04: I was going to ask you about the handing.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's kind of just struck me as being disconnected.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god, what's happened?
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's like it's like you've taken some nice you know, some nice calming drugs, and it just kind of waffles around.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, a cub will only just kill you.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_04: Fair enough.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: Talking of something that will definitely kill you.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I've chosen a steerman, uh steerman also known as a model 75, sometimes known as a cadet, sometimes known as a PT-17, uh, but everyone just calls him the steerman.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's an open cockpit biplane.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, it was the primary trainer for an entire generation of World War II pilots.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it was between the 1930s and 1940s, more than 10,000 of these were built in the United States.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, more than 50% of all US military pilots who fought in World War II uh had their initial flight training on the steermen.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_03: And there were a lot of Brits as well, 10,000 in a scheme to uh to train, yeah, but we needed a lot of pilots.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: So we had this scheme where they were trained in in the States uh and uh in the southern states where the weather was decent and a long way from any potential confrontation.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um and they got around 60 to 65 hours learning the basics in the stearman before moving on to the more complex stuff.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: After the war, these thousands of PT-17s, the stearmans, uh still in flying condition, but well looked after.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: And you have to say they're immensely tough.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: If you ever look at the undercarriage on one, it's built for as a trainer, it could land anywhere.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um anyway, so but they're in and they were used for uh things like um uh crop spraying, agricultural aircraft, uh even wing walkers, you know, the aero superbatics team, which is not not very far from from here, uh they're um they all use uh stearmans, don't they?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh the thing about a steerman, and I have I have actually been for a flight in a steerman, I went out with Jerry Honey, who was the CFI at Old Buckingham Airfield um some time ago.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: And the first thing is it's huge.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean they are big.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, compared to Ian's chipmunk and my piper, you need a whole different size hangar for your steerman.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, and a team to move it around.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we Jerry and I got it out in and out of the hangar, okay.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_03: He was very used to manoeuvring that, so uh it's probably something to do with it.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: But it's got huge wings, it's got you know it's just big everywhere, and uh but it's also very simple.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_03: It was actually I mean, Jerry wouldn't let me take off in the steerman, probably a very good thing.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_03: But he did let me have to have the controls after after a while.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's got a big baseball bat stick, yeah.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it was really very simple to fly.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um but it we we tweeted we flew round North Norfolk at five hundred feet because Norfolk is Fairly flat, it's very easy to do just that.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: And had a brilliant flight.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's a pretty uh immersive experience flying a steerman.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: You're not going hugely fast, but eighty.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think it does everything at 80.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: But you're blown, you know, you you you've got a little bit of protection from a little bit of a windscreen.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_04: I I'd say out of biplanes I've flown in, the steerman is actually one of the nicest.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_04: Is it?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's got the size that I I and I flew in a tiger moth and I felt a little bit exposed in that.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh whereas the steerman, you go, actually, this is quite nice.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_03: I think it felt it felt very different in the steerman when I flow a tiger moth as well.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: A tiger moth seems to act like an elevator.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you lift.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: You sort of every s everything is at 70.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_03: And don't so much climb as just sort of go up like levitate.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_03: But uh the steerman felt felt a real experience.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um I found uh I found a really nice example.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's with Historic and Classic again.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: This is uh it's a UK registered one, uh Golf Charlie India Papa Papa Echo.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: And it's currently off of sale for£180,000,£179,950.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's quite a lot.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's meticulously restored.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_03: If you look at the detailed pictures, it's absolutely immaculate.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: It looks like a brand new aeroplane.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_04: You do find that with aeroplanes like this, people you do get restorations where people go absolutely totally into the detail because they can.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: This one was built in 1941, so it's a genuine World War II bird.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, originally powered by a 220 horsepower continental engine.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_04: This particular one has now got a 300 horsepower lycoming R680 radial engine, which uh uh I hear people say that the small continental, the smallest that is the tr the real true steerman flying experience.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um as they get more powerful, yes, more go, but actually it kind of it's like everything, more power sometimes doesn't make it better.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_06: I mean there's a chunk of drag with a steerman.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_06: Um so you put you probably putting 440-50 horsepower or something and it's still not going that fast.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, the the all the dis all the the big display stearmans all use the the the the R the Pratt and Whitney R R 985, which which is four four hundred and fifty horsepower, I think.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, there's I think low power the low low power early engine stearmans is probably a lovely.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean that if it wasn't for 175 grand, I don't know I think everyone should have a I that's that sounds like a really nice example.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_04: I've got a feeling you can you can probably pick up a steerman for less.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_03: You can pick them up, yeah.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's the same with everything, you know.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: If you buy a the lesser ones, I found I did see a couple at uh 90,000.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: Which is it sounds like a lot l you know, half the price.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, this this one was a really beautiful immaculate example.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_06: I think if I had a steerman, I'd I'd quite like it to be a beautifully immaculate example.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_06: You flew one down at Goodwood, didn't you?
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_06: That was great.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_06: That was really, really good.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_06: I mean you're right, the undercarriage is great and everything.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_06: The wingtips are a little bit close to the ground.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_06: So you don't want to, you know, you don't want to I've seen a couple oh yeah, you you've got a little bit of a ground loopy type thing if you're not careful.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_06: Um but yeah, no, lovely lovely aeroplane.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_06: Lovely airplane.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_06: But I'm I'm also a little bit a little bit lazy in as much as if I I kind of want to go flying, I'd want to go up to the airplane, drag it out, jump in, and go.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_06: So for me, you know, a lot of the Warbird stuff and the classic stuff takes a lot more.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well with a radio engine, you normally gotta pull it through several times, haven't you?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: To clear any uh make sure there's no hydraulic lock.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's it, yeah.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: What you're saying is that Dave Stearman is perhaps a little big for you.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's that it becomes a bit of an effort to You kind of want a crew for a steering.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_06: You want okay, I need a I need a couple of people to come and help me get it ready and everything else, and then I can go and enjoy it.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_06: Because it's not something that I would feel comfortable going out to the hangar, pulling it all out, putting it back in, etcetera.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I'm sure it can be done with with various bits and pieces, but you know, jumping in a cub or something is easier.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_06: Is easier.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_06: So and your chipmunk too.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_06: And the chipmunk as well, yeah.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_06: But I mean I think what it does show is is that actually, particularly if you buy a share, you can get access to a really, really interesting aircraft that's got a whole load of history, that's got bags of they've both they've all got bags of character.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_06: The chipmunk for being like a thoroughbred, the steerman for being a waddling double cheeseburger whopper, and the L4 for not having any control authority.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_06: It's a stick of celery.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's a stick of celery in comparison.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_06: So but you can buy some, and they're they're all charming for Tiger Moth is charming.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_06: You know, not for its amazing handling, but for its lack of amazing handling.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_06: It's so weird that it makes you laugh.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_06: Um but you can you can actually get a piece of this real history for not very much money if you're buying a share.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_06: And a share is the real best way to own those, unless you're kind of like very, very lucky.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_04: And don't forget as well that uh just like in the non-warbird world of these aeroplanes, of like the Pipe J3, you can go looking at there's there are other liaison airplanes like the L4.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_04: There was uh Aronka made uh uh their own liaison aeroplane, and just like the Aronka Champ versus a J3 Cub, super cheap.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_06: There was a bird dog up for sale recently, probably still one up for sale, that interesting wall.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_04: Fantastic aeroplane, yeah.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um I suppose Oster things, Osters?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_06: Lots of lots of Osters.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, P9.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_06: Although not sure that's a I mean it is a real Oster, but I'm not sure what they were thinking when they did that.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_06: To be perfectly honest with you.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, no, there's lots I mean even a JP.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_06: Jet Prov Oster.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but again, you're getting into the uh the uh cheap to buy.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_04: Less maybe less cheap to operate, definitely needs a team to help you.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_06: No, exactly.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_06: But I think the the great thing is if you take if you take the 182, which is a great jump in and go and tour and go somewhere up a long distance kind of airplane, yeah, and you say, okay, we'll take the value of that and divide it by you know you could buy half a dozen shares in in a in a range of really interesting aircraft for that and uh that wouldn't particularly suit the flying I do with it or that we use it for, but it would be it's a kind of an interesting way.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_06: I I think I think uh I think the uh the the whole Warbird scene is a fascinating.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_04: I think yeah, I I think it's a it's a nice it just it's something else that adds to the the the fun in flying to explore all those affordable Warbird avenues.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you're somewhat out of state, it's a really vibrant industry as well, isn't it?
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_04: Well you go to you go to Oshkosh and um and and you go to incredible.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: I know people talk about the warbed area and people naturally imagine that little pad there's the paddock which is full of the premium megabucks million dollar warbirds.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: But you go behind there and there's a sea of um sea of liaison aeroplanes, trainers, T thirty-fours, t-28s, um a whole bunch of stuff.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_04: And Harvard.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_04: More Harvard than you can shake a stick at.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_04: So unfortunately.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, so um yeah, I think it's when you hear Warbird, don't necessarily think it's it's multi-million pound experiences.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_04: Go looking in the classifiers.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_04: There's some fantastic choices.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us in the comments if you were gonna have an affordable Warbird, what would it be?
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_06: What would it be?
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_06: Before we move on to what caught my eye, I think we should just have a little reminder.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_06: Join the bloody club.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_06: Flyer.credit.uk forward slash membership, six quid a month.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_06: Bargain, sixty-two quid a year, save even more money.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: Access to everything we do.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yes, so what uh what caught your eye this week, Dave?
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: What caught your eye?
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, last week Annabelle was talking about going uh float plane flying up in Scotland to do a seaplane rating.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: And that got me thinking because I've actually years ago, I once did an article about uh seapl float plane flying on Lake Como.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I went and took a look at uh Lake Como, yeah, the Aero Club Como website to see if they're still operating.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_03: And of course they are, they've been operating on Lake Como since 1930.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_03: Since the Romans, I think.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_06: I mean the Romans had seaplanes there.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well of course they did, yes.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_03: In case you don't know, cat Lake Como is in uh north of Italy, north of Milan, in the sort of what they call the Italian Lake District.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_03: There's a whole bunch of lakes up there that you can and amazingly, you can fly and land on any of those lakes in a in a flow plane.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, that is beautiful.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_03: It is stunning, isn't it?
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_03: It is stunning.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, this you actually have to have the permission of the landowner if you want to draw up on the shoreline.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um obviously at the uh aero club itself, which is right on the lake, you can pull up there.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_03: But if you want to pull up next to one of the villas or or here on a shoreline, you actually have to have the agreement of the landowner.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_03: But the club has agreements around the around the lake, so you can go and do things like that.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's just amazing.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um the location of Aero Club Como, I mean it's on the waterfront in the city of Como, right next to that poshish yacht club you can ever imagine.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's just a stunning location.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_06: See, we see there's probably somewhere a a video being made as we speak, and someone going, I really like sailing on Como, but it's right next to the poshest aviation club you've ever seen.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_06: We've got seaplanes, they've been there historically.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: But the amazing thing about the club is it's got such a great relationship with you know the yacht club next door, the city, the all the residents seem to love it.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's fit, it's really part of the whole fabric of of a co of of the of there.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: And you can at a Aero Club Cloma, you can do uh just a float plane rating if you want, or you can do a full PPLA with either a land or a sea rating or both.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_03: You can do the whole thing.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's a hugely sociable club.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: They've got um uh some rooms there that people can come and stay.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um and uh pilots come there from all over Europe just to go and go flying on the lakes.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_06: Like Jack Brown's like a bit like Jack Brown's, yeah.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_06: A bit like Jack Brown's, but with nice food.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_03: Better food.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: Great food, yeah.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I I thoroughly recommend going there because I we had a fantastic time.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_06: Very good.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_03: Ian.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we we get lots and lots of press releases here, and some of them are kind of like dull, and some of them are kind of interesting, and some of them are just plain weird, and no idea why they sent it to us.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_06: And this is one of them.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_06: It's the uh IKA-20-M rotary ring platform fitted with a.76 machine gun.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: Someone has put a machine gun on a drone.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_06: But the 250 uh 250 bullet magazine or whatever they call it.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_06: 250 round magazine.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_06: 250 round magazine.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_06: This thing's absolutely mad.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_06: And you can fly it around.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I mean, I don't know why they sent me the press release, to be perfectly honest.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_04: Do you think this is what they what they they were thinking of when uh when the CIA were saying um drones.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_04: Drones.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, absolutely.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_06: I think this is it.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_06: But this this this not only do you get single single shot, you get burst fire as well.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_03: They didn't send this press release to me, so I get it.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, for you.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_06: So uh I get some weird press releases, and this one was like super weird.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_06: And I go given that everyone's talking about drones all the time here and they're gonna be buzzing around forever, and someone was talking about drone manufacturing in China.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not talking DJI, but military drone stuff, and they're they have the capacity to build literally millions of them a year.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_06: And if they all come out equipped with a machine gun, that's gonna be it's gonna be some workplace noise, isn't there?
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_06: That is a thing.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_06: And that all goes off.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_06: So there you go, that's what caught my eye.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_06: There's start people are starting to tell me about drones with machine guns.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_06: Amazing.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um that just leaves me out.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_04: It does.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_04: And um yeah.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_04: And uh so on uh Piper Aircraft's Instagram page, uh, a photo popped up which reminded me of something rather fantastic.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_04: So sixty years ago this week, a British pilot set off to fly around the world.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh do you who knows who that was?
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_06: How long ago?
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_06: What year?
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_06: Is it Bobby Moore?
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_03: Was it uh uh the woman, Sheila somebody.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_03: It was Sheila Scott.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_03: Ah Yeah.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_04: So Sheila Scott uh in April 1966 um set off around to fly around the world in Myth II, which was a Comanche 260.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um sorry, I say April.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh she departed London Heathrow on the 18th of May uh 1966, got back on the 20th of June 66, having covered 31,000 miles.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_04: Flight 189 hour flying hours over 34 days.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_04: F 34 days.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_04: What amazed me is that was the first solo flight around the world by a British subject.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: I would have guessed someone else might have done it before that at that the time, only the third flight around the world by a woman.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_04: So uh Scott was awarded the Harmon Trophy for uh that flight and went on to make a hundred other uh um record aviation flights.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_04: So um What airplane was it a single Comanche or a twin?
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_04: Sing a single Comanche.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_04: I sh Sheila had a uh had a good long relationship with Piper, had all had uh Comanche, I think she might have had a twin Comanche, maybe she definitely had an Aztec, uh which was another record airplane that went back to Piper and was unfortunately lost in the big flood that they had there.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Myth 2, the Comanche that she flew around the world that um that we've just been talking about, that still exists.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's in the um the East Fortune Um Airfield Museum, the National Museum of Flight up in Scotland.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um sadly, someone bought it and and damaged it in an accident, but it's it's in on display in its slightly damaged, but still uh you know unrestored, perfectly historic.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_04: Time time slap slap.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_03: I remember it being actually because I'm that old.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_03: I remember it being absolutely big deal.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_06: You went and cheered her off, didn't you do that?
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't cheer her off, no, but uh but she was on yeah, a lot of TV and it was a it was a really all over the national press.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_03: Huge deal.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_04: I it's uh it's I always think it's a it's a bit of a shame when we lose sight of some of that stuff sometimes.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_04: So uh well done Piper on reminding us.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_06: Well done, Piper.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_06: Cessna also got in the act when they with Jerry Mock.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, but I I They gave her a Cessna 180.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but chances of textron remembering heritage like that?
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_06: Textron, it's I'm sure that's lost from their corporate knowledge completely.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_06: So um so yeah, well done, Piper.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_06: Jolly good.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_06: Events then, Dave.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_03: Events, yep.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_06: Must be some.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, yep.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very busy weekend, and fortunately the weather looks like it's all gonna hold together this time.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_03: So starting uh tomorrow, Friday, there's an international gathering of chipmunks at Hapney Green.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yep.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_03: Uh over the weekend, Saturday to Monday, there's Spanfield at Sandown.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_06: That's gonna be busy.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_06: It's a bank holiday.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's a bank holiday, that's right.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, I'm glad you reminded me.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_03: Saturday the 23rd, there's a flying at Manchester Barton.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_03: This is the Friends of Barton flying.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Sunday, Stone Marie's, the Great War Aerodrome, is having its wings and wheels, big do.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Sunday, there's a Sester flying at Popham, straight foot with Sester flying.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: And Sunday to Monday, there's an open day and flying at Hamilton Farm, which is in Kent.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: Wednesday the 27th, there's a Teddy Bears picnic at Shobden.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm not joking, there really is a teddy bears picnic.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_03: In the middle of the week.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_03: In the middle of the week, yeah.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_06: Teddy Bears are all retired, don't you know?
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_06: Uh yeah.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_03: And looking ahead to the following weekend, uh, Friday 29th to the 31st of May, Friday to Sunday, there's an annual Mile flying at Glenfalza.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_04: And later, and later on today, in fact, maybe even as you're watching, the first of the pop-and barbecues is on.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yes, so yeah, there's a good possibility we might be there and you might meet us.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_06: You never know.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_06: You never know.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_06: Cool, brilliant.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_06: Well, on that basis, I think it's time to say, don't forget to join the flyer club.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_06: Flyer.co.ek forward slash subscribe.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you very much, team.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you very much, everyone, for watching.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_06: Have a great bank holiday weekend flying.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for reminding me that's bank holiday.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and don't forget to let us know who your what your favourite war bird would be, and particularly if you've got a link to how much it would cost.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks very much, everyone.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_06: See you soon.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_06: Bye.
• 1:00:59
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• 1:01:04
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