A friend of mine, 'Charlie DeHavilland', who lives in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, but keeps his Chippy in California (odd that!
) has been posting daily installments on FaceBook commemorating the flight around the world by two RAF Chipmunks in 1997 - Exercise Northern Venture.
Charlie has a particular interest in this epic flight, because he owns WP833, one of the two Chipmunks that flew around the world.
I felt his posts deserved a wider audience and so with his permission, I am going to re-post them here. The only things I will add are maps from gcmap.com and calculated average speeds.
Charlie started posting on 20 May and in his daily posts, the Chippies have reached Alaska, so I have a bit of catching up to do!
Around The World @ 90 Kts
ATW: 1997-05-20
As the Beatles once sang: “It was twenty years ago today …” – and it was twenty years ago today that two Chipmunks embarked on a global circumnavigation, Around The World, eastbound in the northern hemisphere.
Three bold Royal Air Force pilots, Squadron Leaders Tony Cowan, Ced Hughes and Bill Purchase, set off on ‘Exercise Northern Venture’ with two DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10s, accompanied throughout by two almost-as-bold chaps, Flying Officer Tony Severs and Mr. Dave Gill (only ‘almost-as-bold’ because they had two engines on their BN-2 Islander support ship!). Others accompanied them from time to time, as will be recorded.
The purpose of Northern Venture was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Chipmunk, and maybe forge a new GA route to North America across the Russian Federation – let me know how successful you think that has been!
I thought I might ‘post-blog’ this trip by providing a (brief) daily update so as to relate the tale of these three pilots and their support team who took on more discomfort than most of us would care to suffer (You think only two hours in a Chippie cockpit is a long time? – You want hot running water in your shower?? You want to eat regular meals???) to make a journey which will never be repeated and which set a number of unofficial records for that wonderful aeroplane which we all love to see and fly (no, not the Islander, though that too is a great plane, which passed its own 50th anniversary in 2016).
Btw, the Chippie’s 50th was of course in 1996, but nature intervened that year and the Exercise had to ‘RTB’ having only reached Moscow. Thanks to the persuasive efforts of those involved in the ’96 venture, a second attempt was organized, and succeeded, in 1997.
Disclaimer: anything published herein and hereafter in connection with the ATW exercise is of my own editorship, selection and phrasing, and is not endorsed by anyone actually involved with the event (just to keep their reputations intact).
The first day's flying:
Cranwell (EGYD - GB) – London City (EGLC - GB):
125nm; 1h30; Hughes (Lead - 962) / Purchase (#2 - 833)
London City (GB) – Manston (EGMH - GB):
50nm; 0h45; Cowan (962) / Purchase (833)
Manston (GB) – Munster (EDDG - DE):
255nm; 2h40; Purchase (833) / Cowan (962)
Here’s the ‘polar’ view of the route. Looks a bit like a squidged Africa, doesn’t it?
The blue ‘you are here’ is actually WP833’s present position.
If you want to put the whole trip into ForeFlight or your preferred aviators’ app, copy this:
EGYD EGLC EGMH EDDG EDDB EPWA EYVI ULOO UUEE UWKD 55.7875N/49.1953E UWKD USCC UNOO UNEE UNKM UNKS UIBB UIKK UERL UEEE 63.2430N/143.1730E UESU UESS UHMK UHMA UHMD PAOM PAGA PAEI PAOR CYXY CYQH CBF8 CYYE CYMM CYPA CYWG CYQT CYAM CYZD CYRO CYBG CYZV CYYR CZUM CYKL CYVP CYFB CYVM BGSF BGGH BGBW BGKK BIKF BIEG EKVG EGQK EGQL EGVA EGYW EGYD
Last minute preparations at Cranwell on 1997-05-19 - Ced Hughes (nearest) closes-up WP962 while Bill Purchase tends to 833, and the Red Arrows provide a backdrop.
Cranwell departure, 1997-05-20: Air Commodore Jon Ford, Commandant Air Cadets, and Bill Purchase share a last-minute laugh – the joke is, allegedly, “Check lipstick”.
The big send-off at EGLC. From here the flight headed down the Thames to Manston, where the crews consolidated everything, took a breath, and then set forth in earnest.
‘Scrambled egg’ and luminaries on the pan at EGLC. Not really a great shot, except for the additional opportunity to go ‘Aahhhhh, de Havilland’!!
Three RAF Chipmunk pilots outside the Hotel Zur Post, Munster (DE).
They were accompanied by Air Training Corp Cadet Warrant Officer Steve Kirtley (leftmost) and Tony Severs (Islander pilot, and incidentally the only pilot in the team who actually flew the WHOLE way Around The World - rightmost).
Also accompanying them was Corporal Steve Spencer, photographer and presumably the man behind this photo.
Dave Gill must have been inside, buying the beer!
Day 1: EGYD-EGLC-EGMH-EDDG 430 nm, 4.92 hrs, GS 87 kts. Cumulative 430 nm, 4.92 hrs, Average GS 87 kts.
Note: The distances are from Charlie's post. They don't always agree with the gcmap distances.
