Scottish crash C150? Circa 1980
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This is my first post on here.
Hugh Allen was a wonderful character. I flew with him a few times from Turnhouse when I was cutting my teeth as a budding aviation writer and photographer, still in my teens. I had no credentials but Hugh gave me the benefit of the doubt and rather took me under his wing. This was in the early 1970s.
He married a lady a good bit younger than himself. An attractive and charming lady.
I remember, once, at Turnhouse Flying Club, listening-in to ATC when Hugh was flying and the controller corrected some information Hugh had just conveyed. Hugh's reply was, "Sorry. Too much sex this morning."
That was Hugh.
Nigel
Hugh Allen was a wonderful character. I flew with him a few times from Turnhouse when I was cutting my teeth as a budding aviation writer and photographer, still in my teens. I had no credentials but Hugh gave me the benefit of the doubt and rather took me under his wing. This was in the early 1970s.
He married a lady a good bit younger than himself. An attractive and charming lady.
I remember, once, at Turnhouse Flying Club, listening-in to ATC when Hugh was flying and the controller corrected some information Hugh had just conveyed. Hugh's reply was, "Sorry. Too much sex this morning."
That was Hugh.
Nigel
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Yes, I remember it well.
We had a bad spell of accidents at EFC in the late 70s. Hugh and John's fatal was one of five in quite rapid succession.
They hit Bishop's Hill in IMC. Neither occupant was wearing the optional shoulder harness and the blow to the forehead upon contacting the instrument panel was instantly fatal. No fire.
Not long previously we'd had a fatal on Bentarty Hill when a member, who'd bought himself an Aztec, had gone down to Stansted to sit his IR initial. He failed and flew the aircraft back on his IMC rating but did not feel legal to shoot an ILS to minimums at EDI. He, like most local pilots, knew of a commonly forming sucker hole on the lee of Benarty Hill, so he tried to let down through it to land at Glenrothes. Crashed and burned.
Another silly CFIT was a member who rented an Archer from TFC and flew some business chums South via SAB VOR in a snowstorm. Clipped the top of Hedgehope Hill in the Cheviots. Did not survive his injuries long enough for MRT to find him.
Yet another silly CFIT was when two members tried an illegal IMC letdown near Shoreham and clipped a chimney. Fatal. One was the air cadet gliding unit CFI at Kirknewton, the other was a traffic cop. Both were mature enough to know better.
Not long previously John Turnbull had crashed one of his Aztecs (or mebbe it was Brian Bailey's one) on climbout from Glenrothes. He was carrying all four of his engineers on a post-Check airtest. Just after rotate the fwd hold door popped open and vibrated badly. John shut down the port engine thinking the prop had gone nuts. It was under engine and he didn't make the blue line. He was the only survivor. He died three or four years later when a tree he was cutting down fell on him.
We'd had another silly and rather odd one when a member flew an Aerobat with a girlfriend to spend the night at Glenforsa. Long after dark, following a mellow dinner, he took it into his head to fly a few circuits. She didn't go with him as he needed her to shine a torch so her could find the runway! His body was later found propped against a tree, with no sign of the aircraft. Plenty of theories flying around for years about that one!!
We had a bad spell of accidents at EFC in the late 70s. Hugh and John's fatal was one of five in quite rapid succession.
They hit Bishop's Hill in IMC. Neither occupant was wearing the optional shoulder harness and the blow to the forehead upon contacting the instrument panel was instantly fatal. No fire.
Not long previously we'd had a fatal on Bentarty Hill when a member, who'd bought himself an Aztec, had gone down to Stansted to sit his IR initial. He failed and flew the aircraft back on his IMC rating but did not feel legal to shoot an ILS to minimums at EDI. He, like most local pilots, knew of a commonly forming sucker hole on the lee of Benarty Hill, so he tried to let down through it to land at Glenrothes. Crashed and burned.
Another silly CFIT was a member who rented an Archer from TFC and flew some business chums South via SAB VOR in a snowstorm. Clipped the top of Hedgehope Hill in the Cheviots. Did not survive his injuries long enough for MRT to find him.
Yet another silly CFIT was when two members tried an illegal IMC letdown near Shoreham and clipped a chimney. Fatal. One was the air cadet gliding unit CFI at Kirknewton, the other was a traffic cop. Both were mature enough to know better.
Not long previously John Turnbull had crashed one of his Aztecs (or mebbe it was Brian Bailey's one) on climbout from Glenrothes. He was carrying all four of his engineers on a post-Check airtest. Just after rotate the fwd hold door popped open and vibrated badly. John shut down the port engine thinking the prop had gone nuts. It was under engine and he didn't make the blue line. He was the only survivor. He died three or four years later when a tree he was cutting down fell on him.
We'd had another silly and rather odd one when a member flew an Aerobat with a girlfriend to spend the night at Glenforsa. Long after dark, following a mellow dinner, he took it into his head to fly a few circuits. She didn't go with him as he needed her to shine a torch so her could find the runway! His body was later found propped against a tree, with no sign of the aircraft. Plenty of theories flying around for years about that one!!
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The aircraft you refer to in your finally sorry tale there, the Aerobat, was G-AVTN, if I'm not mistaken. My records show that I flew in that aircraft on 14 May 1972, on my first attempt at air-to-air photography. Edinburgh Flying Club (Ian Cooper) had just acquired a Monsun, if my memory serves, and the idea was that I take photos of it over the Forth Bridges, from the Cessna. Peter Nisbet was flying me. I believe he was an instructor at EFC. And I presume Ian will have been flying the Monsun. I came across the pix I took a few years ago. They are buried somewhere again now. Who knows when they'll next surface from my ten-miles-deep pile of aerospace bits and pieces.
When 'VTN was lost in that mysterious accident, a businessman named Peter Gibbs was flying it. I don't suppose we'll ever know what really happened.
One accident at Turnhouse that really stuck in my mind was the one involving Imperial Tobacco's HS125 - in 1970 or thereabouts. The aircraft crashed within the airport boundary. Ian Cooper told me he'd seen it at first hand from close quarters, as EFC was situated right at the end of the runway.
Ian had some great tales of King Hussain of Jordan when he was flying at Turnhouse back in the day. I understood that he had learned to fly there? Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I'd gathered.
I've lots of great Turnhouse memories. From air-experience flights in the ATC (Chipmunks - 12AEF) to flying as PAX with the Blue Eagles there when they had the Sioux, to seeing Concorde 002 demonstrating at the air-display, when it was still thought-of as something straight out of a Gerry Anderson movie.
When 'VTN was lost in that mysterious accident, a businessman named Peter Gibbs was flying it. I don't suppose we'll ever know what really happened.
One accident at Turnhouse that really stuck in my mind was the one involving Imperial Tobacco's HS125 - in 1970 or thereabouts. The aircraft crashed within the airport boundary. Ian Cooper told me he'd seen it at first hand from close quarters, as EFC was situated right at the end of the runway.
Ian had some great tales of King Hussain of Jordan when he was flying at Turnhouse back in the day. I understood that he had learned to fly there? Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I'd gathered.
I've lots of great Turnhouse memories. From air-experience flights in the ATC (Chipmunks - 12AEF) to flying as PAX with the Blue Eagles there when they had the Sioux, to seeing Concorde 002 demonstrating at the air-display, when it was still thought-of as something straight out of a Gerry Anderson movie.
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I'm now pretty sure that the aircraft referred to in the root post was G-BFGC.
The club, Hamish Morris actually, bought three new Cessnas in the winter of 77/78. The 172 'GE was dinked in a silly prop-strike, but recovered. 'FY was damn nearly totalled when Hamish ran it out of fuel on a run to Glenrothes to buy fuel cheaper than Andy Bruce was willing to sell for. Tried to use a ploughed field for the forced landing, silly man, and put it on its back.
'GC was deleted from the CAA register in 1980 so that must have been the one that Hugh/John perished in. I've just had a look at the AAIB site, but can't find any report there.
Yup, Peter Gibb was the Glenforsa fella. He was known to have had business rivals and it was said that there were one or two jealous husbands who may have had ill intentions towards him so the mysterious circumstances of his crash fed all kinds of ideas. The post-mortem was quasi-inconclusive but presumed that hypothermia was the cause of death. No salt was found in his clothing and no sign of the aircraft on land. Later a wheel was found washed up on the shore a few miles away which was identified as being from the aircraft but that simply fed the wild stories as it seemed just a bit too convenient. Eventually some scoobydoo sport divers found the wreckage and it became clear that he simply flew it into the glassy water on right base in the dark.
Entirely concur that Hugh was wonderfully good company, with or without a dram in his hand. For part of the '70s I was flying in Nigeria and so we often jabbered in West African Pidgin to the bemusement of anyone who was unaware of Hugh's background in the West African logging trade. Yes, I also remember his prim and immaculately dressed new wife, Edie. He often horrified her by calling her Erotica in public.
The only chum from those days, and of his ilk, that I'm still pally with is Ian Hamilton. Another great character about whom I could tell many a tale, but shalln't lest the moderators sh1t bricks.
Yes, King Hussein was a frequent visitor to the clubhouse. My predecessor as Flying Convenor on the Committee was Jock Dalgleish who was an old flying buddy of HM King Hussein. Jock had saved the life of HM by flying what amounted to a one-sided dog-fight against a pair of Syrian MiGs in a Dove (or was it a Heron?). The King visited Edinburgh once or twice a year and always dropped by the clubhouse for a blether and to swap flying stories with all and sundry at the bar in a complete informal way. If he'd forgotten your name he had a disarming habit of addressing one as "Sir". The only time in my life I've ever been asked by a King "What would you like to drink, Sir?". An excellent fellow, and later with a charming new Queen who was naturally gracious and regal despite being an American. I seem to recall that she had an aviation background too, through a family connection with PanAm or somesuch.
He didn't learn to fly with us, but Jock had taught him and had illegally authed his first solo, by simply leaving the cockpit of the Dove with HM at the controls and telling him to get on with it and that he'd be in the bog until the aircraft had taxyed in.
Happy days. Sadly the Club had to dissolve itself last year in the face of extreme operational difficulties at what has become a shopping mall with a runway alongside.
The club, Hamish Morris actually, bought three new Cessnas in the winter of 77/78. The 172 'GE was dinked in a silly prop-strike, but recovered. 'FY was damn nearly totalled when Hamish ran it out of fuel on a run to Glenrothes to buy fuel cheaper than Andy Bruce was willing to sell for. Tried to use a ploughed field for the forced landing, silly man, and put it on its back.
'GC was deleted from the CAA register in 1980 so that must have been the one that Hugh/John perished in. I've just had a look at the AAIB site, but can't find any report there.
Yup, Peter Gibb was the Glenforsa fella. He was known to have had business rivals and it was said that there were one or two jealous husbands who may have had ill intentions towards him so the mysterious circumstances of his crash fed all kinds of ideas. The post-mortem was quasi-inconclusive but presumed that hypothermia was the cause of death. No salt was found in his clothing and no sign of the aircraft on land. Later a wheel was found washed up on the shore a few miles away which was identified as being from the aircraft but that simply fed the wild stories as it seemed just a bit too convenient. Eventually some scoobydoo sport divers found the wreckage and it became clear that he simply flew it into the glassy water on right base in the dark.
Entirely concur that Hugh was wonderfully good company, with or without a dram in his hand. For part of the '70s I was flying in Nigeria and so we often jabbered in West African Pidgin to the bemusement of anyone who was unaware of Hugh's background in the West African logging trade. Yes, I also remember his prim and immaculately dressed new wife, Edie. He often horrified her by calling her Erotica in public.
The only chum from those days, and of his ilk, that I'm still pally with is Ian Hamilton. Another great character about whom I could tell many a tale, but shalln't lest the moderators sh1t bricks.
Yes, King Hussein was a frequent visitor to the clubhouse. My predecessor as Flying Convenor on the Committee was Jock Dalgleish who was an old flying buddy of HM King Hussein. Jock had saved the life of HM by flying what amounted to a one-sided dog-fight against a pair of Syrian MiGs in a Dove (or was it a Heron?). The King visited Edinburgh once or twice a year and always dropped by the clubhouse for a blether and to swap flying stories with all and sundry at the bar in a complete informal way. If he'd forgotten your name he had a disarming habit of addressing one as "Sir". The only time in my life I've ever been asked by a King "What would you like to drink, Sir?". An excellent fellow, and later with a charming new Queen who was naturally gracious and regal despite being an American. I seem to recall that she had an aviation background too, through a family connection with PanAm or somesuch.
He didn't learn to fly with us, but Jock had taught him and had illegally authed his first solo, by simply leaving the cockpit of the Dove with HM at the controls and telling him to get on with it and that he'd be in the bog until the aircraft had taxyed in.
Happy days. Sadly the Club had to dissolve itself last year in the face of extreme operational difficulties at what has become a shopping mall with a runway alongside.
