Originally Posted by
longer ron
RAE Dakota TS423 (Mayfly) with a blunt radar nose was sometimes to be seen trundling around the south of england,ISTR she came in to visit us at Abingdon 'B' Hangar Ramp (AVGAS) circa 1980.
Colour scheme probably Grey lower fuselage/White upper fuselage with a dark blue 'cheat' line just above cabin windows.
'423 was delivered to Farnborough at about the same time as Dakota KG661 and '423 was supposed to be used as spares for '661. Hunting's 'WC was a regular visitor and the Hunting crew helped 'convert' some Farnborough pilots to the Dak so at one time, we had no less than 3 Dakotas parked outside the tower at Farnborough. This would have been in about 1979.
Subsequently, '423 was sold to 'Aces High' and is nowadays based at Dunsfold registered (I think) N147CD. Then some eagle eyed spotter at Brize checked the identity of '661 and discovered that aircraft was listed as written off in 1944, so '661 was re-painted and re-registerd as ZA947. As a 'reward' for this, '947 was sent to Brize Norton on 21 Dec 1979 for a day with a 'guest' crew including myself (I was an ATCO and an RAFVRT officer at the time) and other passengers including an RAFVRT Officer from Farnborough ATC Squadron plus some ROC Observers.
About a year later, '947 was lined up for departure from runway 07 at Farnborough when the crew reported they had a 'problem' and were evacuating the aircraft; as they did so, the port undercarriage collapsed allowing the still turning port prop to strike the ground and break off and the wingtip to contact the ground which produced 'wrinkling' in the skin of the port wing.
The superb mechanics in RAE's 'Base Workshops' repaired the damage and as people will be aware, '947 is still flying with BBMF having been transferred when RAE's 'Transport Flight' was disbanded in the early '90s.