beautiful chipmunk
Hi Mark , thanks for your comments about father, he is still fighting fit but never flew again after the Chipmunks were retired, WK511 (905) he used during 1967, 906 the following year, for a series of air races, including the Kings Cup, as the official Navy entry, he was the flying grading examiner at that time and still serving in the Navy. It was put into storage a few years before they were all retired and sold a long time before others I think, we never saw it again,and it could be that 912 replaced it on strength but 912 and 909 were spares and held at Kemble but they would have been there on a frequent basis either as extras or when one of the others was undergoing major work at Kemble or later St Athan, you were just lucky lol, I seem to remember the incident with spinning, but I could be remembering incorrectly, and later they did have one engine failure that led to a successful forced landing in a field it was later flown out successfully.
You might remember me I was the "hanger rat" and used to spend all my time up there when not a school, either hand pumping fuel , doping wings etc, pushing, pulling and generaly getting in the way, all your numbers are correct by the way, the original colour scheme had gone by the time you got there, I do have a few pics if would like them, I can email them to you . Every year they would take several aircraft away to France for a couple of weeks in the sun and the old orange dayglo would fade to almost white, they would go in the company of a Sea Devon it used to look like a mother duck going off with her chicks in tow. As a matter of interest all the Roborough chipmunks are still around, a couple in the USA now with lycoming engines I think, some down under in NZ(905) & Aus, a couple in Europe, Lee on Solent had one for glider towing and RNHF have two of them 906 flying and 908 used for spares
regards Gordon
for anyone interested I believe these are current locations of BRNC Chippys
901 WP795 UK (Lee on Solent) ?
902 WK634 USA
903 WD374 AUS
904 WP856 USA
905 WK511 NZ
906 WK608 UK (RNHF)
907 WB575 France
908 WB657 UK (RNHF) non airworthy for spares
909 WP904 USA
910 WB671 Belgium
911 WP801 USA
912 WP809 UK
Last edited by gpugh; 23rd Nov 2010 at 13:34.