Peter Cadbury Pitts S1 G AXNZ
Hello there,just seen you are asking about Peter Cadbury and Preston Candover.In 1975,I bought the Shuttleworth built(Wally Berry /Bert Etheridge)S1C Pitts Special with Pete Sheppard.Manx Kelly of Kelly Aeroplane had commissioned it with Rothmans for Neil williams to fly at competitions way back before they had the S2s,but it had languished at the back of Old Warden's hangar not used-Williams did not like just the 2 bottom ailerons.Manx told me the they were going to sel it,but it had no Permit as the test flying was not complete.Mike Findlay brought it to Booker,and I was familiarised by Manx and Mike in a S2,before letting lose in the S1.I then flew it down to Yeovilton for Pete Sheppard,and the 2 of us had a great deal of fun in it.However it could not accomodate a passenger and we had loads of interested parties wanting to fly it.In the end we decided to sell it rather than keep upsetting people,and it had a weird fuel guage ,which you could not always see(Neoprene tube running down the side of the tank in front of you!!)Peter Cadbury got hold of us and asked if he could buy it,as it was again to be flown by Neil williams after suitable modification.An Engineer in Panshangar,whose name I cant remember,was to do the work,which was to get a better rate of roll and better flick-although this had Semi Symetrical wings so flicked pretty well(Finn had a very interesting return to Booker having tried a triple!!!).On May 3rd 10975 I flew G AXNZ into Preston Candover to be met by Maurice Gore,to be flown back to Blackbushe in the Air Pegasus Aztec.Unforunately this was needed to be elsewhere,so Peter Cadbury fired up a Yellow/Black Jetranger G BAKU,and we flew back to Booker in that.I had only had a go in a Gazelle before,so was a bit kackhanded with the very twitchy control on the Jetranger when you had too firm a grip.I remember Peter being very amused at this.Anyway we got back to Booker safely.The Pitts was only flown a few times by Neil I gather,before it was bought by John Jordan.