Many thanks to the pilot of the Chippie making a tight turn over Chez Luggage yesterday afternoon just as I was heading into the garden with a mug of tea. Spilt most of it down my leg whilst craining my neck round to watch you, but it was worth it.

Silver, with yellow bands. Marvellous!

(Only managed a couple of flights in 5AEF's Chipmunks as an air cadet. Apart from the fun of climbing in with seat type chute on, the other thing which suck in my mind was the directness of the controls. Seemed like it was thought control; think where you want to go and the that's where the aircraft went!)

Chipmunk is beautiful
 

Chipmunk is indeed beautiful, unfortunately as an RAF basic trainer it was much too easy to fly.I enjoyed almost every minute of my time on her. I came top of my BFTS on Chipmunks in 1952, but failed miserably when asked to fly something more difficult I ended up in that somewhat derided occupation- navigator.

Chipmonks
 

Worked on the chippie at DH SDCR Leavesden 1957.
Had to do checks on all u/c top attachment fixtures as one had been found to have moved on the serrations and developed an out of track situation.
Mods were hard when they had to be carried out inside the Fuse. We had to sedate one fitter when he got stuck down the rear and panicked.
If my memory serves me right, the chippies were ex RAF being prepared for the Ghana Air Force.
Always thought the Cartridge starter pull ring was a bit naff , had a pepsi cola can opener feel about it.
Must admit the aircraft looked smart with its DeHavilland family tail.

So that's why I used to swing all over the runway after a three-pointer.

Tomorrow, 26 August, is the 60th anniversary of the first flight of the first UK-built Chipmunk, WB549, with Pat Fillingham in the chair.

That's "a date" !!! how many aircrafts can claim such numbers still flying and popular after 60 years ???

merv32249213True ..... but such a wonderful smell when the cartridge fired.
Some years later I used to fly a civvy Chipmunk with an electric starter. Efficient, but lacking in character.
Or, more accurately, efficient when it worked. The aircraft wasn't flown very often so I had to hand-swing the prop almost as often.

FL

aaaahhhh de Havilland CANADA!!!
 

After National Service Wings in 1950 (the "odd" Prentice and great Harvard) I was delighted to be able to fly Chipmunks with the VR at Marshalls (Cambridge UAS didn't take qualified pilots, they told me). Much, much more fun than "Modern Language" studies (far too much poring over "old" litteratchooer, hardly any parlez-vous)...
I still remember those flights with most of the pleasure I felt then, and they led not long afterwards to my re-joining the Service and to many a happy hour on Vampires with 2TAF (as it was then), discovering that they were just as well-balanced and responsive as Mr. Jakimiuk's beautiful little design.
Then came Venoms ... "Vampires with grunt" you might say today, but somewhere DHs had lost the balance of the controls (light, spring tabbed ailerons but heavy on the elevator). But still a match for most (our Canadian Boss used to say that the Venom had it all over the Sabre "like a tent" ...).
But the Chipmunk remains The Standard for me (the Tiger Moths we got at Marshalls for a while were perhaps the biggest disappointment of my life till then, but good for teaching the adverse yaw effects of aileron ... not being a nostalgic, I appreciated that trip back to the '30s, but felt that there were much better thiings to come, and I was very, very keen to get at 'em).
A big "thank you" to DHC ...
:):ok:

Happy Birthday, Chipmunk. Thanks for just over 30 hours of sheer fun

bon anniversaire de suisse
 

Et bon anniversaire au Chipmunk d'un pilote ex-Oxford UAS, qui habite de l'autre côté de la frontière Suisse, non loin du Chipmunk à Lausanne.
Merci lelolo pour pour ce forum intéressant.

Laurence

Joined BOAC as a pilot, but had to get a Flight Nav. licence, and fly as Nav., before eventually moving into the right hand seat.

As it was 'their' fault that I wasn't flying as a pilot, and as I had to keep my licence valid,'they' povided a fleet of Chipmunks at Croydon, under the auspices of the Airways Aero Club and paid for the minimum 6 hours and 6 landings every 6 months, all we had to do was show up and help ourselves to a Chipmunk, kept that up for over 2 years, and moved to White Waltham when Croydon shut down.

Magic - and paid for !

"I came top of my BFTS on Chipmunks in 1952, but failed miserably when asked to fly s
 

And you're blaming your tool? Maybe somebody should've removed the UK version's anti-spin strakes, or not installed them in the first place!

"Always thought the Cartridge starter pull ring was a bit naff , had a pepsi cola can opener feel about it."
Sounds like Hatfield (or RAF requirements) should've left the electric starter alone, as well.

Question: why on earth did the UK version not use the elegant, single piece blown canopy of the Canadian built aircraft. I once heard an explanation, but cannot remember the details now, although I know it didn't make any sense then.

"how many aircrafts (sic) can claim such numbers still flying and popular after 60 years ???"
ummmm... Maybe the DHC-2???

Ring pulls & things ...
 

In the '50s, the RAF seemed to "have a thing" about quick starting and had cartridge starters on types such as the Venom and Canberra, so the Chipmunk must have been fitted with one, for "standardisation" ??... And the "ring pull" was fitted before pull-top cans came in, so who copied who(m)?
For me, the Chipmunk's oddest feature was the flap lever, operated with the right hand, needing a "change hands" on late finals, while when going to "flaps up" , it was only too easy to do one's thumb-nail a nasty mischief on the VHF box as the lever moved smartly forwards, pulled by that strong bungee. ("An 'Ouch' to Remember" to this day). :ugh::ugh:

About the Canadian "bubble" hood - it was brought in after most of the RAF's Chipmunks had already been built, and was no doubt felt by the "Pahs that be" to be an unnecessary piece of "go-faster" kit ...

You guys are very lucky to have such fond memories. I have only held a licence for around six years but one of life's true joys is pulling our group Chippy out and taking off into the evening sky, as indeed I did last Thursday :ok:

Chipmunk HB-TUM destroyed
 

I just heard from a friend in the group that locally based (in Lausanne) Chipmunk HB-TUM (Portuguese 1372) was written off during a trip "home" to Portugal last weekend, 3 October 2009. I am told the crew are only slightly injured, but the aircraft is destroyed. It was operating from Covilha (COV) during a show, turned low at the end of the runway and stalled into trees. Photos look bad.

http://desastresaereosnews.********....-aereo-em.html
http://www.bfu.admin.ch/common/pdf/HB-TUM.pdf
ASN Aircraft accident 03-OCT-2009 De Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk T22 HB-TUM

I put this news on another forum too, but thought it belonged here also

Laurence
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/ima...c/progress.gif http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/ima...ttons/edit.gif

For what it's worth, our Chief Pilot in the 1970's told of his time in the RAF when he took part in Chipmunk spinning trials, in Australia I think, to try and find out why there was a tendancy for Chipmunks not to recover from spins.

He said that after months of testing they came to the conclusion that the problem was that as pilots followed the classic recovery drill, when moving the stick fully forward it met an aerodynamic lock that felt exactly as though it had reached full travel. The solution, he said, was to get a boot on it (ie the one not doing the "full opposite rudder" bit) and shove the stick forward another inch or two until it did hit full travel.

I'm no expert; that's what he said. I tried spinning one a few years later, admittedly from a very great height, and it recovered easily without using the spare boot. But perhaps the strakes were another part of the solution?

I did my flying training courtesy of an RAF flying scholarship at Perth Aerodrome in the 1960s and we were not permitted by the airforce to fly Chipmunks without anti-spin strakes and broad chord rudder, even then spin recovery was a little unpredictable sometimes it would spin flat and recovery would take longer for no apparent reason.
The only problem I had was that being "vertically challenged" ie short I couldnt see over the nose while taxying without 2 extra seat cushions! A beautiful aircraft to fly - years later I flew a Beagle Pup which had nearly the same feel as opposed to the sluggish Cessnas and Pipers.
For medical reasons I could not retain a PPL and turned to engineering and my first A and C licences were on the Chipmunk so even after 40 years I still have very fond memories of the aircraft.

Chipmunk Owner and Ex Cargo Lion Engineer/Pilot
 

HI
I think I must have missed you with Cargo Lion as I flew with them from around 1992 to 1994 after flying the DC-8s with African Safari for the previous 5 years.
Any way I have owned my Chipmunk (WG491) for the last 37 years after bringing it into the USA in the early 1970s. I rebuilt the aripalne in total and won "Best Military Classic" at Oshgosh Fly in 1977. I still enjoy flyin the airplane after 2000+hrs in the same machine. Some where I have in my collection of over 200 books and manuals on the Chippie I have a RAF Flight Instructors Manual issued by nthe RAF in the 1960s/70s which was given to me by an ex RAF fighter pilot who trained on the Chippie and went on to fly the Hawker Hunter and British Electric fighters.
I lived in Osrtende Belgium for 13 years while flying Dc8s all over XXXX and creation and finally decided to return to the USA in 1995 to play again with my toys and Chipmunk. I may have met you somewhere along the way??
All the best to who ever you are??
Jerry Florey
PFE/ retired

Amazing how sounds bring back memories. Just finishing cleaning the car yesterday (it had to be clean as I was driving to attend a Remembrance service today!) and in the sunny Lincs skies above at about 800 to 1000 ft was a lovely "Chippie" (silver with yellow trainer bands) flying north to south. Very nice to see and hear one again. I flew chippies at Plymouth (Roborough) during my RN flying grading course 30 years ago but time stands still when you see and hear one even now!

Hi,
well we werent' at the same time there because i joined in 1995/6 flying LX TLA and LX TLB sometimes with our jaguar /fanatic owner...sometimes with the ex air america pilot you know...well, i just loved it ! 37 years with the chippie must be one of the longest private career of a chipmunk no ?
DC8 was also such a good aircraft ...