Chipmunk Is Beautiful
 

Hi,
I got a chippie from RAF 13 years ago, at a time i was flying for CARGO LION on DC8 , i went to London and got her at the PHILLIPS auction house. Well all i can say is that the chippie is really the best ration cost/pleasure i know !
I'm just discovering PPRUNE and as some of you are ex RAF, or ex NAVY, or ex CANADIAN AIR FORCES or ex ...well we are all ex something ! i'm looking for any books or copies concerning the chipmunk and the art of flying her in the air forces, in france we used to have "manuel du travail aérien" , and i guess in your air forces you used to have the equivalent !
I can offer nice rides in the chippie.....i'm in france but never far from RYANAIR !
thanks people...

Just don't forget that IUCFTDMBSRL and My Friend Fred Has Hairy B*llocks.

Lovely aeroplane -- lucky man.

There are lots of Chipmunk books online - still have my Dad's somewhere which still worked when I joined.

Flight Manuals on CD - De Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk

Chipmunk Pilots Notes: Amazon.co.uk: Air Ministry: Books

Hi there lelolo44

Have a look at Caledonian Chipmunks - Index

Lots of chippie owners from around the world and lots of good blokes to help you out.

Still remember my first flight in a Chippie.......14 year old cadet and spent the whole flight watching the floor compass spinning around as too short to see out of the cockpit.

Good luck

Cheers

lelolo41 - where in France? - I am in S Vendee. I flew 30 hours on Chipmunks when I a was a Cadet t RAF College Cranwell. What was serial number of yours - I will see if I flew it

First Flight, First Aero's, one word - Awesome....

Cemented me on a career of 8 years

1st flight over the Firth of Forth 30 yrs ago, fantastic flight and aircraft.

Just wondering is it a cheap aircraft to fly compared to more modern and boring aircraft ? Bet the pleasure outweighs the cost though !! :ok::ok::ok:

How many of us started our love affair with flying by seeing that film about the cadets flying Chipmunks? I dont mean the ATC briefing one, but one about Cranwell I think. Came out in the 50's sometime and I remember my local cinema had it on as a support feature when they were showing The Dam Busters. Only managed a few flights in them over the years - but unforgettable. Lelo, I envy you!

BTW Scarecrow - I know what you mean, I think, but no aircraft is boring, surely?

Jump jump John.

First Flight in a chippie circa 1972

... and two flew in loose formation over my house this afternoon (I know at least one is based 2 miles away) I even remarked upon it to Mrs Rigga!!

Don't forget that the RAF still have 2 Chippies on their books...

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/rafcms/me...FDDBBA22C6.jpg

The BBMF Chippies are 2 of the finest around - and I've flown these and about 3 others (and I agree).

Info here Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - The Chipmunk

The B Word

Well you are in for a treat, they are releasing a NEW book all about the little Chippie,

details are here

DHC-1FLYER.COM - The de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk, The Poor Man?s Spitfire - A book about the de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk aircraft

http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...milies/eek.gif Wow - £40 plus p&p. A good read though I should think.

The Chipmunk was just being phased out when I joined the ATC (Yes sorry I am quite young) but managed one flight (AEF) in one of the last to be retired.

30 mins in this beautiful, fun machine is responsible for me getting into the madness of aviation.

Not that I am jealous or anything but....... you lucky bugger, enjoy! :ok:

Well, i didn't expect so much feedbacks in such a short period of time !! I share my life with WK562, nothing modified since RAF except engine starter, kept the original intercom plugs, she's really lovely, and nicknamed "Krazykat", i thought it would be good to call her with a nickname that is associated with my wife's name/...because she would never think of selling the chippie ! well, until now it worked perfectly .

Yep i know there are few books about the chippie, i've got the old ones and will get the next ones...but in fact what i'm looking for is the book from the RAF, that instructors and pupils shared to learn the basic f formation flying, aerobatic, etc etc ...in france we had the equivalent to fly Fougas, TB30 etc ....i'm really interested by such a book !

I'm located in nantes, west of france, north of LA LOIRE, ...and the chippie flew yesterday with me and my wife over the countryside at sunset ...burning 30 liters per hour (1.5 euro per liter) , costing 70 euros per month for hangar, and 460 euros per year for insurance (liability), and for that cost i go and play with the clouds, try to maintain my aerobatic basics, and sometimes my formation flying practice as well ...I LOVE "the poor man's spitfire " !

A smashing Aircraft. :ok:

Had my first powered flight at the age of 12 in a Chippy - RNAS Culdrose Gliding Clubs to be precise. It had a little plaque on one of the seats stating that Prince Charles Had done his initial Flying Training in it. I think my dad may have piccys

Don't forget that the RAF still have 2 Chippies on their books...

................and so does the RN Historic Flight!

Royal Navy Historic Flight - The Aircraft

The RN colour scheme works really well on the Chippie I think.

Murder to keep clean though................

Arc

Is it just me or does the picture of the black Chippie look a little like the Tucano when viewed from underneath?! Really pretty aeroplane though.

Don't know if you know, but they used the same back end design layout for the fin and rear fuselage as on the Mosquito, you only notice it's resemblance when someone points it out to you, this is where you all go scrabbling for a pic to look at and go ooooohhhhhh :)

I have a princely 10 mins solo in the mighty Chipmunk, courtesy of RN Grading flight. Despite the fact that it wasn't my first solo, it's one I still treasure the most.

Lelolo44 - where do you fly from - when I am up that way I'll stand at the fence and take pictures - with some of that well-known dust getting in my eyes!

Chipmunk Manual
 

Lelolo44,

"TC/250262 Chipmunk T10 Student Pilot Guide" would be the thing you are looking for.

A4 size, light blue soft card covers, and around 20mm thick but quite difficult to find these days.

Good hunting.

S

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../chipmunk1.jpg


..... And one of them is very special.
To me anyway. ;)
I did my first solo in WK518 in 1971. (ULAS)
It didn't have the high-conspicuity black paint scheme in those days, of course.

FL

Lelolo44 - I flew WB562, not WK562, several times at Cranwell

RN Historic Flight:

http://www.royalnavyhistoricflight.o...pmunk_peel.jpg

My first couple of flights with Britannia Flight were in WK608 with Mr Brown, 1st Feb 1968: seems only a year or two ago :ok:

AHAF
 

Don't forget the WD325 from the Army Historic Aircraft Flight!



http://dsc02888/:}

AHAF

You can't post a picture direct from your hard drive.

See: How to post photographs


H.

I was at RAF Heany near Bulawayo in the then Rhodesia in the early fifties. 4 FTS used Tiger Moths and Harvards but they phased out the Tigers for Chipmunks. When the FTS was folded in 1954 they auctioned off all the transport, aircraft and equipment. If you were, then, as some people were, you could have got yourself a brand new Chipmunk, in its crate.

Flying Scholarship
 

I did my RAF flying scholarship in a 'Chippie' at Castle Donnington, now EMA, in 1965. Great aircraft which forgave a very average pilot. Happy memories.
Still flying, BA Club class.:ok:

FarEastDriver

I was stationed at RAF Thornhill (5 FTS) arriving there in August 1951. When I arrived Tiger Moths were used for primary training, but starting in September 1951 Chipmunk T.10s started to replace the Tiger Moths at 5 FTS.

5 FTS was allocated 27 Chipmunk T.10s. Built at Hawarden near Chester, they were crated and shipped out to Durban in South Africa and transferred to rail trucks for the journey to 394 MU at RAF Heany near Bulawayo where they were assembled, flight tested and then flown up to Thornhill.

When the Rhodesian Air Training Group closed in October 1953 flying clubs in South Africa and Australia realised that the many surplus RAF Chipmunks now on offer were an economic alternative to the purchase of new aircraft.
Eleven used Chipmunks were imported into Australia via South Africa. They proved so popular that when the RAF released further aircraft in 1956, W.S. Shackleton Ltd were appointed to purchase Chipmunks on behalf of the Federation of Australian Aero Clubs. In total some 80 ex-RAF Chipmunks were exported to Australia.

Photos below from my album show:

Th first Chipmunk T.10 to arrive at 5 FTS in September 1951
..and others

and the last two Tiger Moths from 5 FTS departing to join the Rhodesian Air Force near Salisbury.

Other fairly long in the tooth Tiger Moths were sold 'as-is' and £15 - £50 each was the going rate. Some locals dipped into their pockets and bought some, but not many - most of the Tiger Moths were scrapped.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...l-Chipmunk.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...hipmunkT10.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...pmunkT10-1.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ipmunkT105.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...kFormation.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...TigerMoth4.jpg

Lelolo,
I still have my Chipmunk checklist from my primary training in the RCAF in 1958. I could scan it and send you a copy if you want to PM me with an E-Mail.

TC/250262 Chipmunk T10 Student Pilot Guide" !! that's the thing ...wellnowi just have to find it....sounds easier with a name...

Warmtoast, seeing your pics and reading your history with the chippie, it makes people realize that we are talking about an 1940's airplane ...and so popular after more than 60 years !! People reactions in that thread tell us about that popularity , to have designed such an aircraft is clearly an achievement .

Well done lelo44- I am sure you have started a long thread!
The general manual for flying in the RAF is the dreaded AP129 and coincidentaly as I clear up my 'residence secondaire' I have found a 1954 copy which is fascinating.
I flew the Chipmunk in ULAS,RAF and subsequently as 'famil' pilot for cadets, prior to a commercial aviation career, amassing probably over 750 hrs on type. I have some interesting experiences with cadets in the back with access to the rear magneto switches!!
Needless to say we survived happily
Bon chance with the thread- I will look up my logbooks next time in London and see if your baby features

WE had a 'baby spitfire' Chipmunk for a short time at Honington. During the intervening period between the Valiant being grounded to the squadrons being disbanded Chipmunks were issued to keep the pilots in flying practice. At 90 Sqn we received WP850.
This aircraft had spent a long time in Cyprus being used for reconnaissance duties during the Cyprus Emergency. To this end it had been painted in a standard grey/green camoflage finish with grey undersides. It only had about three hundred hours on so it was virtually new. We painted a 90 Sqn rudder flash on it and we had our minature Spitfire.
A lot of our squadron ground crew found out what it was like to be upside down in flight.

I was fortunate enough to have 4 super years in ULAS flying the Chippie at the beginning of the 1970s!

It should have been only 3, but the lure of flying was so strong that I had to repeat my 2nd year at QMC!

I did a friend's renewal LST in the back of his Chippie a year or so ago - the fee was reduced by £5 per aerobatic manoeuvre that he let me fly. I think we settled on a fiver.

What a super little aeroplane. Just needed about 180-200 bhp and a C/S prop and it would have been perfect.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Chipmunk was originally designed using not the Mosquito but the DH Hornet as some sort of aerodynamic template which would/could help at a time when man-hours available for design work would be hard to come by.

If you look closely and halve the number of engines, it could be true.

Has anyone else heard or read this?

I was lucky enough to have completed my CPL course on this lovely aircraft and went on to become an instructor on type for a couple of years - even had it as my first CPL type rating!

Ahhh, de Havilland................

I had the great pleasure of flying a highly modified Chipmunk for a while. It had a 300hp Lycoming engine, a modified bubble canopy, standard hydraulic brakes on the rudder peddles and the vertical stabilizer and rudder size had been increased to handle the torque from the engine.

You could do a inside square loop with no problems, the guy that owned it would do outside square loops, I wasn't that brave, or that eager to pull that many negative Gs for so long either for that matter.

A very sad end to the story of my friend owning that Chipmunk. He got married, started having children and his wife made him sell it. :(

I never did find out what happened to it after he sold it.

I just remember how much fun it was to fly.

The Chipmunk was designed by Wsiewolod Jakimuik who was also heavily involved in the Mosquito project, so similarities are not accidental. Jakimuik escaped Poland during the German WW2 invasion and after the War went to Canada where he also designed the Beaver.

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...py/chippys.jpg


lelalo - I have some documents from my time as a RAF QFI on the Chippy, including the Student Study Guide. PM me with a snail mail address and I will send you a copy.

Dan

I think you might find that the Hornet was much closer to the Chipmunk than was the Mosquito. Look paticulaly at the squared off wingtips and tailplane which on the Mossie is eliptical.

All three of course, were wonderful aircraft!