Alan Garside 1937-1963
 

Please help. Does anybody remember Alan Garside killed 18 July 1963 at Wittering when he was solo aerobatic pilot in a Lightning from 111 Squadron. I would be grateful for any information about his career
I have been tracing my family history and have found that Alan was my second cousin His grandfather and my paternal grandmother were brother and sister.
Genealogy Iris

I have some information on Alan Garside but not that much I'm afraid. He went straight from Operational Conversion Unit around June 1959 to fly Hunters with 66 Squadron at Acklington in Northumberland.

Number 66 Squadron was disbanded on 30 September 1960 which is when he moved to 111 Squadron at Wattisham to fly Lightnings. While with 111 Squadron he was seconded to 56 Squadron in June 1963 where he joined the Firebirds aerobatic team flying the solo display slot at the Paris Air Show.

Hope this helps

Peter

Alan Garside 1937-1963
 

Thank you so much. That is a great help to me in trying to find out about his short life.
Iris

Iris: I have a friend who used to post on this forum, and who was in contact with Alan's son, as I understand it. He sent me the attached photo, in which I believe Alan features. Excuse my somewhat vague recollections, but I hope you are able to identify him. Are you in touch with his son by any chance?

Best wishes in your quest

Laurence

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...saf4e0481.jpeg

I think there might be a small reference to this accident and the background in the book 'Flying at the Edge: 20 Years of Front-Line and Display Flying in the Cold War Era' by Tony Doyle

Available at Amazon ( )


Arc

Alan Garside 1937-1963
 

Wow Laurence I didn't even know Alan had a son how I wish I was in contact with him!
Thank you so much for the photo unfortunately I can't identify him. I have never seen a photo. One of my grandmothers thirteen siblings went to live in Edinburgh he married and made his life there and Alan was his grandson
Thanks again
Iris

Alan Garside 1937-1963
 

Thank you Arc will be purchasing this book today every little bit of information is a great help
Iris

Iris

There are also details of the accident that run to about a page in Lightning Eject (Pen and Sword Books)

Alan Garside 1937-1963
 

Thanks Peter for even more help. Have managed to purchase Lightning Eject by Peter Caygill for £4.99 on Kindle
Iris

Alan Garside
 

Alan Garside was a member of 74 Entry RAF College Cranwell. He was my mentor during my first year in the junior entry in 1957. I remember him as a fair, level headed Scot who did his best to ease us into the disciplined college environment. If you contact the present day administrators I'm sure that they would be delighted to show you photos of him in 74 entry and in any College sports teams in which he played.

Alan Garside 1937-1963
 

Thank you very much I will certainly get in touch with the RAF College at Cranwell.

Alan Garside was flying Lightning F1A serial XM186 and the aircraft crashed 1 mile west of Wittering.

The summary accident card says the aircraft was abandoned in a spin but it does not record anything as to why the apparent ejection was not successful.

Old Duffer

Alan Garside Acident
 

OD,

Alan was engaged in a Low Level Aeros Display when the aircraft 'departed'. Hence, not a lot of height above the surface, high rate of descent and an Ejection Seat pre-Rocket Pack standard. It is some 40+ years since I read the Accident Report but based on the above and my recall, ejection was initiated outside of the survivable ejection envelope for the existing parameters.

lm

xm186
 

just to add the photo posted is after the accident of xm186 - its a wattisham tff aircraft - might be russ p ?- i think bugs bend all took over as 111sqn aeros pilot or he may have been the pilot before - sorry to be a bit vague

Russ Pengelly
 

Been looking at PPRuNe forums for a couple of years now and never bothered joining, but seeing the photo above has prompted me to finally bite the bullet.

The photo in post #4 was taken by myself at the Farnborough Airshow 9th & 10th September 1972 and the pilot is indeed Flt Lt Russ Pengelly, he was the Lightning display pilot with Wattisham TFF during the period 1971-1972, sadly he was later killed whilst flying prototype Tornado P.08 out of Warton.

For a bit more trivia the aircraft is Lightning F.1 XM139, the main display jet for the displays is unseen and to the right and was Lightning F.1A XM177.

Alan Garside
 

Hi,

I am head of research at Wattisham Station Heritage Museum and actually tend Alan's grave.
We have numerous pictures of Alan and I know much of his story regarding his unfortunate death.
Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Hi
Thank you so much unfortunately I have only just seen your message re Alan my computer crashed and I have a different email address so didn't have any notification of your post
I would be so gratefull for any information and photos you have of Alan
Iris

Iris,

Just in case you do not know this, if you click on the name wattisham1, in the post above yours, you will be able to send him/her an email.

I42

To genealogy iris
 

Hi, Iris,
I was at school with Alan and could give you some snippets from his early years, although I suspect you may already have them. You can E mail me at gedepede@hotmail. Co.UK.

Cheers, golden C.

There were actually two RAF demonstration Lightning pilots at Farnborough in 1972 . Russ Pengelly and "Oscar" Wilde. I think the plan was for them to alternate.
During the immediate pre-show period I got together with Russ and arranged for him an air-to-air sortie with the RAE photo platform Hastings ( WD 480). Among the dozen or so photographers we had on board was Flight's Tom Hamill and subsequently Russ got on the front page of "Flight' rolling the Lightning around the Hastings's wing tip. Russ later got a letter from Bee Beamont enclosing a photo of Bee doing exactly the same with a P.1 in the '50's. Another shot from the Farnborough '72 sortie ( showing the gear down ) was published in Aeroplane Monthly in December 73.
For this trip Russ was flying a Lightning he brought to the show- a 23 Squadron Lightning F.6 XR 760.
IIRC Oscar may indeed have flown an F1 at the show as a preferred mount.