Blimey, that is a treasure to bring pleasure! I reckon nearly all of the aircraft on the first UK page still exist - if not entirely completely! I'll have a proper gander later...

Cheers!

Discorde, you are a hero! Who does one write to recommend you for a knighthood? :) I can merely echo the comments of those above.

Only two that I can see on that first G- page that are no longer with us in some form - Tiger G-ACEZ (and I'm not sure it is definitely totally completely kaput, think I've seen reference to its continued existence in "kit" form) and the DH-86 G-ACZP which was damaged on a Viv Bellamy organised trip to Madrid in the '60s and eventually scrapped sadly. One aeroplane belongs to a regular on these august pages...

The Avia 'BEE is in Australia and I believe DH-60 'BJJ and DH-89 'CPP are both in Canada. The Klemm 'AXK is believed to be stored somewhere in Kent, damaged in '62 and its last registered owner had died. The former Chrisair DH-84 G-ADDI is in the US.

Edit: G-ABJJ is back in the UK with Ben Cox!

Fascinating stuff !

Re surviving airliners, I can't think of any ex G- examples off the top of my head, although there may be a few. A handful survive from the Overseas Airline Fleet Lists, albeit not airworthy: an Air France 707, SAS Caravelle and Qantas 707, possibly others.

I was pleased to see among the photos a nice one of our local resident:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e320e747f6.jpg
Note the "Four Darts". :O

Also of interest is what must be one of the very first G- out-of-sequence registrations: G-ARWG, a Druine/Rollason Condor registered to Roy Watling Greenwood.

As you'll be aware the Herald originally appeared powered by four Leonides piston engines, which probably accounts for the erroneous caption. I've photoshopped a correction.

'Know Your Airliners' Handley Page Herald

Well done that man. Interesting that Rapide G-AIDL and Sptfire G-AIDN were operating with Classic Wings at Duxford last year on passenegr experience flights.

Sabena had a surprisingly large fleet.

Sept '63 has been brought to our notice . One of our Rofs [ retired old fogies ] still has an Aeronca which came to the UK on floats ; donated to the Sea Tiger [ article in Sep'63 ] .
Further down in a/c registrations .. Restored to register is a Dh 60G Moth ... She's still happily a/b at our local a/d [ close to where she was then based ] , now owned and flown by the son of the '63 restorer .
Like so many , had to save up from Saturday job ... It was a tossup between Air Pic , Airfix mag , Airfix kit , saving for a motorbike in 3 yrs time !

rgds condor .

Used to regularly see that Aeronca "floating" around near my school in the late '70s when it lived on the strip at Tongham - see it lives even closer to my Alma Mater now! Only saw its former floats once when the Sea Tiger made a low pass or two at White Waltham. The only other time I saw the Sea Tiger, it was just a fuselage being debent at Redhill after its first accident, think it was also modified then to permit a quick swap between floats and wheels.

Very many thanks indeed.

What on earth did Aviation Traders do with all those Prentices?

I see that G-AORF, the first Chipmunk I flew, was once owned by Viv Bellamy.

I remember huge piles of them on the Southend dump (even more at Stanstead) and my first ever flight was in the 7 seater!

I remember an article in a magazine not yet mentioned - Meccano Magazine of about 1960 or '61 - where one of them set off for Australia with a husband and wife who were emigrating. It was named 'Koomela' (presumably oz); don't remember its reg.
There was some discussion as to whether they would get there using the 'original' RAF 4 - channel VHF radio especially as they only had limited crystals which did not include 121.5.
Always wondered if they got there.
I only ever saw a Prentice once when I was controlling at the PFA Rally at Cranfield one year.

I remember that, I think it was G-AREF; it was operating from Tongham/Runfold when I first arrived at Farnborough in '74; always called us up before takeoff in case there was traffic in the Farnborough circuit. There was a Stearman (G-AZLE) at the other Tongham strip, Whitelane Farm about 2 miles east and I think this moved to Runfold when Whitelane Farm closed along with an Aviat Husky.

G-AREX it was, didn't realise there were two strips at Tongham, thought the Stearman was at Runfold too.

Three of the Prentices (Prentii?) ended at Biggin, I recall two fliers there when I first visited, one was and still is owned by Susan Saggers, the other is now part of the RAF Museum collection; a third seems to have been owned by Cobby Moore and I only ever recall it as a hulk outside the Surrey Aviation hangar.

The vast majority were scrapped at Southend or Stansted; seem to recall Freddy Laker thought civilianising them would provide a cheap light aircraft for the air minded masses but there was no market. Only about a dozen survived the axeman I think. There's video on YouTube of one decreasingly low passes at a Barton airshow in 1959 - eventually the pilot essayed a slow roll which ended in a burning heap of scrap metal.

Edit: 252 bought by Aviation Traders, 28 were converted according to Wikipedia.

Ah yes, Echo X ray.
At least I got the first bit right!
Whereas Runfold was east - west on the line of the Hogs Back, Whitelane Farm was one way; land southerly towards the Hogs Back and take off northerly away from the Hogs Back.
A friend of mine happened to drive round there one day in about '76 and there was a Twin Comanche nose poking through the hedge!!

Thanks treadigraph. It seems odd that he would register them all or were the registrations just place holders?

My second-ever flight was a joyride in a Prentice at the late-lamented Ramsgate Airport. A bit of a letdown after my first flight, which was in a Dragon Rapide!

The seven seater Prentice seems to have been G-APJE, Chrisair operated their famous red DH-84 Dragon G-ADDI from Ramsgate in 1963 and also a Prentice; Biggin Hill's Jock Maitland also did Prentice joyrides from Ramsgate, bit earlier I think.

Not sure I'd heard of Ramsgate Airport before, probably thought references meant Manston!

Ramsgate was a wonderful grass airfield, with an amazing Art Deco terminal building, which was pulled down by the Philistines who turned the airfield into an industrial area.

Present day:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b87cca3e1.jpeg

1959:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....faafad7abb.jpg


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f90232620b.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....dcab66771a.jpg

Some more evocative photos here:
https://aviationarchives.info/catego...nicipleAirport

A very interesting history. Whitney Straight was one of the original owners:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsgate_Airport

That terminal is a beauty!

(Speaking of Art Deco, the famous Purley Way lido is just over the hill from here - when the site was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a gardening centre, the Art Deco diving platform was left intact and I believe is now under a preservation order. Another redevelopment into a housing estate looms, arranged about this monument to 1930s taste...)