Tony Edmunds Retires as Branch Chairman

As Tony Edmunds retires as Branch Chairman after 6 years, you might be interested to read about his aerial exploits.  Here's an article he wrote:

UP,up,and away

As some of you may know .until coming to live in Spain I was a Private Pilot ,flying nearly every weekend weather permitting.

I did my flying training in 1975/6 at the world famous WW2 fighter base Biggin Hill which at  that time was home to a number of flying training clubs,the one that I trained at was originally started at Croydon Airport by  some ex-service  pilots,in fact one of my instructors was one of the last of the National Service pilots to be trained on Vampires. There  was one similarity to Us here in the British Legion in that the club I trained in  “Alouette” was entirely run by volunteers,the instructors all did it for free because of their love of flying !

Early in my training, and before I had flown solo, we were just rejoining the circuit after a training session when my instructor went white as a sheet, forehead sweating, threw off his seatbelt and collapsed in his seat (The aircraft was side by side seating). At this point I thought “Oh bother” or something like that - I thought he was having a heart attack. Now what do I do? Do I call the tower and tell them and cause panic?      

At that time Biggin Hill was the busiest training airfield in the country, with 250,000 movements a year. Therefore, at that moment, there were probably 20 aircraft either in the circuit or in the immediate area. So, I decided to carry on round the circuit, on to finals, and was just holding off when the instructor roused himself took control, plonked the plane on the ground, hit the brakes, turned off on to the grass, opened the cockpit, got out and disappeared! This, I thought, was odd. What do I do now? I thought it best to taxi back, park the aeroplane and go to find him. I arrived at the club to find my instructor had gone home with severe stomach cramp. It wasn’t stomach cramp that I was worried about but more my nether region!

Airtourer	G-ACDC DH82a Tiger Moth 1933 only aeroplane I flew that is older than me - and it's still flying!

In 1980 I joined the Tiger Club. At that time their philosophy was “If you can fly the Tiger Moth you can fly all the aircraft in the fleet.” The situation has now changed as the Tigers have grown more valuable - a good one now costing £40,000. When the Tiger Club was formed you could buy one for £50! Although you could aerobat the Tiger, somebody once said “If you can roll a Tiger properly you can roll Tower Bridge!” 

I  continued to  fly  at the Tiger Club  which at that time was based at Redhill Airport which is about 5 miles as the crow flies from Gatwick.  One  friend of mine owned a Tiger Moth  and he had asked me to join him in what was known  as the Famous Grouse Rally, which is a tour of three days by air culminating with a gathering of de Havilland aircraft at Woburn Abbey

Me and owner James Bond, yes really, he insisted he be called JIM for obvious reasons!

Flight planning at Duxford before Rally	Prior to start of competition at WoburnAbbey

It was hard work. I did enter a competition flight at Woburn Abbey, and although I can’t remember where I came, I do remember it wasn’t last!       

My preferred aeroplane was a biplane called a Stampe SV4B. This plane was the same size as the Tiger but equipped with 4 ailerons and originally fitted with a Renault Engine but later fitted with a De Havilland Gypsy Major 10 engine and a rudimentary inverted fuel system which kept the engine going when upside down – very important! 

Leaving Henlow lots of Moths

Later, a friend of mine at Biggin Hill imported a homebuilt Pitts Special S1, N4111 and wondered what to do with it. I suggested that he put it on the British register and form a group round it. I did the paperwork (it’s now registered as G BSRH), the test flying and took a quarter share in it.

G BSRH at Biggin Hill	Yes, the photograph is the right way up

I flew it down to Redhill Aerodrome which, at that time, was the Tiger Club base. This aeroplane was a quantum leap from what I had been flying. It had 180hp, and this, in a tiny biplane, meant its acceleration was rapid to say the least. On grass, take-off took about 5 seconds by which time the plane was doing about 120mph and climbing at 2000 ft/min. It was a joy to fly - a plane that had so much more capability than I had! We had a lot of fun taking Romeo Hotel all round Britain in competitions. It took me to Intermediate Level. I never had the time or money to practise enough to get to Advanced Level. Also, you needed a more specialised plane to get to Unlimited Level.

 In 1992 my wife, Bobby, and I went to Oshkosh in the USA, where there was the biggest gathering of aircraft in the world.  The week after we went to an aerobatic competition at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where I had arranged to fly a Pitts2a in the competition. 

Me with my Pitts 2A at Fond du Lac	Those are not cars, they’re aircraft of all shapes and sizes !!

The only drawback was that I had to fly with the proud owner in the front, apparently for insurance reasons. This was alright until we came to flick rolls when we disagreed as to the correct way to carry them out; I got the highest marks for MY flicks, so there!

However, I was classified last of those to complete the sequence correctly and at the reception afterwards, a lavish event in one of the local hotels, I was presented with a very ornate leather belt for my efforts. As I was feeling a little off for coming last, an empathetic lady came across to me and whispered in my ear “Kermit has two of those.“  She was referring to Kermit Weeks who owns enough aircraft to rate as an air force!

During this visit to the states we made our way to Bellville Ontario where Bobby had some relations.

Whilst there  I visited “Mohawk” which was a small airfield on the the “First Nation” area ,whilst there I was taken for a very interesting flight over the Lake Ontario in a little aeroplane designed and built by the pilot, its design was intended to be built easily by relatively inexperienced constructors.  It was called Christavia ,surprising performance due to its light construction.

On the last day of our visit I discovered that there was a guy not that far from Bellville at a place called Rice Lake who did Float Plane training, as I was leaving for New York the next day I couldn’t do the full course, so I asked him if he could do  as much as possible ,that was the busiest 55minutes I have ever flown ,a fantastic experience

One little side track - for a while I used to crew for a hot air balloon pilot, helping with the launch and then charging round the countryside in a Transit van to pick him up after the flight. One memorable flight, when I flew with him in the winter, was from a farm strip about 15 miles north of Gatwick. The problem was the cold gas – it doesn’t ‘gas off’ as quickly as when it’s warm. Then we took off straight into cloud at 1000ft. Not a good idea! After dumping a good bit of hot air, it was odd to find we were descending as snowflakes were rising! By this time we realised we were heading due south towards Gatwick - another ‘not a good idea’. 

So, as we passed over the M25 we found a nice big field in which to land. Having done so, we were met by a lot of schoolgirls. The field turned out to be a school playing field. They promptly invited us to lunch, meat balls and jam roly-poly!

We came out here 2004,where Private Flying is not as popular as the UK,very few small airfields and much more expensive.My last flight in the uk was 13/05/06,I still miss it.

Had a few trips with RAFA,just little  20 minute airexperience flights out of Muchamiel nr Alicante,where Carlos (Ops.Manager at Alicante Airport)takes a few of us up. After which we all head for the club Restaurant for Lunch !

For information ONLY

My RAF Time was

Cardington                                       HAIRCUT

Bridgenorth                                      Squarebashing

Hereford                                          Trade training  

Collaton Cross near Plymouth            Permanent staff

Halton                                             Permanent staff

Nicosia 18 months                            103 MU – Nicosia Airport, now cut in half by the “Green Line” after the Turks invaded