Pleasure Flying is Back
As of the 26th August Air Atlantique Classic Flight are pleased to be able to offer Pleasure flights from Coventry again.
To start with it will be Thursdays and Fridays Only, with the exception of Bank Holiday Monday on 30th August.
Flights can be booked online or you can just come along on the day.
We hope to be offering flights Thursday through to Sunday by mid September.
Classic Flight Fundraising Flight - Monday August 16th
A high-flying duo is about to set out on a 1,000 mile endurance flight, visiting nearly 20 airfields around the UK in a single day – all to highlight the plight of some of Britain’s rarest historic aeroplanes.
At 05.15hrs next Monday (August 16) Steve Bridgewater and Guy Stockley will be setting off from the AIRBASE visitor centre at Coventry Airport in an attempt to win the prestigious Dawn to Dusk flying competition.
“This is my fourth entry in the competition,” says Steve (35). “I’m currently ranked fourth in the world but Guy and I are hoping 2010 will be the year we win the competition outright.”
“Competitors must choose a theme for their entry and then complete as much flying as possible between dawn and dusk on a single day” explains Guy (38). “The Classic Flight team maintain an eclectic mix of flyable historic aeroplanes and we hope that our flight will help boost the profile of the collection and raise valuable funds to keep them aloft.”
Steve, who is Commercial Manager for the Classic Flight, explains their 2010 theme: “The Classic Flight aeroplanes served at a variety of RAF airfields during their history. We are aiming to land at many of those airfields as possible in a single day. If everything goes to plan we will land at almost 20 airfields and cover more than 1,000 miles.”
The Classic Flight collection, which is on view to the public at AIRBASE, includes rare airworthy 1950s jets such as the Gloster Meteor, 1930s Dragon Rapide biplanes and even an ex-RAF Nimrod that served during the Falklands Conflict. AIRBASE is open to the public from Thursday to Sunday every week.
“At AIRBASE, our aircraft are used to both entertain and educate,” says Steve. “They were cutting edge technology when they were first built and they ooze character. You only get to experience them to the maximum when you can see, hear and smell them start up and fly. We hope that our Dawn to Dusk flight will inspire people to visit us at AIRBASE and help keep them aloft for many years to come.”
Guy has just returned from his fifth and final tour of Afghanistan where he was flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. He explains the plan for the epic flight: “We will launch from AIRBASE at 5.05am and head direct to the north of Scotland before working our way southwards as the day progresses. We expect to get back to Coventry Airport just before 9.00pm, so it will be a real test of endurance both for the aircraft and the crew.
The duo will be using a single-engined Robin HR200 aeroplane generously provided by Air Atlantique and based at AIRBASE.
Steve and Guy plan to make their flight on August 16th. “We are very reliant on the weather,” explains Steve. “With such a difficult task ahead of us we need the very best weather conditions. It’ll be hard work, but it’s going to be great fun.”
Supporters can follow the flight’s progress at www.classicflightclub.com/dawntodusk.
Captain Dakota becomes Classic Flight's newest recruit!%20small.JPG)
Here at Classic Flight we are inundated with CVs from budding pilots. Not many 'make the grade' but one recent candidate had that special something that we were lacking. 'Captain Dakota' may be small in stature but he offers a wealth of enthusiasm.
The charasmatic bear will now form the basis of our school summer holiday 'Festival of Flight' campaign. This summer we hope to bring an entire new generation of pilots, engineers and enthusiasts to AIRBASE and the aviation world as a whole. Youngsters visiting AIRBASE will soon be able to join Captain Dakota's Treasure Trail, answer questions and solve clues to win exciting prizes.
This summer under-16s visiting AIRBASE will be admitted completely free of charge and adults will receive a 50% discount. This means each adult pays just £4 and the average family of four can experience a wonderful aviation-filled day for less than a 'tenner'.
We hope to see you at AIRBASE this summer... where Classic Aircraft are Brought to Life!
50% Summer Discount on AIRBASE Admission (& kids go FREE!)
Due to the ongoing developments at Coventry Airport the decision has been made to reduce admission to AIRBASE by 50% this summer. From July 1, 2010 admission to AIRBASE will be just £4 per adult. (Classic Flight Club members will obviously still get free admission).
Furthermore, in a bid to offer parents with a cost effective way to entertain their children during the summer holidays there will be no charge to under 16s visiting during the summer holidays.
"We know how difficult it can be to find an affordable day out for all the family during the summer holidays" explains Commercial Manager Steve Bridgewater. "We also know how much young children love to see aeroplanes up close. By offering free admission to AIRBASE we hope that we can encourage inquisitive young minds to take an active interest in aviation and inspire a future generation."
During summer AIRBASE will now be open from Thursdays until Sundays from 10.00am until 6.00pm. Please note AIRBASE will now be closed on Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesday.
PRESS RELEASE... PRESS RELEASE... PRESS RELEASE... PRESS RELEASE... PRESS RELEASE...
Classic Flight Update
Our visit to Kemble last weekend was a resounding success. The weather gods were kind to us for once and the event was a great success.
Jon Corley and John Beattie both had a ball displaying the Venoms during the display and John Dodd had an equal amount of fun in the Jet Provost T.5 – especially on Sunday when he got the chance to fly a solo display. The JP only got its CAA paperwork approved at 2pm on Friday afternoon and there was a big sigh of relief when the aeroplane departed for Kemble. Sadly the Meteor wasn’t so lucky and paperwork delays meant we missed the Kemble show weekend. The Anson also missed the display due to unserviceability but John Corley displayed the Dragon Rapide in its place... including being ‘shot down’ by a Mersserschmitt Me108!
The Classic Flight trailer was also at Kemble and the ‘Aircraft of the Classic Flight’ book was selling at an impressive rate. Thanks to all of you who have sent your feedback on the book, it is really appreciated.
We’re now turning our attention to this coming Sunday when we’ll have Dragon Rapides offering pleasure flying at both Shoreham (near Brighton) and Halfpenny Green (near Wolverhampton). G-AIDL will be at Halfpenny Green to help mark the airfield’s centenary – which is apt as she was based at the airfield in the 1950s and 60s. The Prentice will also be at Halfpenny Green (as it operated from the base during its RAF service) but sadly we can’t conduct pleasure flying with the Prentice as the runway is too short!
Here at Classic Flight HQ welcome another pilot to the fold. Amanda Harrison joins us as a pleasure flying pilot and brings with her a wealth of experience.
Amanda will also be helping us with a variety of commercial aspects of the Classic Flight, AIRBASE and CFC – including sourcing merchandise. We’d appreciate any ideas you may have for merchandise and suggestions for products you think might sell well and help support the fleet.
Elsewhere at Coventry the AIRBASE hangar is full of activity with DC-3 G-AMRA now sporting her new engine. Her Major Check is now nearly complete and she is scheduled to fly to Waddington next week in readiness for the airshow. The Howard 500 remains in the hangar undergoing work in readiness for her ferry flight to the USA. Visitors to AIRBASE at the moment can enjoy watching both of these aeroplanes being worked upon – surely this is the only place in the world both a DC-3 and a Howard 500 share a hangar and are on public view?
Meanwhile, the Shackleton Preservation Trust (who look after Shackleton MR.2 WR963 on our behalf) have forwarded an engineering report which I thought you might find of interest. This is the first of a series of promised monthly updates from the ‘Shak’ team and I’ve copied it below:
“A number of on-going tasks are in hand. After our decision earlier this year that returning the aircraft to flight condition was not feasible, we elected to render it working and keep it serviceable in a ground runnable and taxiable condition. We also stated that in order to better preserve the aircraft, it was to be repainted and returned to a cosmetically attractive condition. Due to all the changes at Coventry with the AIRBASE project, it has not been possible to allocate the Shackleton a suitable hangar. Instead we decided to cover the aircraft and working from a scaffolding frame, repaint it a section at a time. Preparation of the paintwork has begun. Although other paint schemes were considered, we decided to retain the current paint scheme (in which 963 spent most of its life) of Dark Sea-grey with white top to the fuselage)
“When investigating an oil leak on the Nr 3 engine we discovered serious wear on some of the cam lobes of that engine. Further inspection of numbers 1, and 4 engines revealed that similar worn cams were evident. A total of five camshafts require rectification (happily the Number 2 engine is zero hours since overhaul and will not require attention). Griffon engines, like the Merlin before them, are very prone to premature camshaft wear. Our problems arise from the way the engines have been used since the aircraft was retired from RAF service twenty years ago. Long periods of inactivity with short-duration ground runs at low temperatures have allowed corrosion to take hold on the cam rocker pads and lobes and taken their toll on the camshafts and valve gear. To prevent further occurrences of this problem, we are fitting American-made electric oil-priming pumps to each engine which will be operated before every ground test. These are now on order. All the oil tanks have been drained and fresh multi-grade oil is ready to replenished. The most worn cam lobes will be re-ground by a Griffon specialist overhauler and we hope that with our very low utilisation (about 100 hours per year), thorough oil priming and regular oil changes, we will soon have four running engines which will last for a long time.
“WR963 is maintained by members of The Shackleton Preservation Trust, a volunteer group with charitable status. If you would like to find out more about this wonderful old warplane, talk to engineers who serviced her and aircrew who operated her please contact one of us.”
Airshow Stars are based Coventry
Visitors to the new Baginton AIRBASE are in for a treat this coming Sunday. Not only will they be able to see two of the stars of the RAF Cosford Airshow landing and taking off, but they will be able to view them close up too.
The 1950s era de Havilland Venoms are the only examples of their type airworthy in Britain and are very rarely seen in formation with each other. Both owned by Classic Flight and based at AIRBASE they will get airborne twice during Sunday, making for an exciting spectacle for those visiting AIRBASE.
“Although the aircraft will fly in the display at RAF Cosford the runway is too short for us to take off and land at the RAF base,” explains AIRBASE Commercial Manager Steve Bridgewater. “The two jets will therefore be operating from our AIRBASE headquarters at Coventry Airport.”
The start up procedure for the Venoms is a spectacular sight with a cordite starter cartridge firing a plume of smoke into the air as the de Havilland Ghost jet engine spools into life. The ever increasing whine from the jet culminates in a jet of flame from the tail pipe.
One of the pilots of the 1950s era de Havilland Venom jet fighters is retired naval pilot John Beattie. The other is Jon Corley, a local pilot with no military training at all. Jon (36) began flying as a private pilot in 1995 and later trained as an airliner pilot. He is now one of the most experienced vintage jet pilots in the country and is Chief Pilot for the Classic Flight at AIRBASE.
“The Venom is an amazing aircraft and a real throwback to the 1950s” continues Mr Bridgewater. “It has a distinctive twin-boom design and is one of the most popular aeroplanes on show at AIRBASE.”
The AIRBASE ethos is to enable the public to get up close and personal to vintage aircraft, enabling them to see them, hear them and even smell them! The centre is based at Coventry Airport and is open from 10.00 til 18.00 every day apart from Mondays.
The Venoms will be departing Coventry twice during Sunday – around 12.00 noon and 3.00pm - and visitors to AIRBASE are guaranteed an experience to remember. For more details please visit www.airbase-europe.com
Designed to replace the Vampire in RAF service the DH 112 Venom was developed by de Havilland in 1948 and boasted a thinner, more swept back wing as well as a more powerful Ghost engine. The type first flew on September 2, 1949 and the type entered service in 1952. It had four 20mm cannons in the nose and could carry rockets or bombs beneath the wings. The type first saw ‘action’ during the Malayan Emergency during the mid 1950s with both 45 and 60 Sqns. The Venom supported operations against Communist guerrillas as part of Operation Firedog, the codename for Royal Air Force operations in Malaya. The Venom also saw service during the Suez Crisis flying from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. By the time production ended nearly 1,500 Venoms had been built around the world and the type was still in service with the Swiss Air Force as late as 1983. No RAF Venoms survived into preservation – but luckily a number of Swiss examples have filled the gap… including a pair of airworthy examples flown by the Classic Flight at AIRBASE.
11th June 2010
DC-3 and Anson to Fly
Tomorrow (Friday 4th June) our DC-3 (G-AMPY) will be setting off on a training flight at about 0900L. Late morning our Anson will also take to the skies en-route to Perth (Scotland) where she will be displaying in the Perth Air Show on Saturday and Sunday, before returning to Coventry late Sunday.
Either late Sunday or Monday morning our Rapide (G-AIDL) will be returning from Perth where it has been offering Pleasure flights at the Air Show.
3rd June 2010
AIRBASE & Classic Flight Update
The Nimrod is Coming to AIRBASE! Expected at Coventry around NOON tomorrow
Nimrod XV32 is on schedule to arrive at AIRBASE at Coventry Airport around noon tomorrow. Members of the public wanting to see XV232 make her final landing are welcome to visit AIRBASE. The AIRBASE visitor centre remains ‘work-in-progress’ with an anticipated opening date of May 29. Therefore access to the AIRBASE hangar will be limited. Admission on May 11 will be £5 per person but visitors will be issued with a voucher entitling them to a £3 discount on admission to AIRBASE during the opening weekend (May 29-31). Members of the Classic Flight Club will be admitted free of charge.
AIRBASE..... COMING SOON
Due to open at the end of May is the Coventry's latest family attraction. AIRBASE. for further detials please go to www.airbase-europe.com
20th April 2010
More from the Art of Flying
Jonathan Margetts has produced this painting showing our 2 Rapides flying in formation. This picture will be avaiable as a print soon.
Jonathan has offered that any member of the Classic Flight Club will get a 20% discount off the price of any personal commission. Please quote CFC20SPRING OFFER when you speak to Jonathan. To see some of Jonathans other work go to www.art-of-flying.co.uk.
4th March 2010
Nimrod XV232 – Expected at Coventry late morning on Tuesday May 11
The most accurate information we currently have to hand indicates that the Classic Flight’s Nimrod will be arriving at AIRBASE, Coventry late morning on Tuesday May 11.
Exact details are still to be confirmed by the MoD but to the best of our knowledge the aircraft is on schedule for delivery. However, the risk of volcanic ash closing Scottish airspace remains a possibility and the delivery can, obviously, not be guaranteed.
Members of the public wanting to see XV232 make her final landing are welcome to visit AIRBASE. Other aircraft from the Classic Flight will be on display and it is hoped that several will fly during the day. It is also our hope that the DC-6 may conduct engine runs (or even taxi).
The AIRBASE visitor centre remains ‘work-in-progress’ with an anticipated opening date of May 29. Therefore access to the AIRBASE hangar will be limited.
Admission on May 11 will be £5 per person but visitors will be issued with a voucher entitling them to a £3 discount on admission to AIRBASE during the opening weekend (May 29-31). Members of the Classic Flight Club will be admitted free of charge.
With just over a week to go to the opening of AIRBASE it’s all hands to the pump here at Coventry.
The site is changing by the hour now with aircraft taking position and others being prepared for display. The infrastructure is also reaching completion with the pleasure flight check in office and the Canberra Cafe both almost ready. The AIRBASE entrance building is currently being fitted out with electrics and cabling and work continues on the hangar. The remaining portion of the hangar floor should be painted by the close of play today and work continues all weekend on sundry items and displays.
Ollie Williams passed his Operators Proficiency Check in the Dragon Rapide yesterday so we welcome him to the ranks of Classic Flight pilots. He’s now embarking on his conversion onto the Dove in readiness for what we hope will be a busy season.
In terms of aircraft we took delivery of a very interesting aeroplane on Tuesday. Formerly owned by Duncan Baker at Exeter the Howard 500 (N500LN) has been sold to a new owner in the USA and was ferried to Coventry for ongoing maintenance before it sets off across the Atlantic. Developed in the 1950s from the Lockheed Ventura the Howard is a pressurised VIP transport aircraft (a sort of Learjet of its day) and is a big and powerful beast. It will be at Coventry while our engineers work on the machine and will likely be on view at AIRBASE for much of the time.
At shortly before 10pm last night we took delivery of our Hunter T.8 (WT722) from Kemble by road. This is a long-term restoration to flight project and will be displayed alongside two other Hunters at AIRBASE. XE689 and XF300 are both Hunter GA.11s and are currently en route from Kemble to Coventry on the back of lorries.
Work on DC-6 G-APSA continues with the cabin interior now almost complete. Crew training for the ‘Taxi Back to the Fifties’ experiences is scheduled to begin early next week with the first fare-paying passengers booked for Saturday 29th.
Also outside, our Nimrod now takes pride of place outside Dakota House and draws admiring glances from all who walk past her.
So, we are on schedule to open the doors to AIRBASE at 10.00 on Saturday May 29! Now for the bad news... due to circumstances beyond our control we are not going to be able to offer pleasure flights on the opening weekend. The new airport owners have not yet managed to relicense the runway so we are therefore unable to conduct passenger flights. Needless to say we are bitterly disappointed about this development, especially as the flyable aircraft are what set us apart from other aviation attractions in the UK. Nonetheless, we expect other aircraft to fly on the day on training and positioning flights so there will be aircraft to see – even if you can’t fly in them yourself.
Of course the DC-6 will also be moving under her own steam – and you can now book your seats online at www.classicflight.com
Elsewhere there will be activities for all the family and a variety of exclusive introductory offers. We look forward to welcoming many of you to AIRBASE – especially over our opening weekend. Please come and support us if you can.
