Fishburn Airfield News 2017
Airfield information
Fishburn
Airfield on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/fishburnair/, there is also a Fishburn Aero Club website and although it does not appear to be current it has some interesting photographs of Fishburn in ye olden days!. Link here; http://www.fishburnaeroclub.btik.com/
The Aviator Café on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/theaviatorbistro/, the
All Day Breakfast for a fiver is recommended as is the corned
beef pie with chips or potatoes and veg for £4-50!
GA Livery
https://www.galivery.com/ and on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/GA-Livery-RS-Paintworks-742929239077575/
The Fishburn
Historic Aviation Centre
The Aircraft Restoration Group is led by Mike Eastman and they hope to establish the Fishburn Historic Aviation Centre and build three hangars to house their aircraft collection. All enquiries and offers of help or support in cash or kind to Mike at; ARG@aircraftmail.com
Both the Dove and Venom arrived on the 2 February 2016 and are
on loan from the de Havilland Aircraft Museum at London Colney
with the Primary glider being acquired from the Norfolk and
Suffolk Aviation Museum in 2015 and arriving at Fishburn in late
February 2016. The ARG have several other aircraft which are
currently in store elsewhere and will not be moved to Fishburn
until the hangar(s) are erected to provide some protection from
the weather. These include Flea
G-ADRZ, the unique
Thurston Tawney Owl G-APWU, Spitfire FSM
BR954/JP-A, Sea
Vampire T22 XG743/BY/798 and an as yet unidentified Oxford Mk1!
The group website is currently under re-build but like most
groups these days they also have a Facebook page;
https://www.facebook.com/Aircraft-Restoration-Group-1613873188864206/
.
My last visit of the
year and sad to report that the Aircraft Restoration Group under
the leadership of Mike Eastman have now left the airfield with
their Eton TX1 WP266/BAPC
423 having returned to their store near Ripon. The Robin and
Romney Hut hangar frames intended for the proposed Fishburn
Historic Aircraft Centre have also been removed and the Dove and
Venom remain on display but with their future here far from
certain.
New resident PA-28
Cherokee F-BOXT arrived on the 16 December flying from it’s
previous base at Toussus-le-Noble south west of Paris and
arriving at Fishburn via North Weald. Presently parked in the
back field, the new owner is a local man who intends to build a
group ownership around the aircraft and hangar it here once
space becomes available but it’s not known yet whether the
Cherokee will take up a UK registration?
The airworthy Kraguj
finally had it’s permit renewed in July and was registered to
Airfield Aviation Limited on the 13 November. The Bellanca is
one of only five of the type on the UK register and is normally
based at the North Duffield/Birchwood strip near Breighton with
Condor Aviation and is here for some fabric and wood work.
Hangered |
||
X4683/EB-N | Jurca Spitfire |
Cherub, really G-MUTS |
30140 | SOKO Kraguj |
really G-RADA, NFD 10-5-2013, minus wings |
30146 | SOKO Kraguj | really G-BSXD |
G-AYFF |
D62B Condor |
|
G-AYTR |
CP301A Emeraude |
|
G-BOSM | DR253B Regent |
mtce |
G-BSLW | Bellanca 7ECA Citabria | dismantled, under restoration |
G-CDLS | Jabiru J400 |
dismantled, force landing nr Whitby 17-8-2017 |
G-DAVE | Jodel D112 |
mtce |
G-DRIO | Jodel DR1050-M |
mtce, registered 21-7-17 and ex-F-BNIO |
G-HRLE | Tecnam P2008-JC | |
G-MYYS |
Team Minimax |
|
Parked Out | ||
J-1790 | Venom FB54 | |
D-IFSB | Dove Mk6 | |
F-BOXT | PA-28 Cherokee | |
G-CCVN | Jabiru SP |
for sale |
G-NIUS | F172N Skyhawk II | open store, spares source and ex-Teesside |
|
||
N66MS | PA-28 Turbo Arrow |
arrived
late afternoon from Elstree for a re-spray |
G-AYKW |
PA-28 Cherokee |
|
G-BVOS |
Europa |
|
G-CBAR |
Glastar |
|
G-TSOL |
Acrosport 1 |
My first visit in over a
month and it started to rain as I made my mid-afternoon arrival
and as two residents land and get hangered it starts to pour
down and so rain stops play! The new pilots hut
has now been moved to its permanent
position closer to both the runway and fuel bowser and with
electricity now connected too it just needs to be rendered and
officially opened, Beryl? With thanks to John Smith and his
Dad for all their hard work in seeing this project through but
which was just too late for the recent LAA Strut meeting on the
17 September when John Rogersons Jurca Spitfire G-MUTS
successfully completed its first ground and taxy runs on what
was appropriately enough Battle Of Britain Sunday.
Hangered | ||
G-BOSM | DR253B Regent | mtce |
G-CGDM | Sonex | |
G-CHGM | Groppo Trail | |
G-CIPL | RV-9 |
under construction |
Local Flying | ||
G-BGMT | MS235E Rallye | t/f Breighton |
G-CDEX | Europa, | |
G-RATZ |
|
|
Open Store | ||
G-NIUS | F172N Skyhawk |
dismantled |
Parked Out | ||
J-1790 | Venom FB54 | |
D-IFSB |
Dove Mk6 |
Missing from the January reports was the mention of two notable
departures, on Tuesday the 24th of the unique Voltair 86 G-CHTX
which has been transferred into the ownership of Hartlepool
College Of Education. With a NFD effective from the 3 March the
Voltair will be used by the college in it’s aerospace
engineering degree courses together with their two JP’s and
Gazelle TAD airframe. The first aircraft of the dedicated PTT
fleet, C152 G-PTTA left the GA Livery spray-shop for Newcastle
on the 29 January after initially arriving as G-BJVT last
November.
A
week later on the 12th the weather was so foul even
the birds were walking! I was just passing so had to call in
and although the Aviator Café was doing brisk business in all
day breakfasts and corned beef pie, and both are thoroughly
recommended!, only two hardy souls were in their hangars hard
at work on their respective projects which should fly later in
the year. Just as long as it stops raining…..
In
for maintenance on St Valentine Day was the Peterlee Parachute
Centre’s C182 G-PLEE which made the short journey down from
Peterlee-Shotton Airfield leaving C208B Caravan N208UP at
Peterlee for people to jump out of a perfectly serviceable
aeroplane! Down in Hangar 9 GA Livery finished work on RV-9A
G-CGXR which had arrived on the 8 October and it finally flew
back to it’s home base at Carlisle on the 17th leaving only the
engineless RS Aviation F150H G-AWOT and the runway caravan in
their hangar! Arriving the next day was F152 G-BKWY from
Teesside and one of the growing PTT fleet and like their two
previous 152’s which came here before it, one of which G-PTTB
and was the ferrying aircraft, possibly destined to take on a
new registration before departure? Rounding off that week was a
first sighting of new resident Flight Design CTLS G-LEGY owned
by Russ Grief and previously based at Bagby.
A
visit on the 22nd found the wind gusting at 15 knots
straight down the runway with no flying taking place and very
little activity elsewhere except for Cherokee G-RISA having her
annual inspection and Jim working away on his Glasair Sportsman
kit.
Chipmunk WP859 languishes in the back of a hangar and is being
sold for spares and with plenty of Chippy’s in the UK,
airworthy, static display or as restoration projects, it’s
future should be assured or at least parts of it! With Eric
Bentley now owning both Jabiru G-CBOP and Zenair CH701 G-ZENA
his Skyranger 912 has been sold to the Wexair Group and is now
based at ILAS Field, Taghmon in County Wexford.
Elsewhere ex-Fishburn based Pitts S-1S G-BKKZ has left
Greenhills Airfield at Wheatley Hill to return to it’s spiritual
home at Chester-le-Street, aka Pelton International, possibly
at the end of 2016?
The ARG have continued their restoration work throughout the winter and spring and meet every Tuesday and Saturday morning between 10:00 and 10:30 in the Aviator Café and with the help of Fishburn resident John Burns have transformed the EoN Primary from a skeletal frame into a fully refurbished, re-covered and restored museum exhibit. Resplendent in it’s all silver colour scheme with yellow RAF training bands the Primary was allocated BAPC423 and has taken on the identity of EoN Eton TX1 WP266. For those not familiar with the Eton or Primary take a look at this YouTube video!; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5vtPkB1h3s .
Other work to progress as the weather improves will be the Dove
electrics and power and then the cockpit fit on the Venom and as
ever volunteers are always welcome and can contact Mike Eastman
via the new ARG group email address;
ARG@aircraftmail.com
Another project the ARG are involved with is the Whirlwind
Fighter Project, which, when the
museum hangars are up, should see the Whirlwind airframe move
up to Fishburn.
With thanks as ever to
Dave and Phil Morgan for the airside access as well as to the
owners and resident pilots for their continued help in compiling
these notes.
An early
afternoon call meant that I had missed any chance of being the
victim of an April Fool trick but all around the airfield April
Showers were cascading down and television news reports later in
the day showed lots of flash flooding throughout the area.
Unsurprisingly the Aviator Café was busy.
Also busy were
a group of intrepid aviators in Hangar 1 attempting to get Johns
Minimax to turn over after having a new electric starter fitted. It failed to start, it started to rain and they retired to
the café to await another drier day! I missed the chance of a
visit the previous weekend but the airfield aircraft movements
log showed forty entries over the two days which must be far and
away the best weekend for months, quite possibly since the 2016
Wings & Wheels Day?
Fishburn News 12 March 2017 David Thompson
Surprisingly not very busy airside given the decent weather but
the car park was full as was the Aviator Café which really seems
to have taken off with both the residents and passing public,
many of who are now regulars and on first name terms with the
owner Mags Bain. I missed earlier visitors Eurostar G-CCEJ from
Bagby and regular Pioneer 300 G-EWES which had flown down from
Ewesley Park near Morpeth but saw Flight Design CTSE G-CESW
which also came in from Bagby. The ARG Eton
is now complete and looks resplendent in it’s guise as
WP266 and shares the
hangar with an engineless Minimax ‘YS and Jabiru ‘VN being
readied for sale. The PTT C152 ‘WY has been here for a few
weeks now and could well become the future G-PTTC, having
already had some paintwork preparation work done? Hopefully
more on this and GAL next time?
Fishburn News 3 March 2017 David Thompson
White rabbits, white
rabbits or if you are Welsh and reading this, a belated St
Davids Day!
Either way it had been a good flying morning but by the time I
arrived at lunchtime the clouds had arrived and it was raining
to the south over Teesside but that didn’t stop the Fishburn
aviators from flying with Bill taking his Europa off to
Breighton and Brent and Ray flying locally to get some air under
their wings. With the recent poor weather there hadn’t been
much air flowing under many wings of late with both Bagby and
Peterlee airfields closing their runways due to waterlogging
although Peterlee were advising that their 7 metre tarmac runway, that’s width and not length, was still open but only to
experienced pilots!
Having just mentioned the water-logged runways a new
temporary resident arrived from Bagby in the shape of F150M
G-FFEN which had managed to un-stick from the mud there but on
inspection after landing had most of the Bagby runway splattered
under it’s wings! Owned by Danny Abel, this is one of two new
residents he hopes to lease out and will be available to ‘hours
builders’ like Simon who brought ‘EN in today. The other
aircraft could well be PA-28 G-BDGM which tried to get into
Fishburn two days later on the 3rd but had to return
to Teesside due to poor weather with PA-38 G-BGGM acting as the
crew ferry. Another new resident arrived today, or rather
pieces of it did, in the shape of Meta Sokol L40 G-APUE which
is being moved by road from it’s present base at Felixkirk.
The L-40 Meta Sokol
was a Czech sports and touring four-seat single-engine low-wing
aircraft of the late 1950s with this example first appearing on
the British register in June 1959 and it went through the hands
of several owners before it’s CoA finally expired in 2015 whilst
North Yorkshire based and were I saw it last at Felixkirk on the
11 August 2012 sharing a hangar with Pup G-AXPC, Acrosport 2
G-CCFX and Rans S6 Super Six G-RDNS. Interestingly the same
owners are also recorded as having another L40, G-APVU, whose
first British owner was William Roberts of Strathallan Castle
and who later established the aircraft collection and museum of
the same name. This second L40 was withdrawn from permanent use
in 1989 and purchased by the owners of ‘AU in 1993, presumably
as a spares source and it would be interesting to know if the
airframe still survives today? Time will tell!
Back
at the clubhouse the Aviator Café appears to go from strength to
strength with the all day breakfast now being seemingly pushed
into second place by the corned beef pie, other menu items are
also available, and a quiet corner has been created were the
office once was. The café Facebook page has details of it’s
menu and opening times and is to be recommended;
Outside, the clubhouse decking area has been extended with
the addition of a new path with more improvements to follow as
time allows.The updated airfield Facebook page is here;
Fishburn News 22 January 2017 David Thompson
A cold crisp winters day saw some local flying taking place and some maintenance activity in the hangars which included a first showing of new resident Jabiru G-CBOP which is owned by Eric Bentley who seems to acquire new aircraft like President Trump signs Executive Orders! Another recently arrived Jabiru G-CDLS was having a new oil cooler fitted whilst Aerobat.
G-KOVU makes steady
progress with it’s new avionics kit.
After some research into the construction and identities of the
original EoN Primary gliders it appears that although the museum
Primary could possibly be BGA1461/CDN which arrived from Flixton
last April it’s true identity may never be known with WP266,
WP271 and BGA2493 all now being touted as possible identities?
Fishburn News 11 January 2017 David Thompson
This was my Fishburn 2017 ‘first foot’ and understandably given both the time of year and the weather, things were very quiet on the aviation front ! Not so however in the clubhouse were Café 26 has metamorphasised into The Aviator Café with Margaret Bain, known to one and all as ‘Mags’, at the helm and hoping to reintroduce a normal service as soon as possible, in fact as soon as the new café furniture arrives! Basic hot and cold snacks are already back on the menu and themed meals starting with a Burns Night dinner on the 25th will follow as soon as the kitchen is fully up and running. All future events and news from the Aviators Café can be found on it’s dedicated Facebook page here; https://www.facebook.com/theaviatorbistro/ and a reminder that the new Fishburn Airfield Facebook page is also up and running; https://www.facebook.com/fishburnair/
Team GA Livery were busy with their second PTT Cessna G-WACT
which arrived from Teesside yesterday after making the short hop
down from Newcastle on the 9th and it is already down
to a bare white finish ready for it’s new corporate colour
scheme to match G-PTTA.
The RV has been stripped right back to
a bare metal finish ready for priming and G-AWOT is still
waiting for the return of its engine so that it can depart up to
Eshott to join the rest of the RS/Purple Aviation fleet.