When I was nine years old, I made a school friend who's Dad flew a light aircraft. It was a French tourer known as a Socata TB10 Tobago, and at the time it was kept at Birmingham International Airport.
Photograph above is thanks to Mick Balcar.
Occasionally, I was given the opportunity to go for a ride in it. After my first flight, the amazing experience became what I started to live for.This gentleman was a farmer and after a while, he turned three fields on his farm into a grass runway so that he could bring the plane home. This was only 2 miles from where I lived in the English Countryside. I could see him takeoff and land from our house and used to race up there on my bike whenever he bought the plane home.
I would say that it was this place that my appreciation for antique farm vehicles, vintage trucks and tractors began. There were a few relics lying around this place, some of them in daily use and some of them that were only ever started and driven once in a while.
I used to climb over this Rough Rider dumper. I had a go on it once, it was one of those single cylinder diesle Lister engine powered machines that you start with a handle. It left a trail of black smoke behind it wherever it went.
This is the remains of an AEC Matadore. It looks quite dead, but when you put a charged battery on it, it will start up and drive.
It wasn't long before a hangar was built on the airstrip. Once that was built, he bought himself a real piece of history. He bought a DeHavilland 82A Tiger Moth. It took a while for him to learn how to fly it, and then there was a queue of people that wanted to have a ride. Finally I got my chance when I was there and no one else was around.
Being out in an open cockpit aeroplane exposed to the weather, wearing a leather jacket was amazing. To add to it, the Tiger Moth’s Gypsy Major engine has quite a unique sound all of its own. The smell of oil and avegas you get from the engine while sat in the front cockpit adds to the nostalgia.
Gradually as the airstrip became more established, more enthusiasts used to turn up there and other pilots from elsewhere started flying in. I was in the right background then to get to know people and get taken for more rides. My first aerobatic experience happened around now when I was taken in a Christian Eagle.
Photograph above is thanks to Peter R March.
By the time I was twelve, I had developed the bug so badly that I wanted to start training for my Pilots License right then. You had to be 14 years old to log any flying time towards a license, and you couldn’t fly solo or get your license until you were 17 years old. So two years from then, I knew that I was going to start learning to fly gradually. I didn’t have any idea of how I was going to afford it, but I knew that I would find a way somehow.During those two years, I took up flying RC model aircraft and joined a model aircraft club. I quite enjoyed this hobby while I kept it going. Having built most of the ones that I owned, I gained knowledge about basic aerodynamics, weight and balance etc which would help when it came to learning to fly real aircraft.
This photograph was of my little collection of model aircraft in the garden.
I was taught to fly on my RC model Cub at the Burbage Model Aircraft Club in the early 1990s.
A few selected members of the Burbage and Tamworth model aircraft clubs took up residence at the farm strip near my house, which was how I got involved with them in the first place. So then we started to have a weekend gathering of aero modellers and pilots. I used to get so excited for the weekends, to spend them at the field. We used to hold various flying events where visiting pilots from all around would come in and land. The public would be invited to watch and have a picnic. We even organised some air display items. The video below is some footage from the event we had in 1994 where the Tiger Moth itself was displayed, followed by a Spitfire and a DC3.
