Day out with Bill to the West Country 29/3/19

[graham]

Awoke to a fabulous day, and set off down the A303 to meet Bill at Yeovilton. After enjoying a huge full English at the diner on the main road, we had a good look from the steps up to the Museum and logged the various Merlins and Wildcats that were on the pan. Then we hopped in one of the cars and went around the back of the field by the old church to see what we could read off from there. Only late March but there was a lot of heat haze across the field which did make reading them off rather difficult but we did manage to note most of the Merlin codes. We then drove along the lane on the eastern side of the field to try to ID whatever else was there, during which time two of the three Grobs that had been parked across by the RNHF hangar decided to obligingly depart.

I made nothing here, but then again, I do call in 2-3 times a month when I'm travelling to and from Devon/Cornwall for work.

Next stop was Westlands in Yeovil, we were disappointed initially to see there was nothing parked out on the field but were then lucky to spot a red tailed Merlin at around 2000ft. We also saw ZZ550 which is a Phillipino Navy Wildcat, thought I needed it but had in fact seen it here a couple of months ago

29 Mar 2019 Westlands Yeovil
ZZ106 EH Industries EH.101 Merlin Mk.612 50275 Royal Norwegian Air Force

Then the drive down to Dunkeswell on a fairly busy A303, when we exited at Honiton we discovered the B road to the airfield was closed so we ended up going all around the houses to get up there, courtesy of the satnav on Bill's phone.. I had emailed the Flying Club about two weeks ago to request access to the far side of the field where the hangars are but had received no reply. Anyway, we asked in the office and were told "no problem" by the young lady on the desk. The perimeter road gets no better, and was even worse than my last visit here a couple of years ago. We parked up and set off to have a good look around and were lucky to bump into a lovely chap who insisted on showing us inside a couple of the smaller hangars which housed several of his own aircraft including an SE5A replica that had started life as a Currie Wot and G-BWID, the very first production Druine Turbulent c/n 201.

Even though it was a gorgeous day, only a third or so of the hangars were open, but we asked for access to those that were open which was duly granted.

29 Mar 2019 Dunkeswell
EI-JOR Robinson R44 Raven II 12426 Bluebrook Investments Ltd
G-AWBX Reims/Cessna F150H 0286 Private
G-BFWD Phoenix Currie Wot PFA 3009 Private
G-BJXB Slingsby T.67 A Firefly 1995 D Pegley
G-BLPG Auster Aircraft Auster J/1N Alpha 3395 Private
G-BMXB Cessna 152 15280996 Devon & Somerset Flight Training Ltd
G-BSCS Piper PA-28 181 Archer II 28-7890064 Private
G-BTYC Cessna 150L 15075767 Private
G-BVZY Mooney M.20R Ovation 29-0045 Private
G-BWID Druine Turbulent D.31 201 Private
G-CCXX American-General AG-5B Tiger 10160 Private
G-CEKE Robin DR.400 180 Regent 943 Private
G-CEOY Schweizer 269 C-1 0234 S J Beaty
G-CIWP Comco Ikarus C42 FB100 Bravo 1510-7425 Private
G-CKCK Enstrom Shark 280 FX 2071 Craig Michael Parkinson
G-IAHS Evektor-Aerotechnik EV-97 TeamEurostar UK 3601 Private
G-ICOM Reims/Cessna F172M 1212 Private
G-LIVH Piper J-3 C-65 Cub 11354 Private
G-MFAC Reims/Cessna F172H 0387 Private
G-RACO Piper PA-28R 200 Cherokee Arrow II 28R-7535300 Graco Group Ltd.
G-RCIE Piper J-3 C-65 Cub 7278 Private
G-TEDB Reims/Cessna F150L 0772 Private
N414MB Aerotek Pitts Special S-2A 2236 Private
N4972K Cessna P210N Pressurized Centurion P21000388 Private
N866LP Piper PA-46 350P Malibu Mirage 4636130 Private
NJ728 Auster Aircraft Auster 5 1097 Private
ZS-ESG SIAI-Marchetti S.205 18/R 364 Private

The Finnish CAP-232 is still inside one of the hangars, OH-SKA but the highlight had to be the South African S.205. The Turkish registered AA-5 TC-NLB is still there at the side of the maintenance hangar but the wings have been removed and they and the front fuselage are stacked up alongside N21381 Seneca that still continues to fall to bits.

Having seen what we could, we drove back to the Club House to say "thanks", grabbed a quick cuppa, then set sail back to Yeovilton.

[graham]

Some photos from Dunkeswell...

IMG_3295 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_3294 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_3287 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_3286 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_3285 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_3284 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_3283 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0724 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0723 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0722 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0721 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0719 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0718 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0717 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0716 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0715 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0714 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0713 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0711 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0710 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0709 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0708 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0706 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0705 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0704 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0703 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0702 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0701 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0700 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0699 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0698 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0697 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0696 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0694 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0692 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0691 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0690 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0687 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0686 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0685 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0684 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0683 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

IMG_0681 by Graham Brown, on Flickr

[keithh]

Nice pix, I need some of those. The Turbulent is a big gap filler