One of last weekend's customers, , Chris Webb, an aircraft engineer with a passion for aviation history, brought along some fascinating memorabilia, fleshing out the detail of the pleasure flying we knew occurred from North Denes before the airfield became exclusively rotary wing.
Following our decision to move to Yarmouth Heliport, also known as North Denes airfield, the opportunity to make an event of the first aeroplane's arrival occurred with Tiger Moth G-AOIS completing her Annual maintenance with our friends at Touchdown Engineering.
With a growing fleet of interesting aeroplanes, it became apparent that both corporate entities and private individuals were interested in photographing our aeroplanes, either as backdrops to product launches or events or as the point of interest in their own right. An approach from Timeline Events led to our hosting a photoshoot for them on 4 October.
They say a change is as good as a rest, so when we took the call inviting us to provide Tiger Moth trial lessons at the Cotswold Airport Revival Festival on 29 & 30 Sep, we were more thn a little intrigued. A recce by CAP10 and a subsequent meeting to discuss our operations later and we were set to go.
Friday 22 September dawned with a rare (given recent weather!) clear blue sky and light winds. Always trying to make the best of any opportunity, the Finest Hour team leapt into action... what were the chances of grabbing a photographer and the resident miitary vehicle collection at Bicester Heritage for a no-notice photoshoot? A couple of phone calls and it was agreed that we needed to have the job done by early afternoon - a plan was coming together!
Every so often an interesting and 'different' job comes along and so it was that on 14 June a Finest Hour crew of pilot Chris and groundcrew Mark found ourselves driving through the early morning mist to our base at Bicester Heritage, our task being to fly to Pent Farm airstrip in Kent, from where we would continue to Calais and then Dunkirk. The plan was to fly a couple of short trips from Dunkirk airfield, with journalist passengers as part of a project to commemorate the air elements of the Dunkirk evacuation, all organized by the Vintage Air Rally team.
On Saturday 10 June, the de Havilland Moth Club hosted a charity flying day at Old Warden Aerodrome, home of The Shuttleworth Collection. Finest Hour had been asked to support the event with 2 Tiger Moths, thus providing an opportunity for some formation flying and photography. Pilots Chris and Lawrence briefed our departure from Bicester Heritage, the transit to Old Warden and our planned arrival there, a key feature of the Day likely to be the blustery South Westerly winds forecast to remain in place all day.
We have a guest blogger... Gillian describes her Tiger Moth trial lesson at the last Sunday Scramble at Bicester Heritage: