From “Prospero”
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Tony Crake
Is that that well known SS leaning on the ‘K’ in the photo of the Aerial Flying Group?
The number of times we all managed to find an excuse not to fly with him!
Alan Machin
‘Dear God!’ as John would have said, so it is! I never flew with him, I just rode with him when he moved his car from Hammersmith Grove to Lime Grove one supper break and that was scary enough!
Does anyone recognise any others behind the beards and shades in the picture? I can remember that there were others in Tech Ops who used to do duty-free hops over the Channel using the Aerial Flying Group plane from Denham. Colin Stone possibly? I remember one such trip being grounded in Boulogne due to bad weather one day and having to cover for them.
Tony Crake
Is that Mike McCarthy under the A of Aerial.. I don’t remember him being quite so bearded… and for those on OBs, is that Don Oliver next to MM ( for those of us who had lived to tell the tale and been a car passenger with him!) Wilf Rath and Richard Walder… and could well be Paul H at the ext. RHS
Nobody else rings a bell.
Poor old John… The number of times he used to ask Dave Hedden and myself to go to France with him!
Dave Mundy
John Staples was the flying sound man, he took myself and Wilf (now Wendy) Rath (3rd. from left) to Biggin Hill for a flight but the weather was so bad that the mission was aborted and we retired to the bar for the afternoon – a much safer option!
John left the Beeb and went to Rhodesia (his wife’s birthplace) and was killed in a flying accident.
Between John and Goldie it could be Alan Lythaby, but I’m not sure. Andy Tallack was a member, I believe, but I don’t see him on the photo.
Tony Crake, Graeme Wall, Albert Barber
And if I recall correct, “Dear John” was Newsreader Jan Leeming’s first of her many husbands, married in 1961…. Daily Mail ran a article about them! Jan now lives in Kent and is a Canterbury Cathedral guide. A camera crew just happened to be there on her first day – puzzling many other guides.
Peter Cook
I have only a vague recollection of the day of the photo, but as I am in it I should be able to help.
It must have been an open day and would have been 1973/4. Ariel Flying group started flying at Fairoaks using Condor aircraft and only moved to Denham when GK was bought. My Log Book tells me that my last Condor flight was 27/11/72 and the first lesson in the Cessna was 23/05/73.
Denham was a bit of a disaster at first as she required quite a bit of remedial work as there was corrosion in the airframe. Also there was little continuity with instructors, so having made continuous progress with Fairoaks regular staff who knew you, each new random instructor at Denham had you doing circuits and bumps to make his own assessment of competence to go solo. My first solo was after 10 hours, so not having commenced cross country tuition at 31 hours was disappointing to say the least! Combined with OB life and getting married in 1973, this lack of progress, together with the increasing expense, caused me to quit. On one occasion with a new ex RAF guy set me off solo and encouraged me, after take off, to fly away from the circuit, level out, trim up and have a few minutes relaxed flying before rejoining the circuit. I was so relaxed that when I looked for the airfield I could not immediately see it. Don’t panic! don’t panic! Mr Cook came to mind. Using my local geographical knowledge I looked for railway lines, gravel pits and canals; moments later to my relief I spotted the airfield and did what I had been told to do.
Back to the photo and bearded colleagues. I am under the strut; the other side of the wheel is Don Oliver; above the W is Graham Goldstone and on the right of picture is Paul Harding. The next time I landed at Denham was some years later in a later club aircraft (a Slingsby perhaps) with, was it? John Stapleton. Certainly it was a sound guy on attachment to OBs, who gave me a ‘lift’ from Newbury Racecourse. I was astonished when we climbed up from there at the size of Greenham Common. I took the controls whilst the pilot talked to Heathrow ATC and using a transponder to identify us we were allowed to fly through the control zone. Had to be vigilant about altitude and heading which on a thermally day was an enjoyable challenge. I wasn’t however allowed to land it. By now it had a tarmac strip where once was only grass.
Mind you I went back to Fairoaks in the 1980s to work with the Goodyear airship and that also had tarmac added.
I had control of a niece’s Kitfox round San Francisco about 15 years back. Huge fun!! And 3 years ago I was given a 1 hour experience at Membury, close to where I now live, in an Evector Eurostar. Technically a microlight, it is a small plane with 100 horse engine; great power to weight ratio, taking off in a ridiculously short distance. The pilot again let me fly most of the hour. I had to ask him to land when we were well on finals. I was pleased on both occasions to find that, like camera operation, the skills learned decades ago are still there.
Happy memories.
