2019 September Newsletter · LAA East of Scotland Strut September 2019 Newsletter, page 2 Wallace...

LAA East of Scotland Strut September 2019 Newsletter, page 2

Wallace Shackleton is just back from Oshkosh,where he took this photograph of theex-Strathallan (a long time ago) Mosquito.Hopefully a Presentation by him before toolong.

Tim wrote; ‘Could you ask people to e-mail metheir names if intending coming to the meeting inmy workshop and in particular the mealafterwards. The pub is shut on a Monday solooking to do local Italian restaurant instead. Itis quality stuff and reasonably priced. Widerange of typical Italian dishes with a few unusualthings added in for variety.’

Monday 9th Septemberat the Harrow Hotel

Eskbank Road, Dalkeithat 8.00pm

With a history extending over 70 years, theUK Light Aircraft Association promotes safeand economical operation of sports andrecreational aircraft. Representing theaviation interests of around 8,000recreational pilots, amateur-builders andenthusiast members, the LAA oversees theoperation of more than 2,500 light aircraftand the build of another 1,700, whilstproviding sector-leading consultation andadvocacy in aviation-related regulatorymatters both in UK and Europe.

About the Light Aircraft Association:www.laa.uk.com

Meeting on MondayAs always, let Iain know if you

want to raise something.

This newsletter can also be viewed onthe Strut website:

https://eos-strut.org


‘I am hoping you would be able to help us by bringing to the attention ofthe members of the East of Scotland LAA Strut that we are holding a BlackTie Dinner Dance to be held at the Strawberry Barn at Belhaven on theSaturday 9th of November as part of our effort to raise funds to secure ourworkshop at Congalton.The background to the situation we find ourselves in can be briefly summedup as follows. The Aviation Preservation Society of Scotland, or apss, hassince its founding in 1973 been located on the site of the National Museumof Flight at East Fortune until March 2017 when we were required by themuseum to find our own premises on another site. Since then we havebeen operating from a rented 8000sq.m shed at Congalton, which isroughly mid way between the Museum and Drem station. Unfortunatelyour landlord has intimated his intention to sell the shed when our lease runsout at the end of this year, but would be happy for us to have first refusal.His asking price is £100k.’

Urgent, help the APSS!

We were airborne at Perth by 0930. Getting to theRally turned out to be really challenging and it is agood thing that Duncan Robertson is a seasonedpassenger. We were not able to go faster than100kts due to the extreme turbulence and shoulderstraps were tightened down to stop our heads hittingthe ceilingThe gap between the cloud base and the groundvaried between 1800 ft to 800 ft and visibility wasnot good for the Scottish part of the trip. Once pastNewcastle we went via the coast to Yorkshire andturned inland in much better visibility to my favouritestopover at Sherburn in Elmet. The plan was totime our run in to Sywell from there. However it hadtaken us just short of three hours to get there andwe realised after ordering the much needed cuppathat we were not going to make our slot time, so aquick slurp and we were off again, taking off in a 22kt wind. When we reached 1800 ft we had 40 kts onthe nose and ground speed was down to 70kts.Our slot time seemed irrelevant as there was onlyone other aircraft in the holding pattern.On arrival there was a crosswind component ofabout 15kts but we used the grass and while itwasn’t tidy it was safe.Duncan and I were both exhausted. We had a roomat the Aviator Hotel and went straight there andslept for a couple of hours.

Tim Rayner hosted a wee get together of Strutmembers under his motorhome awning and a bottleof Keith Griggs’ whisky was consumed. Amid muchbonhomie we arranged to attend the Struts BBQlater and Ed Lyon took me down to the Sainsbury’sin Wellingborough (a navigational challenge not tobe underestimated).We returned with bottles of beer and crisps toaugment the inevitable hamburgers and a greattime was had by all. They had put out tables andchairs in the open air and a warm evening air madethe whole evening very convivial.Saturday morning we had a nice civilised hotelbreakfast and toured the show. I must have madethis trip more than 10 times and it is amazing howmany faces you recognise. I spent hours chattingwith old friends.Highlight of the event was Ivan Shaw’s new aircraft,a single seater, twin boom tail with room for afoldable electric bike. Ivan was the designer of theEuropa and he reckons this aeroplane is his swan-song. He has no plans to manufacture it though hedoes have all the moulds now to do so. OnSaturday evening he gave a talk with many picturesof the construction and design thoughts behind it.Fascinating stuff.I was more than interested in some engineinstruments from MGL which now show up in brightcolours and can be seen from any angle. This is toreplace my MGL Stratomaster (Flydat equivalent)

which has an LCD display which, in some lights, isunreadable.There was a Luscombe Silvaire which had a polishedaluminium finish you could see your face in. TimRayner was loading up with ‘finds’ from the bring andbuy stall and Duncan was drooling over one of thenicest Menestrelles I have seen. Keith had theskeleton on display next to his aircraft which, if youstood and watched, made even the plane spotterssmile.I spoke to a chap with a Kirby Cadet Mk3 glider withan engine instead of a passenger seat. He reckonedit cost him £1500 from start to finish. My first soloflight was in a glider version of the Mk3 in 1963.Flying on a budget and some. Do I need anotheraeroplane? NO.In the evening there was a meal down at the localpub which coincided with Ivan’s talk. We went to thehangar for the standard meal which was prettymarginal and the band was too loud for anyconversation so we went back to the hotel and metup with the others.Sunday morning saw us up early and ready to go.An interesting crosswind take off with componentnow up to about 18kts.All in all an entertaining weekend. I asked for a zonetransit at Newcastle and was told to orbit at the Tynebridges which gave us a great view of the city. So inthe end a very pleasant and undemanding returnflight to Perth which took 2 hours 15 minutes. It isalmost a home builder’s pilgrimage these days.

Justin at Sywell 2019

Justin Kennedy G-ZTED. Europa Classic monowheel, Rotax 912S, Airmaster CP Prop Photo Wallace Shackleton


I travelled down with Ed Lyon on the Thursday for our annual LAA fly in.Only a handful of Scottish based aircraft made it there with those thattravelled south on the Friday reporting challenging conditions getting out ofScotland. Also the weather conditions to the North of Sywell on Saturdaymade a noticeable dent in the number of visitors. Those that travelled backon the Sunday had to dodge a fair number of rain showers en route.Seen at Sywell from our Strut were Keith Griggs, Justin Kennedy and KeithBoardman. Only a few others from North of the Border were seen over theweekend.Numbers of aircraft at Sywell this year were down on the last few years withthe majority arriving on the Friday. The weather seemed to remain goodsouth of Sywell over the weekend although a stiff westerly wind made somearrivals interesting.The exhibition area was well stocked with exhibitors and vendors. This yeara Struts BBQ was held on the Friday and Saturday evenings with the air andground visitors from Scotland making up the majority for a convivial Fridayevening. This may well become an annual event albeit with the cateringbeing outsourced.

Sywell ReportNotes by Iain Gibson

CongratulationsKeith Griggs nurses a special tankard, a trophy presented by SAC for hismeritorious flight to Saumur last year.


Keith Griggs and myself flew in on Saturday 24thAugust in the Emeraude and Justin arrived in theEuropa.As I'm sure you know, Montrose is an early RFCAirfield. It is all grass once surrounded by aconcrete perimeter track and traces of that stillremain. The airfield is now playing fields but arunway 06/24 is marked out for the day with aparking area in the south-east corner.After landing, socializing and having theobligatory 'burger and coffee we took a stroll tovisit the museum and see the latest arrival, anAnson C19, in pieces, in one of the originalhangars.The before and after photos of the hangars (nextpage) show how the original hardstanding is nowpart of an industrial estate and the hangarsthemselves have been re-clad.There are also more aircraft and plenty items ofinterest in the Museum main site but as we hadvisited last year we went back to the flying site tolook around a classic car show.

Montrose Fly-inBy Ed Lyon


If you ever get a chanceto visit the aircraftmuseum at Montrose Ican thoroughlyrecommend it.

Photographs above areof the old hangars asthey were and as theyare now, with the sameframes but more recentcladding.

On the right is thefuselage of themuseum’s recentacquisition, Anson C19TX226.


In the July Newsletter, Ed Lyon wrote about the exploit of Spitfire pilot PatGifford, first person to shoot down a German plane in WW2 in the Firth ofForth on October 16th 1939 when Ju 88s attacked the British Fleet, lookingfor the battleship Hood.

The event is remembered in a small display in Prestonpans Medical Centre.The Junkers fell into the sea but a month later a Heinkel 111 was shot downover Humbie in East Lothian and was the first German plane to crash onBritish soil during the war. I mention this because the plane in the newspapercutting alongside looks more like a Heinkel to me, so from the second event,but I could be wrong.

Regardless, by a coincidence it turns out that Jim Prettyman has researchedthe same event that Ed was describing and has been giving talks about it tointerested groups for some time.Jim says ‘The two capital ships attacked were the cruisers HMS SouthHampton and HMS Edinburgh together with the destroyer HMS Mohawk, alllying east of the Forth Bridge. The ship thought to be the ‘Hood’ was in factthe battleship Repulse, she by the time of the attack was moored in Rosythharbour. She was intentionally not attacked because Adolf Hitler had giventhe strict order that to avoid civilian casualties ships in harbour were not tobe harmed. Hitler at this stage of the war was still hopeful of bringingBritain to the negotiating table.’Jim has also discovered some interesting anecdotes. Nobody was reallyprepared for an attack, it was still the unreal feeling early days of conflict,and the authorities took some persuading that a genuine attack wasunderway. The railway signalman at North Queensferry held his telephonefrom the signal box window to try to convince the disbelieving HQ people atWaverley Station that there was indeed a raid on but despite the cacophonyof exploding bombs, AA Fire, aircraft and weaponry they still believed it wasan exercise and not a raid, and a passenger train was allowed to proceedfrom Dalmeny to cross the Forth bridge while the attack was going on. Thepassengers, some no doubt terrified, had a grandstand view and a tale totell afterwards!Local East Lothian people were asked by the Police to contribute clothing forthe ditched German air crew and many did but one woman’s response was‘certainly not but here’s my washing line to hang them ‘!The Lord Provost of Edinburgh retrieved bullets from his display of fine china,badly shot up in the raid, and sent them to the RAF at Turnhouse with a notesaying ‘I believe these are yours’.All fascinating stuff and I’m very grateful to both Jim and Ed for shining a lighton this interesting piece of local history.

An interesting follow up


The Airbus ‘bird of prey’ and the flashiest bizjet yet?

The designers at Airbus are sometimes giventheir head to explore what the future may holdand Jim Prettyman came across this (above).It’s from the minds of British developers atFilton and is an 80-seater, 1,500km rangehybrid-electric regional airliner that uses thelatest thinking in aerodynamics and flightcontrol, structures and distributed propulsionto create the greenest ever future airliner.Using technology now under development, theBird of Prey could provide a 30-50% reductionin fuel burn compared to equivalent aircrafttoday.https://www.aerosociety.com/news/exclusive-airbus-uk-reveals-future-green-airliner-vision/?dm_i=4OGU,MHQ5,3HA673,2N4JN,1

At the opposite end of thescale I saw that Tupolev hasbeen contacted by severalbillionaires to convert theirTu 160 supersonic bomber tobizjets. The cost of fuel is nota problem when you are thatrich and want to impress yourfriends but sadly they weretold ‘no’, mainly because thereis so much top secret stuff onboard.https://airlinerwatch.com/super-rich-want-supersonic-bomber-as-business-jet/

https://www.aerosociety.com/news/exclusive-airbus-uk-reveals-future-green-airliner-vision/?dm_i=4OGU,MHQ5,3HA673,2N4JN,1




Notes from SywellEd Lyon saw this demonstration of one of two jet engines that will beadded to each side of a Pitts Special to give a total of 1700 lbs thrustto an aircraft weighing 1350 lbs. Tim, Keith and Keith’s brother Terrylook on (below) doubtless contemplating the grass on fire (on rhs) andthe Pitts’ fabric covering.

Meanwhile, of special interest to JustinKennedy was Europa designer IvanShaw’s new craft which he hasdesigned for his own use, the ISA 180Seeker.

It’s a swift but economical single seattourer with space for a tent, an electricfolding bike and some luggage. Ivangave a talk about it on the Saturdaynight.

https://www.flyer.co.uk/ivan-shaw-reveals-new-personal-seeker/


14-15 Sept Glenforsa vintage taildragger fly-inhttp://glenforsaairfield.com/glenforsaflyin.html

21 September Fife Airport Open day

Events

PPR essential - call Jonathan on 07825 811111Radio is 118.280 ‘Longside Radio’All circuits to the south on Aberdeen QNH, LH on 28, RH on10. Circuits at 1000ft, overhead joins from the south at1500ft.

Our next Fly In is to be held on Saturday, 14th September,with the usual weather fall back of Sunday, 15th.

http://glenforsaairfield.com/glenforsaflyin.html




Why is this here? I love to see people using theirimagination and it made me smile.

East of Scotland Strut contacts

Chairman; Justin Kennedy6 Cammo Walk, Edinburgh EH4 8AN Tel 0131 339 8304 / 07798 661 985

justin @systemwise.co.uk

Co-ordinator and Secretary: Iain Gibson102 Craigmount Brae, Edinburgh EH12 8XN Tel 0131 339 2351

[email protected]

Treasurer and Membership Secretary; Duncan Robertson17 Cramond Avenue, Edinburgh EH4 6PP Tel 0131 312 7857

[email protected]

Newsletter Editor: Andrew Macleod102 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh EH3 9PL Tel 0131 228 2774

[email protected]

Safety Officer: Steven Borthwick73 Galbraith Crescent, Larbert, Falkirk FK5 4AZ Tel 07707 856 680 / 01324 555 056

[email protected]

Committee Member without Portfolio: Ed Lyon14 Craigielaw Park, Aberlady EH32 0PR Tel 01875 870 117

[email protected]

LAA Inspector: Tim Rayner3 Fowler Street, Tranent EH33 1BU Tel 0187 561 3352 / 0779 515 3392

[email protected]

LAA Inspector: Robin Johnson Templehall, Midlem, Selkirk TD7 4QB Tel 01835 870 361 / 07836719350

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

2019 September Newsletter · LAA East of Scotland Strut September 2019 Newsletter, page 2 Wallace...

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