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Chance
for another passenger flight in a piston engine aeroplane.
Classic
Wings, who normally operate from Duxford, offered a series of
pleasure flights from other airfields in
East Anglia
during September 2009, to celebrate the 75th
Anniversary of the first flight of the DH 89A Dragon Rapide.
On
Saturday 12 September they operated a number of flights from
Norwich
International
Airport, and I was fortunate to get a seat on one of these flights.
In
fact, quite early in the day, I heard on my scanner radio about
a Rapide doing pleasure flights near
Norwich, and immediately went round to the airport to investigate.
There were only two seats left for the whole day and I was lucky
to  get one at 1045hr. This gave me time to rush home to get my
camera!.
G-AIYR,
painted in its WW2 RAF colour scheme as HG691, had a busy day
giving many people a sample of what passenger flying used to be
like.
We
were each weighed before loading, and the man organising the
loading indicated the seat for each of us as we climbed into the
cabin. At my weight I was not surprised to be located in the
middle of the cabin!
The bucket seats in the Rapide brought back memories of many
summer weekends, from 1953 to 1957, helping the pleasure flight
pilot at Prestwick Airport to get his passengers loaded and
taking away the steps for him to get started. If it was taking
too long to get a full load he would go with six out of the
eight seats filled. Then we could signal to him and jump in
ourselves for a ‘free’ trip round the bay from time to time.
 My logbook indicates that I flew on more than 30 flights in
seven different Rapides during that time, and although ‘LPK no
longer exists, one out of the seven does still fly in the UK.
But to get back to this event. After a long taxi out to the east
end of
Norwich
airport the take off was a fairly leisurely affair and not too
noisy. The Gipsy Queen inline engines, although not quite
‘purring’, did not rumble as much as the Dakota engines did
on my last passenger flight in a piston engine aeroplane, out of
Norwich
last year.
Taking
off to the west we turned south over the centre of
Norwich
and had an excellent view of the city centre with Chapelfield
and the Forum. Then
before
heading out over the
Norfolk
countryside we passed by the Norwich Crown Point railway works.
It
is the blue building seen between the struts in the picture
above
The
flight continued to the North East over the old Rackheath
aerodrome, which was a base for USAAF B24s during WW2, is now a
local industrial estate, and may also soon be the location of
one of the new eco-towns.
Further
out to the east we circled over Wroxham and part of the
Norfolk
Broads
before heading back towards Norwich International. The
Broads were full of sailing boats and motor boats with people
enjoying the late summer good weather. From our relatively low
height, the view around us could be easily seen by everyone in
the Rapide. Everyone has a window seat.
On
the approach to the airport, sitting in the second row from the
front, it was possible to take a picture through the front
starboard cockpit window of the Rapide. There are no cockpit
doors on this aircraft!
A
typical ‘squeak, squeak’ from the tyres indicated a good
landing. A short taxi back to our parking area, at
Gambling Close, finished a truly memorable flight. Eight
people with smiling faces got out and looked around the aeroplane, and another eight people with smiling faces in
anticipation, were led out to get on board. Great stuff!
I
am now waiting for the Air Atlantique Classic Flight Twin
Pioneer at
Coventry
to have replacement wing struts fitted, and hopefully that will
be an excuse for another piston engine passenger aeroplane
flight. Watch this space!
Andrew
McClymont -
September 2009
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