Posted Saturday, October 17, 2009 @ 10:31 AM  

What a great photo Collin has posted to head the CFIAmerica site this month.

That's pretty much the whole Sportair fleet as it was when I joined them in November 1970 or soon afterwards.

And that's my airplane out at the front -- G-AWGN, (or 'The Old Wagon' as she's now known).

The photo must have been taken before 7th August 1971, because it is still in the original (correct) color scheme. On that date it suffered damage in a forced landing and consequently got a new fuselage, which has ever since had the wrong curve in the red area at the front.

Does anybody else have any more info, or any more photos from that time? And is there a higher resolution version of this photo that I could download?

Yours with many happy memories, Bob

Posted Saturday, October 17, 2009 @ 10:39 AM  

At that time, our CFI (Chief Flying Instructor) was Robby Dorsey, later known as Rob Dorsey, president of the International Aerobatic Association and latterly a frequent writer on aerobatics in particular for Private Pilot. He now has his own aerobatics web site, featuring many of his most excellent articles.

We got up to all sorts of fun.

These are photos of Tony Blades (Sportair instructor) and myself arriving over the Tiger Club flightline at Redhill unannounced out of a foggy dawn for their New Year's Day 'dawn patrol'. As you can see, they had not yet even started their engines when we arrived!

I can't remember which of us was in the front seat, but I do remember it was great fun. Freezing cold, but GREAT fun!

Yours, Bob