Welcome to this event and I hope you are enjoying the day. Here as the CAS stall we hope to tell you a little about ourselves and to kindle sufficient interest in you that feel compelled to come along to our meetings, held at Druitt Hall, off Christchurch High Street, usually in the depths of winter!.
Our full programme for the coming season is shown below and you, your family and friends are more than welcome to attend. We open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start, serve tea and coffee with biscuits at the interval and close the meeting by 10pm. Hope to see you there.
We are operating a book stall today that is selling on some of our members ' spare' collections of books and videos and other aviation memorabilia, to good homes. We did this last year and for one of our members, Dick Bedford, who was helping out. He had planned to do the same again this year but sadly passed away a few weeks ago, subsequently the remainder of his 'collection' is here today in accordance with his wishes. The stall is dedicated to this happy, cheerful and friendly Gentleman.
Our VERY short AGM will be follow by Roger whose career spanned the intervening years that history has deemed to largely ignore as it was sandwiched between 'bigger' events. Far from 'falling down the cracks' it is more a chance to 'fill in the blanks'.
"If it has wings, you name it, our speaker has flown it, had something to do with it or knows sufficient about it to be able to comment". Well it is almost true, Paddy's career has been varied and extensive and he tells a fine story.
Currently a jet display pilot, flying the Sea Vixen amongst others, Brian has had an extensive flying career, military and civil and is always an interesting and lively speaker.
John is the instigator and the main organiser of the event you are attending today, and if you are wondering about origins of today's venue this is your chance to find out.
For most aviation enthusiasts, the thought of actually learning to fly yourself can be a little daunting for all manner of reasons. For those of us that did learn, the years may have tumbled by and as always things change. Ian will be telling us what is entailed to achieve this goal today and all that is required under current CAA regulations, peppered with a number of anecdotes to illustrate the point!.
The Sea Vixen XJ580, that stood on the edge of the old redeveloped Christchurch airfield between 1984 and 2000 and was the original reason why this society came into being, is now on display at Tangmere Museum. Recently the outer pylons of this aircraft along with the tanks that fitted to them were removed and restored to be used on the still flying Sea Vixen thus giving the display aircraft extra range to enable it to attend air displays further a field. As the Sea Vixen Society, our group was responsible for the upkeep of XJ580 while it was in Somerford, until repeated vandalism forced its relocation. It is very warming to think that at least part of 'our' bird will once more be taking to the skies. As for the bulk of XJ580. She is in excellent condition thanks to the dedicated work of the volunteers at Tangmere Museum and although still outside at the moment there are plans to move her into the new hanger there as soon as it is complete.
For some time, Southend Airport had acquired a good reputation for its weather - its absence of fog in the autumn and winter months. As a result, British European Airways (BEA) the state airline - each autumn would station some ground-handling equipment and staff from the end of September until early March. This avoided the need to bring staff down to Southend should an aircraft divert, thereby reducing delays because of the two-hour drive from London Airport. In turn, BEA staff could handle other airlines so diverted, such as Lufthansa, KLM and Air France, who had nominated Southend as their number one diversion. It should be remembered that, at this time, Stansted was a remote, charter-only airfield, and Gatwick had a poor weather record. Passengers landing at Southend could be in Central London within one hour.
On Christmas Eve 1958, the day was sunny with haze; London and Manchester and most of the south of England was in fog. At about 10am, Southend ATC was advised by Southern Air Traffic Control Centre at Heathrow to standby for possible diversions. At 10.30 am, they were advised that two Lufthansa Viscount 400s were leaving airways at Matching for diversion to Southend. Hardly had this occurred than a KLM Super Constellation, which had heard that Southend was open, also announced it was diverting. From then on, Southend was announced by London Volmet ( The Meteorological Service) as being the only airport open - Runway 06 in use.
As it was a holiday for me, I was over at the airport planning to go flying. At around mid-morning, Bernard Collins, the Airport Commandant, came across to the School and asked if we could help by being baggage-handlers, as it was obvious to him that the small number of staff would be overwhelmed by this unplanned influx of passengers. One problem, as the number of flight arrivals built up, was the lack of aircraft steps. Apart from Viscounts, most aircraft of that era did not have integral steps. Most of the arrivals in the afternoon needed our steps - DC4s, DC6s, Constellations and Vikings. Later on it was 80% Viscounts of BEA, Hunting-Clan and Eagle( from Blackbushe), and the problem over the steps eased.
As the sky darkened, one could see, circling over Southend, to the north, east, and south, the winking lights of aircraft waiting their turn to land. By now SATCC had established an airway leading to Southend; this helped speed up the landing rate and the job of the Southend controllers.
Although one might have imagined that the congestion in the passenger halls was leading to frayed nerves, it was remarkable composed. Bernard Collins made an announcement apologising for the congestion, pointing out that Southend did not normally handle this amount of traffic. In general, people were fairly good humoured as they waited their turn to be put on a stream of coaches that were ferrying them up to London. At one point, Paul Robeson, the singer, who had arrived from Paris, entertained passengers with an impromptu rendering in the Arrivals lounge (his rendering since been painted over- Sec) By 10pm, most people were away for their Christmas; most of them were only too glad to have made it into the UK at all, because of the fog.
On Christmas day, at SATCC's special request, Southend Airport remained open (although scheduled to close for the holiday) And further diversions were accepted. The final arrival was a Pan Am Boeing 707 from New York, which, because the airfield was filled with aircraft, had to be left on the main runway. Just as this aircraft had landed, the fog, which had blanketed the southern part of England, finally closed in. By this time, Southend had done its job; everyone was home for Christmas, and the Airport staff could now celebrate Christmas with the warm glow of doing an unbelievable job. The Municipal Airport had handled all Southern England's Air Traffic arrivals, as well as departures. For this service, Southend ATC won the Guild of Air Traffic Controller's Award for 1958. - John Brown.
(ED - this was the same pea-souper that caused the Britannia crash just over the fields from here at Sopley that Christmas 1958. Books on that crash are available from the Christchurch Historical Society Stall or the excellent Avon Beach Shop, Avon Beach. They also have a book on the Valiant crash in 1952 that came down a mile to the south from here at Harrow farm)
Due to occasional bursts of speculation in the press and the local rumour mill about the future of Druitt Hall and the surrounding 'park' area. The Secretary has contacted Druitt hall's owners, Christchurch Housing Assoc (CHA) regarding the hall's future. He was advised that although there are plans afoot to develop the entire site, the fact that the lunch club no longer is able to use the hall, (due to the kitchens not meeting current H&S regs ) the CHA were planning not to build a replacement, as the current level of use the hall receives would not justify the cost of a new hall estimated to be in the order of £1/2m.
However the Council has received a large petition, containing over 750 names, against the removal of the hall and they are currently looking at ways to raise the money to build the replacement hall within any future redevelopment. However the CHA representative said that as this process has been ongoing for a number of years to date, and will in all likelihood, continue for a few more to come, it is the opinion of the CHA there was no immediate danger of the loss of our venue for some years yet. The Committee has been looking into alternative venues in the event of any change and have options, but at this point there would appear to be no need for concern about any change of our societies meeting venue.
Enjoy the day, give some of our books a good home and come and see us at one of our meetings.
Best wishes
Ian Claxton
Secretary