As mentioned last time, April 9th is the day set for the second holding of this event. Last year the Society stall was manned by John Brown and myself. And It looks like we'll be there again this year. If you've brought in books to be sold on, please give them to me personally. I'll make a list and either return unsold books at the May AGM meeting or give you the cash. It should be a good day so hope to see you there. Doors open at lO.3Oam, till 4pm. Tea and buns available. Further details the event can obtained from John Leveslev 01425-673O28.
John Brown's story about the mass diversion. Christmas Eve 1958 in the last newsletter brought back another bit of aviation history to me that was related to that thick fog which covered a large part of Southern England that Christmas. Namely the Britannia G-AVOD that crashed near Sopley. For Sub Officer Bill Lambert, officer in charge of the Christchurch Fire Station it was a day etched in his memory, as he recalled the day to me a few years later.
At approximately midday on Christmas Eve 1958, the fire bell rang at Elkins boatyard, where Bill was employed as a Loft Foreman, and the air raid siren in the fire station yard screeched into life alerting all the part-time firemen to come to the station. On their arrival the watch room man informed Bill, " Fire Control has received a report of a loud noise as if an aircraft had crashed in the Sopley - Bransgore area", the pump left the Pit Site Fire station with Bill in command. He requested an update to the rather vague location and was informed that Hurn airport believed an aircraft had crashed north of the airport but had no idea what type or how many persons were aboard.
Bill also requested the second appliance at the station be sent out and search around Sopley and towards Ringwood. Bill's unit commenced their search at Winkton and after travelling a short distance along the Burley road came across overhead cables that were down across the road. The crew dismounted and commenced a foot search in the thick fog, following in the direction the cables which had been dragged across a ploughed field. They soon discovered broken frees and aircraft debris and little further on a fire.
Bill sent a message to the Fire Control confirming it was a crashed aircraft and requested further appliances to rendezvous at the Lamb Inn at Winkton, thus finally giving all the emergency services a positive location for the incident. They were unable to contact the second appliance as it did not have a radio, but fortunately this appliance ran into other units proceeding to the incident whose personnel informed them of the location of the crash site. Bill and part of his crew continued the search leaving the remainder to get the 8-ton appliance, which did not have four-wheel drive, across a newly ploughed field to the centre of the incident. This was a Herculean task, but they eventually succeeded.
Bill's party eventually found the remains of the fuselage with the co-pilot injured and trapped inside. They proceeded to cut him free and as further Fire Police and Ambulance, services arrived a co-ordinated search and rescue commenced, fanning out front the crash site. Fire Control endeavoured to confirm the type of aircraft and number of personnel aboard, and on receiving this information, the operation continued until all persons were accounted for and the fires extinguished.
There were some positives and many lessons learnt from this accident not just for the flying fraternity, but also for the Fire Service - The most important for the former being that aircraft altimeters were fitted with a small chequered flag to indicate when it was indicating below 1500 feet. (The old four handed altimeter that was in use at the time had been misread by the crew who believed they descending from 11,500ft in heavy fog, when they were actually at only 1500ft when they commenced their descent and simply flew into the ground. This wasn't the first incident where this was cited as the cause of the crash - Ed)
For the Fire Service henceforth all second appliances would be fitted with radios and when Land Rover appliances became available, Christchurch were one of the first stations to try them out. As a result Christchurch has had one of these vehicle stationed there ever since. It was only withdrawn quite recently but has now been replaced with a Mercedes 4x4 appliance. For his efforts that day (and no doubt on previous occasions) Sub-Officer Bill Lambert was promoted to Station Officer. - Bill Wootten.
March lOth (Fri)- BAC 1-11 Stage 3 - New Forest Aviation Group, Lyndhurst.
Held at Lvndburst Community Centre. Lyndhurst Starts 730pm. Contact: Chris Gilbert-Norton 01202-434372
March 23rd (Thur)- "Marshall of Cambridge" - Terry Holloway - Royal Aeronautical Society
Held at Cobham Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus. Wallisdown, start at 730pm
*NEW* April 8th (Sat) RAF Sopley Reunion. Inver House Hotel, Bournemouth.
Details from Jim Fail, 01202-760927.
April 9th (Sun) - "History with Wings" Aviation day- l0.3Oam - 4pm.
Merryficld Park, Bransgore. Details John Levesley 01425-673028.
April 14th (Fri) - "Flying the Sea Vixen" - Brian Grant - New Forest Aviation Group. Lyndhurst
Held at Lyndhurst Community Centre, Lyndhurst Starts 7.3Opm. Contact: Chris Gilbert-Norton 01202-434372
April 27th (Thu) Royal Aeronautical Society
Held at Cobham Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth University, Talbot campus, Wallisdown, start at 730pm
May 3rd (Wed) - AGM followed by a speaker TBA
Christchurch Aviation Society, here at Druitt hall 7.30 for 8pm
May 12th (Fri)- "The Concorde Story" - Chris Orlibar - New Forest Aviation Group, Lyndhurst.
Held at Lyndhurst Community Centre, Lyndhurst. Starts 730pm. Contact: Chris Gilbert-Norton 01202-434372
May 20th (Sat) Day of Morris Dancing at Elm Tree Pub, Hightown, Ringwood. Noon till closing. Singsong in the evening
Only aviation related item is a song about a hapless bomb-aimer that may get an airing it. I can't get out of it.
May 29th (Mon) - Memorial day USA. FONFA are making arrangements to mark this day in some way to honour of the servicemen who fell in service of their country and ours. Details to follow or nearer date on the FONFA website.
Bill Wootten suggests a book called "Negative Gravity" by Matthew Freudenburg as one to read it you like biographies. This one deals with the amazing life of Beartrice Shillings, who, had she been a man we all would most certainly have heard of. She was heavily involved in the development of the Merlin engine for the various marks of Spitfire and raced and tuned her motorcycles with some success in her spare time, to mention just two of her achievements, and this was in the 1930's and 40's when she would have had to have overcome the prejudicial belief that such expertise and pastimes were considered well beyond the capabilities of mere women. ISBN number is 09546165/02.
Best wishes, and special thanks to Bill for his contribution, more stories please folks.
Ian Claxton
Secretary