We've been lucky with the weather in this part of the country so far. I toddled over to Shoreham yesterday morning to see what was going on. Seems everyone else had the same idea & there was plenty of activity in the bright sunshine.

This was one of the first to land. There are now two of these little beauties painted in the classic scheme based on the airfield. I missed G-IOOP which landed later after I'd left for home.

     

Here's one of the many airliners on the way into Gatwick.
     

Next up, a couple of visitors from Omag's part of the world.
     
     

Another visitor, a nice Socata TB10 Tobago. These are becoming very popular.
     

Another regular. Not sure where it's based.
     

One of the local Bulldogs. Very smart.


One of two Rockwell Commander 114 to arrive. This range of aircraft was designed by the late Grahame Gates who worked at Shoreham from late 1951 to early 1962 for George Miles' as Chief Project Engineer,  & later at Beagle aircraft until joining Piper Aircraft in late 1964.
     

Now for the piece de resistance. This pretty little Jodel was accompanied by a very rare bird.
     

The sole surviving Percival Vega Gull. A rare opportunity but unfortunately the weather was rapidly deteriorating & the sun went behind a cloud as he arrived. Sod's Law.
     

Another local Yak. First time I've seen it close up. I spotted this chap taking off earlier & waited for him to land before heading for home. All in all a very nice day out.

Plenty of variety there Doug, I must get to Shoreham one day.

Great pics as usual, I love the reg on the Yak 

Hagar wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2008 at 2:08pm:


   

No, I don't agree... The sharpness is very good and so is the contrast ( except maybe the first Eagle shot). Nice panning action on the Beechcraft. And since the background turned grey at some points, I'd say they are pretty darn good!

Oh no!

Really nice to see some more local traffic. Was Grahame Gates English? If so that explains why the Commander is so uncharacteristically good looking for an American GA type!

As for the Gull, anything designed by Messrs Percival and Miles are a delight to see.

Thanks for the nice comments. Not sure how long it will last but we have a nice variety of resident aircraft at Shoreham at the moment. Forgetting the usual GA types & trainers there are 2 Harvards, 2 Chipmunks, 3 Stampes, 1 Tiger Moth, 2 Bulldogs, a Yak 52 & Yak 55, 2 Christen Eagles, at least 1 Pitts Special & a Stolp Starduster. I'm sure I've forgotten some. This does not include the occupants of the north hangar which houses numerous Van's of various types, a Piper Cub & a Miles Gemini (if he hasn't sold it) plus a few others that I'm not allowed to mention.

C wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2008 at 3:34pm:

Grahame was indeed English. Unfortunately not many people in this country will have heard of him or his contribution to aviation. I've collected as much information on him as I can find & will post it in a separate topic in the Real Aviation forum.

PS. If you check the file sizes I've posted 12 images at an average of 50 Kb each. That brings it well within the 600 Kb limit.

Hagar wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2008 at 4:04pm:


I think you'll find that many of us don't mind more than one post of this quality Doug 

I think I can see that a trip to the Shoreham fence is going to be on my 'must-do' list. Now.....how to convince the "social secretary and financial controller"?   

C wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2008 at 6:33pm:


I suppose it all depends on whether they come with me or not 

Great shots, Doug!!

Thank you for taking us along this week-end!!