Pilot September 2017

http://www.pilotweb.aero Pilot September 2017 | 67

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Blenheim took to the sky. Hugh Taylor’s

Hurricane I P3717, Hurricane Heritage’s

R4118, HAC’s P3700 and Shuttleworth’s

Sea Hurricane Z7015, were joined by AAR’s

Hurricane I P2902 on its public debut.

P2902 had crashed near Dunkirk on 31 May

1940 and parts were recovered in 1989

before being moved to Hawker

Restorations at Milden in 1994. Following

storage and a long rebuild P2902 became

the world’s 15th airworthy Hurricane when

it was flown by Stu Goldspink at Elmsett on

19 June 2017. Lee Proudfoot flew the

Blenheim with Spitfire IAs N3200, P3708

and X4650 following. This magnificent

sight will hopefully be repeated at the IWM

Duxford’s Battle of Britain Air Show on

23-24 September.

While ‘The Horsemen’ — Steve Hinton, Ed

Shipley and Dan Friedkin, gave their amazing

close formation display on Sunday in F-6K

Frenesi, P-51D Miss Helen and P-51D

‘Sharkmouth’, they

were unable to fly on

Saturday. Dan

Friedkin’s rare photo-reconnaissance F-6K

Mustang 44-12852 had a very involved

history after being sold to a private owner in

1946 up until James Beasley bought it in

2005. He decided to have it fully restored to
      represent the P-51D 44-13318 Frenesi that
      was flown by Lt Col ‘Tommy’ Hayes with the
      364th Fighter Squadron at Leiston, Suffolk
      in the summer of 1944. Dan Friedkin, who
      acquired the Mustang in 2009 for Comanche
      Fighters, made its first post-restoration flight
      at Danville, Illinois on 31 January 2017. He
      had it specially shipped to the UK to appear
      at Flying Legends.
      There was a complete change of pace
      with the ‘new’ air racing segment of the
      flying programme when Shuttleworth’s
      DH88 Comet and Mew Gull G-AEXF, Richard
      Seeley’s Travel Air Type R ‘Mystery Ship’ and

Pete Kynsey’s Cosmic Wind Ballerina took

to the air for a mock ‘30s-style air race.

This was followed by a solo display from

Dakota Norway’s DC-3. It should have been

partnered by Flying Veterans’ DC-3C SE-CFP

Daisy but that unfortunately had an engine

problem while en route from Sweden. The

final ‘odd couple’ in the display was Plane

Sailing’s PBV-1 Canso G-PBYA and TFC’s

FM-2 Wildcat. The afternoon’s flying

concluded with the traditional large

formation Balbo with ‘The Joker’ providing

the intermission. This year it was Richard

Grace in the Fury (Saturday) and Nick Grey

in a Spitfire (Sunday).

The second Mustang incident occurred

when the Sunday Balbo flew overhead. Mark

Levy in AAR’s TF-51D Miss Velma broke out

of the formation as its engine failed. On

base leg east of the M11 motorway Mark

realised he was not going to make Duxford’s

24 runway and decided to land straight

ahead in a wheat field. At the last minute he

retracted the Mustang’s undercarriage and

safely pancaked into the crop. He was

uninjured and the aircraft was recovered to

the airfield the following day. Quite

unprecedented, this was the fourth engine

failure by an aircraft taking part in a UK

flying display (Twister, Avro 504, Gladiator

and Mustang) and it was only half way

through the season.

Stu Goldspink landing the

‘new’ Hurricane P2902

Miss Velma landed in the corn field after engine failure during the Balbo

Air racers Cosmic Wind,

Mew Gull, Mystery Ship

and Comet

Dan Friedkin in his newly restored F-6K Mustang

PHOTO: JOHN DUNNELL

PHOTO: PAUL TOLLIDAY