Pilot – June 2018

58 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero

In Pilot fifty years ago
The cover photo of two wing-
walkers running alongside a
Tiger Moth illustrates one of the
more difficult characteristics of
the aircraft − simply taxying it
in anything other than a calm
wind. Other features were
explored in the article on the
Tiger Club, when Walter Witty
tried his hand at aerobatics in
G-ACDC, the oldest flying Tiger
Moth and still owned by the
Tiger Club. The Club, then at

Redhill, today has decamped to

Damyns Hall but the ethos of

flying for fun remains.

Brian Healey’s editorial

covers the subject of airfields

under threat from both

local and central government;

some things simply haven’t

changed in fifty years. Then

it was Blackbushe and Biggin

Hill; today the list is somewhat

longer, with NIMBYs and

housing developers also adding

to the threat.

Unusual for its time, the

magazine featured two pieces

on female pilots. One, a Biggin

Hill club pilot − ‘only three of

us girls at Biggin Hill Flying

Club out of 90 members’ −

explained that, having caught

the flying bug, she was doomed

to ‘spend all the time you can

spare... trying this aircraft and

that aircraft and never having

any spare cash to buy clothes’.

The other was record-breaking

pilot Sheila Scott, describing

her sound-barrier-breaking and

aerobatic flight in a Hunter,

courtesy of her Royal Navy

friends at Yeovilton. She

credits the aircraft itself for

the simplicity of the aerobatic

manoeuvres and her decent

landing at the end of the sortie.

Aerobatics were also

covered in the feature on three

pilots aiming to put Britain at

the top of the international

aerobatic league: Neil Williams,

and two others, and the

brand new Zlin 526 Akrobat

aircraft they were using in

their attempt − purchased for

the princely sum of £8,500

(equivalent to just over

£100,000 today).

The flight test was on the

Piper Arrow, retractable big

brother of the now ubiquitous

Cherokee. The flight tester

bemoans the fact that Piper

continued to offer but a

single entry door but was

impressed by the spacious

cabin and cockpit layout. With

full airways equipment, the

Arrow would have set you back

around £13,200 (£160,000

today).

Finally, Pilot offered a prize

of a flying course worth £250

(£3,000 today) to subscribers,

in return for writing an essay of

300 words on ‘Why I Want to

Fly’, winner to be announced in

the November issue.

By: Judith Austin

Celebrating fifty years of

Britain’s best-selling GA magazine