AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 113ABOVE:
Then owned by
Brian Metters,
G-AKVF gives a rare
flying display at an
Old Warden evening
show in 2009. The
CAA’s database
shows that the
aircraft’s registration
has recently been
cancelled, though
an application has
been made for its
restoration.
BEN DUNNELLaccurate assessment of most of its
qualities”, he wrote. “However,
in the case of the Chrislea Ace, I
decided that this was not feasible”.
The reason it required “several more
hours’ experience was the control
wheel set-up. “To the best of our
knowledge”, Smith continued, “it is
nearly 38 years since such a system
has been employed”. The last time
of which he was aware was on the
Blackburn Heavy Type monoplane
(see Database, Aeroplane June 2018).
While Smith found the Super Ace’s
elevator operation “quite natural
within a few minutes”, mastering the
rudder seemed “strange to start with”.
He noted how the accelerator pedal
overrode the hand throttle, but praised
the neat cockpit layout.
The control wheel made life
interesting on first acquaintance with
the aeroplane. “For the inexperienced
pilot, who has probably unstuck with
slight rudder or aileron applied, the
first 50 feet of climb is occupied with
the checking of skid and yaw”, said
Smith. He felt the ailerons and rudder
would have benefited from light
spring-loading, “to give more positive
centring”. Moreover, “For the first few
minutes of climb and level flying, both
straight and on the turn, the needle
and ball were chasing around in a
most energetic manner, and for a pilot
used only to conventional controls
keen mental effort has to replace most
instinctive actions for co-ordination
of control movements”. Smith likened
“learning to fly the Ace straight and
level” to flying the Sikorsky S-51
helicopter, for “the pilot feels that he
has one extra control to cope with...”
The impressions of The Aeroplane’s
Richard Worcester were similar. He
wrote of the control actions that they
were, “not altogether instinctive... The
French have an expression, ‘La lucidité
et l’audace’, which describes my own
feelings, and I found it necessary
to exercise this untranslatable
intermingling of clear thinking and
boldness in flying the machine. One
of my troubles is that during the past
13 years, making many thousands
of landings, I have had a long time
to get used to conventional controls.
Probably the less experience a pilot
has, the easier he would find it; and a
pilot learning ab initio would acquire
the sense as quickly as he would on a
normal aircraft.”
Both of these flight-testers admitted
that they got used to the Super Ace
after a while, and, of course, the Air
Registration Board — forerunner of
today’s CAA — had approved the
controls as safe. Worcester calledthem “beautifully light and well
harmonised”, going on to describe how
the aircraft was “stressed for aerobatics
with two up”, although he chose not
to perform them owing to his lack of
confidence in the controls.
As covered in The Aeroplane’s issue
for 28 May 1948, Chrislea offered
a free familiarisation course to any
holder of an A licence who decided
to buy a Super Ace. “They also state”,
the item went on, “that any non-A
licence-holder will be taught to fly
the Super Ace for a fee of ten guineas
until such time as the flying clubs buy
some aircraft”. This was surely, the
writer stated, “the cheapest way to
get an A licence in Britain at the
present time.”
Those hopes of sales to clubs never
materialised. Even after the Super
Ace was fitted with conventional
rudder controls, answering the
criticisms of many who had sampled
the machine, sales failed to take off.
Chrislea suspended operations in
July 1948, the company seeking a six-
month moratorium on reimbursing
its creditors. A six-aircraft order from
a Spanish customer had foundered
when the client was, according to
Flight, “unable to obtain the necessary
import licence and sterling.”Work restarted and all the Super
Aces that had been in production
were completed. Even so, the writing
was on the wall. During 1949,
Christoforides resigned from the
company he had co-founded. As an
aside, Monty Brown wrote, “it was
commonly known that Chris did not
like flying; I never did see him fly in
the Ace.”
Just 18 Super Aces were ever
completed, most of them ending up
abroad. The CH3 Series 4 Skyjeep
development, with a 155hp Blackburn
Cirrus Major engine, a tailwheel
undercarriage, a lengthened fuselage
with detachable top coaming and,
crucially, entirely conventional
controls, resulted in just three further
sales, though G-AKVR did win the
1950 Goodyear Trophy race.
An item in Flight for 7 September
1951 said that production had been
suspended, “to permit concentration
on important sub-contracts arising
from the expansion of the Royal Air
Force”. What those were remained
unspecified, and the following year
Chrislea shut up shop. The last two
Super Aces at the Exeter factory —
one brand-new, the other the maker’s
demonstrator — were offered for sale
by W. S. Shackleton Ltd. When firstrevealed, the type was listed as costing
£1,875. Now these two examples
were available for £1,250 and £750
respectively.
That two Super Aces survive in the
UK represents a significant percentage
given the small production run.
G-AKUW is airworthy in private
hands, while G-AKVF has been with
the Air Atlantique Classic Flight since
2011, its permit to fly having expired
a couple of years later; its registration
has recently been cancelled. Skyjeep
G-AKVR flies on with another private
owner. All are interesting curiosities on
the vintage light aeroplane scene.
Andrew Dixon flew G-AKVF
during its brief ownership from
2010-11 by Aces High, whose
boss Mike Woodley was after an
interesting runabout. It was delivered
to Dunsfold by the previous owner’s
pilot, and Andrew went with him
for a familiarisation trip. What did
he think of it? “Oh, God”, he replies.
“It has an unfortunate characteristic
on the approach that if you close the
throttle it pitches nose-down, and
you have limited elevator authority at
the best of times, so you have to keep
the power on until the wheels touch
down. One guy who had it started
the flare, closed the throttle, it went
nose-down, and he literally pulled the
control column out of the panel in
pulling back on it rather than using
the slightly weird control system.
That had taken the nosewheel off it
yet again. Anyway, I flew it and sort of
survived”. Not surprisingly, perhaps,
the machine was sold soon afterwards.
By all accounts, one can hardly
blame him. But even without the
strange control arrangement, would
the Super Ace have made a sales
breakthrough? The fortunes of other
new British light aircraft of its era
suggest not. Perhaps Chrislea
deserves more credit for trying
something different.111-113_AM_AeroArk_July18_cc C.indd 113 04/06/2018 07:22