Aeroplane – June 2018

78 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018

ABOVE:

Tim spent eight

very happy years as

co-owner with John

Fairey of Spitfire

VIII Trainer MT818/

G-AIDN.

FLIGHT VIA PETER R. ARNOLD

COLLECTION

BELOW:

Taxiing out for a

post-maintenance

check flight in Tony

Samuelson’s Spitfire

IXT MJ772/G-AVAV

during July 1967,

after it had been

overhauled by

Simpson’s.

RICHARD T. RIDING

With the tips attached, ’JV and

its owner/pilot had a brief filming

role. In August 1964, the Spitfire

was flown to Abingdon, where a

temporary photo-reconnaissance

blue scheme and RAF roundel were

applied on the starboard fuselage

side. Tim made two short flights for

the making of Operation Crossbow,

a thriller based very loosely around

the real ‘Crossbow’ campaign against

Germany’s V-weapons. It starred

Sophia Loren, George Peppard and

Trevor Howard amongst others, and

Tim is shown in the cockpit. With

the desired shots in the can, the paint

was washed off and ’JV flown home.

There was one unpleasant

experience. “I very nearly bailed out

of it once. It was the first flight after

a C of A [renewal], and climbing

through 20,000ft north-east of

Stansted I started to feel very ill very

rapidly. I couldn’t think straight,

everything went blood-red in my

eyes, and I felt I was going to go

unconscious. This all happened in

the space of about 30 to 45 seconds.

My one thought was, ‘I am not going

down with this aeroplane’.

“I managed to get the canopy back,

opened the door, unhitched myself

from everything, put my feet up on

the seat and crouched, ready to roll

out of it. Of course, in this process

I’d taken my oxygen mask off, so I

got a 250mph blast of fresh air. Just

before I was going to go I thought,

‘Hang on a sec’. That awful approach

to unconsciousness hadn’t continued,

and gradually, over a minute or so, it

got much better.

“I slumped back into the seat,

called up Stansted and went straight

in there to land. It was very quiet in

those days. I taxied on to the grass,

got out, lay on the grass for a couple

of hours and flew it back to Elstree.

“I asked ‘Tubby’, ‘What do you

reckon happened there, then?’ He

said, ‘Must have been the oxygen. If

those tanks get damp in them, they

can produce a noxious gas’. I was

gassed by some very poisonous stuff

indeed. That was very nearly the end

of the aeroplane, but I was determined

it wasn’t going to be the end of me.”

Spares weren’t a problem for ’JV.

Quite apart from the ex-COGEA

stock acquired with the aeroplane,

Tim had purchased an ex-Irish Air

Corps Spitfire IX Trainer, the former

IAC 158, previously MJ627 in its

RAF days. “When the Irish two-

seaters came on the market, I bid for

one and didn’t get it. John Crewdson

[of Film Aviation Services] got it —

in fact he got two — and I bought

one from him. It was a complete

aeroplane but in many pieces. This

thing arrived on a trailer at Elstree,

and we shoved it away in my shed.

Then we found that the lorry loaders

had got it muddled up, and we had

the fuselage from one Spitfire and

the wings from another one [MJ772/

IAC 159].”

Tim flew numerous Spitfire

displays, including one connected

with the 1965 Jersey International Air

Rally to mark the 20th anniversary of

the island’s liberation. “They wanted

an air display completely round the

island. I told the chap I couldn’t

probably give them that as they had

commercial traffic, and it just wasn’t

on. ‘Oh’, he said. ‘I think I should

tell you that the island parliament

has voted to close the airspace for 15

minutes, so you’ll have the freedom

of Jersey’s skies for that time’. They

wanted me to start off to the west at

15,000ft or something to get some

speed up, and then it was up to me.

They got their display.

AEROPLANE MEETS... TIM DAVIES

74-80_AM_AeroMeets_July18_cc C.indd 78 04/06/2018 12:29