December 2018 FLYPAST 47career I eventually reached a point
in my life where I could afford to
do it. The problem was that the
right kind of aeroplanes weren’t
for sale, and in any case
the price of warbirds was
going up and up. I think
that’s because the veterans who
flew these things are now gradually
leaving us, and there’s a greater
desire to keep the history alive.
The Spitfire is a particularly iconic
symbol of British freedom and ‘our
finest hour’.”
LUCKY FIND
However, in time Keith located
a Spitfire, Mk.IX TD314 (which
had been owned by several people
after it was recovered from a South
African scrapyard), with the aim of
flying it once he’d had the required
training. The aircraft was duly
restored and made its first flight
on December 7, 2013, with Pete
Kynsey at the controls.
Shortly after acquiring the single-
seat Spitfire, Keith also purchased
the Spitfire Mk.IX NH341, with
the intention of converting it to
two-seat configuration to facilitate
his own training.
Keith explains: “I was still
working abroad at the time and
it had taken three years to get the
single-seat Spitfire ready, and that’s
when you get into a whole different
dynamic. It costs a certain amount
of money to have it ready to fly,
then there’s the insurance, and it
needed to cover its costs. I had
an arrangement with the
people that restored
it, to fly it for so
many hours
a yearto get some money back, but that
didn’t really work. So, I looked at
the rules and thought I could create
a little hobby business, offering
Second World War fighter pilot
experiences. I bought a Tiger Moth
and a Harvard. For Spitfire flights
we came to an arrangement with
the Aircraft Restoration Company,
to rent its two-seater until I could
have my own.
“The idea was to give the full
journey, flying the basic Tiger Moth,
the Harvard then the Spitfire, and
we started out by
offering what we
called the Ultimate
Package, to give a true
fighter pilot experience.
That was very popular.
We held a launch event with
a veteran Hurricane ace, Neville
Croucher,,who was a regular