The Avro Tutor before..........

......and after. What the well dressed biplane is wearing this season.

The first evening air display of the the new season had a slightly different format to previous years as it was combined with one of their regular Aeromodelling events. When I arrived the aerodrome was a hive of activity and it added a new dimension to the Shuttleworth experience to be able to view the various models on display and chat to the modellers who had turned out. I am now able to say that I have seen a De Havilland DH2 and Fokker DVIII - both very fine examples - at Shuttleworth! A point which I'm sure which I'm sure was not missed by the organisers was that merging these two events would boost attendance for the evening flying display, and it was good to see the grounds so well filled this early in the season.

My normal walk around the hangars was confined today to Hangar 1 only. The De Havilland DH.88 was in very much the same state as two weeks ago, but had its port engine cowling off. The Spitfire - sadly - was still in residence with work being carried out on its undercarriage. On a different note, the relpica Percy Pilcher triplane (featured in a recent BBC Horizon programme) was also on display, and the information panels gave a very interesting comparision of Pilcher's work with that of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Briefly, Pilcher had created his powered Triplane in 1899, four years before the first flight of the Wright Flyer, but was killed in a glider accident before he had a chance to fly it. The replica actually could fly but revealed instabilities with the flight characteristics, which leaves us an interesting question - could Pilcher, had he lived, have cured these problems and flown his aircraft? For those interested, www.earlyaviators.com has a good deal of information on Percy Pilcher, including a transcript of the BBC Horizon programme.

Right, back to Shuttleworth! I was lucky enough to be walking past Hangar 3 when a long awaited event took place - the first public viewing of the Avro Tutor in it's distinctive new colour scheme! Regulars at Shuttleworth will remember it in its yellow Trainer markings and the new look - especially the red and white upper surfaces, gives an idea of how RAF display teams of the 1930's must have looked. The Tutor will hopefully fly later on this season, and there's no doubt that it will look spectacular in the air!

The weather in the afternoon was excellent (you can see that in the flight line shots) and dry weather in the previous week meant that the runway was much firmer than for the first show of the season. As a precaution the Hurricane did a successful "ground test" and everything looked to be set fine for a good evening's flying.

The first aircraft to fly was the Avro Nineteen, the civilian version of the famous wartime Anson. This took off as normal but instead of performing its usual routine it made a wide circuit and landed again. It appeared that the far end of the grass runway was still fairly soft after the recent rain and in fact the Anson itself became bogged down on landing. A few minutes (and a couple of tractors) were spent dragging it to firmer ground and the show was able to continue with all the aircraft moving to the short runway. This did mean that there were alterations in the programme - the Hurricane would not be chanced after all and the English Electric Wren,which needs every ounce of help to get into the air, would also not be performing. It was a folorn looking ground crew who wheeled the Wren back to the hangars......

By the time the show got under way again the weather conditions had unfortunately changed. Whist remaining fine for flying a large cloud bank had rolled in and light conditions were no longer good - a pity for the photographers in the crowd! But at least it stayed nice and dry.

Don Cashmore's replica Hawker Cygnet and the Parnell Elf got the display under way again and were followed by a pairing I think new to Shuttleworth, the Miles duo of Nick Parkhouse in his rare Hawk Speed Six and Sir John Allison in the Gemini. The crowd pleasing "barnstormers" then appeared and they went through their by now usual routine - flour bombing (none hit the target), balloon bursting (much better) and finally limbo flying. I'm happy to report that all three - Tiger Moth, Magister and Chipmunk - were successful in this latter event today!

Next to fly was another duo unique to Shuttleworth, the ungainly Desoutter and the graceful Southern Martlet. With two years away from the skies it is obvious that the Desoutter is going to be worked hard this season! The "guest star" slot tonight went to Denny Dobson in his Extra 300S. Denny is a self-taught acrobatic pilot and his displays are always that little bit special. Tonight was no exception, with a combination of dazzling positive and negative g manoeuvres finishing off with limbo and streamer cutting at a much greater speed than the Shuttleworth pilots! World War One was represented tonight by the Sopwith Triplane, Avro 504K and SE5a, the latter making its first appearence at a Shuttleworth display this season. Next up were two of the collections Moths, the Cirrus and DH.60X - which is well known to Shuttleworth afficianados as Richard Shuttleworth's first aircraft. The Hurricane had been due to close tonight's proceedings but as it had been ruled out the honour fell to the Hind and Gladiator, two sole surviving examples of their type.

By this time it was really getting dark but we were treated to the spectacle of three "Edwardians" - the replica Avro Triplane and Bristol Boxkite, together with the Blackburn Monoplane which, we were constantly reminded (and why not?), is the oldest surviving airworthy English aircraft. A wonderful display and full marks once again to the Shuttleworth organisers and pilots for dealing so well with tricky circumstances.

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