RAF Chivenor, 22nd August 1970 - PART ONE

[acklington]

Their annual air display, and I've just spent weeks restoring the b & w negatives that I took. I was living in London at the time, but even so it was a long long drive down to deepest North Devon. I slept overnight in the car and was at the gate by 0730, determined to get ahead of the crowds. Just as well because there were no barriers around the static exhibits.

In 1962 I had been on our Air Cadets annual summer camp to Chivenor, an even longer journey by train all the way from Newcastle! It did have the consolation of the last bit of the train journey to Barnstable being pulled by a Battle of Britain Class steam loco, but no photos of that as we were banned from taking cameras! No taking aircraft numbers either, but I do remember that the small former civil airport hangar on the edge of the airfield, had an interesting triple-fin tail visible, displaying the registration OO-ERY, the only Miles Aerovan that I ever did see. It was scrapped soon after. We were also shown around a piston-engined ASR Westland Whirlwind HAR.7 and told that it was waiting to go for conversion to Turbine HAR.10, the last one to be so converted. I've tried since to find out which was the last one to be converted, but with no success. I spent a half-day in the engineering hangar, helping unpack a new drop tank for a Hunter, but the only Hunter I remember was an all-blue 92 Sqdn example, recently retired from the "Blue Diamonds" aerobatic team. We all got a flight in a Chipmunk T.10, mine was in WP846, and a few of the senior cadets got a flight in the Meteor T.7.

So in 1970, as soon as I was driving, it was back to Chivenor for some photos. The weather was c**p with heavy overnight rain slowly starting to clear at 0730. The static display contained what must have been the most-unlikely aircraft that I could have expected to see;

wn 494083, W8+A, Ju87G-3, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
wn 494083, W8+A, Ju87G-3, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
wn 494083, W8+A, Ju87G-3, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (4) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

Together with two more war prizes from the store of 4 SoTT at RAF St.Athan
wn 191904, 25, (AM217), Me163B-1, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
wn 191904, 25, (AM217), Me163B-1, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
wn 120227 (VH513, AM65), 2, He162A-3, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
wn 120227 (VH513, AM65), 2, He162A-3, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

4 SoTT had also acquired a 'prize' from the ARMY, but tried to disguise this with a day-glo patch on the boom
XN341 (8022M), 4 SoTT St Athan, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
XN341 (8022M), 4 SoTT St Athan, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (3) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

I made a beeline straight for my star exhibit, a Meteor TT.8 of the Target Towing Flight, 229 OCU. It was gorgeous in light aircraft grey, day-glo red strips, and black/yellow TT stripes underneath
WH286, A, TTF Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (6) aw by Philip Pain, on Flickr
WH286, A, TTF Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (3) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
WH286, A, TTF Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
WH286, A, 229 OCU, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (10) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
WH286, A, 229 OCU, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (6) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
Sadly, unlike previous Chivenor displays when all their Meteors were on the flight-line, this time they kept them in a locked hangar. A sprog RAF officer even got stroppy when us enthusiasts started peering through cracks in the hangar, but I did manage to log the others as TT.8 WK941 'E' and VZ467 'C', plus T.7 WL345 and WL349. The displayed Meteor WH286 went to Flight Refuelling Ltd in 1972, to become the final conversion to a U.16 drone, and was shot down thereafter.

Moving on, the flight-line aircraft were behind a rope barrier, just too far away for my standard-lens camera. But it was still early and the RAF staff all seemed pre-occupied with finishing their preparations for the day. So I nipped under the rope barrier and got photos of a Chipmunk, and Beaver.
WP848, FAC Chivenor (ex CFS 06), Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
WP848, FAC Chivenor (ex CFS 06), Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
XP827, AAC, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr
XP827, AAC, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

The flight-line was still out-of-reach, but there were two youngish blokes taking photos of all the Hunters, they seemed to have been given approval, so I thought, "they'll think I'm with them" and off I went for a very hasty, but successful dash and got every Hunter, making over 30 examples in all!
XJ634, 34, 79 Sqdn 229 OCU, Chivenor, 22 Aug 70 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

I won't bore you with a photo of every Hunter, but will illustrate the four varieties and the different squadrons, the F.6's of 63, 234, and 79 'shadow squadrons' of 229 OCU; the FGA.9s; the FR.10s; and the T.7s. These will follow in PART 2 of this thread.

[ian531]

Amazing pictures, I love the Ju.87

Ian

[ronturner]

Great stuff. Good memories. Thanks

I think I was there for that weekend. I was camping with my newlywed beloved and it rained. It was the first and last time she went camping with me. Rain was bit of a feature for us. On our very first date we met at a cinema in Lime Street. It rained. I was soaked wet waiting for her (deliberate perhaps... lateness.) Our first full day out was to the motor cycle racing at Oulton park. It rained buckets. Our first Farnborough: it rained like hell and the display was totally cancelled......

[acklington]

Thanks Ron,

My third and last trip to Chivenor was in late August 1982, a camping trip with wife and two young sons. Perhaps we used the same campsite as you. It was getting too late in the Summer, the nights were drawing in, and we got bitten to death! So that was the start, and end, of family camping.

The only good thing was that the railway line that ran along the airfield boundary had been closed, and turned into a public footpath. It was great for photos of the Hawks on the adjacent taxiway, it also gave good views of the main apron.

RAF flying ceased in 1994 when the base was handed over to the Royal Marines, and the airfield is no longer used.

[avro748]

Great post, you did a good job on the restoration of your B&W negs.

Really like reading your posts Phil.

Cheers

Shaun

[gerrymanning]

Nice to see the B&W shots, I was there as well that year and stayed all day. The weather got much better and the sun was out during the flying display. I looked at my slides and could see that it was dull in the morning but later shots the sun shone. By the way did the gates open at 07-30 ? that would have been quite early for a 1970 show, Joe Public never arrived that early until some years later. In fact I went to a Lakenheath show in 1976 and was the first one in and had taken half the static before I saw another person. Could not happen today.

As to your quest for the last Whirlwind to be converted to turbine power my guess it was XG597. This was the Warton-based one that English Electric used as their SAR. I first saw it in 1961 and on 11th June 1966 it was still piston powered according to the list I had from the "open" day at Warton that I attended.

Best wishes,

Gerry

[acklington]

Thanks Gerry, and I'm really jealous that you had colour slides - beyond my budget in those days. However, I think that it was this display that that left me determined to switch to slides, as there were some 12 colourful aircraft on display and plenty of day-glo. So, by 1972 I had fully changed to colour slides.

I'm not sure that the gates were officially open at 0730, but a few other people were driving in and I followed! Not the first time I had done that at various air displays.

Yesterday, by complete coincidence, I was chatting to a fellow spotter here on the Isle of Man. I mentioned Chivenor and my Air Cadet visit in 1962, and he was there as a London-based Air Cadet in 1961. Doing the same things - rescue a crashed pilot on Exmoor - inter-squadron football competition - Chipmunk flight (his was in WP873) - and also of most interest was that he got winched into a piston-Whirlwind which was XJ726 (now preserved as a Turbine HAR.10 at Caenarvon). So if XJ726 was still at Chivenor in 1962, then it could be the 'last-one', from an RAF point of view. I agree that in 1966 the Warton XG597 was the last piston-Whirlwind, but it was a Company machine, not on RAF charge.

I have long followed and admired your work - well done!

Phil

[gerrymanning]

Hi Phil,

Thank you for the kind words.

With regard to the 07-30 opening at a guess the only people going in at that hour would be the RAF people going on duty. Since RAF air shows were free in those days there might not have been an "official " opening time so any car going in was allowed. Perhaps the "opening" time was for the the indoor exhibits with people to answer questions.

Best wishes,

Gerry