1965. The Liverpool Aero Club Upside down Piper Colts.

[ronturner]

A fairly common tranquil scene on the western Apron, early 1965:-


G-ARGY PA-22 Tri Pacer, G-ARGO PA-22 Colt plus 1 other. Liverpool Aero Club Speke Feb 1965 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

A fairly recent arrival to the fleet was G-ARJE:-


G-ARJE PA-22 Colt Liverpool Aero Club, Speke, Feb 1965 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

And then, on the 14th Feb, A British Eagle (Britannia or Viscount.. I cannot remember... probably the one in the background of one of these pics.) was carrying out engine running on the compass swinging spot, when one of the Colts passed behind it.. Oops ! Upside down in no time. Lets say this was it:-



G-ARJE PA-22 Colt Speke Feb 1965 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



G-ARJE PA-222 Colt Speke 14 Feb 1965 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


...and blow me down, literally, a few minutes later, another little Colt passed behind the same engine running 4 engined Eagle:-


G-ARKT PA-22 Colt Speke Feb 14th 1965 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

Apologies for the rubbish quality of some of these photos.

[viscount]

First time I can recall ever seeing photos of the damage caused to those two Colts. I've often wondered if they were fully tipped over onto their backs or just blown over onto a wingtip. From the state of the top of the tail, those two certainly ended up on their backs. It was not recorded in MSAE's 'Flypast' mag which Viscount was involved, but can recall being told by Phil Butler when I was researching for the 'Liverpool Accidents & Incidents' thread that the Viscount was doing power runs while on the western apron at a weekend. Normally engine runs were performed on the finger apron with the prop wash out across the airfield, or down towards the river where noise would not be such an issue.

There are entries on: derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/13889/liverpool-aviation-accidents-incidents covering both incidents where PA-22s were blown over by British Eagle aircraft on power runs. Ron, I would like to use these shots of yours to illustrate the incidents on that thread, please.

To clarify. On Sunday 14th February 1965 an unrecorded British Eagle Viscount blew over Liverpool Aero Club's PA-22 Colt 108 G-ARJE, then later in the afternoon it was Lancashire Aero Club's PA-22 Colt 108 G-ARKT that got caught in the prop-wash. The second incident certainly had pilot and passenger on board at the time.

It was on Tuesday 12th March 1968 that the aircraft at blame was a Britannia, fresh out of maintenance, almost certainly thought to have been G-ANCH. This time it was an PA-22 Tri-Pacer 160 G-ARGL of the Isle of Man Flying Club that was blown over. The question is, who has a photo of the aftermath of that incident hidden away for all these years? The incidents are too minor to appear on Aviation Safety.net's huge listing of worldwide aircraft accidents.

[ronturner]

Hi Brian,

Yes feel free to use my photos. In fact you are free at any time to use or copy any of my AVIATION photos and that applies to anybody else too. The whole point in digitising them is so they may not be lost for ever at some time in the future, and they may be seen by others. Acknowledgment would always be appreciated. I know I don't always have the best, but now and again something unique pops up, et voila!. As I have said before my images are the product of myself, my camera, and several others who have helped me in the techniques of recovery and improvement.


Ron

[Samba]

Ron, have you any images of Oscar Alpha the Viscount in the background, the Eagle titles seem to be different to the rest of the fleet.

[ronturner]

I had never noticed. Sorry I cannot help here. According to records I have a B&W image but all these were lost when loaned to a friend who left them in his room, to the fate of a tidying up mother.

[viscount]

Viscount 701 G-AMOA was leased to British Eagle by Channel Airways for just 4 months, early November 1964 to early March 1965 and was named 'City of Newcastle'. The name was later re-used on G-ANRS.

The 'Vickers Viscount Network' website state they have 13,000 images of Viscounts, and for aircraft G-AMOA they have 33 shots displayed in two BEA schemes, with Channel and then in three different Cambrian schemes. There is just the one in British Eagle colours - but that is a March 1965 photo at Southend with British Eagle titles and logo painted out! Ron, it seems you have accidently captured a rather 'rare bird' in the background of the Colt photos!

www.vickersviscount.net/Default.aspx

Find and click over 'Photos' on the second line of options, then near the top of the drop-down menu, by 'construction number or registration'. Enter either the number 9 or registration G-AMOA to get the page of images for this aircraft. The Viscount Network website must be most developed and detailed examination of a single aircraft type anywhere on the web.


If you want to follow-up 'Samba's' comment regarding the different font style/letter spacing of the 'British Eagle' titles, there are numerous British Eagle Viscount photos part way down page 2 of a NWAN thread for comparison: There are two slightly different styles apparent on the C-54 Skymaster section following the Viscounts too. Something I can never recall comment on at the time.

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/8231/british-eagle-liverpool-1964-1968

[ronturner]

This is why I just love the NWAN forum.So much to find out from people with vast knowledge. Take for example Gerrymanning"s comments on the Lightnings and now "eagle" eyed Samba, and with your enormous data base of information gathered over decades, Brian. I know there are spats from time to time. Small price to pay.