Fuel Prices

Fuel prices at Breighton, as at 8/06/10: Avgas 100LL £1.82 per litre and Avtur Jet A1 £0.75 per litre - Take on fuel and support your local airfield!

Fuel is available self-service at any time (even outside normal operating hours), payment at the pumps by major credit/debit cards.

Lens case lost

Malcolm Clarke would like to know if anyone has found his lens case at the airfield:

"I was horrified to find that on opening my camera bag for the first time this year that my telephoto lens case is missing. This is a bit of a long shot but feel sure that I last used it at Breighton on September 18th last year. It's about 10" long, 4" dia, grey in colour, with two zips along its length, make Canon."

If anyone has anyone has found this Malcolm would very much like to get it back - drop us a line (dav@realaero.com) and we'll put you in touch.

Blasts from the past!

Mike Illien provided these lovely pictures taken at Breighton in August 1991. (ABOVE) A prophecy of things to come perhaps? This is John Isaacs' original 6/10 scale 'Spitfire' sporting the PR blue very similar to the real Mk XI that Taff and Rob brought to Breighton sometime later.

(BELOW) A lovely 1943 Boeing Stearman Kaydet on the grass at Breighton in August 1991. This aircraft was owned by Peter Scott and 'lived' at his farm strip at Thorpe Audlin near Doncaster. It sports specially adapted wing-tips which I believe were to help control the dispersal of spray during crop-dusting. The aircraft eventually passed on to well known North Weald based aviatrix and warbird owner Barbel Abela, had its standard wings reinstated and was painted shocking pink! It is currently based in the US.

Weekend treats

The weekend of 28th/29th January saw much activity at the airfield with many aircraft movements recorded and as many as 30+ airborne visitors to the airfield on Saturday alone. The following air to air pictures were sent in by some of those lucky enough to find a spare seat!

(BELOW) Looking resplendent in its new paint scheme, the spanking new Breighton based Falco F8 slides in beside Ray Newall's Piper Super Cruiser and the lens of Mike Illien

(BELOW) Peter Lamb hitched a ride to Beverley with Geoff in his Piper Super Cub, Les and Nessa providing a photo opportunity in the Jodel above RAF Leconfield, a former Lightning equipped fighter base, now home to the army and Yorkshire's SAR cover. (Peter Lamb)

(BELOW) And the reciprocal pictures - looking back towards the Super Cub from the Jodel (Nessa)

14th/15th January was another busy old weekend at Breighton, with skies as clear as glass and barely any breeze at all I suppose it was hardly surprising. The following pictures were taken by Dave Marshall and Peter Lamb:

Possibly the most interesting weekend visitor was this Sbach 342. The aircraft's new owner stopped over in between ferrying the aircraft from its factory in Germany to its new home at Abbeyshrule in Ireland. You might just make out our Andy Wood in the front seat in Dave Marshall's picture (ABOVE) - Andy's verdict, "...an awesome aeroplane with phenomenal performance, but then at 350,000 Euros I guess it should be a bit special!"

(BELOW) RAC Chief pilot Alan Marsland takes a hop in Rob's Jungmeister and is clearly enjoying it! (Dave Marshall)

(ABOVE) Another interesting aircraft seen at Breighton is this Rollason Beta B2-A, a Formula One 'midget racer' designed in the late '60's by a group of British Aircraft Corporation technicians at their factory in Luton. This particular example was home built in 1980. (Peter Lamb)

(BELOW) Kate's 1936 Dart Kitten was out and about too - what a lovely machine. The plan of late has been to try to fly the Kitten alongside the Aeronca 100, I'm sure it's a combo we'll at one of this years fly-in events. (Peter Lamb)

Andy Wood hitched a ride down to Wickenby with Andy Chadwick in the Condor on the New Year Bank Holiday, they were joined by Les Clark and Gavin Bell in Gav's Jodel DR.1050 Ambassadeur (pictured above - Andy Wood).

For all those missing the summer already, here are a few excellent pictures sent via Taff in Florida to cheer you up:

Six Nanchang's formating on nothing less than a B-24 Liberator camera ship (its just the way they do things over the pond!). Taff is flying the yellow tailed aircraft ('21').

Slightly larger versions of some of these on our FB page (http://www.facebook.com/realaero). Now back to reality...!

Wings and Wheels 2011

The Wings and Wheels event held July 23-24th proved a resounding success, despite the unhelpful wind direction, with £845 taken in donations on behalf of Help for Heroes. Participants included a DH84 Dragon (pictured above by John Heard), DH89 Dragon Rapide, BBMF Spitfire and Hurricane, numerous visiting aircraft and, of course, the home team which this year included the 'new' Yak 18 and Comper Swift replica. The winged contingent was complemented by a fantastic gathering of classic and sports cars, military vehicles and static engines.

Full report and pictures HERE

Social Networking

As well as Facebook we're now Tweeting on Twitter too!

Recovered Halifax Engine

At 2255 hours on the evening of 24th May 1944, Handley Page Halifax Mk III LV905/EY-W, 78 Squadron RAF, departed RAF Breighton tasked, alongside 400+ allied bombers, with delivering a deadly payload of bombs on the railway marshalling yards of Aachen. Following the raid the returning bomber was attacked by Luftwaffe Messerschmitt BF110 G4 night fighters. Pilot Karl-Heinz Scherfling unleashed his cannons on the aircraft and the shells ripped into the lumbering giant, setting it on fire and sending it into a steep dive. The aircraft then began to break up and subsequently crashed near Bergse Maas, approximately 1KM south of Hank (Noord-Brabant), 11KM NNE of Oosterhout. Two of the crew were thrown from the aircraft on impact, the other five were buried deep in the peat with the wreckage, sadly none of the seven crew members survived.

In 2003 a group of Dutch aviation archeologists with the assistance of the municipality of Werkendam, established the Salvage Halifax 1944 Foundation with the intention of salvaging the surviving wreckage and laying to rest the remains of the crew.

The crew of LV905 were subsequently reunited and buried in Jonkerbos War Cemetery, Nijmegen. They are: Pilot P/O E.B. Wilson, Flight Engineer Sgt W.J. White, Navigator F/O S.C. Peterson RCAF, Bomb Aimer F/O N.A. Marston DFC, Wireless Operator F/Sgt J. Henderson, Mid Upper Gunner Sgt G.H. Butler, Rear Gunner Sgt J.T.L. Leblanc RCAF.

(ABOVE) The memorial at Hank, marking the spot where LV905 crashed (Dave Sharp).

Recently we reported that The Salvage Halifax 1944 Foundation and The Mayor of the Municipality of Werkendam, had agreed that we may return one of the aircraft's engines to Breighton and we're pleased to say that this has now been achieved, almost 66 years to the day since it departed on that fateful mission, just in time for Exercise Halifax Shadow.

(BELOW) Les Clark, Tony Simms and Dave Sharp travelled to Holland to meet the Mayor of Werkendam and members of the Foundation on Thursday 27th May at Fort Altena near Werkendam to be presented with an engine from the aircraft together with other salvaged components. These were transported to Breighton on the Friday night ferry to Hull and arrived at Breighton Saturday morning for display in the main hangar in readiness for Halifax Shadow.

It is our intention to display the engine to honour the crew of LV905 and all 78 Squadron personel who lost their lives during WW2 however, the form in which the Memorial will take has yet to be decided - watch this space. Many thanks to Dave Sharp for information and pictures.

The history of the aircraft and salvage is detailed in a collage hung in the Breighton Clubhouse.

Reciprocal Arrangments

The Real Aeroplane Club has reciprocal arrangements with the following airfields: Bagby, Rufforth, Beverley, Fenland, Full Sutton, Netherthorpe, North Coates, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Sturgate, Wickenby.

A word about access to Breighton Airfield for members of the general public

Whilst we warmly welcome members of the general public to Breighton admission can only be made by subscribing to Museum Club Membership (we prefer to think of it as a season ticket). Annual membership is just £25 per year, that's around £5 per fly-in, and don't forget you can bring family and friends along too (on the proviso that the Club member accepts responsibility for their guests) and visit any weekend, not just Fly-in weekends. Museum membership represents excellent value for money and is very popular with aviation enthusiasts and budding aviation photographers who enjoy an unrivalled level of access to aircraft, pilots and the flying activities.

Pilots of visiting aircraft and their crews/pax DO NOT NEED TO BE CLUB MEMBERS and there are NO LANDING FEES ON FLY-IN DAYS.