N5490

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Ian Grace
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N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Have been a bit quiet the last few days - Jayne has been in England for her mother's funeral and so I've been keeping the home fires burning in my spare time. She arrived back safely from London tonight.

But I have had time to acquire a new project - it is a 1938 DH82a Tiger Moth, RAF serial number N5490. Don't be deceived by the photo (taken last week) - it will require a full restoration. But WHAT a restoration!

It is not a wartime Cowley-built Tiger, but was built at Hatfield before the war. Ordinarily, one might think I'd prefer a Cowley-built machine, if it were not for the fact that my father worked at de Havillands at Hatfield in 1938, so undoubtedly had a hand to a greater or lesser extent in the construction of this aeroplane.

To save you asking the question - the answer is - about four years! :D

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Highlander
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Re: N5490

Post by Highlander »

Just the sort of thing to buy when the wife is away!!!!!!!! Wonderful. Is it a single seater or two? If it is a two I bags the first trip!!!! I see it might take 4 years - might take a rain check on this one!!! Highlander.
halbe
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Re: N5490

Post by halbe »

hello Ian,

Now it's my turn to be jealous, what a magnificent machine :!:

Halbe
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

That will teach her to go traveling!

Absolutely a 2-seater - it was the primary pilot trainer for the War. This aircraft was delivered new to Gravesend in Kent - to a Reserve Flying School, then moved to another RAF school at Castle Bromwich (adjacent to the huge Spitfire factory), near Birmingham at the outbreak of War, because Gravesend was desperately needed as a fighter base. It crashed near Birmingham, was repaired and then released to the RAF school at Perth/Scone where it saw out the rest of the war. After the War it flew at other RAF schools at Booker and Cottesmore, finally seeing out its service as the station hack at RAF Finningley when they had Meteors there. Then stored at Aston Down until auctioned off to A J Whittemore at Croydon and sold to a flying club in France. Then bought to the USA in 1976 before spending time in Fairbanks, Alaska (imaging flying in an open cockpit in Alaska!). Then sold to a friend of mine in northern California - I was at the Petaluma airport the day it flew in from Fairbanks in 1986, which was the last time I saw it - until driving past Harvey Field - about 1o miles from our home here in Seattle. Imagine my surprise to see that it was the same aircraft I had seen 25 years ago.

Not many pre-war Tigers survived the entire conflict - this was one of the few, as it were. So definitely a candidate for the 'Halbe treatment'!

This historic aircraft has suffered the indignity of being pranged several times and then left in an open hangar for the last twelve years. The woodwork has deteriorated somewhat as a result - not to mention the flock of incontinent birds that call it home...

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Highlander
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Re: N5490

Post by Highlander »

Ian, A cheeky question - How many 1932 Morris Minor Two seaters could you have bought instead of the plane? I think it is wonderful and would have loved to be able to fly. I am afraid of modern planes and dislike flying but I am sure I would love flying in one of these. I will be 79 when you finish restoring it and I will take you up on any offer you wish to make re a passenger!!!!!! Air Chief Marshal Alister Murray Reid, WC and Chain.(I think I should be a 'Sir')
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Now that would be a confidence too far! :o

Actually, the price is yet to be completely finalized, but I have already taken over preventative maintenance of the aircraft and put the hangar in my name. We should be exchanging signatures later this week.
Ronald
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Re: N5490

Post by Ronald »

What an incredible plane Ian, well done........ great story too....... all you need to do now, is build your own hanger, and then when the plane is nearing completion, the airstrip......!!

There is a Moth based at Compton Abbas not far from us, there is nothing quite like the sound of a vintage aircraft flying over..... i would love to take a flight one day in the one here, sadly the cost of 1/2 hr flight is about a weeks wages....:(

So, what else do you have lined up to do then, clearly you have sooooooo much time............LOL!
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

So I'm researching the pilots who learned to fly on this Tiger at Gravesend before the war. These include Mike Lithgow, the celebrated Vickers Supermarine test pilot who started his wartime account in 1941, when he was 21 years old) by attacking the Bismarck with his Fairey Swordfish, enabling the Navy to finish her off after a torpedo jammed her rudder). He took the world air speed record in 1953 and died in the crash of the prototype BAC 1-11 when it went into a deep stall - a phenomenon suffered by the new T-tail, rear-engine jet liners at that time.

Another became the top Fleet Air Arm ace of the War and another, like Bader, lost both his legs when two of the Gravesend Tigers collided in mid-air, but went on to distinguish himself flying Spits and Hurricanes throughout the War - complete with tin legs. He had a dread of ditching in the Channel, so filled his hollow tin legs with ping-pong balls to help him float if he went into the drink. Once, at 30,000', he took violent evasive action before realising that the gunfire he heard was not gunfire, but the ping-pong balls exploding at that altitude!

Another pilot was Pat Chilton who ultimately became the C/O of the Empire Test Pilot's School and racked up time on 153 aircraft types through his long flying career. His last flight was at Mach 2 in a Lightning.

Here's Pat's first car - notice the Minor 2-seater in the background - complete with white 'blackout' markings on the wings. It was cars like this that contributed so much to the war effort, and just the sort of cars we'll be remembering at Pre-War Prescott in July.

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Ian Grace
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Re: N-5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Today I received from Brooklands copies of Mike Lithgow's logbook from 1939 when he was learning to fly with No. 20 ERFTS, Gravesend. Mike mentions in his autobiography, 'Mach 1', that the only memorable event at Gravesend was spinning the Tiger Moth, which made him violently ill.

I was fascinated, therefore to find this entry in Mike's logbook for July 6th 1939. He flew 14 different Tiger Moths at Gravesend, but did his spinning in N-5490 with his instructor Pilot Officer Porter.

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More information about Mike can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lithgow

And here is a nice photo of Mike - aged 19 - at Gravesend in his Tiger Moth flying gear and parachute. Two years later, aged 21, he was attacking the Bismarck in his Swordfish launched from Ark Royal in the Atlantic in appalling conditions. The flight deck was 60' above the sea, but it was still taking green water over the bow when the order came to launch.

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halbe
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Re: N5490

Post by halbe »

Real Hero's
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

So, Seattle isn't as remote from the real world as I thought.

I usually go for lunch from the office to an 'English Pub' called the Three Lions here in Redmond. Today I met three Englishmen in there - all retired Boeing employees, all ex-pat Brits. One chap joined the RAF in 1937 as a ground engineer and spent the War in North Africa. Another - Roger Dalton - worked for Vickers after the War, which of course became the British Aircraft Corporation - BAC. He was a flight test instrumentation engineer. One day - the 22nd October 1963, the prototype BAC 1-11 was being flight tested from Bournmouth/Hurn airport and he was called out to the aircraft before takeoff to clarify a couple of issues with one of the engineers onboard. The flight was slated to test aft C of G stalling characteristics. He left the aircraft, closed up the door, and was the last living person aboard this doomed aircraft.

The captain that day was Mike Lithgow - BAC's Test Pilot. The aircraft - G-ASHG - came down at Chicklade, Wiltshire and all aboard were killed. Roger was asked to visit the crash site at dawn the next day - to see if any of the instrumentation had survived, and which might give a clue to the cause of the crash. There was nothing left - not even the black boxes. This was how we learned the hard way about deep - or super-stalls - only suffered by the new generation of rear-engined T-tail airliners.

Roger was a good friend of Mike Lithgow - he played cards with him regularly. I look forward to getting to know him better. Small world.

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Prototype 200AB G-ASHG being rolled out at Hurn on the 28th July 1963
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

I have managed to make contact with Adam Tuke - son of the late Lt. Cdr. 'Steady' Tuke, DFC and Bar.

Here is Tuke (extreme right, third row) on No.4 Pilot's course - just graduated from EFTS Gravesend in the summer of 1939. Adam still has his father's logbooks and scanned me a copy. He flew N-5490 no less than 21 times during his flying training, including his first solo.

Here is Tuke's Telegraph obituary:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... -Tuke.html

On the back of the photo, Tuke wrote: "40 officers, only 18 survived the war, 18 killed and 4 ended up as POW's."

The odds were not great, were they?

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KartikeyaL
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Re: N5490

Post by KartikeyaL »

Ian ,

did you starts the restoration of the aircraft ? rest of the story .....

Kartik
Last edited by KartikeyaL on Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
garagiste
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Re: N5490

Post by garagiste »

Ian,

I have only just read this tread - most interesting.

I was born in Gravesend in Jan 1940. My Godfather, now aged 91, learned to fly in 40/41, I am awaiting to find out where. Later he flew Hurricanes in North Africa. Please will you email me a photo of your Tiger Moth which I can forward to him.

He is currently researching a plane that was brought down by "friendly fire" which he witnessed just outside Gravesend in 1940 whilst he was waiting to enter the RAF.

Best wishes, David.
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

David, Kartik,

Restoration has just started with the de-rigging of the aircraft at Harvey Field with a view to getting it back to my workshop some time in August. I have now evicted the starlings from the engine bay - after their kids flew the coop last month. I am pushing ahead with researching the aircraft's history and making some headway. I think I have located the family of another pilot who learned to fly at 20 EFTS Gravesend at the time this aircraft was there, and I believe they hold their father's logbooks.

David, thanks for the fascinating e-mail from your Godfather, Bill Clark - I will respond shortly.

I'll post some photos of the de-rigging and move when I have them. I am expecting the restoration to take 3 to 4 years - famous last words!
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