Flaming June is proving to be a bit of a cold damp squib at the moment, so we were lucky that yesterday was a rare combination of a clear diary and calm fine weather, and we took the opportunity to get 1264 out just for fun.
It probably also helps to circulate the oil regularly.
Unfortunately Chill is on holiday at the moment, but we’d arranged to meet up with Peter Doughty, who’s been keen to see us for ages.
I’m sorry to say that I’d forgotten that the original reason for his contacting us was that he said he’d acquired Grandad’s watch at an auction a while ago, so when we met up and he showed it to us it came as a bolt from the blue.
Peter arrived with his son Andrew, a long-time aviation enthusiast, and said that it was in poor condition when he got it – the crystal was missing, as was one hand. Restoring it took eight months of patient research to find the exact replacements, but it’s absolutely pristine now. The case is hallmarked silver, and inside the outer case is the beautiful inscription dated 27 March 1914, indicating that it was a 21st birthday present.
Peter’s hobby is restoring vintage watches and he particularly enjoys building the story behind the watches, which is how he managed to find our family history page, and from there to this blog.
I made it clear that he was to contact me if the ever decided to sell the watch, and then we got on with the business of getting ready to fly.
Some jiggling was required to extract 1264 from No. 1 hangar, and once outside we topped up the petrol from the Jerry cans and pumped up the tyres.
The wind was calm enough for us to take off from the hangar and she started first pull. We were away promptly and I climbed out to 2,500ft overhead clear of the airfield zone. The engine was pulling well, and I was able to verify that our new digital tachometer was reading sensibly, so that it’s now a good backup to the clockwork one. Once at height, I tried a few steep turns and some chandelles. I’m curious to know how they managed to do loops and rolls in the Bristol Scout; my chandelles start at about 85kt and are down to about 45kt over the top; maybe I’d need a faster entry speed and whip it over very quickly, but it would take someone braver than me to try it!
With our new freed-up fine control I experimented with altering the mixture. Takeoff had required a pretty rich mixture, but once in the air it seemed most comfortable leaned off a bit, and I found that I could establish a lovely easy cruise at around 60-70kt with throttle and mixture back to about half. After that, I tried opening the throttle and closing the fine control. The propeller slowed but kept chugging over and when I opened the fine control she roared back into life after a fraction of a second.
I couldn’t see anyone in the circuit so I descended for a run and break on the main runway before landing on the westerly. Initial touchdown was feather-light, but she started pulling to the left and I was only just able to recover directional control.
When I parked up I found the left tyre had deflated, so we put the wooden wheel back on to get her in the hangar and I’ll replace the inner tube here at home and take the opportunity to fix the wheel covers with locking wire, as we did on the right wheel.
The final bit of serendipity was to meet, entirely by accident, Martin Parry, whose maternal grandfather, Horace Buss, was an RNAS pilot on Imbros at about the same time as Grandad. He’s promised to send me the article he wrote about his grandfather’s wartime service, and it will be amazing to read it!
All in all, a very, very satisfying day.
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