SKIES OVER CHIPPY PAGE2

chippynet3xx.jpg (10934 bytes)

About David Nickson

David and Suzy moved to Chipping Norton from Central London just over seven years ago. David works as a freelance Bid Manager and writer, and Suzy is a freelance trainer and writer. They have written a number of business books together and one cookery book. As well as holding a Private Pilot�s licence, complete with Night and IMC (he is allowed in the odd cloud or two) ratings, David is a also a member of the Historical Aircraft Association. It can be truly said that he likes aircraft! David and Suzy own a share in a Jodel DR200 based at Enstone airport � this can often be seen passing over Chipping Norton - always at a safe height of course

Local Flying

If anyone wants to learn to fly, or to have an air experience flight over Chippy then Enstone airfield caters for those who want to try microlights,. The three main businesses there are Enstone Flying Club (http://www.enstone-flyingclub.co.uk) for light aircraft, Oxford Sport Flying for motor gliders, and light aircraft (http://www.enstoneaerodrome.co.uk/) and Enstone Microlights for, oddly enough microlights, (www.enstonemicrolights.co.uk). Trial lessons cost between about � 50 and � 100 or so (in 2003) depending on your choice. If you have any questions about aviation I'll do my best to try and answer them. E-mail me at david@chippingnorton.net

..........and finally a really good cause

A friend of mine - Polly Vacher - plans to fly round the world from pole to pole to raise money for flying for the disabled. You can find the details on her web site www.worldwings.com, and for � 25 you can have your name on the wing of her aircraft and have it circle the world with her. You might also keep an eye on the sky in a year or so when her husband Peter should have completed rebuilding a Battle of Britain Hurricane which will operate out of Kidlington and so should regularly grace the skies over Chippy.

� David Nickson 2003

SOME WARTIME MEMORIES

For the last six years an article by local resident and aviation expert David Nickson has been sitting in our Features Archive. Its a fascinating article and has continued to attract a lot of interest. Its well worth a look if you haven't read it. www.chippingnorton.net/Features/chippyskies.htm. Last week David received an e-mail from Derek Holloway who lived in Chippy during WWII and now lives in Toronto, Canada. The article posed the question, �Does anyone remember the Harvards?� Here is Derek�s response, and some closely related memories. Thanks for this vivid first hand account; the best kind of history.

�I certainly do remember Harvards, those "raucous" engines had a sound like no other flying over the UK at the time. I guess the flying bombs were the nearest sound in comparison. In the early 1940's, I lived at the bottom of The Leys, and the Harvard pilots loved to buzz Bliss Mill in simulated dive-bomber attacks. The night flying was the worst. The sound was ear-splitting, but in those days there was no Forum to give vent to your frustration with the noise. Not that it would have done any good "there's a war on, you know."

Derek went on to recall another Chippy air crash. �The plane was an Air-Speed Oxford. It crashed and burned near a farm overlooking the Common. I can recall clearly my friends and I racing to the crash site guided by the plume of black smoke. As we ran over the little bridge that crosses the stream, the firemen were just arriving on the roadway. I guess we were at the site about ten minutes before they arrived. It wasn't a pleasant sight, as the Oxford was totally engulfed in flames. Sitting on the grass with his whining dog at his feet was a very distressed farm labourer who was crying, �I tried to pull him out but his arm came off.� As a ten-year-old boy, It was my first experience of the horrors of war. Others would follow later.�

Derek also recalled Chipping Norton�s smaller, but still frightening version of the Blitz. �When Chippy's aerodrome was bombed, I was up early the following morning and hurried to the site. There was a line of craters in the grazing field - three if I remember correctly - still smelling of the explosives. My sister found the largest piece of bomb splinter. It was nearly a foot long and was marked 1933, so you see Hitler was planning his war as soon as he gained power. �