[Old Pilot]

Poet

What a fluke..your first solo...and I flew the old bird 'tatti around Wales for over a year.

Tell me more about GOLF ALPHA TANGO TANGO INDIA and your flying.

[Old Pilot]

For non forumites...
Poet wrote on another thread
:
No Jakub. My first solo was in a boring PA28 G-ATTI at Elstree. OM-UIN came to the UK around 1993-1994 time. It stayed with an OM registration because our Civil Aviation Authority would not give it a UK certificate of airworthiness (spoil sports I say!).

Imagine doing a first solo in an AN2 - You could have the party afterwards in the cabin with your friends

It's a small world but I have never met Poet. Despite this of have loads of hours on G-ATTI!!!!

[Old Pilot]

It's a small world but I have never met Poet. Despite this of have loads of hours on G-ATTI!!!!

This should read...
Despite this I , by fluke, have loads of hours on G-ATTI!!!!

[MichaelP]

My first solo was in G BBUO, on the front cover of a met book, but I understand sadly demised.
I got my GASCO booklet the other day and saw that G BFOG had had an incident... I did it's first flight in the UK.

OP flew G BAPM, as did I...

If you've flown in the UK in enough types you will always find aircraft that are/were flown co-incidently.

Funniest thing was when Igor came to Canada from Stuttgart... I told him I rented a Cessna 150 from there once, D EEBC... It was the aeroplane he had learned to fly on.

Every time I look in P***t or Flyer Mags I see aeroplanes I have flown... In the ads in Flyer there's G ARFI, I owned this Cessna 150 once, it was on the US register and had been operated by the US Embassy or something. Before the US business it had been G ARFI.

Here in Canada, a chap showed me a picture of him sitting in G-ACDC at Redhill. I told him that the picture was taken March 15th 1986, he was stunned!
In the background was my yellow Viva van with one of G ARFI's wings on its roof, and Mark walking beside me as I took it over to my hangar...

[Old Pilot]

So Poet, Michael P and Old Pilot have never met. Yet we are linked by G-BAPM and G-ATTI...a small world yes.

And I think a great reunion when we can get both a/c together at Bristol.

[MichaelP]

Is that Lulsgate, scene of my one and only ground loop in G AZHO, or Filton where the brakes failed on G BIOW just after I did a runup?

There was advantage in that ground loop... the aeroplane got a reputation and so I had almost whole use of it during the weekends.
Downside was that I got angry once because someone had filled the rear tank with the front tank half full (more likelyhood of the ground loop). Who had flown it last?
Me... but in my defence your honour, I had left the cock on "Front" and fuel gravity fed into the carb then via the overflow into the rear tank.

[MichaelP]

Anyway, who says that we have never met?

At the PFA rally, anyone who's been with me has said "Do you know everybody?"

[Old Pilot]

Hey Michael,

Maybe you remember landing at Weston Super Mare as well.

Also Watts tyres (aero tyres) used to have a strip up the channel at Lydney where I landed and overnighted a few times.

[MichaelP]

My first cross country ever was to Weston Super Mare!
We had run out of fuel at Exeter. (1974)

My qualifying cross country was Exeter (EGTE) to Weston Super Mare to Plymouth and back to EGTE.

I used to buy tyres from Watts for my Condors, but I never landed there.

[poetpilot]

I'm not ignoring you guys by the way, I've just got a lot of work on my plate today! I wish I had a scanner that could scan slides - I have some old shots of Tatty India in the air.

[poetpilot]

Looking back at my tatty old first logbook, O.P., I see that I flew her as a student in August 1971, under the tutelage of a Mr Graham (that was his surname) at Elstree.

I also flew G-ASPK & G-AVLD at that time, but solo'd in G-TI on 9th August 71 after 5 hrs 10 mins dual (but remember, I'd done ATC gliding before this so it's not as flash as it sounds).

The Elstree flying was a 10 hours scholarship awarded by Herts County Council to 6th formers who showed keenness in aviation but couldn't afford to get started. 6 of us did the course and all solo'd in under 8 hours - pretty good going.

My 10 minute solo was OK, I recall singing and repeating instructions out loud to myself. There was a slight crosswind and I bounced it once but caught it and landed on the second bounce. I was the first of the 10 to solo. We had decided as a group that after we'd all solo'd we would pool the remaining hours and do a day trip to Guernsey. I have a feeling that this motivated the instructors to send us all solo as early as poss

So, on 13 Aug 71 we did Elstree-Hurn-Guernsey-(lunch)-Gatwick-Elstree. The slides I have were of G-TI taken from G-AXTF enroute.

Then we all went for a drinkup in Potters Bar before splitting up and going our merry ways. I did a bit more training at Luton but ran out of cash and only started up again in 75 when I moved oop north. So my next solo wasn't until Nov.75.

[Old Pilot]

Poet,

I would love to see the pix of Tango India.

It was blue and white (ish) with very old radios and several thousand hours when I was flying it in the early 80's. After me it got a respray before ending up at Bristol where I believe it still lives in a group. I once took off in tatti from the road at Nuthampstead instead of using the very wet long grass in winter!!

When I used it to fly to Biarittz the endurance was not fuel but oil burn!!

[Dodo]

Thread resurrection again.

Having been without my own a/c for more than a year I have given into withdrawal symptoms and have just bought G-ATTI.

I am sorting out insurance and will collect next week.

She is now a very respectable old lady and any slurs on her promiscuous past will be treated with a shrug.

Dodo

[A le Ron]

Excellent news. Welcome back to the fold!

[Iceman]

Where has she been in the intervening 11 years ?

Iceman