Project Propellor is an annual get together where private pilots volunteer to fly WW and Cold War aircrew veterans free of charge to a get together at an airfield in the UK, usually an airfield with historic connections. They all meet up for a light lunch and a chin-wag with other veterans, while the younger (generally!) private pilots either chat to each other or keep ‘their veterans’ company and listen to the stories of the all-too-modest veterans.
I have volunteered for this event several times now with a couple of them completely ‘weathered out’. Project Propellor 2010 was to be held at East Kirkby, a WW2 bomber airfield in Lincolnshire, just to the north of the wash and not far from the sea, actually right bang on the Greenwich Meridian. It has a very active museum and aviation archaeology group, together with a ‘fast taxi’ capable Lancaster and a flying C47. The runways themselves are disused and not part of the site, but they did have a large flat field about 550m long with a smooth transition to a concrete apron about 250m long, so they drew a line and hey presto, a composite runway some 800m long oriented 06/24. It sounded like a really interesting venue, so I was keen to attend.
I was not immediately offered a veteran. I had an email asking if I would be happy to fly to Swansea to pick up a veteran. I am keen, but Swansea is just under one hour in precisely the wrong direction, so no. I then went on my flying holiday in early June around France and Italy and took my netbook to get the aviation weather a NOTAM’s etc. (and of course to keep an eye on my emails). While I was on tour, I was offered another veteran, this time at Shobdon, a bit out of my way, but I had a think about it and by the time I logged back in to accept, I had a further email offering me a veteran from my home airfield who had been ‘orphaned’ as his pilot had pulled out, so I accepted him immediately, the proviso being that he was fit enough to clamber into the RV6 and light enough not to bust my weight and balance calculations. He fulfilled both criteria so when I got back from my tour, I called him and arranged to meet at 09:30 at the main terminal in Gloucester on Saturday June 26th.
We met up and the Project Propellor guys are easy to spot due to their age and of course their blazers and RAF ties. I wandered over and introduced myself. A couple of the guys were a little concerned that they hadn’t seen ‘their pilot’ yet, but I found ‘my veteran’, a chap called Nick Shelley. He told me he was a Navigator and had served towards the end of WW2, but mainly in the ten years after the war on all sorts of aircraft, including Canberras and at the very end of his time in service, in the C130 Hercules.
I had already been at the airport for some time and had carefully checked the plane over, pulled it out and refuelled. So a quick chat about the plane and the route and a safety brief and I got Nick strapped in by 09:45. WE had a slot time of 11:15 – 11:30 for East Kirkby and we would easily make that, if not be early. I started up as Nick watched everything I was doing like a hawk as I methodically worked my way through the checklist. He was good enough and knowledgeable enough not to interrupt as it is easy for a pilot to get distracted and miss a vital check.
The day was perfect, very scattered ‘fair weather cumulus’ and CAVOK, but it would get very hot and under the bubble canopy of the RV6, you really don’t want to hang around on the ground for long at all. So of course in a virtually nil wind, we were given taxi to C1 for runway 09 – the longest taxi run at Gloucester – oh good, the ‘long march of death’ under the sun! Around we went and heard Gloucester talking to aircraft behind us saying that once we had gone, they were going to change runway direction to 27 or 22 – thanks guys!
Power checks complete, we were cleared for departure and away we went with a slight left turn direct onto track for the DTY VOR as I climbed to 5000’ to keep clear of gliders and BBMF flights NOTAM’d to be close to my planned route. I said goodbye to Gloucester then went ‘Non-radio’ as I fancied the quiet and a chat with my veteran. It was actually a bit murky up at 5000’ with no real horizon. I tuned to Conningsby MATZ just for fun and was surprised to pick up radio calls at this distance. It was clear from the calls that Coningsby was closed, which was good as East Kirkby was located under one of the MATZ arms. From the other aircraft calls, I gathered that runway 06 with right hand circuits was in use at East Kirkby. For fun, I started to reply to aircraft coming on the Conningsby frequency telling them they were closed and advising them to make blind calls position calls as Conningsby Traffic – loads of people were headed through them to East Kirkby.
Nick was happy as Larry once I handed him the map as he traced our route by reference to ground features (while I of course struggled by with the GPS!). I did show him the ‘secrets’ of the GPS, what was what and what it was telling me. He listened intently then went happily back to the 1-500,000 map! You could tell he was ‘old school’ as he always went for either major lakes or rivers or reliable linear features, like train lines.
I turned at DTY on track to Peterborough Sibson airfield, deliberately making a slight southerly dog-leg to avoid various NOTAM’d events. Then I turned direct to East Kirkby and started a leisurely cruise descent with 30 miles to run. I changed to East Kirkby to listen in and get the latest airfield information. QHN 1018, 06 right hand circuits and a ‘fair easterly wind’, so a slight crosswind. I got close and down to 2700’ and started to hear other aircraft behind me and spot some others in front, this could be a bit of a scrum! I tried hard and spotted what I thought was East Kirkby, indeed it was, but it was the disused runways not now part of the sight. I had an aerial photo of the temporary runway, but couldn’t spot it. I had made the schoolboy error of flying straight there so it was initially obscured by the nose, then of course we were precisely overhead.
Small part of the line up of the 80-90 aircraft that made it
I didn’t want to hang around in the overhead, so a steep turn and I spotted the runway and oriented myself. I descended deadside and slotted in visually with three in front and one behind me onto the right downwind. The spacing with the guy immediately in front was as good as I was going to get and I called downwind and then final. I was following the guy in front and judged him far enough in front to continue. On very short final, he was about to turn off, so that would do me, I didn’t fancy another try in this crowded circuit. I was abit fast, but this bled off and we made a good landing on the grass runway and rolled to a stop. It wasn’t ‘billiard-table smooth’, but to be fair it wasn’t at all bad. I was marshalled in, parked up, closed down and popped the canopy as quickly as I could as we were already starting to bake!
Getting 'my' veteran signed in
We both went off to the main hangar which housed the Lancaster and the finds of the aviation archaeology society where tables and lunch had been set up. We registered with the organisers. Nick wanted to go off for a comfort break and I asked if he wanted me to wait, he seemed happy to find his chums. You have to find out if the veterans know anyone else as some of them don’t and wind up being quite lonely if you don’t stay and keep them company and prise their stories out of them. However, Nick seemed fine, so I went off for a look around and a chat with other pilots, some of which I knew from Flyer Forum.
A Lancaster they hope to get flyable again
The weather had attracted a full turnout and rumour has it that there were some 86 aircraft in the end, I can well believe it looking at the aircraft parking. East Kirkby was a really great little place, a proper museum, not just for aircraft, but the buildings are converted into exhibits and there was an excellent souvenir store and restaurant. I really didn’t know this place was here at all.
Lovely sight, a C47 with a drip tray - yes it's a flyer!
I listened to a talk by a Battle of Britain veteran who flew Hurricanes initially, then he was shipped out to Darwin and flew Spitfires against the Japanese. He was selling his book, so of course I had to have a signed copy didn’t I. Then of course I had to have one of the East Kirkby souvenir golf-shirts – my wife would kill me ‘Oh goody, another golf-shirt to go with your 25 other golf-shirts!’ (no – I don’t play golf!).
Not too tough to find then!
They had arranged for a BBMF Spitfire to do a few low passes of the airfield at 15:30. I was out by my plane early at 15:15 and heard that distinctive sound that could only be a Rolls Royce Merlin engine as the Spitfire arrived early and duly beat the airfield up. It was all to brief, but I managed a decent zoomed video clip, somewhat marred by my own excited voice encouraging the pilot! I met up with Nick and he asked when I wanted to go. I said I was perfectly fine to stay as long as he wanted and I had already set the day aside for this. He had seen and done all he wanted, so we agreed to leave once the Spitfire departed. Well, quite a few other had the same idea and we formed an orderly queue at the hold for 06. I did my power checks and departed with a slight crosswind take-off following the line of earlier departures to the south. It is amazing how quickly so many aircraft can disperse as I climbed to 3500’ in weather that we murkier than where we arrived, but still fine, just no real horizon.
I retraced my route up. I handed Nick the controls and while it was clear that he wasn’t a pilot, he did pretty well, especially as the RV is so responsive, it is very easy to get a 500 fpm climb going on without immediately realising it! We spotted a glider tug with glider in tow and avoided him, but I generally work on the principle that ‘if you can see them, we are already too close’. So I decided to get out of that area quickly as where there is one glider, there are generally several. We didn’t spot any others as I headed into Gloucester and picked up the ATIS. Gloucester have an ATCO shortage and there was only one guy on a combined Tower and Approach frequency. I was given a direct approach into runway 22 with minimal wind. The approach was good and the landing was smooth. We were down at about 16:50. I taxied in and we gratefully popped the canopy.
Nick was keen to have a cuppa and a chat and I was directing him to the aeroclub as I had to clean the plane and put it away, but he insisted on helping. We got the plane sorted out and had a cuppa in the Cotswold Aero Club and a chat. He really enjoyed himself and was keenly looking forward to next year. I confirmed that I would again be volunteering and perhaps we would get paired up again.
This was the best weather and consequently the best attended Project Propellor I have been on. But these guys aren’t getting any younger and I wonder how many more they can hold that are still attended by WW2 veterans.
PS: I later heard on Flyer Forum that one intrepid pilot landed at RAF Coningsby by mistake instead of East Kirkby. If this is true, I despair! I know East Kirkby is close to RAF Coningsby, but that is the sole similarity! The organisers sent us all out an aerial photo of East Kirkby that clearly showed a short ‘composite’ and somewhat ad-hoc runway of 500m of grass and 300m of concrete. How anyone can mistake this for a fast-jet (Typhoons and the BBMF actually) runway of 2700m of pristine tarmac for East Kirkby beggars belief!
