ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 206130
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| Date: | Sunday 3 July 1955 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | Tipsy Trainer 1 |
| Owner/operator: | Trustees of the Cardiff Ultra Light Aeroplane Club |
| Registration: | G-AFJS |
| MSN: | 3 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | St. Mellons, Cardiff -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Pengam Moors, Cardiff, Glamorgan |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
First registered [C of R 8702] on 22.8.38 to Tispy Aircraft Co Ltd. , Slough, Berkshire (aircraft based at Hanworth Aerodrome, Hanworth, Middlesex). C of A 6418 issued September 1938. Sold on and re-registered [C of R 8805] 18.10.38 to Yorkshire Aeroplane Club Ltd., Leeds-Bradford Aerodrome, Yeadon, West Yorkshire.
Withdrawn from use and stored at Yeadon, West Yorkshire from 4.9.39, when all private civilian flying was prohibited due to the outbreak of WW II
Sold on and re-registered [C of R 8805/2] on 11.9.40 Arnold G Wilson, Bramhope, near Leeds, West Yorkshire. According to the aircraft's record card, the usual "base" of the aircraft was at the "address of the owner". Sold on and re-registered [C of R 8805/3] 15.11.40 to Arthur Mann, Leeds, West Yorkshire. Again the aircraft is reported to have been "based" (in other words, stored and not flying) at the owners address. However, by the time of the Air Ministry's 1946 census, the registered owner had moved to a different address, although still in the Leeds area.
Registration cancelled/lapsed 19.12.48. Registration G-AFJS restored [C of R 8805/4 later R2524/4] 21.1.49 to the Trustees of the Cardiff Ultra Light Aeroplane Club. New C of A A.2524 issued February 1949. Aircraft based at Pengam Moors, Cardiff. The airfield became redundant when all civilian flying was transferred on 1 April 1954 to the expanding facility at the new Rhoose Airport
Written off (destroyed) 3.7.55 when crashed at St. Mellons, Cardiff. One of the two persons on board was killed. According to a newspaper feature article ("Wales Online" 1.4.2011, see link #4)
"George Kemp continued as CFI at Cardiff Aeroplane Club after the War and there is a strange story that was related by my late brother, Neil, who was then a young pilot and also a member of the Cardiff Ultra-Light Aeroplane Club, which operated Tipsy B Trainer monoplanes alongside the Tiger Moths at Pengam. This concerned a practical joke at the CFI’s expense.
Some wag purloined the CFI’s immaculate white flying overall and embroidered the words P/O Prune across the shoulders in black thread. Pilot Officer “Prune” was a feckless World War II cartoon creation who succeeded in breaking every known rule of airmanship.
This was about the most shocking insult imaginable given the god-like respect that CFIs were awarded. If that wasn’t enough, four little discs of aircraft fabric were cut into shoulder patches and sewn on to the sleeves of the younger Ultra-Light club members who were “in” on the joke.
These were each painted with a likeness of George Kemp, dressed in his white flying suit and flying helmet, depicted variously standing on the rear fuselage of Tipsy G-AFJS in flight and hacking at the tail, standing on the cowling and chopping at the propeller with an axe; sawing off the wing, and lastly cutting off an undercarriage leg.
In July 1955, G-AFJS crashed at St Mellons, killing the student pilot outright and seriously injuring the instructor, Ivor Lewis, who later died in hospital. Neil and other members piled into two cars and rushed to the scene.
G-AFJS apparently lacked the fixed wing “slots”, with which most Tipsy Bs were equipped, which tamed the tendency to a vicious wing-drop at the stall. It seemed that G-AFJS had spun-in during a forced-landing exercise.
But it was the condition of the aircraft which came as a further shock to the young pilots: propeller hacked about, as one might imagine, some damage to the tail, one wing severed cleanly, as if by a saw-cut and one undercarriage leg amputated. Those and only those areas had suffered damage, the rest of the machine being intact. The localised damage matched exactly those sections so humorously illustrated on the shoulder patches.
Later, amidst quite illogical recrimination, three of the pilots tore off the offending patches from their flying overalls in disgust."
Registration G-AFJS cancelled by the Air Ministry 8.8.55 due to "destruction or permanent withdrawl from use of aircraft"
Sources:
1. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/80-register-gb-g-af
2. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AFJS.pdf
3. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A11.html
4. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/sadness-carefree-pilots-after-plane-1836869
5. https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?51864-Tipsy-site&p=809539#post809539
6. https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/november-1952/50/air-flying-tipsy-trainer
7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwhitworth/5591227309
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Pengam_Moors#Post-war
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Feb-2018 15:03 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
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