Hi Mike
Close enough!. A Piper J3 turned into an amphibous flying boat. First flight around 1965/1966, regi N10533, Continental C85 engine.
Not sure she was constructed from a wrecked Piper. In those days J3s and the like were not that expensive. I know her as the Bunnels Sport. Did not find her on the web, but apparently she had some popularity in the model aircraft scene.
Yes, I noticed that - thought it might be a Cardinal or a Blue Jay but can't find anything. Stumped. (That is, of course, assuming it's an American birdie.......)
Welcome, fab4. I'm pretty sure that it's an early Vega Gull but I can't identify the crash or the pilot who achieved it. Maybe when he was told to do a three point landing, he didn't realise that he was expected to put it down on its main and its tail wheels, rather than the former and the engine cowling. Perhaps he walked away muttering: 'two out of three ain't bad'!
Addendum: I suspect that it was Beryl Markham who was responsible for that 'landing', for in the course of her flight in VP-KCC ('Messenger') from Oxford to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, she encountered strong headwinds and had to make an emergency landing, short of her destination, and had the bad luck to find soft ground, with the result that the Vega Gull tipped onto its nose. However she still became the first woman to make a solo east-west Atlantic crossing in 21 hours on 4/5 September 1936.
Last edited by pomme homme; March 31st, 2017 at 07:03.
This is the plane Beryl Markham tried to fly nonstop from England to New York in 1936, but due to technical problems she had to make a precautionary landing in Nova Scotia.
Nevertheless, she was the the first woman to fly the atlantic from East to West solo.
You can read the story here.
Looking through my book by David Gearing, the only Vega that seems to fit the description is VH-UVH, c/n D57, which nosed over at Bowral Gull, Penrose, nr Bundanoon in NSW, flown by Melrose.
Keith
EDIT - too late & wrong then!
If it was Beryl Markham the regn was VP-KCC c/n K34. Shipped back to Kenya & wfu in Dar-es-Salaam.
Thank you, fab4. Here's something which, perhaps, is a little less well known than the Vega Gull but, nonetheless, is not displeasing to the eye. A very practical tandem trainer that suggests, with reason, the influence of a much larger and better known manufacturer of aeroplanes.
Hi PH
I hesitate, but my votes would go to the Aerofer 01 (F-PERS) designed and built by members of the Aéro-club des Cheminots in France. Main reason for the hesitation is that your beauty is a two-seater, while the Aerofer 01 is often reported as a single-seater.
You have no need to hesitate, Walter, for you've cast your vote for the right candidate! However I was hoping that a photograph of the Aéro-Club de Cheminots Aérofer (1954) in its original two seat format would throw many off the scent - because all of the online photographs that I've seen show it as a single seater (presumably with the original forward cockpit faired over). But I was a fool to think that this would waylay you. You have the chair, sir.
Thank you PH
Understand the 01 was intended as club aircraft that could do aerobatics. View the only 50hp Aster engine (licence-built Walter Mikron 4-III), I can understand she was often flown as single-seater.
The board is yours for the next mystery.
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