Airymouse memories
Airymouse reminiscences
Following Harry Bot’s Airymouse Currie Wot memories last month, Stan Hodgkins recalls how he learned with Airymouse!
T
he old line ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far away…’ is what 1964 seems to me now that I am 80 years old... One Sunday afternoon, a tiny black and red biplane made a perfect three-point landing on the grass, just yards from where I was standing, and came to a stop almost immediately. The registration was G-APNT, a Currie Wot, and the pilot was Harald Penrose, ex-chief test pilot for Westlands. I was the new owner and it had been delivered by one of my boyhood heroes, a true aviation legend. He was also a great writer and I can highly recommend Airymouse, his book describing his adventures with G-APNT. At the age of 24, I was a Sea Vixen observer with 890 squadron of the Fleet Air Arm. HMS Ark Royal (the big one) was in refit and we were disembarked at RNAS Yeovilton. I was, of course, a frustrated pilot but had just managed to finish my PPL training at Exeter, with a grand total of about 40 hours, plus numerous trips in Vampires, Hunters and the station Tiger Moth. Harald was a really friendly gentleman and seemed genuinely sorry to part with his little aeroplane, and he must have wondered how long it would last in my inexperienced hands. He had decided that it was time to stop flying and continue his adventures sailing. Anyway, he just gave me a few cheerful tips about flying the Wot and then he and his wife drove back home to Sherborne. Of course, I just had to fly it immediately. Someone helpfully pointed out to me that it wasn’t insured yet, but that wasn’t a legal requirement then, so off I went. I had just got airborne (from a longer bit of grass than Harold had used) when I heard a change in the exhaust note and noted that one of the long exhaust pipes was no longer there! Nevertheless, I carried on and did a few touchand-goes for the fun of it. The exhaust pipe had fallen in the middle of the airfield and I noticed that it had failed at the cylinder attachment flange. There was no other support for the pipes, and it was a wonder it had lasted that long – this was the first of several jobs to be done and it was several weeks before I flew it again. During the next few months, flying on a regular basis and cheaply building experience, I got to know ‘NT well and had enormous fun practicing circuits, aerobatics and PFL’s. I then started to explore the surrounding country and roamed freely over Somerset and Dorset, just like Harald did in his book. It was a terrific way to sightsee from 500ft in an open cockpit.
10 | LIGHT AVIATION | March 2021
Above Stan in the 1990s when he flew Airymouse at Newtownards when it was owned by Jeff Salter.
Now we come to the interesting bit which, after a gap of some 55 years, can probably safely be told/admitted. One Sunday morning in the autumn of 1964, I dragged ‘NT out of the hangar – it was a bit misty, but I thought it was flyable, the cloud didn’t look too low or that thick, so off I went. At about 800ft there were a few wisps of cloud, but I thought I could climb above it – BIG mistake! All of a sudden, there I was, enveloped in thick, wet cloud, rapidly running out of ideas. It still looked quite bright above so I continued to climb, hoping to break out into the blue so I could think what to do next. My observer training kicked in and I decided to maintain my heading into wind so that I would not be blown downwind miles from base. I was climbing at 50mph, so my ground speed was probably only about 30mph. Of course, I knew a lot about instrument flying, but
