LETTERS

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Turbi G-APBO

Brian. Following the interesting article on the early history of the three Druine Turbis in the last LA magazine, I thought readers might like to hear of the more recent activity of my Turbi G-APBO.

I bought ‘BO in 1992 from Dave Silsbury, who had overhauled it and installed a Continental C-75 taken from his Pietenpol

Aircamper. Tim Cox once told me of flying this Turbi south from Usworth, Sunderland behind a poorly performing Walter Mikron. I believe he fitted a Cirrus Minor briefly, but I do not know if it flew with this engine. There is an example flying with a Cirrus Minor in Australia. Over nearly 30 years I have flown 388 hours (airframe now 758 hours, engine now 623 hours) with very little other than routine servicing required.

On one occasion a broken tail spring required a rudder repair, and a propeller was stolen – this latter event noticed when I went to start it! Neil Harrison of the TK group flew with me once and remarked how much livelier mine was than the Mikron powered ‘TK. But of course, the C-75 does not give such an attractive nose shape as the in-line Mikron. I have flown her to France on five occasions and particularly enjoyed the welcome at RSA Blois 2012 and RSA Vichy 2013, but have never seen one of the French Turbis. At Blois, a French pilot got into a very animated conversation describing how he had flown with the leading edge slots blocked up and warned me never to try it. Why would anyone do that anyway?

The advent of tablet navigation aids has hugely eased long trips in an open cockpit. On my earliest trips to France the cockpit walls were covered in scribblings of frequencies for alternates, grass runways available etc. Two noteworthy flights were landing in heavy rain in a field just North of Lewes, only for a passing walker to point out the farm strip a few fields away; and when, with you ahead in your Jodel in 1996, we used a tiny weather slot to depart Abbeville at 0545 to return to UK.

It’s been a delight to own, often admired, often misidentified, but now sometimes passed over in favour of a less vigorous flight in my Jodel. Yours, Rupert Hibberd. Turbis and atomisers

Dear Brian. The April issue of Light Aviation spurs me to send you a picture of one of the three Druine Turbis that you may not have seen. Dr Frank Roche of the Rutherglen Flying Group was a larger-than-life character and one hell of a great enthusiast. On several notable occasions he and, usually, one or two friends used to drive down from Glasgow in those pre-motorway days to discuss Turbi construction details. His visit would be accompanied by a bottle of whisky, which would be downed during our three-hour-plus discussion. At the end of it all, he would drive

Above The pavement outside a Glasgow tram works where Dr Frank Roche put the Rutherglen Group Turbi together.

I spent a lot of time discussing the merits with Frank Parker, a future PFA Chairman, while he was completing his own Turbulent, G-ASSY, in the garage of his home at Horsell near Woking.

Frank’s advice was not to build a Turbulent due to two major influences: the exceptionally difficult slot in the leading edge of the wings, and the geometry of the undercarriage, which he was convinced could never be made to fit if manufactured from the drawings. He advocated the Jodel D9 although, perhaps strangely, nobody in GB had even started one at that time. The fact that Rollason Aircraft took on series production of the Turbulent and could offer advice, assistance and parts, made life much easier for people.

Perhaps ironically, for his own familiarisation, Bill Cole bought a Turbulent, G-APYZ, which he very generously allowed me to fly too from Jenkins Farm, Navestock, in July 1968. Regards, Stuart McKay

Above A Tiger Moth wingtip showing the attachment and drive details of the Micronair 400 Rotary Atomiser.

Aunt’s old photos

back through the night! I recall barely having the clarity of head to negotiate the staircase even after I had paused to let it slow down. He’d be behind bars today, I fear.

However, his construction of G-APBO took place in a central Glasgow tram depot and this picture was taken on its removal, and traffic-compromising first rig.

I was also interested to see the letter from Stuart McKay. In the 1980s, he and I produced the PFA Technical Notes, a short-lived addition to Popular Flying magazine devoted to practical engineering.

Stuart mentions the Britten-Norman rotary atomisers. The ones fitted to the Tiger Moth seen in the picture in the March issue were Micronair 400s, designed by John Britten and me. Attached is a close-up of the detail attachment. They were extremely difficult to manufacture as the numerous liquid traps with concentric seals called for very close machining tolerances for the mating parts.

Interestingly, all these atomisers – and there were at least 40 of them – were made by the man who ran Ryde Model Shop in the High Street. The street shop front was that of a normal model shop but out the back he had a fully equipped engineering shop of top-quality machines.

The replacement was the Micronair 1000, which was far neater and incorporated an integral drive fan. Auster Workmasters were fitted with four for better coverage.

Without going into the technicalities of crop-spraying, rotary atomisers imparted a swirl to the droplet pattern which allowed both sides of a leaf to be treated. The alternative spray-bar and multiple nozzles gave better coverage of larger-sized droplets. It tended to be a case of swings and roundabouts, people tended to be advocates of one technique or another. Yours, Arthur W J G Ord-Hume. Early Jodel D9s

Dear Brian. May I make a correction to Paul Fraser-Bennison’s letter re the late Mike Bowden and his Jodel D9? (Light Aviation, April 2021, page 9.) The first Jodel D9 to be registered in GB was my own, G-AVPD, which took up the letters from 15 June 1967. The second of the type was Bill Cole’s G-AWFT, which was registered on 29 March 1968 and issued with a Permit to Fly on 23 July 1968, certainly the first in the country. G-AVPD’s first flight was from Heathrow to Booker on 14 June 1969.

Bill completed his aircraft in about six months by working on her before breakfast, at lunchtime and in the evenings, while running his building business. I took three years to build G-AVPD, because after the project was launched a lot of my spare time was devoted to PFA administration.

I chose to build a Jodel D9 rather than a Turbulent after exhaustive studies over a period of three years of the wooden single seaters then available. Brian. I always enjoy reading, and I am informed, by the articles in the Light Aviation magazine. Having read Ultralights for the RAF in the March 2021 edition, I thought I would pass on the following in case it is of interest.

During lockdown I had a look again at an aunt’s old photo album and came across a photo of G-EBEB, on the beach, presumably giving joy rides. I’m not sure where it was taken, but it must have made an impression as they took a photo! It made me wonder how many people were inspired to become aviators by such cheap and accessible flights.

A little research found reference to it in A Flying Life: An Enthusiast’s Photographic Record of British Aviation in the 1930s and showed it to be ‘The well-known DH.6 Maysbus G-EBEB of the Giro Aviation Co. Ltd.’, with a photo of it flying over Southport Sands, so perhaps that is where aunt’s photo was taken. It was assembled at Hesketh Park in 1925 and also pictured shoved forlornly in a corner of a hangar (minus its engine) in 1936, having been withdrawn from service in 1930. Kind regards, Ian Graham. ■