Issue 74 15.09.21
The weekly online newsletter for the care sector
Thank you for the music ... Captain Michael Harrington in front of a Chipmunk aircraft
RAF pilot rekindles his fond flight memories FOND memories of life in the air, including hundreds of royal flights, were rekindled as a retired RAF pilot enjoyed a ‘spectacular’ day out at Dorset’s Compton Abbas Airfield. Captain Michael Harrington was on a trip from Colten Care’s Poundbury care home Castle View when he amazed his hosts by showing them logbooks from throughout his career. They document in detail his first flying school experiences right up to his years of service transporting members of the royal family around the UK and overseas. Companionship team leader Katja Williams, who accompanied Michael to Compton Abbas, said: “The flight controller and management were amazed that Michael held all of his logbooks. “They really welcomed him and
extended their gratitude to him for coming. And on our way home, Michael told me all about his favourite aircraft to master in the RAF, the Vulcan.” Altogether he completed 417 royal legs and nine full royal tours, with passengers including Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Princes William and Harry. As well as talking through entries in the logbooks with the flight controller and other managers at Compton Abbas, Michael was invited into the hangar to view a vintage Chipmunk, a plane he flew regularly in his early years of RAF service. From the 1950s to the 1970s the Chipmunk, or ‘Chippy’ as it was affectionately known, was the RAF’s primary training plane for air cadets.
The plane at Compton Abbas began its service in Edinburgh in 1952 and was put into storage when it finished its RAF life. It was later civilianised and rebuilt at the Duxford airfield in Cambridge in 2000. Another compelling draw for Michael was a yellow 1940s Boeing Stearman biplane, complete with open cockpit. The Stearman was initially a training aircraft for the US Army Air Force, US Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force. After World War II, thousands of surplus Stearmans were sold on the civilian market becoming popular as display aircraft at air shows and in agriculture as aerial cropdusters. An iconic movie image shows a Stearman cropduster chasing Cary Grant across a field in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller North by Northwest.
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MUSICIANS from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra have played the final date on their ‘summer tour’ of care homes along the south coast, delighting residents at Colten Care’s Kingfishers in New Milton. And the visiting maestros even performed a special request for one surprised music lover at the Hampshire home. Overjoyed Geoff Lount was prompted to get up and dance on hearing the start of an orchestral take on ABBA’s Thank You for the Music which he had asked them to play. Companionship team member Sue Hawkins, who danced with Geoff, said: “Music brings such joy to our residents and there is nothing better than experiencing live music performed by professional players in your own garden.” As well as ABBA, French horn and piano player Kevin Pritchard and violinist Jennifer Curiel led their audience through a one-hour set that included popular pieces by Gershwin, Puccini, Scott Joplin and Debussy and tunes from famous musicals including Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Before the show at Kingfishers, Kevin and Jennifer performed summer BSO concerts at Colten Care’s Canford Chase in Poole and Fernhill in Longham.
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