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Club History.

It is the intention to provide this section to chart the history of the club. The initial two items are provided by our Founder and Vice-President Jim Sime. It has been necessary to carry out some mild editing on the newsletter, it is actually only a very small part of the whole document but gives a flavour of what issues were important in 1976. In the long term it is the aim to put copies of the past magazines on the site, this will take some time, but it is the aim of the Heritage group to support this project. If you have any interesting written information or past documents from the club then please let us have them. preferably in a form that we can directly input to the web. This is in the form of a word or similar document, with any pictures sent separately. If you want more information please contact the Webmaster.

Going For a Song.

By Jim Sime (Founder and Vice-President)

Away back in August 1973, I attended a Fly-in at Sywell in my Auster J1/N. G-AHCN and parked it close to the airside boundary where everyone could see it. I was told abruptly to “remove it and put it somewhere at the back so that more interesting aircraft could be seen by the public”. I was angry and said so to another Auster pilot who had also been asked to move. The situation at that time was that you could buy an Auster for £750, but some went for even less. Austers were disappearing from the Register at an alarming rate. One I saw advertised was at £500 in “flying condition”. The problem was that Austers had become a bit like lampposts in that they were always there and not really noticed much for that reason.

Most pilots had learned to fly on Austers, as I had. It cost much more to get a reconditioned engine than to buy another plane with more hours left. Something had to be done. I wrote to Flight and had my letter published. From the replies I received it was clear that I was in tune by the feelings of many others. On the 18th of November 1973,1 had arranged for 8 of these enthusiasts to meet me at Hemswell to form an Auster Pilot Club. The weather was bad to the north so nobody came from there, but to my surprise 15 Austers turned up from the south and 50 plus people filled the hangar.

This meeting had never been advertised but word had obviously got around. I became the Secretary and my 15-year-old daughter, Julie Ann, Assistant Secretary. We had an Auster Insurance Scheme, a Spares Service and arranged for fly-ins. The first was at Bridlington, where one Auster pilot, out on a local flight from a nearby airfield, looked down in amazement at more than a dozen Austers lined up in the morning light. He landed and joined us. One Auster had flown across the North Sea, non-radio, from Denmark! In 1974 I arranged for a Fly-in at Shobdon and had my own Auster given permission to fly there for its C of A. I wrote personally a handwritten note to every Auster owner on the Register and waited. They started to come in ones and two's; then a dozen; then 20. And still they came - the final total was 43, but I was asked to report only 42 as one aircraft was French registered and was not quite legal!

As far as 1 know, this is still the record number of Austers gathered together since the end of the war. I was delighted by the enthusiasm and help given to the club by these early members, some of whom are still members. One member was Jim (Ginger) Lacey, the Battle of Britain fighter Ace who flew Auster G-AHHH. I should like to hear from all the early members of the club and, indeed, from the new members as well. From Volume 23 Number 4 Page 75.

October 1976

Dear Member,

The IAPC now has a new President, Ambrose V. Hitchman, who has contributed a great deal to these Newsletters by drawing on his knowledge and experience gained while working for the Auster Company. His term of office will be one year. We offer him our congratulations and welcome him to the position of President.

The Annual Fly-in was held on the 18/19th September at Old Warden, despite poor visibility on both days throughout the country, particularly on the Saturday where I motored through dense fog to get to the airfield from Grimsby, there was a good turn out. Twenty-eight aircraft arrived on the Saturday, eighteen of them being Austers.

0n the Sunday 36 aircraft came, 25 of them Austers, Six Austers came or were present on both days. There was therefore a total of 37 different Austers present on one of the two days and a total of 58 different aircraft present on one of the two days. These figures are encouraging, being only slightly down on the figure of 44 Austers last year at Shobdon when the weather was better and the time of year more trustworthy for long distance flights. Also the January gales and later accidents have removed some 10 Austers, at least for the time being, from the scene.

ANNUAL FLY-IN OF THE IAPC- OLD WARDEN.

Despite the early mist and poor visibility elsewhere it was sunny and bright at Old Warden during both days of the Fly-in. As always it was an anxious period when, fairly late in the morning of the first day, we scanned the sky for Austers appearing out of the haze. At last came the welcome sound of a Gipsy engine but alas it was a Chipmunk dropping in to wait for the weather to clear. The crew appeared surprised at the welcome they got, muttering “and we, don't even look like an Auster!” Then Austers began arriving and we breathed more easily.

I was extremely pleased to meet a number of members who had previously been corresponding with me for some time but whom I had not met before. It was also a pleasure to meet again the many members who turn up faithfully at most of our events. Owing to the event being two separate days we did not have the usual social evening but despite this the event was a great success, several members having remarked on how smoothly everything went.' Thanks are due to John Bird and his hard working committee of the Old Warden Group of the IAPC for this. We are also extremely grateful to David Ogilvy of the Shuttleworth Collection for allowing us to use Old Warden and for all his assistance with the event. It is, I believe, entirely appropriate that the connection has been made between this world famous collection of antique aircraft and the Auster Pilot Club. Apart from anything else it was a great pleasure just to see the collection although I would have needed much more time to do it justice.

A number of members from overseas came to the Fly-in. Among these were Pat Harrington from Brisbane and Albert Westwood from Rhodesia. J. Pearson arrived from Denham in G~APCY but comes originally from Australia. John Webster was there as usual with his unique G-APUW. Peter Stoddart came from Leicester Museum but without G-AGOH which is on C of A. G-AGOH was the prototype J/l. Susan Saggers flew in from Biggin Hill on both days and deservedly won the Concours d' Elegance with G-AMZI (nice landing too) Trevor Howe appears to have had G-APIK fixed up again. The last time I saw it was at Sherburn in Elmet earlier this year when it was being worked on. Mike Cuttell's G-AHAY was worth seeing. He won the Concours last year and has concentrated on originality of detail including paintwork. Ian Hammond was there on the Sunday with the “last Auster built”, G-AZIH. Members will recall that this J1N first flew in January of last year having been built from an uncompleted airframe left over from the original assembly lines.

OVERSEAS SECTION:

John Symens writes from Victoria, Australia, ”I have just rejoined the club again and look forward to your newspapers. Dennis Hourigan, who was mentioned in your May Newsletter, has gone to America to the Oshkosh convention. I was lucky enough to go last year, not an Auster in sight! I took some photographs with me to show our American friends what an Auster was. I HAVE AN AMBITION TO ONE DAY FLY MY AUSTER TO ENGLAND, MAYBE T0 ATTEND A FUTURE AUSTER PILOT CLUB FLY-IN.

The Chairman of the Sports Aviation Group in Australia, Clive Canning, has recently made the journey in his homebuilt Thorp T18. He was forced down by some Mirage fighters in some Arab area but was allowed to continue after three days. He plans to fly home later this year;

I have enclosed some photographs of my Auster VH-SNK. I have recently fitted Double flash strobe lights to the Auster, which as far as I know is the first Auster to be fitted with them in Australia. You mentioned in the Newsletter about Auster windshields. I would be interested in two of them and I could be fairly certain of a third if the price wasn't too high. If I knew the price I would make a firm commitment, (A Member had been considering manufacturing windshields if the demand was sufficient, Editor.)

B.Fossum, a Member from Lilleharnmmar NORWAY, has been to the KZ Rally in Denmark and has won the Concours d' Elegance with his Auster V Reg: LN-KAH, Construction No. 2044, built in 1946. He has rebuilt the plane himself and. modified it with an 0-320 150 HP Lycoming engine. The interior has been completely re-upholstered and nav and landing lights have been fitted as well as an electric starter. He also owns an Auster Tugmaster 6A. He has this plane in his garage and is rebuilding it. He wishes to use this aircraft on floats and would like information from anyone who has been involved in modifying such an Auster to take a Lycoming 180 HP engine.

Jaques Blin, Province de Quebec, CANADA is the owner of an Auster Mark VII. He is looking for airframe and wing parts. He says that there are only ten Austers flying in Canada arid that these were used by the RCAF during the Korean war.

AUSTER PRESERVATION

Major Somerton Rayner is still looking for an 0-290-3 engine for the Auster he is restoring for the Army Museum at Middle Wallop. The condition of the engine does not matter. Does anyone have a time ex engine he can have for this worthwhile project. (An earlier Newsletter gives details. Editor)

THE BURMA AUSTER

In an Auster Quiz the question was asked, which Auster flew back from Burma and still flies in the West Country? A V Hitchman suggests that this might be the one Major Somerton Rayner brought back some ten years ago. This he thinks was Cons. No MT 438, Reg: G-AREI. It was painted yellow and was called the Yellow Peril. He doesn't know whether it is still flying but he heard it was in Wiltshire 4 or 5 years ago. (Can any member confirm this and give us the whole story for publication in the next Newsletter? Editor.)

AUSTER ARROW REBUILD:

A.V. Hitchman writes that Bill Horler could get the drawings for the exhaust system from Saywells at Shoreham. The drawing for the engine installation is EJF66 and from the drawing could be obtained the number for the exhaust system. The engine was a Continental A75-12 and it was a relatively simple matter to change to A85-12 by changing the venturi in -the carburettor. The extra 10 nominal HP was very helpful to improve the performance. Saywell should be able to supply the P12 compass.

CIRRUS III SPARES

A V HITCHMAN also writes. I took all the Cirrus Major III spares from Rolls Royce in 1970 and the only demand I had for them was from Hindustan Aeronautics, Bangalore, India. They were still using the engine in an Indian manufactured trainer. Eventually, after negotiation they bought the complete bundle of spares (original value £70,000) for £2,000. That was in 1974/5.

I should imagine that they are now about finished with them and would probably be glad to sell the lot. What response there would be for individual items I don't know. Apart from this possible source I doubt very much if there are any other spares available. T his was not a popular engine. It was fitted to the J5G Autocar and some Messengers but did not get any extension on 6oo hour life between the overhauls.

The above is an edited extract from the Club newsletter dated October 1976 which was provided by the Vice-President Jim Sime.

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