My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Photos of warbirds, classic jets and museum visits
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Alpha Delta 210
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My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

Hi all

One of the positive outcomes of Covid-19 for me was to have the most incredible experience of being one of the first fare-paying passengers in the world's only two-seat Hurricane!

How come, you might ask? Well, due to the need to work from home, I agreed to clear out the "man-cave" and make it into a home-office. I had many, many kits and my enthusiasm for the hobby had diminished in recent years, so I made the big decision to sell my entire collection, bar a few "special" kits!

I contacted three well-known dealers in second-hand kits for quotes and accepted an offer from King Kit. The company was very easy to deal with and even collected the kits, saving me the trouble of boxing them and dispatching them by courier. I was paid on the day and felt surprisingly relieved at the amount of space recovered from the study, loft, wardrobe and garage! I am pleased to say that I have had no seller's remorse.

My wonderful wife suggested that I should do something aviation-related with the proceeds. I had seen a magazine article about BE505 being converted to a two-seater so I visited flyaspitfire.com to register my interest for one of the first flights that had been postponed due to Covid-19.

As soon as I received the email to say that the Hurricane was available for booking, I booked my flight!

My wife, Mum and two friends chartered the company's GippsAero GA8 Airvan 8 and my wife did an amazing job of using my Panasonic Lumix bridge camera for the first time even though the flight was quite bumpy and she was shooting into the sun.

After the Hurricane broke away from the Airvan, I took control and on the way back to Biggin Hill, the pilot performed a beautifully graceful victory roll.

This was, without doubt, one of the most amazing days of my life which was directly attributable to the pandemic.

I will start with a few photos from my collection of Peter Teichman flying the aircraft at Duxford and Old warden in 2010. I never dreamed that 10 years later, I would fly in and even take control of this wonderful machine!

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reheat module
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by reheat module »

What a great set of images to remember a real treat of a day.
Lovely colour and detail.
The inclusion of the OASC Building is great too, as I attended a challenging 4-days there which changed my life forever!
Canon systems

ozplane
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by ozplane »

Good stuff. Who was your pilot in the Hurricane?

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

reheat module wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 2:59 pm
What a great set of images to remember a real treat of a day.
Lovely colour and detail.
The inclusion of the OASC Building is great too, as I attended a challenging 4-days there which changed my life forever!
Thanks very much. I'm pleased you enjoyed them. It was an amazing day that I still haven't quite come down from!

I hope that the four days changed your life in a good way!

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

ozplane wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 5:12 pm
Good stuff. Who was your pilot in the Hurricane?
Thanks ozplane. My pilot was Don Sigournay. This is from the website:

Don flew Royal Navy Sea Harriers operationally in Bosnia. He commanded the Royal Navy Historic Flight and later flew commercially on the Jetstream 41 and the Embraer 145, Legacy, Sovereign and Bombardier Global Express. He has over 1,000 hours on Spitfires.

Ant.H
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Ant.H »

Congratulations, turning your kit stash into real Merlin noise is surely an investment. Must've been quite a kit stash!

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Blackbird
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Blackbird »

What a day to remember, and great that something really good has come out of the pandemic.

Andy

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

Blackbird wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 7:04 pm
What a day to remember, and great that something really good has come out of the pandemic.

Andy
Thanks Andy. Certainly a day that I will never forget!

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

Ant.H wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 6:41 pm
Congratulations, turning your kit stash into real Merlin noise is surely an investment. Must've been quite a kit stash!
Thanks Ant. There were one or two kits...

ozplane
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by ozplane »

Thanks AD. I met him when he was flying the 2-seat Spitfire for us at Duxford. He's a really pleasant chap and full of interesting flying stories. Sell some more kits and complete the set by flying the Spitfire perhaps?

GeeRam
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by GeeRam »

Alpha Delta 210 wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 9:19 pm
Ant.H wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 6:41 pm
Congratulations, turning your kit stash into real Merlin noise is surely an investment. Must've been quite a kit stash!
Thanks Ant. There were one or two kits...
No kidding..... :astonished:

My stash of kits I sold to them about 5/6 years ago, filled up an estate car and I thought that was a lot, and the money I got for them wouldn't have even paid for 5 mins in Pegs :crazy_face:

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

ozplane wrote:
Sat 19 Sep 2020, 9:25 am
Thanks AD. I met him when he was flying the 2-seat Spitfire for us at Duxford. He's a really pleasant chap and full of interesting flying stories. Sell some more kits and complete the set by flying the Spitfire perhaps?
Yes, it was great to be flown by such an experienced pilot. I would have loved to have chatted more about his time on the Shar!

I plan a Spitfire flight as a retirement gift to myself! There are so many choices of operator and venue these days. Who would have thought it?
Last edited by Alpha Delta 210 on Sun 20 Sep 2020, 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

GeeRam wrote:
Sat 19 Sep 2020, 9:43 am
Alpha Delta 210 wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 9:19 pm
Ant.H wrote:
Fri 18 Sep 2020, 6:41 pm
Congratulations, turning your kit stash into real Merlin noise is surely an investment. Must've been quite a kit stash!


Thanks Ant. There were one or two kits...
No kidding..... :astonished:

My stash of kits I sold to them about 5/6 years ago, filled up an estate car and I thought that was a lot, and the money I got for them wouldn't have even paid for 5 mins in Pegs :crazy_face:
Erm, mine filled a Transit van....

GeeRam
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by GeeRam »

Alpha Delta 210 wrote:
Sat 19 Sep 2020, 10:10 am
ozplane wrote:
Sat 19 Sep 2020, 9:25 am
Thanks AD. I met him when he was flying the 2-seat Spitfire for us at Duxford. He's a really pleasant chap and full of interesting flying stories. Sell some more kits and complete the set by flying the Spitfire perhaps?
Yes, it was great to be flown by such an experienced flight. I would have loved to have chatted more about his time on the Shar!

I plan a Spitfire flight as a retirement gift to myself! There are so many choices of operator and venue these days. Who would have thought it?
At the beginning of this year I was looking to treating myself to a flight in Pegs next year, but 6 months already gone by without work because of the devastation in the aviation industry brought about by Covid, and no chance of any work on the horizon will likely force me into early retirement way too early to be able to spend money on such a 'treat', so I'm afraid that notion has been banished from my thought process for good.
I'll have to make do with the memories of my couple of DC-3 flights, along with my B-25J and B-17G flights.

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TEXANTOMCAT
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by TEXANTOMCAT »

Blooody hell that must have been some kit stash! Great story well done

TT

MartinK
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by MartinK »

I work as a postman in Otford near Sevenoaks and am lucky enough to see the various Spitfires flying above me on most days but yesterday was special as I saw the distinctive shape of the Hurricane fly right over me in formation and solo and wondered which lucky soul was enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.
Congratulations,what a great experience.

Regards
Martin K

ForestFan1973
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by ForestFan1973 »

Looks fantastic, how many kits did you have though?!!!

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

Thanks guys! I must confess that I had accumulated quite a few kits!

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ciaranchef
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by ciaranchef »

Superb set..what an experience.
"It is generally inadvisable to eject over the area you just bombed"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranchef/

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Alpha Delta 210
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Re: My flight in Hawker Hurricane BE505

Post by Alpha Delta 210 »

ciaranchef wrote:
Mon 23 Nov 2020, 5:58 pm
Superb set..what an experience.
Thanks very much, Ciaran. A day I will never forget, especially as I shared it with friends and family.

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