Skegness Aerodrome.

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

16 years 4 months

Posts: 2

Skegness Aerodrome and Lincs Aerial

Hello Clive

I stumbled across your thread today, which brought back some great childhood memories of both Skegness Aerodrome and Boston Aerodrome.

I spent many days at Skegness as my grandfather and father both worked for Lincs Aerial from the 1960's through to its closure in the mid 1990's.

A gentleman in a earlier repsonse mentioned that the owner of Lincs Aerial owned a Hornet Moth. The gentleman's name was Cliff Annis and I think that my father William Clifton either built the Hornet or at least maintained the aircraft for many years.
My father and a team of other engineers, I think including Richard Yates, Paul Senior, Ken Dean, all worked on building and maintaining the Austers that operated between Boston and Skegness.
I'd love to source further information / photos if possible.
Thanks for posting!

Member for

19 years 7 months

Posts: 415

MOTHS AT BOSTON

Simon: The Hornet was G-ADKK, which Cliff bought as a flyer. Your Dad and the team maintained it and also rebuilt Leopard Moth G-ACUS from a heap of junk to flying condition. As this thread has shown, your Dad and the team were renowned for the fantastic condition of the Austers, which I remember winning several prizes over the years at the PFA Rally, Sywell. I also remember your Grandfather, Bill, who if I remember correctly, was the Operations Manager for Lincs Aerial. Will send you a PM.

Member for

16 years 4 months

Posts: 2

Moths

Hello
I had a number of rides in the Hornet as a boy as well as many trips in Austers and Pawnees, once with a chap called Ken Harness who landed a Pawnee on a river bank with me sat on his knee!
Great to see that both moths are still flying.
My dad still does the odd aeroplane job, but they were really exciting times in the 70's and the annual trip to Sywell remians a cherished memory.

Member for

16 years 4 months

Posts: 1

Hello all,
Just a quick reply to inform the forum of the whereabouts of the Austers mentioned.

G-AJEI is owned by myself and has been for a number of years, she is airworthy and flys most weeks and still resides in Lincolnshire.

G-AHAL is based at Wickenby and is still airworthy and flys regular she is also available for instruction on type and hire to suitably qaulified pilots.

G-AHSO has been subject to a long term restoration and will be flying in the not so distant future and still resides in Lincolnshire.

It would be nice if all aircraft, ex members, staff could get together to have a chat exchange photos memories etc!
Regards
Gary

Yes, Light Aviation is still served in Skegness via the airfield at the Water Leisure Park of Walls Lane Ingoldmells Skegness. This will be the ref' you have found on the Bagby Website....This site is South of the old Butlins Aerodrome site.

The old aerodrome is now home to a medical centre I believe. All traces of its former life were swept away with undue haste soon after closure in 1993.

Looking through some of the few photos I have of the old Aerodrome I find the one attached here showing, now sadly late, Peter Wilkes refuelling G-AHSO at Skegness in Summer 1992.

Pleased the previous picture brought back memories of a first flight.....likewise my first flight was at Skegness in an Auster too. I didn't keep notes ......I suspect it was in G-AHSO but it could have been in G-AHAL also operated.
In those days at least 2 Austers were running to the Clock Tower and back all day long...... large numbers of the East Midlands holidaymakers visiting Skegness must have had their first flight in a Skegness Air Taxi Service Ltd Auster.....

G-AHAL, G-AHSO and G-AJEI were sold .....the latter 2 to Pat Miller.....G-AHCK briefly replaced them for 1991 but was damaged beyond use in an arson attack.....and at the time of my photos G-AHSO was being hired back for pleasure flying.....note the red wheel and tank fitted that I suspect were from G-AHCK (well, they are visible as red on the originals, Sorry !!)....Note also that the aircraft is fitted for banner tow work...

The C182 I mentioned in my previous post was G-AXNX

The Austers must feature in hundreds of holiday snaps.....hoping some may surface soon..........

All the best,
Clive.

Member for

16 years 9 months

Posts: 1,323

Don't forget G-AIBH and G-APKN the mainstay of the fleet.

Member for

19 years 7 months

Posts: 415

'PKN was trailered out of Skegness to new owners at Felthorpe, where it met its fate in the arson attack there a few years ago. Sad end to a well-known and much liked aircraft.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 526

Hello,

Thank you Simon, AgCat, Gary, T21...for your additions to this long running and regularly resurected thread.

Simon,
I seem to recall a magazine article at the time ref the PFA rally awards....was it G-AJEI that was a winner ??
..and I seem to recall C172 G-BCPK getting a mention too. Sadly, when I last saw PK lurking in the hangar, sans prop etc before it got up and flew from Skeggy, its condition was a little more tired.!!

I flew once with Ken Harness...it must have been early 1990s out of Manby in either G-AJEI or G-AHSO when "SkegAir" operated pleasure flying at one of the Manby car/4x4 orientated events. We went out to the coast then had a fly through Kens farm strip N. of Louth.

I seem to think the Harnesses once operated a black and white C172 G-ROOK.??

With ref to crop spraying...as a young lad I use to keep a keen eye out for the White/Red striped Renault 4s racing down the farm roads behind our house...they would hail the imminent arrival of a Pawnee..!!

Gary,
Thank you for your update on the Auster whereabouts.

After my original post on this thread I did notice the change of ownership of AJEI come up...and I have a photo of EI cribbed from the forum.! that graces my pc webshots screensaver from time to time...climbing out from Breighton I think.??
Pleased to read that EI is fit and well and regularly to be found in Lincolnshire skies...and AL too

The update on AHSO is good to see too...it would have been the last Auster that I flew in..I got into a bit of a habit of turning up at Skeggy and a bit of cash saw us on a flight somewhere ...more often C150 but occasionally if available it would be Auster...I think that told the sad tale of pleasure flying at the time...it had gone very quiet...and hence the Auster was available rather than running to the Clocktower and back where historically it would normally be..! If only it could have all lasted a couple more years and then perhaps marketed as a Classic flying experience.??
I did have a quiet pipe dream to take one of the Austers to a few more places..on one of my ad hoc vists to Skeg'...but this had to remain a dream ..not that my spare cash from gardeners wages would have taken us too far.!!.and not for much longer either...although I did once mastermind a round trip with 150 G-AZLH and pilot Peter Wilkes from Skegness to Dover docks and back via Shipdham...I just wanted to fly a bit futher afield and the RadioShip Ross Revenge had just gone into Dover docks so that made the excuse...and that's another story altogether.

I wonder..do you have any update on G-AHCK..???

Thank you again for posting onto this thread... and keeping Skeggy and Auster memories to the fore...

All the best,
Clive.

Member for

16 years 1 month

Posts: 10

Absolutely fascinated to have come across this thread. I worked for Lincs Aerial Spaying Company, Skegness Air Taxis and Eastern Airviews 1968, 1969.
In 1968 I started with the pleasure flights in the Austers. HCN, HAL, HSO, IBH, PKN. I remember Rex Larsen and his old car well. He really was an ace pilot being ex Spitfires and could indeed land at the airfield in shallow fog. Sometimes it was necessary. I remember Dave 1 (ginger), Dave 2 (gdb!), the pilots, Ken Harness, Digby Goss (only cropspaying), Tony Cowan, Pete Blackburn, Pat Sullivan, Bob Coles. I recall farmer Brown crashed his Terrier trying to land in a field and it had to be rebuilt. I dont believe it was insured. I moved on to crop spraying and the guys at Boston, Bill and Will Clifton, Malcolm, Clive the engineer, Sid, Don York etc. The aircraft TYA, SFZ,VDZ.
I have many memories of those 2 years in fact I married one of the customers daughters. I believe Cliff Annis died around 7 or 8 years ago? I was told he had been a Lancaster pilot in the war and baled out of his doomed aircraft only to land on a haystack before his parachute deployed which is why he was partially paralised. Fun days. That cropspraying was hairy stuff and don't even mention the chemicals we used to spray.:diablo: I went on to the airlines afterwards for 30 years and finished up on the Boeing 747-400. I dont think anyone believed any of my hairaising cropspraying tales though.;)

Member for

16 years 1 month

Posts: 10

Oh I forgot about the newspaper flights. Most saturdays in the summer of 1968 I would go to the deserted airfield - didn't operate on a saturday - pull an Auster out of the open hanger - usually the nearest one to the entrance then swing start it from behind, jump in and fly to Tollerton in all weathers with no radio, usually at about 200 ft if the weather was bad following all the airfields on the way. Spilsby, East Kirkby, Coningsby, Cranwell eventually arriving at Tollerton about 45 mins later where upon a van would approach and fill me up with bundles of the Nottingham Evening Post which I would then fly to Boston and Skegness. The first flight I did Skeggie was fogbound so I finished up at the disused WW2 Spilsby . I picked the aircraft up the next day and all the papers had gone so the the newspaper van obviously found it. Another saturday I was flying down the runway at Conningsby at about 100 feet in heavy rain when all of a sudden in front of me head on was a Vulcan taking off.:o I broke to the right and thought I would be in deep clag but I never heard anything. The Vulcan obviously never saw me! All those close shaves and many more and I am still alive:D and living in sunny Spain.:cool:

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 526

Hello Fly380,

Thank you for adding a few more reminiscences of Skegness Aerodrome etc..

It is amazing how this thread has gone quiet and then leapt back into life again several times now since my first post back in Sept' 2003 :eek: ;)

Not so many Vulcans to avoid these days;) ...but in the last week a couple of wind turbines have sprouted up at Croft:eek:

Thank you again for posting on...:)

All the best,
Clive.

Member for

15 years 5 months

Posts: 3

Drop by the forum in between trips and keep meaning to throw my hat in.

Started flying at Skeggie several thousand flying hours ago (1st Sept 1962)and solo'd in G-APKN on 13th Sept after 6hr 15min. Rex Larsen was my mentor and hopefully role model. One of my 'marks' left at the airfield was writing the large 'Pleasure Flights' sign on the blister hangars facing Butlins.

That was done on a few summer evenings with Dave Guilbert, Ken Harness, a few others and several crates of beer. Scratched out of the corrugated asbestos roof sheets - years before H & S rules! (Anyone have a pic of that still around by the way?)

Was there when the 'Magnificent Men' crew were there and did the continuity photography of the aircraft wingtips bolted on to the Gazelle chopper for the 'air-to-air' pix, as well as other photo jobs. (Started Eastern Airviews at that time as well).

After Skeg I worked my way up through survey aircraft such as DH Doves, Rapides, Twin Pins, DC 3s, Avro Ansons, Partenavia P68, Lockheed Lodestar, Piper Aztec/Chieftain, Cessna 172/185/310/402/404, Aero Commanders, Pilatus PC6, Beech Travel Air/QueenAir and KingAirs, and finished up in a Citation II before hanging up my (professional) headset. Lost count of the number of countries though.

Those were't days!

Member for

16 years

Posts: 705

I've only visited Skegness once, in 1958. Here is that day's log which may be of interest.
Jim

G-AHAL AUTOCRAT E.A.MOFFATT
G-AHHP AUTOCRAT J.A.BRAITHWAITE
G-AKKO MESSENGER 2A DAVID GODLEY LTD.
G-ALAV MESSENGER 4A JOHN SUTCLIFFE y SON (GRIMSBY) LTD.
G-ALAW MESSENGER 4A SKEGNESS STEAM LAUNDRY
G-ANIZ TIGER MOTH SKEGNESS AIR TAXIS

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 526

Hello Rojread and Jim_jobe,

Thank you for adding your memories to this long running thread....
.....returning it up the pages once more ;)....
I did patch it up the other day as a few photos had gone awol from the first page.

Sadly, my photo of the Aerodrome shows the West side of the hangar and not the Butlins side.!!..but I do remember seeing the hangar signage..

Thank you,
All the best,
Clive.

Member for

15 years 8 months

Posts: 286

I flew a couple of times at Skegness in 1991 as I wanted some experience flying from a grass airfield having become rather too familiar with the 2,500 yd runway at Teesside Airport. I kept an aviation diary at the time which might be of interest.

July 23 - Booked a trip on a Cessna 150 from the small airfield at Skegness. The aircraft was G-AZLH, its bleached paintwork showing that it hadn't seen a hangar in a long time and its prop leading edge was far from smooth. The weather was hot and humid with poor visibility and a wind of 180/10 so that the shorter runway 17/35 was in use, a length of 440m. I flew with Paul Curtis and we put in an hour of touch and goes with 30 degree flap, 60 mph and 1800-2000 rpm with some full stop landings off 40 degree flap. With the exception of my first attempt the landings were quite good and the full stop landings were completed within half distance. Skegness would be a bad place to have an engine failure as it would put you into the nearest caravan park.

July 25 - Had another circuit bashing session in 'LH but the wind had changed completely and was now 020/8-10. Quite a lot of low cloud was coming in off the sea so circuit height was limited to 600 ft. Due to the wind the runway in use was 35 and we did 50 minutes of circuits including some very short landings of around 100m, the aim being to clear the fence by a few feet and pull up well before the intersection. Approaches at the end were down to full flap at 55 mph and 2000rpm. There was no circuit traffic and the only other activity was the Auster taking people for pleasure flights along the beach to Skegness and back.

I think Paul was incredibly bored flying in circles around his home airfield but I really enjoyed it and found it much more rewarding than doing the same thing at Teesside. It's a great shame that Skegness is no more.

Peter

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 526

Hello Monsun,
Photo of LH from 1992? attached..

I had a trip out to overfly Dover Docks from Skegness with return via Shipdam for fuel...in G-AZLH...
..A madcap idea of mine at the time to photo the Caroline ship Ross Revenge that had then just come into the docks ex Goodwin Sands...it was all a plan of mine to do a long distance light aircraft trip and the Dover bit just fuelled my dream at the time...It was winter time and the place was fogged in for days but suddenly one morning I got a call that it was on...and having thawed out the fire truck and swept frost from LH we were off to Dover....landing back into Skegness with a mist starting to form plenty late in the day..:o
It was a lovely clear trip...froze the camera batteries though..leading to only 2 photos....
Makes me cringe now thinking back at the event...:o

After Skegness(Ingoldmells) had closed AZLH returned to Skegness (Croftmarsh?) for a while with David Coulson and Guy? Lockyer? and then went on with David to Cranfield....but has now moved on again I believe.?

I should add that flying does continue at Skegness...these days at The Water Lesiure Park just to the South of the old Aerodrome.

All the best,
Clive.

Attachments

Member for

15 years 8 months

Posts: 286

Clive

Many thanks for enclosing the photos. I have one of 'LH in my slide collection and also one of Auster G-AHCK taken on the same day.

At Teesside I flew a couple of close relations to 'LH in G-AZLL and G-AZLY and was a little surprised that 'LH had an ASI calibrated in mph as the other two were in knots.

Peter

Member for

14 years 11 months

Posts: 145

First flight ever...

My first flight ever was in a Miles Messenger at Skegness around about 1950, it was for about ten minutes for ten shillings. I think there were three joy-flighters plus the pilot, so the return would have been thirty-bob. It was on our first family holiday after WWII.

RPM, FF, TGT...
www.electranewbritain.com

Member for

16 years

Posts: 705

I've only visited Skegness once, in 1958. Here is that day's log which may be of interest.
Jim

G-AHAL AUTOCRAT E.A.MOFFATT
G-AHHP AUTOCRAT J.A.BRAITHWAITE
G-AKKO MESSENGER 2A DAVID GODLEY LTD.
G-ALAV MESSENGER 4A JOHN SUTCLIFFE y SON (GRIMSBY) LTD.
G-ALAW MESSENGER 4A SKEGNESS STEAM LAUNDRY
G-ANIZ TIGER MOTH SKEGNESS AIR TAXIS

The day in question was August 2nd 1958 by the way. I was at ATC Summer Camp at Coningsby and hitched to Skegness with a mate to see what was what.We got a lift from a kindly black USAF guy in his most luxurious Caddy and he drove us right up to the hangar over the grass field. We was most impressed!
Jim

Member for

15 years 3 months

Posts: 125

:):) see that pic of LH just to the left of the wing theres two chimneys sticking up out the bushes, Thats the house that i grew up in from 4 years old to late teens or if you prefer 1976 to regular visits now.

Those of you that flew from Skeggy will possibly remember the big white farm house that you regularly flew over;) and unfortunatly the sewerage works!!!!:eek:

Monson strangely enough the posibility of landing in a caravan park never materialised they all tended to land in the surrounding fields with varying degrees of success of which i can recall roughly 7 possibly less. I do remember one that confused a road with the aerodrome. Definately one of the less sucessfull landings but everyone walked away.

Also one that tried crossing the ditch into the sewerage works again everyone walked away

Alas being so close i tended not to take much notice of what was happening there unless it was something different like the BBMF chippy or a flyin or Brian Lecomber in his Pitts Special.

I did however get a flight in one of the Austers. It was one of the resident pilots doing his last flight before leaving or retiring, i forget which,

After we landed he taxied back to the hanger swung the thing round with rudder throttle and brakes shutting down at the same time all timed perfectly together so that we stopped in complete silence. It is very hard to convey the look on his face, a combination of happiness sadness pride nostalgia and maybe just a small lump in the throat. For him it was probably the end of a chapter in his life for me it was the begining of a lifetime of aviation.

Im ashamed to say i cannot remember who the pilot was but if by chance you read this and remember that flight i must humbly thank you for the life i have now....THANK YOU

Member for

15 years 3 months

Posts: 57

Pleasure flights also operated from Skegness beach. I have a photocopy of a photo somewhere of my mom about to depart during her honeymoon - will dig it out. Would have been circa 1955/56.