FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0783.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 March 1952 355 "Flight" photograph THE THROTTLE-BENDERS... started at Squire's Gate, Blackpool. After remaining there until 1940, he joined Air Schools, Ltd., at Derby, a company directed by Roy Harben, which controlled Elementary Flying Training Schools at Derby (No. 16—with Harben himself as CO.) and at Wolverhampton (No. 28, under W/C. West). Each of these schools had 108 aircraft, Magisters at the former and Tiger Moths at the other, and each had 150 ground engineers on strength. The crash- rate at so large a training organization at such a period was inevitably high, and Ron had his time fully occupied. Nevertheless, he flew whenever possible, and continually increased his flying hours, flying even on his day off. Immediately after the war he bought his first aircraft. Be cause of his close liaison with the Miles factory at Woodley, manufacturers of the Magister, he had become thoroughly con versant with their designs; and in 1946 he heard that a special three-seat Hawk Major, G-ADCV, was for sale. This Hawk was unique. It was generally similar to the standard Hawk Major, but had an open cockpit in the front for the pilot, and an enclosed double cockpit aft, seating two passengers in tandem. It was then on the books of W. S. Shackleton, Ltd., and housed—dismantled— in a garage at Hatfield. Ron flew from Wolverhampton to Pans- hanger to see it, and immediately knew that he wanted it. It was transported to Wolverhampton and, when pressure of work permitted, Ron worked on it and got it airworthy for the time when civil flying would be resumed. G-ADCV was given a C. of A. about March, 1946, and so became one of the first privately- owned aircraft to fly after the War. It was in DCV that Ron flew his first race when, in 1946, the enterprising Cinque Ports Flying Club, with the co-operation of the Royal Aero Club, revived the Lympne races. Entering for the Folkestone Aero Trophy, he found himself too heavily handicapped to get a place, and the race was won by John Grierson, flying one of United Whalers' Walrus amphibians at 121 m.p.h. By 1947 Ron was flying regularly one of the Wolverhampton club's Hawk Trainer Ills (the civilian name for the Magister), G-AHNU. The racing season opened with a revival of the Isle of Man races on Whit Monday, and Ron piloted HNU in the Manx Air Derby, a handicap event over a course totalling 158 miles. After battling round the course at 122.5 m.p.h., he found himself well back; it was, he says, the roughest race in which he has ever The Hawk Speed Six, G-ADCP, approaches the finishing-line in the 1949 King's Cup Race at Elmdon, Birmingham. Paine was second in his heat, and beat Tony Cole for second place in the final at 184 m.p.h. flown. First place was taken by Tommy Rose in a Hawk Speed Six, G-ADGP. After the Isle of Man races Ron decided that if the Hawk Trainer was to be a useful racer it would have to be cleaned up, so by the time the Southend Trophy Race was flown on August 9th, 1947, he had considerably modified HNU. Most important of the alterations was the covering-in of the rear cockpit. This was the first Hawk Trainer so improved, and many other pilots have since adopted the idea. Wheel-spats were fitted, and the usual fairing-in took place. The 21-mile course had to be lapped three times, and Ron won his heat at 136.5 m.p.h. He was thus in the final, and in this also he came in first, winning the trophy after a very close fight with Nat Somers, who had pulled up to second place in his Hornet Moth. From Southend to Lympne. The Folkestone Aero Trophy was held on August 30-3ist, and Paine came in second in his heat at 138.5 m.p.h., having slightly increased the speed of HNU by careful tuning of the Gipsy Major and improved fairing; but he could not reach a higher place than sixth in the final. The Siddeley Trophy was contested concurrently with the Folkestone race and, again representing the Wolverhampton club, he gained third place. By the end of 1947 he was beginning to get really enthusiastic, and started looking around for a faster mount. Certain aeroplanes at Miles Aircraft came up for sale, and among them was the Hawk Speed Six, G-ADGP; it had belonged to Luis Fontes, a well- known pre-War racing pilot (who was killed while flying with A.T.A.). George Miles had fitted it with a large bubble canopy and Tommy Rose had, as mentioned, raced it at various meetings. Ron went to see "Bush" Bandidt, sales manager to Miles, and told him he wanted to buy DGP. He was told to "get on the end of the queue," as quite a number of people, including Jimmie Rush, were after it; but Ron badgered Bush so much that finally, on the telephone at 9 o'clock one morning, he was told he could have it. He promptly left Wolverhampton in a Messenger for Woodley, and had the Speed Six back there by lunch-time. It was, he says, one of his proudest moments when, so many years after first wanting DGP, he became its owner, as he had much admired it after seeing it built at Woodley in 1935. It was in splendid condi tion and there was no other similar type flying. The first Goodyear Trophy race was flown on June 12th, 1948, at Wolverhampton, and it was in this event that Paine first piloted the Speed Six. He had not flown it much by then, and he did not gain a place, but he discovered enough about its characteristics to see its possibilities. In the next Lympne races (1948) Ron flew the Hawk Trainer, HNU, again. That year the Royal Aero Club introduced "one- design" racing, and organized non-handicap contests for each of three types—Tiger Moth, Tipsy and Hawk Trainer. Ron flew in the contest for the last-named type, together with three other pilots, R. E. Pyatt in HNV, S/L. L. S. Loveridge in HNW and Derek Jemmett in KPE. The interesting thing about this race was that although the four aircraft were basically standard, four different types of airscrew were used, each pilot using that which he considered best for the Hawk Trainer when racing. The result proved that Jemmett's fine-pitch airscrew gave a higher speed, for he finished first at 103.25 m.p.h. The speed of all contestants was naturally lower than would have been attained over a longer course: this race was over three short laps, so that the competitors were in sight to spectators on the aerodrome all the time. Paine himself, with a coarser-pitch airscrew, finished third at 101.75 m.p.h. In the Thruxton races of 1948 he flew the Speed Six. The course was from Thruxton to Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, and back, and he finished fourth at 178 m.p.h. When Tommy Rose had raced the Speed Six he had come in second in the Percival Cup race at Portsmouth in May, 1947, at Paine's Speed Six as it appeared in 1950, with the undercarriage trou sers lengthened to within 1^'n of the ground. In this condition, and with a number of other modi fications not visible in the photograph, it estab lished a closed-circuit class record in the King's Cup Race of that year.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
