1000 Hours - One life to live

The man looking through this "Iraq Big Gun" is Dave Hill, he was he man that helped me fix my first "Moped" a rather knackered Yamaha DT50, I de-coked it and stripped one of the studs and then blew the head off it while on my way home in Purbrook, at the tender age of 16. If 30 years ago you would have said I would know Dave now I don't think I would have understood the significance of that.

I moved away from my home in Watford with a push bike and an attitude back in 1980 finding my feet during time spent working with Dave at a Pneumatics and Engineering business in Waterlooville. Positive role models were thin on the ground, but Dave was very different, postive, engauged and hilariosly funny. He was a surrogate Dad I suppose, certainly was while I worked with him in those early years.

Dave now spends his perpetual summers bounding between the UK and New Zealand every 6 months just living the life he and wife Mavis elect. He is a Grandad with a gold tooth and a passion for life and flight.

This weekend we flew to Duxford together and during that flight I passed my 1000th hour as P1 in a microlight, to spend my first working week and my 1000th hour with Dave was a delightful coincidence, and somewhat of an honour.

I am pleased to be able to say that Dave Hill is a friend of mine, and that is all you need....

Roll Call - Duxford

Jon Summers G-ORLA ZZZZ Redlands
Laure Wood G-TFLX EGHF Lee on Solent (Aircraft/Variance)
Gustav van Furan G-SUKY EGLS Old Sarum
Paul Leigh G-HTML ZZZZ Kent
Peter Shergold G-CGHZ EGHF Lee on Solent
Brian Searle G---ZH EGHF Lee on Solent
Colin Green G-CCHH EGHF Lee on Solent
Richard Wells G-SHEZ ZZZZ Thorney Island
Ross Cuthbertson G-CUTH ZZZZ Pyle
Daryl Cornelius G-DAFI zzzz Thorney Island
Richard Keyser G-CDLJ ZZZZ Colemore Common
John Amos G-BVHI ZZZZ Redlands

DH9 - Misson Duxford

This is a letter sent by a friend who mantored me when I was 16 and had left home in Watford to live by the sea! His name is Dave Hill and we are off to Duxford by Microlight at the weekend to see the DH 9

Just back from our trip to Belgium and a visit to Pat and Andrew Web, Pat is Roger Few's daughter and my God Daughter. I showed everyone a copy of Fred's letter written from the POW camp and copy of the Daily Telegraph Western front war map from October 1918. We soon had an expedition planned to visit the area in which Fred made a crash landing.

His aircraft, a DH9, was cut out from his 108 Squadron whilst on a raid over enemy lines,and with the Pilot wounded and unconscious, Fred , the Observer, some how or other made a landing and survived. The mark on the map put the crash site 12 Km ESE of Roeselare ( marked on the map as Roulers) just north of the N399 and about 4 Km SW of Tielt.

We didn't really expect to be super accurate about this but we eventually made it to that area and everyone felt a sense of something special. Fred must have been over that area, no doubt about that. I have attached a couple of photos showing us on site and a local farmhouse that could easily have been around in 1918. Now the one aspect about this story that seemed a little far fetched was a matter of fact passage from Fred's letter which read, '...my Pilot was
wounded in the leg and had fainted and whilst I was busy firing, the machine went into a spin. I pulled her out after 8000 ft. and afterwards crashed rather badly.' Now just think about that for a minute! It's Biggles stuff! But this is Fred talking and he was a pretty serious bloke.
I have flown a Tiger Moth and was taught how to recover from a spin, it's hard opposite rudder and then forward on the stick to regain flying attitude. So how did Fred manage to do all that from his cockpit way back down the fuselage?

I took a detailed look at the DH 4 and noticed the Observer cockpit was indeed way aft BUT the DH 9's Observer cockpit was up close to the pilot. Evidently the DH4's Observer cockpit proved to be a problem, separated by a fuel tank from the Pilot 's cockpit it made the aircraft more vulnerable to enemy fire and it was a problem for Pilot and Observer to communicate.
Geoffrey DeHaviland re-designed the aircraft and the DH9 version was born. So Fred in this aircraft had every possibility of pulling off that remarkable feat. OK he couldn't have got to the rudder control bar but I guess the Joystick sufficed.

The DH4 was still very much in service but Fred's 108 Squadron had the DH9 and that's the reason all those Fred Eveleigh folk are now living a life. That, plus a very determined Observer.
There's more to come. Another letter in the scrap book album is from a Mr Matheson. He wrote to Fred's parents saying how pleased he was that Fred had survived and although a POW was safe and sound. He hoped to hear soon that his son was safe. In the cuttings from The Daily Telegraph a Lt. A.M.Matheson is listed missing along with Fred. Matheson must have
been Fred's Pilot. The address on the letter is intriguing; Meadoville Station Road. Victoria Co. NS. Well that doesn't sound much like a British address, and indeed a quick Google Map inspection shows a Meadoville Station Road 15 Km due west of Pictou, Nova Scotia. But that's not Victoria County, so the plot thickens. Fred's Pilot was Canadian. I haven't got around to it yet but I would like to see if any of Lt. Matheson's relatives are still around.Anyone heading Nova Scotia way?