Update 14 - December 2024

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with 2Excel Engineering who a couple of weeks ago took delivery of G-AGRW’s horizontal stabilisers for their apprentices to begin restoration work on in the New Year. 2Excel is a well established Maintenance and Repair Organisation operating out of the ex Dan-Air facility at Lasham airfield in Hampshire. Concentrating on Boeing and Airbus narrow-bodied aircraft heavy maintenance checks they have a comprehensive programme training the engineers of tomorrow. Those new recruits will get the opportunity to work on parts of G-AGRW as part of their studies.

Wednesday 19th March is a date for your new 2025 diary! We’ve teamed up with the Login Lounge in Camberley to host a fun-filled evening of live Rock & Roll from Surrey band, Straight Circles. Tickets are just £13 and thanks to generous sponsorship by RPM Aviation we hope ‘Vagabond Rocks!’ will be a very successful fundraising event for BHT. See flyer below and head to the web site to book your tickets.

Our stalwart engineering team have made fantastic progress in the last few months. Work has continued in a variety of areas, both on and off site. Paint stripping continues on the nacelles, landing gear doors, engine cowlings and inner wings, some of which have been etch primed. Landing gear bays have also been further stripped of pipework and cleaned in preparation for some paint, conditions permitting. The inner wings have had damage on the leading edges cut out and repaired with ongoing work on the spars. A few of the team visited Safran to see the progress made by the apprentices on the landing gear. This is on schedule to be returned to us in the New Year. We had a number of sessions attempting to undo the propeller hub nuts, eventually achieved with the assistance of Collards and a suitably large impact gun. We have yet to lift the prop assemblies clear. On the fuselage, steady progress continues on making, waterproofing and fitting the wooden window frame surrounds. The aim being to fit the exterior aluminium frame strips and temporary windows in place to enable winter work on the interior in slightly more comfortable conditions. Below floor level a start has also been made on repairing some of the larger damaged areas around the baggage doors.

Merry Christmas from the Tech Team!

The back end of the summer saw us attend a number of events including the Twilight Runway Challenge where volunteer Tim Read (pictured below) ran the 10km to raise money for BHT. Well done Tim. Our events team had stands at Modelfest Farnborough, Heathrow Aircraft Enthusiasts Fair and the rescheduled Abingdon Air Show. Our eBay shop run by James Burton had a record breaking day in mid December when nearly £200 worth of models were purchased in one day. James spends hours each month listing, packing and dispatching models and books which have been kindly donated to BHT. From Sunday 16th February our Shop at Blackbushe will be open every Sunday between 1000 and 1400hrs. It will provide a more consistent presence which should increase sales and potential new volunteers.

Tim Read completes the Twilight Challenge in aid of BHT

Our Thursday talks programme restarted for the season in September and we were treated to an excellent talk by Squadron Leader Rick Lipscomb from the Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transportation Squadron. Most recently Trustee Dave Payne presented ‘Propliners Part 2’ to a packed out Pathfinder cafe. Dave has been collecting aviation slides for many years and spent hours scanning them onto his PC for use in the presentation. Finally our last event for the year was our popular Christmas social, it was a chance for volunteers and supporters to get together before the busy festive period. Congratulations to all our Christmas raffle winners and a big thank you to the many local businesses who kindly provided prizes. A reminder that our talks programme runs from September to April on the 3rd Thursday of the month.

We have overhauled our volunteer induction process which has needed improvement for a while. Now when prospective new volunteers get in touch Mark Williams will take responsibility for introducing them to BHT and if they choose to get involved will support them until established with either team. We have designed a new paper welcome pack which will be given to new joiners with important information on getting started.

It was great to welcome Benno Beran and his wife Melitta to Blackbushe in late September. Benno is a founding member of the Austrian Aviation museum at Bad Voslau where Vagabond resided for 12 years before we took ownership and brought the aircraft back to the UK. He was thrilled to see the great progress which has been made to date by our dedicated tech team and the super facilities we have available.

Benno Beran (left) receives a “Vagabond” print from Trustee Pat Marchant

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new publication in association with Propliner magazine called ‘Viking Reflections’. The small magazine is a compilation of four previously published articles, the history of Vagabond, history of the Vickers VC.1 Viking, British European Airways and Eagle Viking histories and fleet details. This will shortly be available to purchase from our shop and online. Gary Browne and Pete Vickery have put a lot of hard work into this, maybe the first of a series of BHT publications. Also a reminder, our 2025 calendar is a great buy at £8 featuring line drawings of G-AGRW throughout its life.

It was an absolute privilege to meet two former Viking pilots who used to fly from Blackbushe, on 9th November. Bruce Forbes flew our Viking on over 40 flights whilst working for Autair and Peter Leach flew the Viking with Eagle Airways. They both visited with their sons who are current British Airways long haul Captains and between them we were able to record a very interesting interview. Some fascinating stories were shared including operating into Berlin during the Air Lift, the lack of waterproofing in the cockpit, the Blackbushe crew room and the many characters who worked for both companies. We look forward to inviting them both back to Blackbushe soon.

Captain Scott Forbes, former Autair Viking pilot Bruce Forbes, former Eagle Airways pilot Peter Leach, Captain Patrick Leach and Trustee Dave Payne pose for a photo during their visit to Blackbushe on 9th November.

And finally, it is always great to receive artefacts to add to our collection connected with the Airport or the Viking. We were particularly pleased to hear from Angelena Kench in November who offered us an original Viking seat which has been in her family for many decades. It will be safely stored until our new museum is open but in the meantime the history team are busy researching more about its past.

The Viking seat offered by Angelena Kench

With that, it’s a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2025,

Peter, Dave, Pat, Paul, Chris, Becky and Mark
Trustees