I still have the photograph, but not the camera.

The camera was a Kodak Brownie, probably worth a lot of money these days, quite collectible I’m told. As for the photograph, well that’s not worth any money, not to anyone else that is, it is not even a good image.

I think it must have been about 1955 when I took the snap because I was no more than six years old. The black and white image is of a lampost and a telegraph pole with a fuzzy, out of focus black dot, in the sky behind it.

That fuzzy black dot was a Tiger Moth and even at that age I was plane mad. I would sit in my parents back garden in Highdown, Southwick watching planes fly over our house, wondering at that time of life where they came from.

I knew it was a Tiger Moth, I had books with pictures of them. However what I was too young to know was that we had Shoreham Airport close by, not more than 5 miles away in fact.

I would learn about the airport a few years later, but I had already made up my mind, I was going to fly a Tiger Moth one day, it was a challenge that I made to myself and I never let go of it.

Some said that I wandered through that childhood with my head in the clouds and those that did say it, (teachers for the most part) were not far wrong. I was always dreaming of and imagining travelling in open cockpits with silvered wings.

I absorbed and studied the magnificent cloud formations that drifted over my head at my childhood home in Southwick, Sussex. I would sit for ages fascinated by the different cloud formations in the back garden of my parents’ home at number 58 Highdown, especially in the evenings when the colours of the setting sun would often add to the spectacle.

My imagination would see shapes and patterns that only conjured up more enthusiasm to go aloft and journey amongst them. I think this is what led me into watching the Tigers because they shared that sky with the very clouds I had already become fascinated with.

It was 31^st August 1981 that I fulfilled that childhood dream of flying a Tiger Moth. I was a member of Air South Flying Group at Shoreham, I had gained my licence in 1977 and was enjoying flying the Clubs Chipmunk and Piper Cub, both of which had a tail-wheel undercarriage configuration. The club was owned and operated by John and Jenny Pothecary and I had been helping John with the restoration of the DH82A Tiger Moth G-ADXT. This led to John allowing me to fly her.

But you see it doesn’t stop there. The point to this story is that one of the very Tigers I had watched as a lad and indeed the one I had taken the photo of was still there at Shoreham. G-AOZH was owned by Victor “Vic” Wheele.

Vic owned and ran Southdown Cars on the Old Shoreham Road, which is now a housing estate on the A270. He owned two Tigers and both had been operated by Southern Aero Club. G-AOIS was resting in a hangar with its wings removed but G-AOZH was still a flyer.

My adrenalin started running when I first spied her in Vic’s hangar, she was now bright yellow with anodised cowlings, this being the colours and markings of the RAF training command of the 1930’s and 40’s. Boy they knew how to inspire people in those halcyon days.

Vic had apparently asked John Pothecary if he knew of someone who would help him to take his Tiger Moth down to RAF St Athans, where his son Greg was serving as a Squadron leader. To my amazement and eternal gratitude John mentioned my name.

Vic approached me and asked if I wouldn’t mind, (wouldn’t mind) flying the Tiger with him to the RAF Open day at St Athans. Did you think I considered telling him, “I would have to think about it”. Did I hell, I bit his bloody arm off. He did have one proviso though and that was I had to be checked out by Greg, a current Harrier and Hawk pilot.

Greg and I pushed the Tiger out of the hangar and into the sunlight. In the morning light the bright yellow of the airframe and wings almost blinded me, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, you see I was about to go full circle. Here was the aircraft in my photo of long ago, not only had I now flown a Tiger, but I was about to fly my very own childhood memory. The blurry photograph image had now been transformed before me into a beautiful biplane.

I sat in the cockpit of G-AOZH on the 10^th May 1994 and looked around the instrument panel and up at the wings, a very intense feeling of “Déjà Vu” came over me. I was about to take my fuzzy childhood Tiger Moth up into the wild blue yonder and let the air get under its tyres.

The moment had finally come…Chocks in…Fuel on…throttle set…magnetos on…stick back…Left arm outstretched with thumb up shouting “CONTACT” to the brave soul that was about to hand swing the prop. Engine started and oil pressure rising…Four minutes to warm the engine…oil temperature at 40 degrees. The engine run has to be done with chocks still under the wheels as the Tiger has no brakes. Run up the engine to 1600 RPM with the two magneto switches alternated on and off to ensure nothing amiss. All ok, close the throttle and signal “CHOCKS AWAY” to the ground crew.

Greg’s check out was very thorough, as can be expected, not only as a professional military pilot but also having an invested interest in the family Tiger. 

We stalled it, we spun it, we looped it and rolled it. I just knew I was going to have trouble getting the flies off my teeth when I landed. The flight was perfect in all senses and Greg was satisfied of my ability to fly her. We were all set to take G-AOZH to St Athans.

It was on the 26^th June 1994 that Vic and I set off for the weekend Airshow at St Athans, all paid for by the Queen I may add. It was the start of a lasting friendship with Vic until his passing some years later.

Do I wish I had kept the camera and not the photo, no absolutely not…I know the photo has no intrinsic value, but it means the world to me and to the memory of a little boy from long ago with a camera in his hand who used to stare up at the clouds and watch the Tigers in the sky.

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This story is dedicated to my good friend Victor “Vic” Wheele who folded his wings on the 28th April, 2010. Blue skies and fair winds “Vic”