Manky Monkey Motors

I've never been to this event before, although it's in it's tenth year now. It clashes with the Rudgewick steam fair, which I really enjoy & is only about 5 miles away, (just outside Guildford in Surrey), so I've seen the queues of traffic heading to it. This year though, I went to Rudgewick on the Saturday, then had a surprise invitation from a friend at work to spend the day with her at Dunsfold Park for the Wings & Wheels show on the Sunday. It'd be most ungallant to refuse a lady, so off we went.
She belongs to the "Vulcan to the Sky" group, which raises money to keep the Avro Vulcan bomber flying. As part of her membership, she gets entry to the Vulcan VIP viewing area, right by the side of the runway, so we literally had ringside seats for the day.
Dunsfold's the airfield where the BBC film "Top Gear" & was also the site for this year's ill fated Wheels Day show. Interesting to see the other side of the coin after the very public battering that the guys from The Surrey Street Rodders received on social media sites for that. Wings & Wheels suffered exactly the same problems-

3 mile queues to get in, (took us about 45 minutes, but we were expecting it, so arrived in plenty of time).
Long queues for food & loos.
45 minutes to get off site afterwards.
At 1pm it was announced that the Park had reached capacity & they'd have to shut the gates, only allowing in those with pre-paid tickets. The show had it's own dedicated radio station, so at least some of those in the queues outside would have had some warning before they got to the entrance.

The difference was though that no-one complained about it. Maybe it was a more mature audience, but everyone accepted there would be queues, especially with the added attraction of the World's only 2 airworthy Lancaster bombers flying. As the organisers said, the roads are grid locked outside, so you might as well stay on after the displays finish & get something to eat, browse the trade stalls or just enjoy the evening sunshine. We did all 3. Makes me think the SSR got very unfair treatment from those that like to shout about these things.

Anyway, we watched all the flying displays, got sunburnt, (again), bumped into a few friends & generally had a fantastic day. At 25 quid a ticket it was expensive, but still worth every penny. I'm not really a plane person, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I make no apology for posting lots & lots of photos.  :)

A Chinook helicopter, (named after a Red Indian word for wind if I remember right?). The entire British fleet ... squadron? whatever, are based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, about 7 miles from home for me. So we see them all the time. Not standing on their noses though, or flying backwards. Or virtually upside down. Something the size of a shipping container really shouldn't be able to do that. The "Elephant's ballet" as the commentator called it.
Notice the guy hanging out of the side door, waving at the crowd.

...and standing on the rear loading platform waving a pair of giant red gloves.

I had an Airfix model of this when I was a kid. I remember the paint scheme. No idea what it is.

Some of that aerobatic stuff by the "Blades" display team.
Photos taken with the little Fuji camera that Merv so kindly donated to me a few months ago. Still working Merv!

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Superb flying skills there lovely move with so much procession
Bloke with the Camara not bad aether nice shots there Andy
Gaz  

I just point it & press the button thingy.  :P

The Great War Memorial Flight.
Replicas of World War One flying machines. There were 9 of these, circling & wheeling in mock dog fights. Fascinating to watch -I hadn't realised just how frail they were -really more like motorised kites than aeroplanes.

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One of the German Fokker triplanes was being flown by Bruce Dickinson, a qualified airline pilot & frontman for Iron Maiden. A lot of the team were airline pilots.

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There were a few Fokkers around in those day's Andy,

I knew someone would have to mention it!

As the commentator said, it took just 54 months to take the newly discovered power of flight & turn it into a fully functioning air force -about the same time it takes to design an in-flight movie system now.

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Home in time for tea & medals, as I believe the inglorious Lord Flashheart said.

Glorious. A Dakota DC3/C17, Mustang, B something or other light bomber & a Hurricane. 

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4 beautiful aeroplanes, but as they flew down the length of the runway, they were totally eclipsed by the 2 slow moving giants that had just appeared over the tree tops in the distance. The superstars of the show. Every head turned to watch as the only 2 surviving airworthy Lancaster bombers in the World made their entrance, escorted by a Spitfire & a Hurricane. This was what everyone had come to see & to be honest, Id've happily paid my 25 quid just for that moment. The first time since 1956 that more than one Lanc has flown in the skies over Britain.
Our own British one, joined by the Canadian example that flew over a couple of weeks ago.
A truly awesome sight. They were surprisingly quiet, but you could've heard a pin drop as they slowly circled the airfield half a dozen times before heading off into the distance. They really did bring a lump to your throat.
Again, I'm not apologising for posting loads of slightly fuzzy snaps of them -when are you likely to see this again?

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Enough with the Lancasters already?
Fair enough. Farewell boys.

Once they'd disappeared, a sizeable section of the crowd actually packed up & went home. Suprising as it was only halfway through the day.

Their loss. Next up were the equally British Red Arrows. Hurrah for the Blue ...white ...& red. Actually I didn't even notice that at the time. The photo's definitely the right way up, so I'm not sure what was going on there.

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Once the guys in the red flight suits had done their thing, there was a break in the flying displays, so time to check out the Wheels side of the show. Must admit, it wasn't quite as impressive as the flying, but then a static car display is always going to struggle, competing with screaming engines & coloured smoke. Lots of modern Japanese sports cars on show, which aren't really my thing, but a few hotrods & classics scattered between them. Many were queuing to drive down the runway, though I'm not sure if they were racing or simply displaying.
The Wall of Death never fails to draw a crowd. Roll up, roll up!

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Yes, the bike is running on the rollers.

Friends Ellie & Jimmy of Valley Gas Speed Shop were there with some of their clothing range & period lifestyle accessories.

I'm guessing he's Dutch. Or mad. Or both.

If you need to polish your Monkey, this would seem to be the very stuff.

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Dunsfold's answer to the Goodwood Festival of Speed sculptures? As Top Gear's filmed here, I wondered whether the 3 amigos had a hand in this display?

A modern Morgan.

The White Helmets, the longest serving motorcycle display team in the World, made up of members of the Royal Signals regiment, still riding Triumph T140 Bonnevilles.

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Lay on the ground & hold this ramp while we all ride over you -yeah, O.K

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Now climb up this ladder & juggle these balls.

Then stand on your head

...your 'avin' a laugh aren't you?!

They were definitely struggling a bit over the bumpy ground -is it me or do they all look a bit precarious here? -not that I'd want to try it.

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John Dodd's legendary 27 litre Merlin engined "Beast". Featured in all the best car magazines back in the 70s & recently returned to these shores from Spain. I've never heard it run but I'm told it's disappointingly quiet.

A local car, also featured in Custom Car magazine a while ago. This is most definitely not a standard Ford Pop.

This guy was absolutely serious about his creation & had apparently had a lot of interest from potential backers, including the offer of free workshop space at Dunsfold. Personally I think he needs to work on reducing the size of it to make it a viable form of transport. So, how would DVLA categorise -& tax, this then?

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Back to the skies & the Red Arrows were up again -hang on though, something's not quite right there.

1/4 scale remote control models of the Darts that the Arrows fly, (about 6 feet long). These 2 were flown by a father & son team who held an entire airshow audience enthralled with a perfectly synchronised display, reproducing the real Arrows' routine, right down to the coloured smoke. Each plane's worth 12,000 quid & uses 100 quid's worth of fuel for each flight. They even wore this year's Red Arrows tail fin graphics.

Between the scheduled displays, various planes headed off home or to other events.

Then it was time for the second superstar of the day.
The iconic Vulcan bomber came swooping in over the tree tops. This beast really does look like the Bat Plane. Designed by the same guy who came up with the Lancaster & amazingly, flown for the first time just eleven years after them, it's light years apart from the World War Two bombers. It uses the same engines as Concorde & whistles as it approaches then lets loose a truly awesome roar as it hits full boost & climbs into a long sweeping turn. Another beautiful British design classic.

The only Vulcan left is owned by a private consortium -the British Government don't pay for it's upkeep. It costs 38,000 quid a week to fly this thing -all raised by public donations.

My companion for the day proudly told me her name's one of thousands inscribed on the bomb bay doors as a means of raising funds. That's actually pretty cool!

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"Why? Because I'm Batman".   8)

More from the 50s/60s age of the jet.
The larger, stubby winged one's a Canberra, one of my favourite planes. Not sure of the other one but it had a fabulous sound.

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British Spitfire, American Mustang.
The Mustang didn't see major service till after the War, so these 2 designs rarely flew together, though the Mustang draws directly from the design of the Spit'. The American plane has a distinctive howl, caused by the air passing over it's machine gun ports. Both were wearing the black & white D Day invasion stripes, used to easily identify the various Allied planes from the enemy's.

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An American light bomber. Can't remember the number, but it's a B something or other. Damn good looking plane.

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Bomb bay doors open.

Fancy a bit of wing walking?
These young girls are strapped into harnesses on top of the wings, that allow them to spin themselves through 360 degrees. It's no easy ride though. At times they're fighting against 6G -6 times the force of gravity. So if they weighed 10 stone, it would be 60 stone. Try lifting your leg above your head when you weigh 60 stone -6 inches from the slashing blades of the propeller.

Could you stand on your head?

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Passing a baton from one plane to the other.

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Gorgeous Dakota. The oldest aeroplane design in the World still earning a living. Still in regular use in many South American countries, as well as Canada & the Arctic Circle.

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Classic simplicity. Lovely.

The Tiger Club. Affordable, entry level flying. These planes come as a kit & use 1600cc VW Beetle engines. The starting point for many professional pilots. The club was responsible for the famous Tiger Moth design.
They put on a great display of low level flying -between 500 feet & just 3 feet. Two guys holding up poles with a rope strung between them simulated a barn door, which they duly flew through. That was followed by aerial bombing, dropping flower bombs on a target, then balloon bursting, where helium balloons were released from the ground & the pilots competed to burst them by catching them in their propellers, with amazing accuracy.

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And finally an awesome display by the Apache helicopter crew.

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25 quid sounds expensive, but we had a fantastic day out with a very full programme of entertainment. We finally made it home around 10 in the evening, thoroughly worn out. A good day.

Thanks for the piccies MM, I'm not really into planes, but that is so patriotic. Great stuff. I actually used to fly on Dakotas with Singapore air lines, from Holland to Morocco whilst employed by Shell Gas. They used to creak and shudder, the wing passes right through the fuselage, and everyone used to try to avoid the seats on there. You could see them moving 

 :D I've never been onboard a Dakota, but think they just look gorgeous. 

Sigh...........  the two Lancasters must have sounded brilliant.............. nice pics Andy.

Afraid I'm gonna be really sad   ::), but the bikes are Tigers............ the single carb'd version, less to go wrong maybe when your bouncing over jumps and through fire  (I'll get me coat)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Signals_Motorcycle_Display_Team

Well their own commentator described them as T140s -which are Bonnies aren't they? (mine was). They had huge rear sprockets -almost the diameter of the wheel rims.
The Lancs were quite quiet -or maybe they were just drowned out by the clatter of a thousand camera motor drives. "Majestic" would be a good description.

Dat's strange...... Yep, T140's were the twin-carb'd 750cc Bonnevilles (T140V - splayed-inlet head, T140E - parallel-inlet head). I even remembered that you had one.
Maybe the team converted their T140s to single carb.

Found this advert

CLASSIC 1977 TRIUMPH (HARRIS SPEC.) BONNEVILLE T140 T140V 'WHITE HELMETS'

FOR SALE 1977 TRIUMPH (HARRIS SPEC.) SINGLE CARB. BONNEVILLE T140V TIGER SPECIAL in Jaguar British Racing Green. Ex Royal Signals White Helmets’ Display Bike in use by Display Team from 1978 to 2001 Fully restored by Team Sergeant and registered in 2005. Features include: Original engine with matching numbers to frame (Triumph Motorcycle Owners’ Club Certificate shows that the bike was despatched in August 1977 and assembled as part of the 1978 production year), · Amal single carburettor and single inlet manifold, (A single carburettor was the standard specification for the Triumph Tiger), · Heavy duty Paioli forks in Harris yokes with new T160 springs, · Harris plates welded to down tubes for extra engine...

Meriden were making the bikes in 1977 (and up until 1980 I think), so for this to be a Harris spec (from around '84, with the Paioli forks), its a bit of mix 'n' match, but could go a way to clarifying it a bit........ maybe....... perhaps....... :-\

Still lovely looking bikes, whatever they are.