Events and Shows with The Historic Army Aircraft Flight

Imagine a world where the roar of vintage aircraft engines mingles with excited gasps from the crowd. Imagine many faces, young through to old, thrilled with the nostalgia of bygone times, captivated by the sights and smells of vintage engineering, all packaged up in distinctive historic helicopters and aircraft. Imagine being part of a team that has the unique privilege…

A Volunteer Apprentice’s view of the HAAF

Hi all! My name is Izzie. I am an Apprentice engineer with Boeing and have a huge passion for historic aviation and preserving airworthy vintage aircraft for future generations. As a result, I have been volunteering with the HAAF on and off since October 2021. I have been asked to give our readers a brief overview of some of the…

Formation flypast practice

This year on Sunday 12th November, HAAF had planned to conduct a Remembrance Day flypast at Middle Wallop and over several local villages. Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions being poor and below our minimums for the flight, the Auster and Scout pair’s flight was cancelled. As an aspiring pilot, I figured I would share what it was like to…

WE HAVE (ELECTRICAL) POWER

Angle brackets, hinged clasp assembly, battery and assorted rubber strips ready for mocking up the fit. First mock-up Paint and rubber pads applied Hinged cover attached and the over-centre clasp installed. Next step, having made two battery mounting kits, was to pass the bits onto our resident Fixed-Wing-Aircraft Avionic-Systems-Installation and Modification Team (FWAASIMT) – Guy Musgrove.  Guy is constructing and…

1942 STYLE AND PATINA; 21st CENTURY TECHNOLOGY

In 1942 when our Auster Mk1 was manufactured, there was only one aim and that was to fully support the war effort. The aircraft were simple, the mission straightforward and back then, technology only had a small part to play in operating safely and effectively. The cockpit dashboard pictured below shows there was just enough instrumentation for the pilot to…

SPAR-ING PARTNERS

With apologies (again) for a terrible pun-title, behold the latest update from the Auster maintenance team regarding progress on the reconditioning of our 1942 Auster Mk1. With the mantra “There shall be no play in the control system”, the team have been inspecting every aspect of the Auster’s flying controls – including the horizontal flying trim system. This trim control…