My grandfather owned one, it was the first twin engine aeroplane I ever flew. Aeroplanes are like Trigger’s broom. The maintenance schedules are strict, especially when flying the paying public and every few thousand flying hours an aeroplane is stripped to basics, inspected and any part that is close to its life’s hours replaced, and between major inspections there are regular checks to be carried out. Classic Wings Operations Manual would, within reason be familiar to any airline pilot. The Rapide is a joy to fly, if I ever have a huge lottery win a Rapide would be high on my list of toys to buy. I operate some extremely expensive and modern aircraft, have been a professional pilot for 37 years, but my heart will always be with “proper aeroplanes”
Have you flown a Piaggio P.180 Avanti? The fastest prop aircraft carrying passengers today. Pusher props, canards, angled wings, in the "wrong direction"!!!!!! NOT. Beautiful, and available for just 14 million Euros.
@@Demun1649 I have. Only on a demo flight and the sim at FSI West Palm Beach. I wouldn’t recommend it to a customer, there are very few about and maintenance and parts hard to come by. Anyone in that market I’d recommend King Air 250. My day flying job is Gulfsteam 650 or an AW169 helicopter and managing a fleet of 18 others for owners. My weekend flying is an Auster J1, and she is a much loved lady.
I had a flight in one of these from Oxford airport a few years ago as self-loading ballast accompanying my father-in-law as a treat for his 80th birthday. We were weighed before loading to ensure weight and balance was kept in limits. It was a lovely flight and a very gentle experience.
Flew in one from Marshalls in 1953, aged 13. Joined the air force and flew for 30 years in various aircraft including the Victor at Duxford which I last flew in Oct 1974
I've taken off and flown in a Rapide three times, but never managed a landing! It was in 1973 and the Rapide in question was the RAF Sports Parachute Club machine G-AGSH, which still exists and can be seen at Old Warden. People said I must be mad to jump out of a serviceable aeroplane, but my retort was that if you flew in the Rapide you'd be glad that you had two parachutes strapped to you!
G-AGTM and G-AJHO over Netheravon for me in '70 & '71 with the APA. Sadly HO was lost after an engine fire caused by a faulty fuel pipe necessitated a forced landing after taking off from Oxford, thankfully with no serious injuries.
I remember when as a child, there were Dragon Rapides flying round Blackpool Tower as pleasure flights. They took off from Squires Gate aerodrome and flew the 3 miles or so and then returned. There was one every ten or fifteen minutes and so there must have been quite a few performing this service.
I paid my 10/- and went for my flight around the tower. It was about 1960/61 I had flown in Chipmunks and it appeared to be another elderly rattle trap aircraft.
A friend relates the tale of a family trip to the Isles of Scilly in 1955 at about the time the SS Punta ran aground, and the pilot flew around the wreck several times so photographs could be taken. In the early '80s the same friend and I went up in a Rapide from Duxford, in very strong winds, and I was astonished at how little runway was required, and how smooth the 'plane was in the air. It was smoother than the Cessna 152 and PA28 I currently pilot.
I flew in a D H Dragon Rapide in the late 1940’s & several other old aircraft since then. I’m still here in 2024 so I guess it must be safe, no more dangerous than flying in a modern aircraft of today.
If your apprehensive , then walk away , don’t just condemn it out of hand . You where lucky to have that flight . But well done for challenging yourself
Did that flight around 40 years ago! (Though I think mine was only a short loop round the airfield). Enjoyed it enormously. Just think the plane was ancient then, and its now 40 years older!
I’m pretty sure that was the aircraft I flew in several years ago. The song of the Gypsy Queens is quite evocative. As someone commented elsewhere, ‘If it wasn’t safe, how do you think it got so old?’ I think the Trident was operated by BEA, not BOAC. Lovely film. Happy memories.
I believe this is the same Rapide that was stationed at Bembridge in the Isle of wight, that we flew in, many years ago, and now "trudles" leisurely over my house in Grantchester quite often.
@@dianeunderhill8506 Likewise; saved up the 10/- from my paper-round in Whitley. One year I flew on both the Friday and Saturday evenings; after the show on the Sunday evening, the lass taking the money recognised me and I got the last flight of the day for free. As you say, happy days indeed!
The first aircraft type I ever flew in from R A F Bassingbourn 1957 I think . My dad and I went up, cost ten bob a head .50p each decimal . Those were the days 😊😊
Nice video, shame about the title, I spent seven years in the 80's helping to restore the museums B17 then 'Maryalice', sadly the museum decided to repaint her in generic markings. The first day I volunteered I was asked if I had had an air experience flight and was told to be by the tower for a ride so we flew from Duxford to Shuttleworth for an air show in a Dragon Rapide, spent the afternoon there and at the end flew back to Duxford. At the time I lived in Suffolk with my wife and eventually we moved to Bedfordshire, work related, four miles from Shuttleworth, I had to stop volunteering as my job had me away from home a lot and we had a little girl to look after, still living near Shuttleworth and still getting loads of vintage aircraft over the house regularly. The ME 109 is actually a Buchon built by Hispano with a Merlin engine.
I live in Australia just north of Brisbane. I flew in a DH 84 Dragon (VH-UXG) from Caboolture airfield in 2011. A year later, it crashed, killing the owner pilot, his wife, and four other passengers. A case of pilot spacial disorientation in limited or no visibility weather conditions. By coincidence, the pilot's father had been killed in the same type of aircraft. Great to see the footage of Duxford. Been there twice on separate visits to the UK.
I nearly had a flight in one of these with my Dad in the late 1940s at an RAF open day. They were offering short flights and we decided to join the queue. As we waited the plane came in tail high and the pilot did a good job in, eventually, getting the nose up and lifting off to go-round. When he landed again the queue had disappeared. Like Dad & I, everyone waiting had decided 'not to bother!'
I certainly hope so, as i had a rather enjoyable flight in TX310 when she was with Classic Flight at Baginton (Coventry)... Fun memories of that place!
This was the first aircraft I ever flew in many years ago. We went around the Isle of Wight taking off from Bembridge aerodrome, on a grass runway. Would love to go again.
As a child in the 1950s I remember these planes flying from Weston-super-Mare to Cardiff. As a regular service We could actually see them in the distance taken off and landing from our bedroom window at worle
Flew in one of these out of BROXBOURNE AIRFIELD Herts when I was a small boy, I thought we were going to crash into the hedges at the end of the field, but it took off easily! Fantastic aircraft, it stays in my mind
I flew in the old girl in 2016 and just loved every second, although found the pilot rude, making us paying customers, already seated, shift seats to the back so his friends got a better view! 🇦🇺
My first flight was on one of these: at six years old in the 1950s on a 30 minute pleasure flight from Heathrow Airport. We flew over central London and docklands. Not the sort of jaunt that would be allowed today.
My first flight at North Weald just after WW2was with my dad, magic, so some 50 years later when I saw flight on one if these at Southend Airport, I took my son for a flight. One lady passes get had worked oh these aircraft during WW2 she had all the stories. Strangley, it was her first flight in one. As I say magic, all it needed was Piirot sitting in the back.
My first flight (and also my wartime RAF father's first) in a Rapide from Hendon during the 1957 Battle of Britain 'at home'. It cost 10/- each (50p). There were two silver ones operating from a Croydon-based company. It was quite bumpy over North London. In the early sixties I had a super evening flight over the coast from the grass field at Christchurch (near Bournemouth) G-AJGJ.
Best on a windy day. So much wing on such a light aircraft the day I went up it landed 3 times. Beautiful aircraft. They are to undergo more stringent tests than an modern passenger aircraft
Back in the ‘50s as a birthday present my uncle treated me to a 10 minute flight around Heathrow in one of these! First time in a plane, absolutely loved it! From memory I think it cost £1.00 for my uncle and £0.50 for me, which was a lot of money then!
I too have flown as a passenger in one of these on a commercial😮 airline. That was QCA, Queer Collection of Aircraft, or more correctly Queen Charlotte Airlines in British Columbia, Canada
Flown in Duxfords 89a every other weekend as a volunteer at IWM Duxford in late 70s well into the 90s. It has an airworthiness certificate and Gypsy Queens are ultra reliable. So yes although she's wood and canvas perfectly safe. I remember the sound fondly you could hear air whistle in the wing bracing.
In WW2 my father was medevaced in one....said that the wings sermed to flap alarmingly in rough air...he didn't fly in an airplane again until the mid 50s, in America
Chicken! Last time I flew in one it did remind me of an old sidecar, the 'quality' of the seat covering and the material used to cover the insides. I flew as a passenger in the Farnborough C47, that was wonderful, and then had a joyride in a privately owned one, not nearly so well looked after. At a show at North Weald, I spent a lot of time trying to get a ride in anything, being turned down by Sally B, the City of Lincoln, a Catalina and a B25. The guys with a Ju52 offered us a ride, but I walked around it, thanked them and said I would prefer to watch from the ground. Biggest regret was turning down a trip in a Shack, I had no way of getting home from Scotland in time for work on Monday morning.
@@harryfaber The Yanks were flying the Lockheed electra around the same time, it looked like a 2 engine civy version of the B17, The C47 was awesome but went too slow to crash, the PBY was so slow it had no flaps and the Ju 52 was worth keeping in a museum. On the other hand the Avro Shackleton was superb. I have never been in one not even in VR but they served really well for a very long time until someone stuffed one into a hill.
I am SO jealous of you, The Dragon Rapide is my favourite aircraft of ALL TIME. Could you tell me how much it cost as I would love to do this myself. Thanks
I think my Mother flew in one from Renfrew (Glasgow) to Wick, via a refueling stop at Inverness, as the plane couldn't be refueled at Wick, in the early to mid 1950s. The through passangers waited in a hut (might not have been Inverness terminal) near the plane. They flew up the Great Glen, below the mountain tops, so about 3000ft.
Strange question. I flew in this aircraft a few years ago the thing you never managed to video is when the engines rev for take off the canvas wing vibrates superb! I have successfully flown in a Dakota, B17, Spitfire, Concorde G BOAD and a Lancaster over Niagara Falls but the lucky man (old ELP song) I am flew in a Swiss Junkers 52 which you probably have seen in the opening credits of WHERE EAGLES DARE. Swiss engineers look after it 3 BMW engines and very experienced pilots must be very safe?. How wrong can you be a week after my flight it crashed killing everyone. Report found atrocious safety issues and pilots flew it like boy racers! AS WITH FLYING IN A MODERN JET THE MOST DANGEROUS THING YOU DID ALL DAY WAS DRIVE TO DUXFORD IN YOUR CAR. On average over the nearly 200 years of rail travel in UK 20 deaths per year! Last year 29000 death or severe injuries on the UK roads, that’s 2 jumbo jets crashing with 100% casualties each week!
Safer than a Boeing 737, with its fires, defective batteries, undercarriage falling off, doors falling off, and parts of the wings falling off, and, this is quite important, engines falling off. Imagine if all the engines fell off, they'd be stuck up there for days!!! 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
As a child in the 1950s I remember these planes flying from Weston-super-Mare to Cardiff. As a regular service We could actually see them in the distance taken off and landing from our bedroom window at worle
