1476

XP816 • N9063V • C6-BIQ

N907TR

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de Havilland Aircraft, Hatfield, First flight 15-Sep-1961..

• XP816 Delivered 29-Sep-1961 to Army Air Corp.

Taken on charge by 19 Liaison Flight, 651 Light Aircraft Sqd. Middle Wallop, Hampshire on 04-Oct-1961.

To Cyprus Feb-1964 and flew in UN markings Feb/Jun with XP814 & XP825.

Again with its fellow aircraft it left Nicosia, Cyprus for Aden on 13-Jun-1964 flying via El Adem, Libya , Wadi Halfa, Sudan and Khartoum, Sudan, Asmara, Ethiopia. arriving 16-Jun-1964 and totalling 25hrs ,20min flying time. The pilots were Capt C.F.L. Wastie RASC, Capt J H Ingram, RASC & Capt D G Ashley, AAC All attached to 19Flt.. From Aden it (they) was put aboard HMS Centaur for Changi, Singapore 

Joined 30 Flight RASC as part of 656 Squadron at Changi, May-1964

Aircraft moved to Borneo 21-Sep-1964.

Re-designated 130 Flt, RCT (Royal Corp of Transport). 15-Jul-1965. Borneo.

On Detachment to Laos during 1970

Returned to the UK  Changi on 29-Sep-1970 arriving at Hurn, Bournemouth, UK on 29-Sep-1970 after flying overland arriving at Middle Wallop, Hampshire on 17-Oct-1970. Crew Lt N H W Ironside AAC and Cpl M K Everett, REME.

70 Aircraft Workshop REME, Middle Wallop, Hampshire.

Moved to 27MU Shawbury, Shropshire on 30-Oct-1970

19 MU St, Athan. Jul-1980.

5 MU Kemble. Jan-, Sth Glamorgan, 1983

Stored at Shawbury, Shropshire. Jun-1984

AAC Museum Store, Middle Wallop, Hampshire. 07-Aug-19843434e

Allocation to Army Historical Aviation Flight, Middle Wallop, Hampshire. Canx 1987

• N9063V Wipaire Inc., Inver Grove Heights, MN. Regd 04-Jun-1987,

• N9063V Sands Air Inc., Wilmington, DE. Regd 11-Feb-1988 & 18-Sep-2000, Canx 11-Dec-2002,

• C6-BIQ Sands Air Ltd., Bahamas .Regd Dec-2002

• N907TR Wattum Investments LLC., Kodiak, AK. Regd 09-Dec-2022.

• N907TR YR Aircraft Leasing LLC., Bethel, AK. Regd 17-Apr-2025.

• Current •

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A note from Michael Duddridge (Retired Lt Col RC). Thank you Michael.

I attach another photograph which you might find interesting. It is of XP816 again, piloted by me, taking-off from the flight deck of the carrier HMS Bulwark – the sixth ship bearing that name in the history of the Royal Navy - somewhere in the South China Sea. I see that it was on 10 May 1967, the total sortie time, including transiting out to the ship and back was two hours, and I made eight landings.

During the emergency in Borneo (1962 – 1966) 130 Flight Royal Corps of Transport had seven of its ten Beavers based on the old Brunei Airport (the other three were retained in Singapore to carry out sorties in Malaya).

From time to time it was necessary to return an aircraft from Brunei to our workshop in Singapore for a major inspection. As the Royal Navy occasionally sailed one of its carriers from the waters off Borneo to the dockyard in Singapore we would arrange to land on just after it sailed and fly off as it approached Singapore; the on-board hospitality of the Navy being infinitely preferable to a ferry flight of 670 nm.

These carriers were no longer flying fixed-wing aircraft but had a squadron of helicopters embarked to support the on-board Royal Marine Commando in their operations ashore; therefore the arrester gear and catapult had been removed from the flight-deck. However, the 650 feet of flight-deck was ample length for a Beaver taking off or landing, particularly with the ship steaming into wind.

When 130 Flight was withdrawn to Singapore after the end of the Borneo emergency I thought that deck landing was a useful skill for all the pilots to retain. I therefore arranged with the Royal Navy that whenever there was a Commando Carrier steaming in the area we would be grateful for a half-day of deck landing practice. Since it was another skill for their flight-deck crews to practice they were happy to agree.

My first experience of deck landing was on HMS Albion – sister ship to HMS Bulwark – on 7 August 1966. The aircraft was again XP816 and the carrier had just departed from its anchorage off the coast of the island of Labuan. After the passage I was due to fly off at dawn the next morning when the ship was a few miles from Singapore, however, there was a strengthening and a shift of wind direction during the night which would prevent the ship from turning into wind so close to Indonesian territorial waters. I was woken at 3 am with the news that my take-off time had been changed to an hour before dawn. So my first ever flight-deck take-off was in the dark.

PS I made it a rule in 130 Flight that pilots did not have a particular aircraft permanently assigned to them; the fact that I seem to be always flying XP816 is purely coincidental.

Regards,

Michael