Aviation Complete surprise!

[Richard Howard]

We were at a classic car show at the weekend with BMWCC being held at the Strumpshaw Steam Museum near Norwich - at the show was a local R/C aircraft club displaying some of their models - to my utmost surprise there was a model of a Piper PA25 Pawnee, a rare sight for a model, but what completely blew me away it was based upon one of the aircraft my Dad flew back in the 60's & 70's - talk about bringing a lump to your throat as Dad passed away some time ago.
I spoke to the builder of the model & explained the connection - he was just as surprised as I was - he said he used to see these charging around the Norfolk/Suffolk skies back in the day & thought it would nice to make one as no one had done one before, he found a photo on the internet of a PA25 & went from there, but it just happened to be a picture of Dad's aircraft he found .................. the rest, as they say is history!
Pic below of the model & one with G-ATER in action with my Dad at the controls!

 

[Jack Ratt]

Lovely story

 

[Low Rider]

How wonderful

 

[mrscalex]

That’s a great story

 

[Althulas]

What are the chances of that happening, strange how life events happen sometimes.

 

[mwpe]

Great story, it looks as though your dad flew it as a crop duster, they are more commonly used as glider tugs these days

 

[Richard Howard]

Great story, it looks as though your dad flew it as a crop duster, they are more commonly used as glider tugs these days

Yes, you are correct. He used to use modified Tiger Moths in the 50's & 60's before the proper aircraft became available, interestingly Dad always said he preferred the Tiger as he could turn quicker than in a Pawnee - but the payload was less in a Tiger. One of his old Pawnee's is indeed a glider tug being used by the South Wales Gliding club.