BMPA History

1999 Autumn Meeting, September 3-5, Coventry

Friday 3rd September

Arrival and afternoon buffet at Coventry Aeroplane Club followed by a medieval banquet at Coombe Abbey Hotel. The hotel traces its origins to a 12th century Cistercian Abbey. Dissolved in 1539, extended by the Harrington family, sold to the Cravens in 1622 and then to John Gray, a builder, in 1922, it first opened as a hotel in 1995. Its 500 acres of parkland with 80 acre lake were designed by Capability Brown at the end of the 18th Century and its bedrooms are described as theatrical.

Saturday 4th September

Tour of the engineering facility of Air Atlantique followed by Historic Flights (Rapide, Twin Pioneer and Percival Prentice). Air Atlantique's origins lie in Jersey in 1969. It is now a conglomerate of aviation related companies owning Caernarfon airfield, owning and operating a fleet of 5 Lockheed Electras and one of the worlds largest collections of DC3s. Two of the latter are on permanent standby for spraying detergent on oil slicks. Lunch at Coventry Airport followed by visit to Lunt Roman fort reconstruction, a partial reconstruction with gateway, ramparts and granary housing a Museum of the Roman Army. Free time in Coventry City Centre to explore the Cathedral, Herbert Art Gallery, Museum of British Road Transport or shopping precint with jazz band. Annual dinner at Coventry University (formely Lanchester Polytechnic).

Sunday 5th September

AGM in the Stuart Room at Coombe Abbey Hotel followed by Coventry Aeroplane Club Formation Flight Display (Foxtrot Formation, which consists of seven club members and training aircraft) or visit to Midlands Air Museum. Buffet lunch at Coventry Aeroplane Club.

Report

Coombe Abbey Hotel was the antidote to Stockport. Cistercian Abbey in the 12th Century it may have been but any notion of asceticism, austerity or self denial left when the developers moved in. The only remaining elements of mysticism came from the revered hush and near Stygian gloom of the entrance hall, the latter designed, I believe, to engender mood rather than from a misplaced economy drive on bulbs or electricity.

We convened during Friday afternoon on the first floor of the new clubhouse of the Coventry Aeroplane Club and lingered over an ample buffet lunch/tea. Coventry Airport has the advantage of a heavy commercial traffic that all happens at night - the main hub for Her Majesty's Mails - leaving all the facilities for the rest of us to use by day. The Club balcony afforded a view of the intrepid who groped their way below the Birmingham zone through haze bordering on smog. It is not a primary navigation tool, perish the though, but thank goodness for GPS. Transport to Coombe Abbey was by mixed convoy of minibus and other assorted surface vehicles. Once there members prepared themselves for the banquet to come, some fortifying the inner self with drink and conversation in the well tended gardens, some by contemplation of the ceiling above their beds and some by wandering the grounds until the appointed hour.

One imagines banquets in medieval times to be held in poorly ventilated virtually unheated smoky halls where indifferent food accompanied by beer and mead in large quantities was served by wenches and villeins in apparel of doubtful cleanliness. This banquet, although inspired by that image, was a product of the last months of the twentieth century with excellent well cooked food, good wines, smart service and well rehearsed entertainment by a choir drawn from the attendants. Audience/diner participation was encouraged and the end result justified that confidence.

Air Atlantique opened their doors to us on Saturday morning, their new terminal being housed in a large cunningly assembled agglomerate of Portakabins. The entertainment was in two parts, tours of their hangars and flights in historic aircraft. The hangars were notable for their large collection of DC3s or variants, some later but nevertheless venerable machines undergoing routine maintenance, two DH Rapides and the airframe constituents of a handful of Britten Norman four seat touring aircraft that never came to fruition. A revelation to me were DC3 wings which can be quickly removed outboard of the engines by undoing myriad tiny bolts. A substantial park of aircraft being restored for the museum (see later) included an Avro Shackleton (50,000 rivets flying in loose formation) which was open for our inspection.

Antique flying was limited by the only passenger licensed DC3 being in Blackpool and the absence of any Rapide rated pilot. Some of us were lucky and got rides in a Percival Prentice before its brakes gave out under the strain and everyone who wanted got airborne in the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer before lunch in the airport restaurant. For those who missed this visit, Air Atlantique do tours for the general public including rides in their antiques for a modest charge (01203 88269).

After lunch our coach took us a few yards up and across the road to what was scheduled as a short visit to the Lunt Roman Fort. This is a reconstruction of the outer palisade, defences and some of the buildings. One of the latter is also a museum where we met our guide. His enthusiasm and extensive knowledge, particularly of the way that people lived, proved infectious and kept us all enthralled for most of the afternoon. One of the special features of the fort, apart from the lovely weather, was and is a horse training ring, added after the main buildings, one of only three identified outside Rome. It is suggested that losses of fully trained animals to sea transport made it much cheaper to ship untrained ones and then train the survivors or locally impressed beasts for despatch all over Britain.

One we had steeped ourselves in ancient Rome we went on to Coventry City Centre, most to view the Cathedrals and then back to Coombe Abbey to recoup our energies for the evening.

The Association's Annual dinner was taken in the Lanchester refectory of Coventry University. After inital confusion over the numbers and their seating, 58 members and their guests dined in good fellowship with customary informal speeches thereafter. The Guinness Cup was won by the outgoing president Tony Watson and the President's Cup was awarded to Andrew Clymo for innovation (Informal Meeting at Shenington).

Sunday dawned fine. The AGM meeting preceed our return to Coventry Airport where members of the Coventry Aeroplane club in their club's training aircraft treated us to a formation flying display. We then walked a short distance outside the perimeter to the Coventry Air Museum. This has extensive indoor displays, notably one about Sir Frank Whittle - a local boy, and static aircraft parked outside. Some of these, manned by volunteers, were open to visitors.

Another sumptuous buffet at the Coventry Aeroplane Club preceeded departures by road or air. My personal experience was of dodging thunderstorms but nevertheless arriving well ahead of the ground party.

Andrew Clymo