http://www.scilloniaairways.com/Scillonia_Airways/Scillonia_Airways_-_News/Scillonia_Airways_-_News.htmlTwenty four years after it arrived at Membury Airfield in Wiltshire in a derelict condition, de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapide G-AHAG made its first post restoration flight with Air Atlantique’s Jon Corley at the controls on August 19, and is now undergoing certification flight testing prior to issue of a Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A). The aircraft has been modified for a full public transport C of A, but unlike all other Rapides it has also been equipped and approved for full Class-A/Airways IFR flight. The owners plan to have the aeroplane out and about a great deal over the next few years.
The restoration has taken approximately 8,000 man hours, with work starting back in 1979 with owner Ralph Jones. Shortly before his death in 2009, the rebuild became a full-time project under the leadership of David Findon. For the past four years the staff at the Membury-based Flight Composites company have been working on the 1941-built machine, aided by half a dozen volunteers, with some work also taking place at Sky4 Aviation at Branscombe Airfield in Devon.
Originally supplied to the Air Council with the serial X7442 and delivered to the RAF in November 1941 as a D.H. Dominie, it joined No 4 Signals School at RAF Madley, Herefordshire, the following month. Post war it flew as a hack with Hawker Aircraft Ltd, based at Langley and then Dunsfold. Withdrawn from use in June 1965, five months later it was very nearly burned at the Hawker Sports Club bonfire night celebrations, but fortunately someone thought better of it and the following May the aeroplane entered service with Scillonia Airways at Newquay. The C of A expired in July 1968, and two years later ’HAG was acquired by the Army Parachute Association and taken by road to Netherhaven where it became a spares source for Rapide Mk 6 G-AGTM.
As one Rapide joins the UK scene, another is set to depart. The Military Aviation Museum (MAM) in Virginia Beach has acquired D.H.89 G-ACZE from an owner on the Isle of Wight. Painted in a Royal Flight colour scheme, it replaces the similarly attired Rapide N89DH, a 2010 Oshkosh award winner which was sold by MAM to Lewis Air Legends at San Antonio, Texas, during the summer of 2013. The entire MAM fleet had been up for sale, but this decision has now been reversed, so the pride of the MAM collection, D.H. Mosquito FB.26 KA114, will now be staying at Virginia Beach.
