Sopwith Snipe Project

[baldeagle]

One of the greatest WW1 replicas ever built by a private individual. An amazing accomplishment.



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[ErrolC]

I'm sad that I never managed to sight it when I was visiting Melbourne every few months for work in the late 2010s, and that it wasn't on show at Tyabb 2020.
I hope to catch it one of these years, thanks for sharing Nick.

[SL DIII]

Yes... what baldeagle said...Totally agree!

[SCMc]

Nick,

I was so disappointed to read what happened with the museum. You did everything right to be able to share your Snipe with the public, while still being able to enjoy and take care of it. It is unfortunate that a pandemic and bureaucracy got in the way.

Steve

[Nick]

Originally Posted by SCMc

Nick,

I was so disappointed to read what happened with the museum. You did everything right to be able to share your Snipe with the public, while still being able to enjoy and take care of it. It is unfortunate that a pandemic and bureaucracy got in the way.

Steve

Thanks Steve,
It's a shame it's sitting in a hangar gathering dust, but am hopeful they will have a change of heart. I bumped into the new CO the other day and he's keen on getting the Snipe and RE8 up again, but then there's the bureaucracy to deal with.
Cheers, Nick

[SCMc]

Nick,

Thanks for the reply. Until that post, I hadn't paid attention to the R.E.8. from your photos it looks pretty nice. What can you tell us about it? Does it have an original engine? Have you had a chance to fly it?

I hope I am not pestering you with too many questions, but you caught my attention. Two-seater replicas are so uncommon, but they represent the work horses of WWI aviation.

Steve

[Nick]

Originally Posted by SCMc

Nick,

Thanks for the reply. Until that post, I hadn't paid attention to the R.E.8. from your photos it looks pretty nice. What can you tell us about it? Does it have an original engine? Have you had a chance to fly it?
Steve

Beautiful aeroplane , built to original spec by TVAL in NZ. New build RAF 4A
12 cylinder 160HP engine.
Haven't flown it, just Formation with it in the Snipe. Huge fun

Cheers, Nick

[Bulldogbuilder]

SMCMc; True about the lack of two seaters. My absolute favorite thing to do in the Bristol Fighter was to turn final while dropping the nose (no way to watch airspeed dial at this time) and the backseater would "rise" above my head.
The bad part: picking bugs out of the smile after landing.
Had at least 50 riders.
Cheers
Ed

[Chill31]

Originally Posted by Nick

I sold the Snipe to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook a couple of years ago. I had based it there for the last year I owned it as was the ideal place to operate it with it’s large areas of grass it didn’t matter which way the wind was blowing. I had huge fun flying alongside the RE8 and Sopwith Pup that were flown by the Museum.
We used to have a fantastic relationship with the Museum and would regularly take over all sorts of interesting old aeroplanes for their interactive flying displays which were held 3 days a week and free to the public. These entailed a short display of one or several aeroplanes and then a chat to answer questions about the aircraft.
The plan was I would still fly it (as a reservist) and do maintenance on it as a Museum Volunteer. However that never happened, thanks to Covid shutting it down and then 100 Squadron taking over the whole thing. The airfield is now restricted and the Museum is only shortly going to reopen. The Flying side of the WW1 aircraft is in doubt as they are now rather risk averse! Hopefully they’ll have a change of heart but either way I’m now considered too old to be a reservist. Hopefully someone else will fly it sometime though. We’ll see I guess.
Cheers, Nick

Rule #1 Never donate/sell your airplane to a government museum

Rule #2 Never donate/sell your airplane to a museum

Rule #3 Flyyour WWI plane as much as possible