Nick abandons ww1 aircraft for a day!

Daniel23185 · 15 July 2015, 04:31 AM

I know our very own Sopwith Snipe Nick would never promote this, but it is really far too exciting not to share!. Nick was very fortunate enough to have carried out his first solo in a slightly newer fighter then his Sopwith! Forgive me Nick I was just too glad to hear of your flight today not to post it. Well done Nick and very deserving! Was great to catch up a couple of weeks ago.

snj5 · 15 July 2015, 04:34 AM

Well done!

CjBobrow · 15 July 2015, 04:46 AM

Now that smile tells it all!

Dogtail2 · 15 July 2015, 06:42 AM

Nice,........Nicer than a big bag of Nice things !
Congratulations Nick

Pete

Dart · 15 July 2015, 08:57 AM

w00t!

That's called "living the dream."

Wilmot · 15 July 2015, 03:13 PM

Great work Nick! What's next..a Harrier?

Chris W.

PS Weather must have improved down in Melbourne?

PPS Can you let us know how the Snipe compares to the CA18 Mustang please?

Nick · 15 July 2015, 09:38 PM

Thanks everyone for your kind comments and to Dan for dobbing me in!!

To be offered the chance to fly a Mustang was a fantastic opportunity
It’s been a wonderful experience, and hard to look serious and not just go “Wooohooo”!
I am in awe of the young 19 year olds in both World Wars who went off in these machines. Both the Snipe and the Mustang were state of the art in their day and would have been quite daunting to climb into after their basic training (daunting as a 66 year old too).

As for the Snipe, it’s winter here and the grass is very soggy again (that’s my excuse anyway) and I plan to do some work on the engine over winter. I’m going to pull it off and tighten up all the inlet manifolds as feel I still have an issue there where I can’t get to all the bolts. I also want to modify the oil tank. I made it like the original which has the inlet and outlet on the same side. This ends up with hot oil on one side of the tank so I need to change the inlet position.

Cheers, Nick