The de Havilland Moth Club
80th Anniversary of the de Havilland DH.87 Hornet Moth
Woburn Abbey
August 16, 2014
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To commemorate the first flight of the DH.87 Hornet Moth it was decided to invite the owners of the attending aircraft to a photo shoot in front of Woburn Abbey itself. During the previous week scaffold tower was erected to the right of Woburn Abbey's front drive. So on the appointed hour of 16:00 on the first day of the rally, the pilots of the eleven Hornet Moths started their engines and started to taxi west to the far end of the grass airstrip and then along one of the parks roads.
It was perhaps a half mile to where the photo shoot was to take place and the road was just wide enough to accommodate the Hornet moth's under-carriage, small red marker flags indicated where the perils were should they stray off the road. Some thought was put into the positioning of the aircraft, perhaps more was needed but self imposed time constraints meant that the shots had to be taken so the aircraft could return to the aircraft park by 18:00 when pilots were planning to head for home as the forecast for the following day was not good. High cross winds put many pilots off from attending on the final day altogether. A Chipmunk pilot from the Midlands flew from and to there on the Saturday, electing to drive down on Sunday. |
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| The eleven DH.87B Hornet Moths (from left to right; G-AHBL, G-ADKC, G-ADKK, G-AESE, G-ADKL, G-ADNE, G-AELO, G-ADKM, G-ADND / W9385, G-ADMT and G-AHBM). |
| Left to right: DH.87B Hornet Moths (G-AHBM, G-ADND and G-ADNE) taxi along the park drive to Woburn Abbey, two young girls are startled and dash clear. |
| Left to right: DH.87B Hornet Moths (G-ADKM, G-ADKL and G-AELO) get in to position in from of the Abbey. |
| DH.87B Hornet Moth (G-ADKC) was last to arrive and so has 'centre stage' in the final shot. |
| Left to right: From the small hill to the side of Woburn Abbey. |
| Left to right: Three shots from the tower showing increasing amounts of he dramatic sky and one image from the drive. |
| The eleven DH.87B Hornet Moths taken from the scafold tower. |
| Left to right: At the end of the formal photo shoot pilots return to their aircraft to make their way back to the aircraft park. |
| Left to right: DH.87B Hornet Moths (G-ADKC, G-ADKM and G-ADND / W9385). |
| Left to right: DH.87B Hornet Moths (G-ADMT and G-AHBM). |
| Left to right: DH.87B Hornet Moths (G-ADMT and G-ADND / W9385) on their way back to the aircraft park and again lined up with the other Hornet Moths. |
