Page 11 - March2020

to Mark Miller at deHavilland Support for his
Final Adventure with G-AKDN
Ken Large and Dave with KDN. A changing of the guard.
One last peek at KDN, blurred by tears, and I closed the
door. It was hard to walk away. As I travel at close to
KDN’s cruise speed on a train back to Finmere I have a
few hours to reflect on 14 years of flying her. It’s odd that
a machine can have such an impact on so many people all
over the world. KDN has earned her place in aviation
history with her own story, but it is really the people
connected with her that makes her so special to me.
Over the years we have been able to get to know many of
these people and spending the last 5 months here in the
UK has connected us even more with her past. There are
a lot of people who without their encouragement, help
and time, we would never been able to operate KDN for
the past 14 years. I want to say thank you.
THANK YOU :
to Phil and Jackie Derry, for your foresight and thinking
with your heart. You saved KDN and then had faith in us
to carry on caring for her.
to Graham & Betsy Fox and team at Graham Fox Aircraft
Engineering, Mathew Fox, Flying Fox Aviation, and our
Canadian engineers Doug Tomlinson and Tom Coates.
Without these people’s expertise, talent, dedication and
friendship, we could never afford to make KDN the
aircraft you see today.
gentle approach and caring contributions and
Deltair for their continued advice and support.
to George Neal, Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame
deHavilland Canada test pilot and KDN test pilot.
George became a true friend who was always
there when we had questions and needed help.
to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum for
recognizing KDN and appointing her as
Ambassador Aircraft to represent the museum’s
world class collection and Canada’s aviation
heritage.
to Turweston Airport. For the warm welcome by
everyone we met. Chris and staff made our
operations easy and were more then helpful. And
to Alan at ATSO Aircraft Engineering,with his deep
Chipmunk knowledge and friendly “can do “
attitude was always there to help on short notice.
to Stephen Slater and LAA, for their
encouragement and interest and support.
to Carol de Solla for her devotion to the Chipmunk
and her natural ability for organizing and including
KDN in the plans. And to the rest of the Chipmunk
fraternity of owners and pilots, who we crossed
paths with and made us feel so special.
to Steve Le-Vien for his efforts to celebrate the
Chipmunk 70th and his appreciation and welcome
for KDN.
to the Gawcott Pub/Pietenpole/Vintage Aircraft
Group who adopted us, and made us feel part of
the community and at home among friends.
to Royal Aero Club Air Race group who welcomed
KDN and us and immediately made us part of the
family. Thank you all for your help, patience and
support.
to our Finmere Aerodrome based pilots who made
us feel welcome and were so helpful. And fellow
Chipmunk owner, Tim Orchard, we owe big time,
for taking the time and interest to make the
Finmere connection.
to Dave Unwin, a diamond geezer, and his
beautiful family Liz, Will and George for their
friendship, enthusiasm and key role in having KDN
recognized for what she is.