Page 4 - July 2019

As KDN sat gleaming in the sunlight she stirred many
De Havilland Canada Chipmunk DHC-1
G-AKDN — 2016 United Kingdom Tour Pt. 16
By Dave Gillespie
KDN at her beautiful summer base at Finmere Aerodrome.
I arrived at Bagby aerodrome to find KDN sitting in a
hangar ready to fly. Graham and crew had done a great
job reassembling her and with new Plexiglas windows
installed in the refurbished canopy she looked fantastic.
After a few local test flights I departed and flew the 150
miles south to our summer base at Finmere Aerodrome.
It was an emotional flight. Flying over the UK countryside
in KDN was like travelling back in time. The sky, the view,
the airplane, hadn’t changed much since KDN flew here
with all the famous test pilots. It was a very special flight.
A week later Karen and I departed nervous and excited
for the 25 minute flight to the Chipmunk 70th
Anniversary event at Old Warden Aerodrome. We were
greeted warmly and directed to the place of honour in
front of the other 54 Chipmunks that arrived. It was a
spectacular day meeting many great people who all
expressed how excited they were to see KDN there.
fond Chipmunk memories from pilots as they admired
her. The idea to have KDN appointed as an Aircraft
Ambassador for the Canada Aviation and Space
Museum was now put to work. KDN did a marvelous
job representing the quality and importance of the
collection at our national museum. With the
opportunity to discuss the museum’s importance,
together with KDN and our team, we made a positive
overall impression I think. We met so many nice people
and met some good old friends and made some very
good new friends. The Chipmunk community is made
up of some very special people that we are so lucky to
associate with. Thank you all for making KDN feel so
welcome, and appreciated. And a special thank you to
Carol de Solla Atkin and Steve Le-Vien for all their help.
That day made the whole effort of bringing KDN back
to the UK worth it. The highlights for me, were seeing
the de Havilland Comet flying off my wing when we
arrived - flying with Dave Unwin for photo flight in
formation with a Miles Magister- flying with Phil Derry
over the countryside - and most important, was
meeting Sonja Fillingham and getting to fly with her in
KDN. That was a flight I will never forget. KDN was the
fist Chipmunk to arrive and was the last one to leave.
Karen and I flew home to Finmere feeling sad the event
was over, but thrilled at the outcome, and pinched
ourselves to make sure we weren’t dreaming. The
consolation was we had five more months of KDN
flying adventures to look forward to.
to be continued...