In August 1967 our Member, David Phillips, went to the Coventry Air Pageant and saw the Beagle Pup mock-up on the Company sales stand and it was love at first sight.
David was a teenage art student with a passion for aviation and he indulged in this as a member of his local aircraft preservation group, which eventually would become the Coventry Air Museum. The group visited various air shows and fly-ins. The following May David saw two beautiful completed Pups at the Beagle Aircraft Factory at Shoreham. On 21 July 1968 the group visited Rearsby, previously the home of Auster but by then a Beagle factory, and they were invited to see the assembly lines. A number of Beagle Terriers and Beagle 206s were in the final stages of completion or still on the line but for David he was very happy to be amongst three flyable Pups with another twelve being completed. Fortunately for posterity, David, being an aircraft spotter, he ‘logged’ the aircraft he saw, some only identifiable by the production tally on each windscreen.
Editor’s note. Hearing David’s story and seeing his logs was very pertinent to me because one of the Pups on the Track is B121-032 Srs 150 G AWWE that I share with our Treasurer Tony Hayes David continued his love of Pups and admired them at his many airfield visits over the years. Finally, he took the plunge to learn to fly. Unsurprisingly he knew exactly where to take his flying lessons on Pups (150s G AXNP and G AXCX, at Birmingham}. He continued his training on Cessnas and Grummans, but his joy returned when he had to do spin training in Pup 100, G-AWDZ – remarkably one of the three completed Pups he had seen at Rearsby! After gaining his PPL, he flew ‘DZ’ from Coventry. Sometime later DZ was written off in an accident at Netherthorpe. For many years David was content flying a number of Vintage and Classic aircraft but past Pup memories poured back when he was sitting in the cafe at Wellsbourne. He realised a Beagle Pup parked on the grass beyond the taxiway had a look of being neglected. The owner bought the Pup 100 with an ambition to do his PPL in it but was by then living overseas. Along with a good friend Barry Enock (now also a club member, David owns a Pup and the love story continues. Davis and Barry have updated the avionics replaced the screen and a couple of side windows and now sit on reupholstered seats with David reliving the many delights of the Pup along with memories stretching all the way back to his teenage years. For a final coincidence, see the first page of the log above- Davids Pup is B121-Srs 100 G-AWVC is another one of the unpainted Pups he spotted on the line at Rearsby in “ July 1968!!
Photo by Tony Jarvis
