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Bugsmashers. That's what Flying Trucker calls my favourite vintage light aircraft & I can't think of a more appropriate name. Here's a few shots from my visit to the Luscombe & Pietenpol fly-in at Popham today. That's just an excuse & it's by no means restricted to those types. Started off in glorious sunshine but clouded over later. Shame about that as a little sunshine would have made all the difference. Never mind. It was a wonderful day out & the airfield was packed with bugsmashers of all types.










And now for my piece de resistance. This is a very rare aeroplane. Recognised it as soon as I saw it but I've never seen one before & never expected to. (When I was knee-high to a gnat I had a cigarette card with one in a similar colour scheme.) Anyone know what it is?



No cheating by looking it up. That's too easy.

You had me stumped there Doug! It came back as soon as I googled the reg! Not a type I'm overly familiar with, but coincidentally I was looking at a few photos of it the other day (I've been going through 1999-2000 issues of Aeroplane!)...

You got me stumped with that one... and drooling over the rest!!
Popham's definitely on my list... great photos, Doug.

Beautiful Shots!!!!!

After a tireless search, which yielded several odd results.
I must conclude that the aforementioned aircraft is a Foster Wikner Wicko.

Quite right Steve but I did say no cheating. Anyone can do that.

Foster Wickner Wicko G-AFJB beautifully restored by Joe Dible and Ron Souter at Southampton, where I believe the Wicko was first built. This is the only example left anywhere in the world & it flew for the first time in over 40 years just a couple of weeks ago. I was very lucky to see it. You can see from this the amount of work involved. http://www.g-gyav.org.uk/pictures_7.htm

That's not cheating, it's just thinking outside of the box... and using the avaliable tools.
Besides, someone was going to do it; it was just a matter of time.

Anywho, they are nice shots.

Thanks Steve. I knew I should have masked the registration.

PS. It only take a couple of seconds to find out what it is if you know where to look. I have the CAA & FAA registration databases in my favourites.

Well, if you're going to cheat think out side of the box, might as well make it a challenge.

Not sure it's exactly thinking out of the box. If it's not in the CAA database a quick search on Google should find it. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=G-AFJB+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB
I knew leaving the registration would be too much of a temptation but I didn't want to spoil a nice shot by masking it.

Only joking Steve. It's all in good fun. Thanks for looking & the nice comments.

Wonderful shots Doug...one and all

Everything looks so green and fresh, and the strip looks as if it was just cut and rolled.  Wonderful!

Thanks for posting them.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

Beautiful shots Doug, and I'd have never got the Wicko, never seen one before!

Very nice shots indeed. I see Mr. Autogyro is out delivering pension cheques again.