August 2011

Editorial We welcome new members Helen Brough & her partner Andrew Selbie.Helen joined Colworth in 1976, working in the Human Studies Group of ESL. She retired from ESL’s Safety Evaluation team in 2005. We look forward to seeing them both at future events.

Thanks to those members who’ve sent in articles for the newsletter…….don’t be disappointed if they aren’t published immediately; we try to provide variety in each issue. Meanwhile, keep ‘em coming please.

Peter Collier

Colworth Pensioners Supper

Voted the best ever by many members, this year’s supper was in the new ‘Exchange’ building on the former site of GRD. We have said goodbye to the ‘canteen’ folks, as it is now mothballed ready for demolition. The Exchange provides much improved catering and conferencing facility with lifts between the two floors and everyone had the ability and plenty of room to circulate and meet old friends for a chat.

We were very grateful to Iain Campbell who stood in at short notice for Jim Crilly who leads the site. Jim is mainly based in London with his EVP Discover Platform role, and unfortunately had to be in a meeting all day there. Iain gave an introduction to the building in the large foyer and we went on to enjoy a lovely meal in excellent surroundings. The weather was perfect and some of us made our way to the Clubhouse for a yarn and a pint outside; what a lovely reminiscing evening it is!

Thank you Colworth for your continued support and organising

thank you to the Social Club and to Goodmans for superb delivery.

Thanks to Pensioner Helpers at the Marathon Weekend Sincere thanks go to the following list of pensioners who kindly helped out over the Marathon Weekend – Fred Trussell, Peter Harris, Derek Favell (car park supervisors), Chris Ebden and Jim Middlemiss (race marshals). Sorry about the confusion over the complimentary gift vouchers. I’ve passed your messages onto the “Striders” organizers who have apologised and assured me that a different system will be in place for next year. Thanks again to everyone. Cliff Smith

Colworth Airlines – the last of the many! The final extract of your Colworth Airlines memories Fred Trussell

Rowly Winser

After the demise of the Piper Aztec it was replaced by a Piper Navaho, which although it was a bigger [6 seater] aircraft,t it was still a lifetime away from its commercial brethren. Rowly Winsor remembers being unwise enough to swap his KLM

ticket for a trip back from Eindhoven

In the 1960’s I was involved with the engineering installation of the Algin sausage line at the Oss factory in Holland. I commuted weekly on a commercial flight. At one point the full Colworth team joined those already at the factory for a meeting, which involved them flyingover for the day on Colworth Airlines. To assist the shared taxi arrangements on return to the UK, my commercial flight ticket was exchanged with someone else and I joined Tony Davidson and others for the flight back to the UK using the Colworth Plane.

We went to Eindhoven airport for the flight. It was great to just walk through the airport with the pilot to the plane. No waiting around. Getting on board the aircraft involved climbing a few steps and then walking on the wing into the cabin. As we climbed the steps, the pilot asked us to be careful where we placed our feet as we entered the airplane, as it was easy to damage the wing. On entering the cabin which only accommodated 6 people, one of the seats had a pile of blankets on it. Tony Davidson who had flown in the plane before asked me for my newspaper and handed me a blanket. He told me to wrap myself in the blanket and used the newspaper to seal any draught gaps in the door. It was a snowy December night as we took off after refuelling; as the fuel level was lower than necessary for the expected headwind on the way home from Holland.We finally took off and it was interesting to sit next to the pilot. However I was a little surprised when after a quarter of an hour, he suddenly took a torch and was shining it out of the window. I thought to myself there are no signposts or hitch-hikers up here so what’s he looking for. It became clear that he was checking on the ice build up on the wings. I suddenly realised why we had wrapped ourselves in the blankets - because the so called heating in the plan quickly disappeared as it was being used to thaw out the ice build up on the wings.The flight home was certainly different and interesting. During it I thought quite often of the alternative - sipping a beer on a nice warm pressurised British Airways jet, and it was several hours after landing before my ears overcame the pressure popping endured during the flight

The Piper Navahoe With ‘spacious’ cabin

Brian Fletcher I flew in both the Colworth planes to Aberdeen and Rotterdam. I remember, you were asked to meet the pilot outside the Gents toilets at Luton airport and he would have a big U on his tie. If you were lucky, he would have a flask of coffee for us to share. On the smaller plane, one passenger could sit in the co-pilot’s seat - even ‘steering’ at some stage during the journey. Aberdeen trips were usually in cloud, so we saw very little. When flying to Rotterdam, the weather was better and we had great views across the North Sea and all the way to Zestinhoven. On one occasion we landed in Zeistenhoven in a high crosswind and although the pilot tried to line up the plane with the runway it kept disappearing. The trick was to approach the runway sideways, get as low as possible, and once the plane and runway were in line slip back to ‘face on’ and drop the plane down. It worked, but it was a bit unnerving.

The demise of the Aztec The Piper Aztec came to a sad end after an accident at Rotterdam Airport. I have no direct information on the event but apparently early on a dark and rainy night whilst taxiing out to the take off runway the nose wheel dropped into a manhole which had not had it’s cover replaced. Apparently the propellers hit the ground causing a lot of sparking, but fortunately no fire. Alistair Penman was on board and Gina told me “ I remember Alistair telling me about the plane going down the manhole cover - the Authorities at Amsterdam didn’t bat an eyelid - no emergency vehicles!! They then had to walk back to the terminal and book themselves on a flight home” After that event the Colworth Plane became less popular. Alistair

certainly didn’t use it again.

Treasured memories of Zeistenhoven –

the ‘pile of pipes sculpture’and the grand entrance

An Unexpected Family Way back in February, 14th to be precise, I was on the first walk/ bird watch of the

year and happened to mention to Ian Kimsey that we were getting a

lot of Mallards coming into our garden to use the facilities i.e. the fish pond for a quick dip and a forage for food. Some days there were up to 4 birds (3 male and 1 female). This pattern continued over the next few weeks. We tried shooing them away as they were making a hell of a mess of the pond. It measures 5m x 2.5m and is roughly kidney shaped so it is not large. Ian Kimsey said they would be looking for somewhere to nest and I should feel privileged, I was not convinced.At the end of March we went to Patterdale for 5 days, on our return I was at home alone and as I was walking down the garden noticed a bird crouched under a small conifer, on closer inspection and much hissing from her I could see she had indeed made a nest. When Doug returned home I made him promise not to scare her off and later in the day when she disappeared I checked out the nest and saw about 5 eggs cosily placed in the pine needles and her down. Every day late in the afternoon she left the nest and went off we know not where, but we often saw her return making a very inelegant landing on the pond where she would have a long drink a brush up then hop out and hop up to her nest to resume her duties. This pattern continued until Easter, on Easter Sunday I went down the garden and took a quick peek, she was really aggressive (hissing and puffing herself up) so I left pronto. We went out at 09:30 and returned around 12:00 noon with 2 friends who wanted to have a look at where she was. I went straight out to check if she was there only to find the nest completely empty apart from lots of broken egg shells and 2 cold unbroken eggs. My heart sank as I was told that she would probably leave as soon as the last egg had hatched. Our guests looked very disappointed, however out of the corner of my eye I spied the mother and a clutch of very cute chicks rushing round her on some gravel at the side of the pond. We were all delighted “Our own Easter Chicks”.

We watched them for ages, she would go into the pond and they would promptly follow, after about ten minutes she would get out followed hastily by them, they would dry off, have a nap then after 20 minutes they were all back in again and so it went on. Each time they appeared bolder and stronger. We went out around 17:00 hrs and came home around 20:00 hrs. Doug went out with a torch and they were all nestled under her on a warm paving slab.

In the morning I rushed out to check on them and at first I thought they had gone but I saw them out the corner of my eye chasing around after their mother. They eventually got back in the pond and we were surprised how bold they were now, leaping out easily and grubbing around all the plants. We had breakfast and when we came out again after about 20 minutes they were gone without a trace.

In all she had 14 live chicks and 2 dead ones in the eggs not hatched plus whilst cleaning some leaves out of the pond I found 1 more egg in the pond, I think she had attempted to build a nest on the parapet next to the pond at first and when she lost her egg to the depths re thought the building location

Fancy that, who would have believed it.? Olwyn Wishart _______________________________________________________________________________________

Events: September – December

September 14th: Olympic Village tour September 20th: Mill Theatre – “Wait until Dark” September 28th: Lunch at the Windmill Club, Rushden October 26th: Unilever House dinner [with free time] November 15th: Mill Theatre – “Half a Sixpence” November 24th: Peacocks Auctioneer evening December 13th: Christmas lunch at Knuston Hall

The next issue will include articles from pensioners in NEW ZEALAND

Dave Finney & David Illingworth - don’t miss it!

With great sadness we report the death on 5th July of Dr Bill Parish, an icon of ESL/SEAC, a dedicated scientist &true gentleman

who will be sorely missed. Our sympathies go out to his family & friends.

A memorial service will be held in October.

Chairman: Cham Willey 01604 402730 Secretary: Sally Butler 01933 314654 E-mail: upa.colworth@btinternet.com; Website:http://homepage.ntlworld.com/conrad.astill

Editor: Peter Collier – E-mail:petercrssl@aol.com