Rollason Turbulent

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16 years 10 months

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The first time I ever saw a Turbulent was at Croydon (aah remember, remember) in April 1959, I suspect in the Rollason hangar.

More normally thought of as a homebuilt, bearing in mind that the first example was built nearly 50 years ago and they have had a long and chequered career since, with a King's Cup Air Race victory and the famous Farnborough formation of 9 aircraft (how many of those still survive?) to boast of, the type must now easily fall within the vintage or historic category.

Perhaps 40% have been written off in accidents so who can provide a full listing of the 28 or so aircraft manufactured by Rollasons with details of their individual fates?

Wicked Willip :diablo:

Original post

Somewhere have some interesting pics of a Sea Turbulent! Will find them and post 'em.

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18 years 5 months

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Edit,
I dont seem to know my Rollason types. I think last time i looked there where 3 on the register.

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18 years 1 month

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I remember Colin Rogers flying G-APWP with a bubble canopy at the air displys at Dunstable Downs in the 1960s. I heard a few years ago that it was stored some where, Is it still?

Dave

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17 years 4 months

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Didn't one crash only the other day ? Reducing itself to component form in the process.

.

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16 years 6 months

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Ah turbulant memories, I seem to remember seeing several at Redhill in the early 60's ? was this the home of the tiger club ? It seemed to me that all turbulants in those days had a "Z" in their registration, was this coincidence or planned or what ? Keith.

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16 years 10 months

Posts: 313

Ah turbulant memories, I seem to remember seeing several at Redhill in the early 60's ? was this the home of the tiger club ? It seemed to me that all turbulants in those days had a "Z" in their registration, was this coincidence or planned or what ? Keith.

Redhill certainly was the home of the Tiger Club for many years and I remember going there in a Condor once on a Breakfast Patrol, when we got comprehensively 'shot down', first by the TSR3 racer and then by a Turbulent.

As to the 'Z' registrations there was no coincidence as Rollasons also booked G-APOZ for a Jodel and G-ARAZ for a Tiger Moth they converted for instance.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

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18 years 5 months

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Didn't one crash only the other day ? Reducing itself to component form in the process.

.

That is correct, i cant remember if it was the red or the yellow one of the Tiger Club.

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16 years 6 months

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Thank you for that confirmation "Wicked Willet". So the "defragmentation" of my memory is slower than I thought, I think ? Keith.

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16 years

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Turbulent tales

Norman Jones liked the Z in registrations, I believe in those days you had to be in the ARB office when they were allocated, there was no pre-reservation. There were plenty of zulus in Tiger Club registrations.
There are plenty of excellent stories of Turbulent adventures especially of the Turb Team, who are still making history.
I am told that a turbulent was once used to tow a Dart Glider from Redhill, I believe there were an exciting few minutes heading towards Gatwick, still lower than the trees after leaving the southerly runway with a barely positive rate of climb. I understand that it was never attempted again.
I'm sure there are some more Turbulent stories out there too....

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20 years 2 months

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Ahhhh the Turbulent... Rollason built examples listed below

REG C/N TYPE FATE?
G-AJCP PFA 512 D.31 In the rafters at Eaglescott
G-APBZ PFA 440 D.31 Written off, Berck sur Mer, France 15/4/1963
G-APIZ PFA 478 D.31 Airworthy
G-APKZ PFA 479 D.31 w/o near Biggin Hill, 6/12/1960
G-APLZ PFA 480 D.31 w/o near Latchingdon 23/4/1974
G-APMZ PFA 481 D.31 w/o Nr Newtownards 1960s
G-APNZ PFA 482 D.31 w/o nr Rye, 3/9/1995
G-APTZ PFA 508 D.31 w/o Headcorn 15/3/2008
G-APVZ PFA 545 D.31 Airworthy with The Tiger Club, Headcorn
G-APYZ PFA 546 D.31 w/o Little Snoring 15/6/1974
G-APZZ PFA 552 D.31 Ditched English Channel, 10/7/1964
G-ARBZ PFA 553 D.31 w/o West Mersea 1999, but just about to fly again at Chessington, destined for a private owner at Headcorn
G-ARCZ PFA 554 D.31 w/o near Stapleford 1/6/1984
G-AREZ PFA 561 D.31 Last heard of near Shrewsbury
G-ARGZ PFA 562 D.31 Airworthy with The Tiger Club, Headcorn
G-ARIZ PFA 563 D.31 w/o Limerick after mid air collision with Auster 25/8/1962
G-ARJZ PFA 564 D.31 Last heard of in Norfolk (Seaplane conversion)
G-ARLZ RAE/578 D.31A Last seen at Branscombe
G-ARMZ PFA 565 D.31 Airworthy with The Tiger Club, Headcorn
G-ARNZ PFA 579 D.31 Airworthy with The Tiger Club, Headcorn
G-ARRZ PFA 580 D.31 Last heard of in Norfolk
G-ARZM PFA 581 D.31 Force landed in bad weather and w/o 1992
G-ASAM PFA 595 D.31 Force landed in bad weather and w/o 1992
G-ASDB PFA 1600 D.31 w/o Shoreham 11/8/1968
G-ASDE PFA 1601 D.31 Sold to USA as N69M
G-ASHT PFA 1610 D.31 Airworthy
G-ASMM PFA 1611 D.31 Airworthy, Sevenoaks
G-ATHP PFA 432 D.31 w/o Membury 5/10/68
G-AWPA RAE/100 D.31A w/o Usworth
G-AWPB RAE/101 D.31A w/o Sleap 25/5/70
G-BIVZ PFA 048-10681 D.31 w/o Swanton Morley, July 1998

A fantastic aircraft, light, manouverable yet can certainly lull the pilot into a false sense of security, with a stick force of just over 1lb per g, it it easily broken. There was a flight test written by Dave Evans in the February or March 1997 issue of Pilot Magazine.....:D

A Turbulent has been fitted with floats, used for glider towing (I kid you not!) and I've even flown one on skis. The D.31A was designed to be eligible for a full Certificate of Airworthiness, but turned out rather heavy and was not as nice to fly.

Time prevents me from regurgitating my notes on the Rollason Turb, but I'll come back and amend this when i get time. I've got many pictures of broken Turbs, which always seem to appear again in due course. Of course, a wooden aeroplane is never written off for very long, and I'm sure the chaps at Redhill & Croydon used to just keep making them so that the original registrations could be stuck on again:eek:

EH

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http://www.kentonline.co.uk/images/news/39233_0_l.jpg

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Back in the 1970s, the late James Gilbert (later of Pilot magazine) wrote a very nice story on the type and the Tiger Club for Flying Magazine.
It was unusual since the type isn't well known in the U.S. and homebuilt (or quasi-homebuilt) types rarely made the cover of the magazine back then.

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19 years

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Thanks for the list Ewan. I count 30 - at odds with Willip's suggestion that ther were 28. It's interesting to see that all but 8 of them did include a "Z" in the registration.

But, there is one missing :confused:

Rollasons built another with detachable wings for promotional purposes - but it only travelled by road :)

It has been with the Midland Air Museum, Baginton for about 30 years. I had hopes that it would be painted up to represent the Turbulent that won the King's Cup at Baginton (can't remember it's registration offhand) but it's not happened yet.

Roger Smith.

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Ewan H. Do flesh this out, and add Condors as well! I can add some W/O dates, which may be first, then rebuilt. RAE did the same with Tigers, wheeling the wreck in, juggling their pile of wings &tc to resurrect divinely.
You omitted PFA 480/G-APLZ, W/O 23/4/74.
G-APBZ W/O 15/4/63
PYZ 15/6/74
PZZ ditched Channel, 10/7/64
RCZ 1/6/84
RIZ 25/8/62
SDB 11/8/68
THP (built as VT-XAG) 5/10/68.
G-ASDE sold as N69M 8/64.
I visited Croydon 4/5/63 (before they upped sticks completely), when 2 Condors and 5 above D.31 were in build. So, in my log, was PFA1612. Was that not so?

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The Turbulant that crashed at Headcorn was the Tiger Clubs red one.

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When PZZ was ditched in the Channel, Robin D'Erlanger the pilot, was safely rescued without getting his feet wet, as the Turbulent happily floated. I have recently been told that the aircraft was also picked up by the same boat and was landed in Germany.
A while later Rollason's were contacted by someone in Germany about see if plans were available to help in its rebuild. I have not been able to trace whether it ever flew again under a Germany registration.

The Kings Cup winner was G-APNZ flown by Sir John de M Severne in 1960 who has recently had his autobiography published called Silvered Wings. PZZ came second flown by Clive Francis.

I also believe G-ASAM won the race but I can only find a list of winners up to 1968, so not sure if this is correct or not, does anyone know?

PIZ is very much a rebuild after it spun in at Biggin Hill.

PYZ was the winner of the first two Dawn to Dusk competitions in 1964-5 flown by Don Lovell.

There is also a picture of a Turbulent being flown without its fin or rudder after a slight mishap, not sure which one!

The nine aircraft at Farnborough happened in 1961, it also saw a massed forced landing after one aircraft ingested a toilet roll used for streamer cutting and three other Turbulents landed in sympathy, as recorded by Lewis Benjamin in his book The Tiger Club A Tribute. The formation was lead by Clive Francis. Can't find the picture at the moment of the formation, so not sure which aircraft were there.

Another famous photograph shows four Turbulents in formation with Sea Fury TF936 flown by Pete Shepherd at a Halfpenny Green display. The Fury has full flaps and the Turbulents at full power in a dive to keep formation.

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I remember seeing a photo of Robin D'Erlanger sitting on the top combing of the Turb whilst floating in the channel awaiting rescue. His friends not being able to do much else circled and photographed him whilst help came.
A number of Turb engine failures were caused by carb icing which needed to be caught early, before the warning of black smoke stopped altogether. I don't know numbers but the early 1200 ardem engines broke crankshafts too. (through the 'VW' which the makers proudly stamped in the forging).
The Condor: Ah.... another story which deserves another thread......

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When PZZ was ditched in the Channel, Robin D'Erlanger the pilot, was safely rescued without getting his feet wet, as the Turbulent happily floated. I have recently been told that the aircraft was also picked up by the same boat and was landed in Germany.
A while later Rollason's were contacted by someone in Germany about see if plans were available to help in its rebuild. I have not been able to trace whether it ever flew again under a Germany registration.

Great post Turbi!. The only German Turbi's I could find are D-EDHT, D-ESMB and D-ERBC which don't immediately seem to have any relationship with 'PZZ.