I have many memories of Baginton notably the Kings Cup Air races back in the dim and distant. Two things that have always stuck in the memory are watching a lightning take off and it's vertical climb out surpassed by a superb display by a Avro Vulcan of agility for such a large aircraft.along the roar of the engines which of course later were to power Concorde. Back in the day you could just walk into the hangers. Baginton was a great and a interesting airfield sadly missed from my point of view.
Also some time ago went to Cov. and dined in the DC6 converted into a diner called Six the aircraft was great the food well let's say average 😃
Down the road at RAF Gaydon they held fantastic annual displays but thats another story.
I would certainly echo the nostalgia noted by others. The first time I visited Baginton, which was the local nearby village, was likely the middle to late 60s going into the early 70s. It was a treasure trove of piston engined types. It’s true as Rollo says, security was pretty non existent in those far off days. Every Saturday me and a mate used to catch the bus from Brum and walk into Coventry City centre and catch the bus to the airfield. The hangers were usually open but we also asked if we could look around inside, usually from a guy with his head buried in an engine……….’just look around and don’t touch anything’. Shackleton Aviation (I think, it was 50+ years ago !) had a busy set up their and some pretty exotic stuff used to pass through, Doves (ST-AAC/E), a Zambian reg Aero Commander ( 9J-RGD ?) from memory and many many others. There were quite a few biplanes as well.
When cargo company Ace Freighters wound up they parked a number of their Connies at COV (G-ANTF, G-ALAK/L),
probably the ones mentioned by Nethercote 2019, and we walked all over them and inside ! There was their DC-4 too (G-APEZ). One particular rare visitor was an Angolan DC-3 (A2-ADL) for attention. I rode the 25 mile round trip by bike just for that !
I flew twice from Baginton. First time was in a PA-28 (G-AWEZ) flown by a neighbour David Morgan, who at that time had connections to ELO and more recently in a helicopter experience for a birthday surprise (G-DOFY). I dare say the closure of the airspace at COV may be welcomed by the ATCOs at BHX coordinating arrivals and departures ! A sad loss to us older enthusiasts for sure.
If anyone likes looking at pictures of these ‘old birds’ then I can thoroughly recommend CLASSIC PROPS IN CAMERA by Mike Hooks, fantastic quality pictures. Available as I write on EBAY.
