There was certainly lots of trading during May, culminating in the Midlands Air Festival at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire over the Jubilee Holiday weekend. This event, now established as the big event of the year, especially for private balloonists, enjoyed good weather for the first two days but wet & windy for the rest. Many pilots got three flights in nice countryside. Well done once again to James McDonald and his team. It was particularly nice to see Bobby Frankham flying his Colt AS-120 hot air airship around the launch field – a sight normally confined to Chateau d’Oex! And with a ship sourced through these pages and restored to flying condition pre-pandemic. Another type for Bobby to add to his collection of flying machines, gaining his airship rating in the process …..
New for this issue, some moving over from ‘Stop Press’ are a very nice complete UM S-90, Cameron Z-90 envelope, tired Colt 120A envelope plus a couple of fans & two lots of cylinders.
Sold are a complete 31 and 90 plus 60 and 145 envelopes, 2 bottom ends and all of Zebedee’s tanks. The tank shortage which has been a feature for several years has of course been made worse by the Alugas grounding, with the inevitable hike in prices for those that are on the market ….