CAPTAIN NEVILLE'S Vintage Flying Circus

Having flown for the Barnstormers Flying Circus for 15 years until they ceased operating Dennis Neville decided to keep the act alive by training and organising his own team. 

Trying to find pilots with their own vintage aircraft and the skill and inclination to take part in displays is not easy. Fortunately when they take part they all agree - it's good fun! 

We now have a variety of pilots taking part from different backgrounds and aspects of flying. The most popular acts are:

LIMBO

Limbo is where the aircraft fly under bunting suspended by two poles. There is normally just a 3 feet clearance area around the aircraft. Therefore it can take great skill and daring to achieve this event successfully.

This stunt is a modification of the original display by Geoffrey Tyson in the 1930's, when he would loop under the limbo poles in one of the first ever Tiger Moths.

It takes extreme pilot skill and preparation to achieve the accuracy to successfully fly an aircraft 11ft high through a 16ft gap. Then there are added complications such as cross winds, thermals and turbulence from the preceding aircraft all of which the pilot may have to contend with on the day. No two days or displays are alike. 

The Limbo is particularly difficult at the Little Gransden airfield as there are hedges, wires and often a haystack and tent or two to avoid, as well as the normal hazards.

BALLOONS

In this event a number of helium balloons are let off and the aircraft and pilots attempt to burst them by flying into them.

Although this looks an easy task there are many elements to take into consideration. The first problem is trying to spot the balloon in time to position the aircraft for a direct hit.The second is wind direction, strength and preceding aircraft wake turbulence. Third is not getting fixated on the balloons and forgetting the other obstacles!

There is an art in bursting the balloons that, once mastered, few let on as to how it is done. 

It is possible to have a balloon bounce off the spinner, pass through the propeller and the bracing wires, then fly between the cabane struts, over both windscreens and hit the pilot on the head - all without bursting - which can make this one of the most exciting, as well as the most frustrating, events for the pilots.

FLOUR BOMBING

Flour 'bombs' (bags) are dropped out of the aircraft at a target. This can be anything from a bouncy castle, an armoured car or - new for this season - an 'outside privy'!

The art of this task is to actually hit the target withsome accuracy. Unfortunately if you do not get your speed and technique quite right there can be a large margin of error that can creep into the events. For the inexperienced one hazard is 'target fixation' (flying into the ground or the target itself). A few bombs have been known to have accidentally dropped onto other targets. A good selection of carefully sited pyrotechnics, set off to coincide with each bombing run, really spices up this act.

PENALTY SHOOTOUT

Introduced in 2010 to coincide with the World Cup, the penalty shootout is an alternative act to flour bombing. Each pilot takes it in turn to score goals by running in and dropping footballs against a seasoned goalie in a five-a-side size goal. The 2010 Golden Boot winner was John The Flying Flynn who scored the most goals, not surprisingly as he attended the same school as Wayne Rooney!

EGG DROP

Fresh eggs are dropped from an aircraft at a low height and speed, if done with the correct technique and the turf is good they will bounce! Best to get the kids to write their names on them first and the surviving eggs can be eaten for breakfast just to prove they are fresh!

STREAMER CUT

After climbing to approx. 600ft a streamer (toilet roll) is thrown out of the aircraft. The streamer will then start to unravel. As this descends the aircraft is constantly manoeuvred to cut the streamer as many times as possible, 2 or 3 times is possible from this starting height. Once this has been completed the aircraft climbs back to height to repeat the performance and hopefully to cut the streamer even more times than before. The difficulty occurs when the weather is damp when the decent of the streamer is rather more rapid than normal and special care is needed to cut it before it plummets to the ground. The best aircraft for this event is the Tiger Moth, once again success and safety is down to technique.

AEROBATICS

The Chipmunk is the plane usually used for aerobatics as it can do more manoeuvres and maintain it's height easier than the Tiger Moth. All the classic manoeuvres can be flown with the pace and grace of a vintage display. None of the snarling 'blink and you missed it' of a contemporary Pitts display.