95-year-old bomber command vet taken for flight in world's only MK1 Bomber

Thursday, 24 January 2019

Inside the glasshouse-like cockpit, the heat is stifling and the smell of burnt fuel and old leather is inescapable.

Gazing across the camouflaged wing of the 1935 Avro Anson Mk1 MH-120, resplendent with the Royal Air Force emblem, 95-year-old John Beeching is transported back to his former airman's life.

Pilot Bill Reid offers Beeching the controls. It's an opportunity the Nelson man has waited three-quarters of a century for.

Bill Reid, right, owner and pilot of the world's only flying Mk1 Avro Anson, with World War 2 bomber pilot John Beeching, 95, beside the aircraft type that Beeching last flew 74 years ago.

'It is like riding a bike, you never forget.'

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John Beeching flew numerous bombing missions over Germany in a deHavillard Mosquito during World War 2 before becoming an instructor in the Anson aircraft.

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Bill Reid sourced his Mk1 Avro Anson MH-120 from an Australian aviation museum in 2002. After a 10-year restoration, the aircraft is back flying and on display at Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.

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With the help of a mutual friend this week Beeching, a former RAF bomber command pilot, was given a flight in the world's only airworthy Anson MH-120 – the same aircraft he flew 74 years ago as part of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.

'This has been an absolutely monumental day for me,' Beeching said.

After flying 15 missions over Germany in a deHavillard Mosquito during Word War II, Beeching went on to fly Avro Ansons post-war as an instructor on blind landings using the beam approach beacon system.

The Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft first built in the 1930s. During World War II the aircraft undertook coastal reconnaissance, searching for German submarines and U-boats across the English Channel and Irish Sea, and escorting shipping convoys as they came into port. Despite its noise it handled well and was fondly nicknamed 'Gentle Annie'.

'All military planes are noisy – you didn't have to worry about creature comforts back in those days and there was no sound-proofing - that's why we're all deaf these days,' Beeching said.

Reid bought his plane from Wangaratta Airworld Museum in Victoria in 2002, where it had been used as a freighter post-war, taking crayfish from Tasmania to Melbourne.

'I had to dismantle it and put it in containers because it was such a mess - luckily I didn't know it would take me 10 years or I probably wouldn't have touched it.'

Reid restored it at the family property outside Wakefield, near Nelson, with the help of a number of people including his late wife Robyn. In 2012, it made its triumphant return to the skies.

Too big to store alongside his five helicopters and assorted warbirds, the plane is housed at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Museum near Blenheim.

The chance connection between the two men was a day Beeching will never forget.

'Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be sitting in an airplane that I flew 74 years ago,' he said. 'And he let me drive it, which was marvellous.'

Reid recently got certification to offer adventure flights in his restored beauty. Those interested in a ride can contact Bill at rraviation@xtra.co.nz.