Gary Numan

[Scramble Bill]

Does anyone know what Mr Numan is up to these days, Aviation-wise? Last i heard about him was reading a report in 'Warbirds Worldwide' on him flying a Yak 11 ? and being impressed......HOW LONG AGO WAS THAT!! Does he still have his Harvard?.................What happened to 'Warbirds Worldwide?...Those were the days.....Fighter Meet......explosions....Men with pointy helmets flying Invaders............sigh.................

[Moggy C]

I believe he's still a display examiner for the CAA

Moggy

[Yak 11 Fan]

The Yak was Eddie Coventy's, now owned by Angie Soper. I saw Gary at Chailley, he hadn't flown in a while at that point and I beleive the Harvard now has a new owner

[Scramble Bill]

Aha.....What about the pointy helmet?....

[Colin Wingrave]

Gary has sold the Harvard and as far as I know it is with a new owner in Sussex ish.
Now Gary has a family 2 girls! I would assume family come first but I think he still keeps his hand in with brother John.
We had a chat about 18 months ago at a show in London and flying is no where top of the list.
Oh and as an add on, Gary has a new Album which was No3 in the Indie charts last week this album is called "Jagged" not listened to it myself but my girl friend says it one of his best.

[flyingcloggie]

I have been told that Gary flew/owned this Tiger long time ago. Is this correct?

[Pete Truman]

Gary Numan was interviewed on the Jonathan Ross show a week ago, mainly to promote his new album, however the flying was briefly mentioned and I got the impression that family commitments had in fact taken precedent and that his wife had not been happy with the dangers of too much flying, I may be wrong, but I also felt that there was a suggestion that there had almost been a nasty accident.
If I have the nerve, the next time I see him in Tesco's at Dunmow, I'll ask, as he seems a decent bloke, I still have 3 very dusty albums of his on vynll.

[Moggy C]

Originally Posted by Pete Truman

he seems a decent bloke

He bought me a pint at the Squadron once. That qualifies him in my book

Moggy

[Septic]

G-AZSC is now owned by the Goodwood Road Racing Club and operates from Goodwood Aerodrome near Chichester in Sussex.

Its a great shame the old Harvard formation team are no longer in existence.

Septic.

[Moggy C]

Originally Posted by Septic

Its a great shame the old Harvard formation team are no longer in existence.

Septic.

Killed off effectively by the Yak 52.

Moggy

[JDK]

Originally Posted by Moggy C

Killed off effectively by the Yak 52.

That's a view. Interesting that on the other hand both New Zealand and Australia both manage to support part-time Harvard and Yak teams concurrently. Certainly Britain's heavier warbird numbers have increased since the late eighties as well.

[T6flyer]

Originally Posted by Septic

G-AZSC is now owned by the Goodwood Road Racing Club and operates from Goodwood Aerodrome near Chichester in Sussex.

Its a great shame the old Harvard formation team are no longer in existence.

Septic.

Also got killed off through lack of bookings due to the large number of high powered Warbirds in the airshow circuit. Thats why Norman Lees and Mr Numan formed the Radial Pair in order to try and succeed the team.

Last I heard was that Gary was buying a boat as Dad was interested in messing around on the water. Harvard is now at Goodwood and is available for rides and instructional flight. I had mine in her at a Fighter Meet, so wont be joining the queue.

And "Jagged" is good, even though I prefer "Pure" or "Hybrid" )

Martin

[T6flyer]

Originally Posted by flyingcloggie

I have been told that Gary flew/owned this Tiger long time ago. Is this correct?

This was owned by John Webb, Gary's brother.

Martin

[SOC]

Gary Numan and airplanes? Funny, I woulda thought Cars to be more his thing

[Moggy C]

Originally Posted by JDK

That's a view.

Indeed it is.

Not mine though, Anthony Hutton's.

Moggy

[JDK]

Ba boom.

Actually, Gary's one of the chaps whose made 'Cars' pay for his aviation habit, rather than being out of pocket for both!

Care to name any others?

Edit: Anthony ought to know, but I'd say it probably a split of the potential owners and market for Harvard shows moving both up into more expensive warbirds as well as into the lower cost Yaks.

It's also a fair comment that it's difficult to maintain a formation team or airshow act over any significant period. After a while you need to reinvent or the booking dry up, even if all other things are equel. If you are built around one aircraft type, it's hard to reinvent.

Colonel P Thudpucker in the SEAC Beech 18 and his richochet shooting is much missed though...

[Moggy C]

Originally Posted by JDK

It's also a fair comment that it's difficult to maintain a formation team or airshow act over any significant period. After a while you need to reinvent or the booking dry up, even if all other things are equel. If you are built around one aircraft type, it's hard to reinvent.

I think that was about the size of it.

It was a really good act, but organisers offered the choice between the Harvards (again) and the cheaper to operate thus less costly Yak teams that sprang up around then, opted en-masse for the Yaks. With few airshow bookings the impetous to keep the team together and to spend the necessary time and money on rehearsals started to wane.

Moggy

[Moggy C]

Originally Posted by JDK

Care to name any others?

Are Friends Electric? Anthem to the Sinclair C5

Moggy

[Ewan Hoozarmy]

I believe he's still a display examiner for the CAA

not for at least the last 7 years....

[Moggy C]

Originally Posted by Ewan Hoozarmy

not for at least the last 7 years....

My belief is suspended.

Moggy

[DGH]

Originally Posted by Pete Truman

If I have the nerve, the next time I see him in Tesco's at Dunmow, I'll ask, as he seems a decent bloke, I still have 3 very dusty albums of his on vynll.

I think he's now moved to a different part of the country Pete.

I saw a TV programme recently on which he was talking about the cars he owns / has owned and flying was mentioned alot. He said that he decided to give up display flying after he went to an airshow and realised he didn't know anyone there, he then stopped to think about all the people who weren't there and realised most of them were dead.

It's a shame but you cant blame him especially as he's not long become a dad for the second time.

[duxfordhawk]

Originally Posted by DGH

I think he's now moved to a different part of the country Pete.

I saw a TV programme recently on which he was talking about the cars he owns / has owned and flying was mentioned alot. He said that he decided to give up display flying after he went to an airshow and realised he didn't know anyone there, he then stopped to think about all the people who weren't there and realised most of them were dead.

It's a shame but you cant blame him especially as he's not long become a dad for the second time.

I remember reading in his Biography that he was hurt greatly by the loss of many Pilot friends, In particular it mentioned "Hoof" Proudfoot who i believe helped teach Gary Numan to Display fly.
I do miss seeing Gary Numan on the scene, He was very friendly when i met in at a Fighter meet at North Weald many years ago, And had time for people which was very nice to see.

[vulcan558]

Shame how things change . was a bit of a fan of some of is music in the early 80s. and then to find he was a aviation buff not long after was very fitting,
i met him last at swanton morley about 90-92 ish. at one of the last shows there , his havard was parked in front of us and my then girlfreind now wife got to speak and meet the chap . very nice and very polite to the crowds and was a good pilot being the baddy in the zero he flew, was a good show that year with mr blobby and noel edmonds and other celebs in on the show on the ground,anyone have any photos of that show . i took some but i cannot find any of them . i did suffer a house fire in 97 so may have lost out to that . nothing major just the back bedroom and a dodgey light fitting going up but smole damage was a issue and black dust and water got to a lot of boxes in the loft.

[Shorty01]

Here's one from the archives, Fighter Meet 1990 ( I think, t'was a long time ago).

[T6flyer]

Originally Posted by duxfordhawk

I remember reading in his Biography that he was hurt greatly by the loss of many Pilot friends, In particular it mentioned "Hoof" Proudfoot who i believe helped teach Gary Numan to Display fly.
I do miss seeing Gary Numan on the scene, He was very friendly when i met in at a Fighter meet at North Weald many years ago, And had time for people which was very nice to see.

Hoof was a mentor to a lot of pilots, but think Gary's initial warbird training was in the hands of Dizzie Addicott. A number of HFT members were sadly killed through their love of flying (Peter Snell, Pete Treadaway and Euan English), but we must not forget Norman Lees who was tragically killed in Spitfire PV202, as it was him that formed the Radial Pair with Gary. The loss of these gentlemen was great to a number of people and having been personally involved with them myself through my interest in the Harvard, I too 'lost' all enthusiasm in aviation for a year or two. Was it all really worth it, I thought. But then I suppose life has to go on.

Martin

[92fis]

I remember one saturday hearing a couple of harvards flying over so i turned on my scanner and listened to them talking to Honington, Gary's harvard had just developed a problem and he was losing power. Honington said that he could land he if wanted but he insisted he could make it to Duxford, Norman wanted Gary to land as soon as possible but Gary insisted that he carried on towards Duxford and told Norman to carry on as planned to Biggin hill to get some of the display money as they wouldn't get any if they both didn't go. In the end that's what they did and i could just hear Gary talking to Duxford so he made it safely in the end.

[Colin Wingrave]

Yes 92 fis,,, I remeber that very well I was in the back seat at the time !!!! landed at Duxford with fire engine escort.

[92fis]

Originally Posted by Colin Wingrave

Yes 92 fis,,, I remeber that very well I was in the back seat at the time !!!! landed at Duxford with fire engine escort.

That was a few years ago now.

[Colin Wingrave]

it was 1992 we had displayed at Swanton Morley and were heading back to Biggin when it developed the power loss.

[92fis]

I thought it was around then, It made me smile when i heard Gary insisting that Norman carried on to go and get some display money rather than fly back to duxford with him.