Aviation Observations - XM479 I took this picutre at Prestwick Airport (PIK - EGPK) on 28 July 2001. I had put together a list of my observations that day, but had not included any pictures here. XM479 is is owned by "The Newcastle Jet Provost Company" run by a small group of enthusiasts. One of the members of "The Newcastle Jet Provost Company", Alan Edwards, has contacted me. This page gives the information he provided me with about the trip to PIK on 28 July 2001 and a bit of background history.

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Email from Alan Edwards on 14 October 2001

Hello Stewart, Hello Sarah,

Whilst surfing the internet today I happened to come across your web-site for the first time and was delighted to see that you had observed our aircraft during a brief visit to Prestwick (EGPK) on Saturday 28th July 2001.

It is great to know that someone is interested enough and has taken the time and bother to make a record of the visit so I thought I would return the favour by providing you with a few brief details of the aircraft and the flight...

The aircraft is a Jet Provost T Mk3 A and is based at another Prestwick ... Newcastle International Airport (EGNT). It is on the UK civil aircraft register as G-BVEZ but keeps its RAF markings and therefore displays XM479.

A friend and myself decided to pay a visit to the Prestwick Flying Club and after monitoring the weather forecast's for several days we still managed to pick one of the worst days possible to visit,the visibility was appalling and we missed most of the lovely scenery on the way across, although the hospitality shown by the guy's in the Flying club made the trip worthwhile.

We flew from Newcastle over Kielder reservoir towards the DME/VOR at Talla then headed due west to Prestwick where upon the tower asked for a low pass! Well we could hardly refuse an offer like that so a low pass they got...less than 20ft at approx. 250kts with a high-G turn and climb at the end of the runway (Its a shame you hadn't been there earlier to observe that!) After landing we taxied behind a follow-me vehicle which took us to a stand beside the Polar Air hanger.

Several hours later after a visit to both the Flying club and the Main terminal building it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and head back home, which is when you would have seen us. I can remember waving to a couple of people on the small hill beside the tower as we taxied past, I can also remember seeing someone with either a telescope or a camera with a telephoto lens on a tripod, was that you? As you observed we did our usual takeoff which is to stay low after rotate, put the gear and flaps up then pull a steep climb or turn at the end of the runway. We had intended to do another low pass after take-off but decided against the idea as there were a few aircraft in the circuit which meant it would have cost us too much time and fuel to make it worth the bother.

After take-off we turned left and headed off towards Dumfries then turned east along the Solway Firth flying overhead Carlisle Airport, then we followed the Tyne valley all the way back home to Newcastle and landed approx.30 min's after you saw us take off.

I hope this feedback to your web-site has been of interest?

P.S. I have attached a photo(.jpg) someone took of us landing XM479 at the Elvington airshow in August.

It was very kind of Alan to provide me with some feedback. I was one of those on the mound close to the threshold of runways 21 and 31 at PIK, as you can see from the pictures.

The CAA Aircraft registration details at http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/aircraft_register/ginfo/search.asp for this aircraft (as at 28 October 2001) are:-