Back in the 1980’s I proudly owned a 1/8 share in a delightful De Havilland DHC1 Chipmunk G-BBMW which was hangared at Shoreham Airport.
One particularly nice sunny day I had a visit from a very good friend of mine, Dick Meyers. The date to be exact was 16th July 1988 according to my flying log book. We decided to take advantage of the azure blue sky above us and pull Chipmunk G-BBMW out from its the hangar based on the southern side of the Airport, alongside the 1930s Art Deco Terminal Building.
Captain Dick Meyers heralded from the US, Dick was a very experienced pilot who held an ATPL. He worked and operated as a Captain for American Transair flying their Boeing 757 fleet of aircraft. Apart from that he was also, a good chap, top guy, ace lad, fine fellow, real gentleman and a nice bloke.
The Chipmunk is a beautiful aircraft, it;s an ex military trainer aircraft, Mike Whiskeys military days had ended in 1973. Having changed hands a few times in Civvie life it found long term residency on the south coast of Sussex. At the time of this story it was owned by Robin Scott a popular musician who made the hit song “Talk about pop muzic” He was to very quickly to form a group around the aircraft of which I would become one of the group. The seating arrangement of Chipmunks is referred to as in tandem, it is where the two occupants sit in line with each other and not side by side.
Due to Dicks vast experience with both large jets and light aircraft and also the fact that I was current in both cockpit positions I elected to sit in the rear cockpit and allow him to sit in the main seat. The Chipmunk has dual controls and can be easily flown from both these cockpits, but the controls for starting the engine are in the front, bur of course this would be no problem for Dick.
We departed Shoreham Airfield on the hard runway of 21 and turned left after climbing straight out towards the coastline. Our plan was to fly along the coast on the seaward side towards the east. This route took us past Shoreham Power Station B when it had two chimneys. The two chimneys had served for many years as a useful landmark for the purposes of nautical and aviation navigators.
I had many occasions where-bye those two chimneys had offered a great visual aid when flying. Indeed I remember my qualifying solo cross country flight in the long hot summer of 1976 to obtain my private licence. The last leg of that triangular route was to Leave Goodwood near Chichester and fly back to Shoreham. Those two chimneys were immediately in sight and made that a very easy return to complete the test.
Dick and I continued our flight along the coast line past Brighton, Newhaven, then past the famous Beachy Head and its lighthouse at the bottom of the cliffs, then on towards Eastbourne. At Eastbourne we turned north towards the rolling countryside of Sussex. It was fun pointing out the many private landing grounds that are littered about within the green and pleasant land of Sussex. Dick’s thoughts on these grass covered landing strips was quite amusing, because in the States most fields are considerably larger and usually covered in concrete.
Just to the west of Eastbourne and north of Beachy head there is some council owned land called Cornish Farm. The farm was managed at that time by a friend of mine called Chris Johnson. One of the fields on the farm had for years been occasionally used as a landing strip and I had made use of it a few times so I made the usual flight around the farm house which usually brought Chris out and it did. He jumped into his truck and made for the landing field. Briefing Dick on how we would approach the strip I positioned the Chipmunk west of the field and started an approach to land.
We landed, turned round and then backtracked back to the western end, parked up and shut down to wait for Chris to arrive. Chris picked us up and took us to the farm house where we were treated to delicious tea and cakes. After our high tea at the farm we returned to the aircraft.
Dick did the departure from Cornish Farm, taking off toward the east and then turning 180 degrees to the west for our return flight to Shoreham.
The forward visibility from the rear seat in a Chipmunk is restricted due to being further back from the nose, so I informed Dick we should keep the coastline on our left and he should then see the two power station chimneys which would indicate that Shoreham Airport was just to the west of those chimneys.
Dicks answer to that was to question my directions as he could only see one chimney, asking politely if my directions were correct. I assured Dick that my directions were correct and that there were definitely two chimneys on that power station. “Goddamn it Bev I can only see one chimney”
I responded that perhaps we had the two in line and it looked as if there was only one. That did nothing to convince Dick that we were where I said we were.
As I said before, my visibility ahead in the rear cockpit was restricted by the nose and the chimneys were hidden to me, so when Dick questioned it for the third time I took control briefly and put some right rudder in which yawed the aircraft sufficiently for me to see the two chimneys.
However, there was only one chimney! My response was to offer the most weak and not very encouraging remark saying, “Well there were two when we took off”
I managed to convince Dick that even though this mystery of a missing chimney was unexplained I knew where we were and that Shoreham was now in view and it was safe to continue.
I called up Shoreham approach on the radio, giving them my position and calling for a rejoin to land. Shorehams Air traffic controller responded with the usual information and then warned us about some intense helicopter activity taking place around the Power station as the Eastern chimney had just been blown up.
A few minutes later we passed over the power station at 2000 feet and looked down upon a sorry sight, there laid on its side horizontally spread out on the quayside was the crushed, bruised and ghostly remains of the disputed chimney.
It was on the 16th July 1988 that the eastern chimney of the Shoreham B Power Station in West Sussex was demolished.
Over the next few years the Power Station was ripped apart and demolished leaving the remaining chimney standing on its own.
The remaining chimney survived for another 10 years. It was finally on 27th September 1998 that the 46 year old, 350ft high west chimney was also demolished.
My good friend Captain Dick Meyers passed away on June 22, 2013. Blue skies and fair winds old chap, you are not forgotten.
I am sure he would agree with me, the new chimney that now exists at the new Power station C is ugly. But it does still serve as a good visual aid for those approaching Shoreham by air or by sea. The plus side is we don’t have to dispute the number of chimneys anymore as there is only one.
Onlyvfr 
Capt Dick me and the chimneys – Really interesting different perspective eyewitness to local social history … I enjoyed the tension (thumbs up from the Reader here) in the story and effectively felt the narrator’s worries communicated as the story progressed, and your homebound landmarks were missing.
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Thanks again Hilary your comments are most welcome.
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Enjoyed that Bev. I wonder what the situation would have been, if both chimneys had been brought down. ??
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Thanks John for the comment. As it is home territory for me it made little difference, however as Dick was new to the area it obviously troubled him greatly as the Chippie had no navigational aids for him to confirm his position. Except of course for the mark one eyeball.
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