Helvellyn
HELVELLYN: Very temporary ‘one off’ record breaking landing site
Operated by: Bert Hinkler and John Leeming (Lancashire Aero Club)
NOTES: This is a fascinating story told in the book, An Aeronautical History of the Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway Region by Peter Connon which I will thoroughly recommend - if you can find a copy.. I learnt a great deal about these regions from his painstaking research.
It is probably best if I quote the inscription on a commemorative stone on the summit of the 3118ft HELVELLYN mountain: “THE FIRST AEROPLANE TO LAND ON A MOUNTAIN IN GREAT BRITAIN DID SO ON THIS SPOT, ON DECEMBER 22nd 1926. BERT HINKLER AND JOHN LEEMING IN AN AVRO ALPHA LANDED HERE AND AFTER A SHORT STAY FLEW BACK TO WOODFORD”
Typically it seems the inscription is actually wrong, (how often does this happen?) and we need to bear in mind that a hill qualifies as a mountain (in the UK at least) only once it exceeds 3000ft above sea level - so therefore Mount Helvellyn is a rather marginal mountain.
It appears that after a rather gruelling land survey, they actually decided to land on a reasonably level strip of ground at a lower level about half a mile to the south of the summit. Nonetheless - still a remarkable achievement - shame about the detail being wrong.
Incidentally the aircraft used was the Avro 585 Alpha G-EBPH. If you are not yet familiar with the name Bert Hinkler then treat yourself by investigating his quite incredible flying history. Like so many of the great pioneers, his flying career was quite short-lived and he died ironically, on another mountain - this one in Italy, of exposure probably, having survived the crash landing.
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