Pevensey Bay
PEVENSEY BAY: Temporary precautionary landing site
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The article in Flight magazine was published on the 14th August 1931. The fourth item, is a picture published in the Daily Mirror on the 7th August.
Note: This fifth item was also published in the Daily Mirror on the 7th August. The seventh item is a picture of Mollison with Miss Anita Elsen, a then well known actress, (actually Mrs Nick Prinsep), who lived in 'The Boxes' nearby. This picture being published in the Daily Herald on the 7th August.
Note: This ninth photo was also published in the Daily Mirror on the 7th August. The eleventh item was published in the Derby Daily Telegraph on the 7th August. The tenth and twelth items have been added from my Google Earth © based database.
Location: Just SW of Pevensey Bay, 3.5nm NNE to NE of Eastbourne town centre
Period of operation: 6th August 1931
NOTES: Jim Mollison set out from Australia in the DH60X Moth, VH-UFT, to break the record for a flight time over this route. Which he achieved by a comfortable margin, taking just 8 days and 19 hours to arrive at PEVENSEY BAY. (Or thereabouts). It appears he landed about 200 yards, (183 metres), from 'The Boxes'. (See map and picture).
It is pretty certain he was utterly exhausted when he decided to land on the beach here. Ostensibly to get his bearings for CROYDON. It appears he was very lucky to get away with this, mistaking an area near the beach really not at all suitable, for a meadow. It appears that at this time of year this area, the NE end of The Crumbles, the shingle is covered by green vegetation, sea kale and horned poppies.
Some accounts say the aircraft tipped on its nose. Very unlikely as Mollison later flew the Moth out of here. Other accounts say he encountered bad weather approaching the English coast so made a precautionary landing - in some accounts described as a "forced landing", which it was not. He had departed from Paris, (presumably Le Bourget), where he had arrived with no money, and was helped out by Imperial Airways. He had very little sleep over eight days, and had flown through the night on some sectors.
Somehow he then managed to summon up enough energy to reach CROYDON where a grand reception had been arranged.
It seems to me that his first arrival in England, at PEVENSEY BAY, has since been largely forgotten. However, at the time there was some debate as to exactly how long he had taken for the flight. It really doesn't matter today of course, as he had beaten the previous record by a very substantial margin.
This aircraft was later re-registered in the U.K. as G-ABUB, and was purchased by Sir Alan Cobhams company, National Aviation Day Ltd, in which it performed in his 1932 and 1933 Tours.
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