An Cosantóir

51 the rear cockpit of a Stampe, survived. The film was released the following year, 1971, but, de- spite the excellent flying sequences, was not a success. This brought to an end, the making of flying films in Ire- land. It was the end of an era which had begun in 1965 and during the course of five years, had resulted in the making of four films. The replica aircraft were sold to a collector in America. It had been an exciting time for pilots in the Air Corps in the 1960's when things were peaceful and very little was happening. It gave pilots an opportunity to experience the excitement of real flying in those early days of World War 1 and to believe that on a fine Summer's evening, returning to land after a tough dogfight with blackened faces, turning finaly to land into the sinking sun, that they had really fought a great fight and downed the enemy. It stored up memo- ries and brought us into contact with a whole new type of aviation. It provided a training that was no longer available to the vast majority of pilots and it allowed us to fulfil a dream to fly in an open cockpit aeroplane with helmet, goggles and a scarf and Fokker DVII or Pfalz or SE5 lettered authentically on the fuselage. It is certain- ly true to say that we learned about flying from that. Classic "The Blue Max" Movie poster Richthofen and Brown" featured a fair amount of gore, some sex, and about twenty minutes of aerial footage. All of us who were involved in the making of those twenty minutes, frightened ourselves at one time or another. We all know that these films are make-believe and fantasy, but flying is the real thing. Nobody had told the aeroplanes that this is all in fun. The cameraman who is filming the stars and actors knows that what he sees through the lens is not a real scene but people act- ing. The cameraman on Pigeon Hill felt that the aircraft diving down on them for head-on shots, guns blazing, were somehow unreal, since this was only a film and felt assured that every evening they would safely climb down from the tower. There was a cameraman in "The Blue Max" who regrets asking the pilot to fly lower still, but who escaped with just a broken nose. Most of the air-to-air filming was shot from an Alouette II helicopter. But a helicopter is an unnerving thing to fly at, because you're never quite sure if it is stopped, mov- ing forward or backwards or up or down. How does a pilot judge where to aim at an object of unknown velocity? It's like flying at a cloud, the closing rate can be alarmingly fast in the final seconds. Of course, it all looked neat and safe when it was chalked out on the briefing room blackboard, but now in the air, with fourteen replica fighters crushed into one small space of sky, each one chasing the other, a few losing position and diving blindly through the rest, flashing beneath without seeing, smoke trails, and the thick smell of fire- works in the air, it was difficult to distinguish order from chaos. But everyone survived the mass dogfight and couldn't wait for the thrill of the chase in another. The filming for ''The Red Baron" was completed in August 1970 but not before tragedy struck. On 18th August, the aircraft were being used for one shot for the film "Zeppelin" over Wicklow Bay when an SE5 and the helicopter collided in mid-air, and Comdt Jim Liddy of the Air Corps, and pilot of the helicopter, Gilbert Cho- mat, and the director, Birch Williams and Skeets Kelly, the cameraman, were killed. Flying was suspended until 15th September as a mark of respect and to allow an inquiry to take place. Air Corps and civilian pilots assembled again at Weston on the 15th September to conclude the filming for ''The Red Baron", but during the very first flight, a civilian pilot, Charles Boddington, who had come from England to fill the vacant slot, got into difficulties in another SE5 and crashed down among the cars and trucks at Weston and was killed. Flying was again suspended but the following day, 16th Septem- ber, in an effort to get the final piece of film in the can, an aircraft took off from Weston, struck the wires over the river and crashed into the water. Fortunately, both the civilian pilot, and film star, Don Stroud, who was in THOSE MAGNIFICENT DAYS

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