Top Landing Gear

Welcome to Top Landing Gear and our bonus edition of Full Flaps from Dunsfold Aerodrome. In our previous episode we spoke with Aviation Filming's owner Mike Woodley. In this episode we make our way out onto the apron and get guided tour around the three BA Boeing 747s with Aviation Filming Aerial Coordinator and Pilot Jamie Chalkley.    

Welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps and our full length interview with Mike Woodley, owner of Aviation Filming Ltd based at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.  The company specialises in aviation content for film and TV, including a huge number of the Bond films. Among Aviation Filming's fleet are three former BA Boeing 747s which are regularly used as film props and a very famous Douglas Dakota.  W...

Welcome to Top Landing Gear as we turn our attention to an airfield that is close to all of us, both emotionally and geographically: Dunsfold Aerodrome, home of the Hunter and the Harrier. It was also used as the studio and test track for BBC Top Gear (a poor man's version of Top Landing Gear - wheels instead of wings!), home to the sadly defunct annual Wings and Wheels airshow, and the base for A...

Join the Top Landing Gear team as they are given a tour of Croydon Airport by A380 Captain Ian Walker, former chairman of the Croydon Airport Trust.    Opening in the 1920s, Croydon was London's, indeed the UK's main international airport. Arguably the birthplace of commercial air travel, it was also the starting point for many of aviation's historic records, including those set by Amy Johnson.   ...

Top Landing Gear returns as we continue series 5 by going further back in aviation history than we've ever gone before, to the earliest days of commercial air travel with our visit to the historic Croydon Aerodrome .   Opening in the 1920s, Croydon was London's, indeed the UK's main international airport, and as well as virtually being the birthplace of commercial air travel, it was also the start...

We delivered our last podcast - as in most recent -back in May 2023 - when we were in the middle of series 5. We were literally on our way to Roy's studio to record our next editions when he told us not to bother - because his house was being razed to the ground after a tumble direr caught fire.   Because of that and Roy's constant touring with his band Scouting For Girls, this is the first time w...

We are coming back!  A short trailer to get you in the mood for the rest of Series Five (Part Deux)

Welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps, where we bring you the most thrilling stories and captivating interviews from the world of aviation. Today, we are thrilled to present our full-length interview with none other than Bizjet pilot extraordinaire, Mark Blois-Brooke. Our hosts, Rob and Roy, had the privilege of meeting Mark in his operating base at Farnborough Airport, the largest and most prest...

Hello and welcome to Top Landing Gear, the aviation podcast for everyone. Join Rob, Jez, James and Roy as we learn about the glamorous world of business jets and hear a snippet of next weeks interview with Falcon 7X Captain and Chief Pilot for TAG Aviation, Mark Bois-Brooke. 

Welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps and the second part of our interview with Tony Hoskins who is restoring a rare photo reconnaissance Spitfire PR4 to full flight. Back in 2018 Tony and his team recovered the wreckage of Spitfire AA810 from a mountainside in Norway where it had laid undisturbed for 76 years having been shot down on a mission to photograph the battleship Tirpitz. The pilot Sand...

Welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps and the first part of our interview with Tony Hoskins who is restoring a rare photo reconnaissance Spitfire PR4 to full flight. Back in 2018 Tony and his team recovered the wreckage of Spitfire AA810 from a mountainside in Norway where it had laid undisturbed for 76 years having been shot down on a mission to photograph the battleship Tirpitz. The pilot Sandy...

Welcome to Top Landing Gear and the first episode proper of Series Five. Along with our usual catch up and 'Ask James' feature we talk aerial reconnaissance and hear the remarkable story of a very special Spitfire. We speak to engineer and aerial restoration specialist Tony Hoskins who shares the incredible story of Spitfire AA810 , a photo reconnaissance PR4 which was lost over occupied Europe wh...

A massive thank you to all our listeners. So many wonderful words across social media about the return of Top Landing Gear this week. After we mentioned it in last weeks episode we thought it only right to repeat our Audacious Aviation Podcast and 2020 interview with Hawker Hunter pilot Alan Pollock. A brand new TLG episode will be dropping next Tuesday. 

Hello and welcome back to Top Landing Gear. The aviation podcast for everyone. After several months in the wilderness we’re back with a brand new series. Today we catch up on the latest aviation news and look forward to what’s coming up in Season Five of www.toplandinggear.com     If you have a topic you would like us to consider or a question for our pilot and aviation expert get in touch via our...

Top Landing Gear is back... (Well it will be tomorrow on TLG Tuesday!) Here's a quick overview of what we've got coming up over the coming weeks. If you have a topic that you think we should cover this year or a question for our Ask James segment we would love to hear from you. Contact us via our socials or send us an email at  info@toplandinggear.com Until Tomorrow!    

Hello and welcome back to Top Landing Gear after a bit of a hiatus during the summer. But we haven’t been totally idle in that time. Having said that we’re not launching the new series just yet.  This episode, to be brutally honest is unashamedly about creating a bit of self-publicity. As you have no doubt seen via our vast social media empire, the Top Landing Gear team recently appeared on the po...

Welcome to Top Landing Gear and our final episode of the series, one to put a spring in your step if you’re heading off on your summer holidays. As we are all too well aware, the aviation sector has struggled to bounce back from the pandemic, resulting in thousands of delays and cancellations. From pandemic to pandemonium; it’s a pantomime farce only not as entertaining!  What will be entertaining...

Hello and Welcome to TLG and to the second stage of our Full Flaps interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank, the man who invented the jet engine. Ian told us so much in part one, you’d hardly believe there’d be more – but there is – and we couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass us by. So here once again is Ian talking to James Cartner and me Rob Curling at his Surrey home, almost 85 years...

Hello and welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps, and to the full length interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank Whittle, the man credited with one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, something that changed the world forever – the jet engine. Ian is a pilot himself and flew the Gloster Meteor in RAF service, Britain’s first jet fighter, powered by the very engines his father had inv...

The nation came together over 4 days in June to mark the extraordinary milestone of HM The Queen's 70 year reign.  One of the highlights of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations was the flypast over London of 70 aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and of course the Royal Air Force who flew 15 Typhoons in formation as the number '70'. Among them was Sqn Ldr Zane Sennett, who described to TLG in fasc...

This episode of Top Landing Gear might in itself not be worthy of going down in history, but it’s all about one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, something that changed the world forever – the jet engine. And our guest is no less a person than Ian Whittle, the son of the man credited with that invention - Sir Frank Whittle. You’ll hear a clip of our interview with Ian here, but not bef...

Join Roy, Jim & Jez in the pub after watching a screening of the new Lancaster movie. It was produced by the same people who gave us 'Spitfire' in 2018 - The film that made Jez cry in the cinema - Would Lancaster have the same effect?  Jim also talks about how the airlines dealt with the increased Half-Term holiday demand. (Answer - not very well) and Jez gives us a quick review of Top Gun: Maveri...

The nation came together over 4 days in June to mark the extraordinary milestone of HM The Queen's 70 year reign.  One of the highlights of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations was the flypast over London of 70 aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and of course the Royal Air Force who flew 15 Typhoons in formation as the number '70'. Among them was Sqn Ldr Zane Sennett, who described to TLG in fasc...

Hello and welcome to TLG and our Full Flaps interview with Chris Parry, a RN Observer on HMS Antrim’s Wessex 3, known as Humphrey. Chris is a fascinating character, and some of the stories he tells us here about what went on down south during the Falklands Conflict 40 years ago, defy belief, not least the insertion and rescue of an SAS party on the Fortuna Glacier on South Georgia in the most unbe...

In this edition of Top Landing Gear we continue to mark the 40th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict, focussing on one of the workhorses of the British Task Force’s airborne operation, the venerable Westland Wessex. Now of course our aviation ‘expert’ James Cartner was an RAF Wessex pilot, so we thought we’d let him compile the quiz, and be the quiz master. This is unlikely ever to happen again....