Ron Levett's childhood memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex

On the A27 between Shermans Bridge and the turn-off to Milton Street, on the opposite side of the road is a large field. Between the wars, this was the home of Eastbourne Flying Club. At the top end of the field there was a brick Control Tower and one or two wooden hangers.

As far as I remember, their aircraft consisted of Avro 504's with the skid between the wheels, left over from WW1, and a De Havilland DH8, the forerunner of the Tiger Moth.

During the summer in the 1930's an air display was held, open to the public. They would have a 'Cops & Robbers' enactment, with the robbers getting away in an old car, until they were bombed with flour bags from one of the old biplanes and forced to give up.

I saw Clem Sohn the Birdman, who would jump from an aircraft at about 6000 feet, open his silver wings and float down until he was forced to open his parachute - one of the old circular type, then land in the field. I heard that he was later killed in an accident.

I also saw the tiny aircraft known as the 'Flying Flea,' or 'Poue de Ciel' (It was of French origin). At least one of these minute aeroplanes, whose wingspan could not have been more than ten feet, is still flying.

On another occasion a Cierva Autogiro put in an appearance. This machine looks like a helicopter but the rotor is not driven, all the power being supplied by a large front mounted radial engine. The aircraft had to fly forward fast enough for the rotor to rotate then it took off. It could, however, descend and land with no forward run.

Just before the war, on air display day, two German low wing monoplanes with retractable undercarriages arrived. One had a large radial engine, the other an inverted V12 liquid cooled type. I actually looked into the front of the engine and counted the cylinders.

An air race was held and the two German aircraft were handicapped until the biplanes had reached the turning point at Firle Beacon and were on their way back. The monoplanes took off, pulled their wheels up and were round the course and back on the ground before the others.

My most outstanding memory however, of an air display day, was a sudden very hard shower of rain, when Kate, Stanley and I took shelter under the voluminous cape of the policeman from Selmeston, PC Finley. Very welcome it was, too!

Ron Levett, 2001