The Land Yacht was built during the winter attachment to Sylt in January 1955.   It was so cold the sea froze over and Ron Gray has cine film of bods slipping and sliding as they clambered over the broken and refrozen ice.

                                                      Pete Phillips and Ron Gray surveying the progress of the Land Yacht.


                                                                                  Norman Giffin and Bob Smith offering advice.

  We had heavy snowfalls, interspersed with a thaw and freeze, and hence did not fly for a couple of weeks.  The station dump was inspected and items such as follows: -

   two bed frames, cast iron;
   seat,Tempest;
   Pedals foot,
   Tempest: Spar,
   wing with undercarriage Drone;
   tubes, assorted.

   The Parachute Section was kind enough to run up a sail in a rather pleasing red, and to provide yards of parachute cord for rigging.  We got the thing built and tested against Snowy Ewen's car on the icy runway.  It achieved 28 mph.  Prior to our return to Jever the Land Yacht was carefully stripped to manageable components and loaded on the railway truck.  Some thieving bastards nicked it enroute.  Will have to search for 8mm film of this.  Its condition could be poor by now.

   A Venom Squadron from Fassburg, possibly, shared the time with 4 Squadron, and their CO used one of their aircraft to blast the 6 inches of ice on the apron.  It was spectacular but very expensive fuel wise, and was abandoned.