ΤHE BRISTOL SCOUT
THE STORY
The Bristol Scout was designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s Frank Barnwell, with input from test pilot Harry Busteed, in 1913.
David Bremner’s Granddad flew one of these in WWI with No. 2 Wing RNAS from 1915 to 1916, at Imbros, off the Gallipoli peninsula, and at Thasos, a Greek island off the coast of Bulgaria, who had recently joined the Axis powers. During this period he flew seven different Scouts, but his favourite was serial number 1264.
After he died ,David and his younger brother Rick found three souvenirs in his workshop a stick, rudder bar and magneto, and they guessed that these were from 1264.
In 2002 their friend Theo Willford suggested that they had to rebuild #1264, since Frances ‘Bunnie’ Bremner (David’s Granddad) always told his family he would like to see the aircraft take to the skies once again, and so they started researching and gathering everything they needed, which proved quite a challenge.
In 2008 they ware finally able to start building , and on the 9th of July 2015 it took to the air for the first time, almost exactly 100 years after the original.
2016: The plan is to return the Scout to Thassos,Greece and reprise their Grandfathers flight exactly 100 years after he was there
HOW I GOT THERE?
I grew up on the island Thassos in Greece, where David Bremner indented to fly the scout once again, from the same airstrip his grandfather flew it 100 years ago !
To my luck , Stratos Agiani created a team of photographers for the 2016 Kavala Airsea Show which had the mission to document everything that was happening on these days related to the show.
Stratos and myself where the ones who would photograph the preparations , and the Scouts first flight in thassos ,on the 26 of July 2016 . While Panagiwtis Kokkinis would film and photograph the behind the scenes of everything we were doing.
It was an early morning, the three of us met at the airstrip in Prinos at about 6AM, where the film crew who was following and documenting the story of the Bristol Scout and its builders for the past years had just arrived.
Shortly after the preparations for the flight started.
The flight was a success !
David managed to make a smooth takeof and started circling the airstrip, There where only minor turbulence due to the morning winds the rising sun creates while heating up the cool morning air, but everything wend well and after about 10 minutes he landed safely on the field that was prepared for that purpose.
Portraits?
Later that day I and Stratos met again with David at the improvised hanger sheltering the Scout in order to create some interesting portraits. We used both natural light and a speedlight in a 60×60 softbox to give a little bit of an edge on the closeup portraits. As always I used my Canon 5D MK1 and my 50mm 1.8. While Stratos used the Olympus OM-D EM-1 and some Olympus lenses he got send by Olympus Greece in order to shoot this unique occasion
Special Thanks
Mr Georgiadis who is the father of the Kavala Air Sea Show , and is the one who made all this possible.
Thanks to Stratos Agiani for giving me the chance to both witness and document this unique event.
Thanks to David Bremner for the time and access he gave us in order to make this project reality.
Be sure to follow David’s Website and Fanpage for more amazing story’s
Official Website / Blog : https://bristolscout.wordpress.com/
Facebook Fanpage : https://www.facebook.com/Bristolscou