A Tale Of Two Loves

Tom Leaver’s heart was first captured by a vintage Morane Saulnier MS.230 — now he’s surrendered it to a 1928 Travel Air 4000.

- Tom Leaver

My father was a career officer in the US Air Force so my interest in flying was kindled very early in my life. Some of the great aviators I met through him instilled in me my initial passion for flying. I obtained my FAA private pilot’s licence under the guise of school sport in Monterey, California at the age of sixteen. Commercial licence and instrument rating followed, with an airline career being the plan, but that was not to be as I was not admitted to the USAF due to a childhood injury. Fortunately the oil industry came along and my career took an entirely different tack for the rest of my professional working life.

The prospect of flying came back into my life in 1989, when I happened upon a very forlorn looking Morane Saulnier MS.230 at the back of a hangar at Booker. At the time I thought it very ugly but I was reliably informed−quite rightly−that it was one of the best performing aircraft of its day. I hadn’t flown for fifteen years but I saw the chance to reignite my passion and bought it: I wanted something very special that I could enjoy in fair weather. Tony Bianchi’s Personal Plane Services (PPS) restored the Morane and we decided to paint it in the colours worn by the 1ère Escadrille aircraft based at Le Bourget in 1939, as the previous owner, the Hon Patrick Lindsay had acquired it from the Paris airfield in 1967.

Coincident with the restoration, I gained my UK PPL (odd to me; the CAA doesn’t recognise FAA licences) and began the incredible journey of getting to know and fly the Morane. I both feel for, and owe a great debt to Jonathon Whaley, who was my very patient instructor/ mentor/friend for all those endless circuits and air work until I got the hang of it.