THE FABULOUS CHIPMUNK My favourite plane

I have been privileged to have flown the most fantastic variety of planes - from the Denel Cheetah for an air-to-air refuelling mission, to a ninety-year-old Tiger Moth. So I suppose it's natural that I occasionally get asked an impossible question by a young bright-eyed aviation enthusiast: What's your favourite plane?

- GUY LEITCH

A truthful answer usually requires lots of umms and ahhs. Do you mean - the biggest thrill? - or the most satisfying? - or the most enthralling big jet? - or the mixed pleasure of flying the one that I own?

But if I stop and think about the nicest plane I have ever flown, the answer is easy but perhaps surprising. It's the de Havilland Chipmunk. It is of some comfort to me that the venerable Jim Davis agrees.

Why do I like the Chippy above all others?

Here are my random top six reasons:

• Because it's got the most beautifully harmonised controls. The breakout forces are low and the response is brisk, proportional and smooth. The only plane that approaches the Chippy in control feel is the Sling 2.

• Because it's got a low wing. Yes, I prefer low wings because: You can see out better, they are not as claustrophobic as having your head in the wing, the wheels attach in a sensible place, it's easier to get in and out of, etc etc - and they just look better.

• Because it's got tandem seating with a spacious glass house sliding canopy that lets you see out left and right equally - and that makes you feel like you could be flying a Spitfire. As you taxy in, you can slide the canopy back and wave to the many admirers (of the plane not your flying). Because it's an icon. It's an eighty year-old design with curmudgeonly systems appropriate to its age. Its inverted four-cylinder engine looks like it comes from the railways with its huge green handles and brass knobs.

• It has trained thousands if not hundreds of thousands of neophyte pilots and is capable of gentleman aerobatics yet, thanks to its clean design, has a reasonable turn of speed for a 145hp engine and fixed pitch prop.

• And... the Gypsey Major engine is not subject to the idiotic 12-year rule.

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