museum of flying cal pics

Hi Daz,
The Spit looks very much like Mk.XIV TZ138, now owned by Bob Jens in British Colombia, Canada. As far as I know, this is another little-flown Spit having only been ground run since the delivery flight to it’s present owner. She shares the hangar with Bob’s airworthy Mosquito project.

Yes it was TZ138. I photographed it in the Santa Monica museum and after this example moved to Canada I was kindly hosted by Bob Jens in Vancouver when he showed me over his Mosquito and I can confirm the Spitfire was adjacent. At that time he told me the Spit is run up regularly. I took photos of TZ138 at both locations.

Hi Daz,
The Spit looks very much like Mk.XIV TZ138, now owned by Bob Jens in British Colombia, Canada. As far as I know, this is another little-flown Spit having only been ground run since the delivery flight to it’s present owner. She shares the hangar with Bob’s airworthy Mosquito project.

I believe you could be right. Something tells me the Spit was housed there for a while, before Jens acquired it.

The bearcat went to tony banta and is now,i am lead to belive on it’s way down under.

Hope this helps

BwB

The collections owner also had an airworthy grumman bearcat i am not sure what happened to that, i think he flew it seperately to the museum, it was a shame the museum closed it had some very good displays and most of the staff were vets so they knew what they were talking about.

i had more pics but i cannot find them at the moment if i ever do find them i will post them.

curlyboy

Hi Daz,
The Spit looks very much like Mk.XIV TZ138, now owned by Bob Jens in British Colombia, Canada. As far as I know, this is another little-flown Spit having only been ground run since the delivery flight to it’s present owner. She shares the hangar with Bob’s airworthy Mosquito project.

Great pics.

There appears to be another Spit behind the Zero in the third shot (Griffon-engined, by the look of it). Anyone know which one it might have been? It’s not MkXIV NH749 – this had a white spinner.

Hi Curly,
Yep the Hurri is in Canada with Ed Russell’s collection at Niagra Falls Airport. The Zero is currently flown by the CAF,I think on loan from the Santa Monica Collection’s owner. The Spitfire was bought by Rolls Royce who then presented it to the Wings of Dreams museum in Brazil,where it has flown seemingly only once since.
The Swordfish was bought by Bob Reiss a couple of years ago,who also owned a Grumman Wildcat in Royal Navy colours that is still operated on behalf of the CAF. Sadly, Mr.Reiss died shortly after purchasing the project,so who knows what the future holds for it.

Edit: Just looked up the P47 on WIX and she appears to have been sold on in 2000 to a private owner in NY State. She’s displayed at the American Airpower Museum at Farmingdale,NY.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p47registry/p47-4490447.html