Duxford 10 October photos

Thank’s Setter.

Thank’s ever so much John 😉 .
Well she sure has had some work done since the last time I sat in her cockpit :p .
I had asked around a bit but most people didn’t know much about the Firefly, And looking at the ex R.A.N. Firefly Mk.6. for sale in C.W. a while back(still not sold) I asked GMO where she was from, Not Essendon photo taken at Berwick and said he thought Eddies was the one I was looking for.
While looking at your photos I suddenly thought is that the old girl, and that you could fill in the blank’s, So it still ring’s true, It’s not what you know but who you know, Cheer’s John 🙂 , Tally Ho! Phil. :diablo:

Hi Phil

Well this is an interesting project from begining to end.

The Firefly was purchased from where you played on it by Mike Wansey at that time a resident of Newcastle and restored by Eurakea Aviation in Victoria (Ballarat? or Bendigo? can’t remember which) and from there was flown for a period of time as a Warbird as “Mickeys Mouse”

Following work done on the engine it was test flown at Camden and the engine malfunctioned in a big way and the aircraft crash landed causing considerable damage. Following settlement of insurance the machine was repaired at Bankstown utilising major portions of the machine which had been on a pole in Griffith NSW.

In my opinion following this rebuild the majority of the crashed machine was “restored ” and put back up on the pole in Griffith and effectively swapped identities with the previous Griffith machine. The machine did not fly again in Australia and was sold to the USA going through a few hands before being restored to it’s current flying state in the US.

I am told that despite the very thorough imaculate restoration in the states it has been very heavily “Americanised ” and would take a lot of work to return to “stock” condition.

A lot of my Firefly photos are of this machine in it’s various guises.

If I can help any more email me

Kind regards
John Parker
[email]parkerj@launch.net.au[/email]

Top Stuff Setter.

WOW WOW WOW 😀 , I have spent about 2 hours looking at all your wonderfull collection Setter 😮 , You have been a very busy boy :p .
I am interested in the story behind Eddie Kurdziel’s Fabulous Firefly, As I have been told by Graham Orphan(C.W.) this is the Firefly I crawled all over at Essendon Airport as a teen while helping restore two ex N.Z. T-6s.
Early 80s stuff I know but I thought you might be able to fill in the blank’s of how she got to the U.S. and if any photos were taken before she left our shore’s :confused: , Cheer’s John, Tally Ho! :dev2: Phil.

Hi Merlin 70

First I will get back to you soon about the instruments – I have to wade my way through several thousand boxes first to get to them.

Second The Duxford photos are the start – more are loadin as I type- and eventually I will be putting up 4000 or so more shots!!! So no it wasn’t just Spits they just happen to be first!!

Regards
John P

PS say hello to the family – I had a great time

John thanks for posting. It looks as though it was a bit chilly. I remember on that particular afternoon being sat on the beach in Marbella visualising what I was missing at DX. It appears that I most definatley would have enjoyed the big Spits, the cold war jets and the Naval historic Flight. I don’t think I missed the weather though.

Would I be right in thinking that you appreciated the various Spit displays?

Pic 55. When did Sabres start flying with large liquorice comfits in the nasal intake?

Can you email me your postal address and I will forward the shots of our previous DX visit plus Legends pics.

tc

cheers for the pics. i would have had my own. i had every thing planned for my annual trip to duxford. turned out i missed it. did they move the date. or was it just me