Errol's Gannet & Vampire, nearly 25 years ago!

I was speaking with the owner recently and he told me that he did have plans for the Gannet but it is now too far gone thanks to local vandalism.

As for the Vampire, some scallywag cut the fighting cocks emblem off the fuselage. It’s not an original, as it was a slate gray and orange aircraft, the 43 Squadron markings were applied while it was at Strathallan.

The Buccaneer is still about… somewhere. The shed and the adjoining firing butts have been demolished and the Vampire moved into storage.

Hi guys.

Just out of interest, and because this forum came up after a quick google search of XG882 I’d like to post a couple of links to some things related to this plane recently posted on the internet.

There is a youtube video of this plane as it sits today, the video is taken from a drone by an enthusiast and it gets up quite close and circles around giving a good view of it. here’s the video:

I used this footage to make a 3D model of the plane and posted it to sketchfab. You can view it there and zoom in and spin the model around and such if you are interested. It turned out as quite a nice model, unfortunately there is a bit of blurring in the mesh of some of the shadows so it’s probably not an ideal candidate for 3d printing if you were so inclined, but the .obj file is available for download anyway.

Here is a link to the 3d model : https://skfb.ly/LJTX

And here are some screen shots of the model and the mesh to show you what I mean:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]244611[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]244612[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]244613[/ATTACH]

I hope anyone interested in XG882 enjoys these. Thanks

The Gannet has been a display piece at some point as there is a plinth next to it with it’s history written in very faded writing, i visited it at the weekend there. Aircraft itself in a very depressing condition, but infinitely photogenic, though perhaps better now for more arty shots!

I spoke with a chap who reckons the Buccaneer resides in a building a couple of fields away closer to the River Tay. I also noted the shed in which the Vampire is pictured above, but it has certainly gone from that location, and the same chap didn’t know where to.

(There’s another thread on this forum relating to XG882, which alludes to the fact that the owner had been made offers in the past but wanted silly money for it. Apparently it was moved from the main airfield site some years ago due to kids at Errol Sunday Market continually vandalising it. But where it was once victim to this, it looks like exposure to the elements will finish it off. Very sad.)

Many thanks for posting these. I grew up in Perthshire and often enjoyed stumbling across airfields in the ‘interior’ whilst going on car journeys as a kid. Errol is a funny site. The areas of land between the runways are actually registered as agricultural land parcels, so the presence of the Gannet is incongruous to say the least; sitting marooned in the crops.

The Vamp lives in a shed:

Buccaneer XN981 lives in another shed:

Any ideas as to why these airframes reside on site? I cannot think of another airfield in the locality with historic airframes languishing in this condition. The parallel with Long Marston seems appropriate. Errol sits on the Northern bank of the river Tay. As such I couldn’t think of a worse place to store aircraft in the area between the high winds, heavy rainfall and salty air. I doubt these aircraft have much going for them!

Thanks for posting these, I was sent some pics of both a couple of years ago and they certainly don’t look that good now!

Rob