First apprentice Spitfire mechanic in 40 years

If anyone asks me for a cordless drill I just point them in the direction of an old *eggbeater* manual drill 🙂

or to be told to ring a number and ask for “Mr Dearden” only to find that it was the local undertakers

A little more recent stores ‘request’ is the cordless extension lead ? Yes sir how long will that be ?

If anyone asks me for a cordless drill I just point them in the direction of an old *eggbeater* manual drill 🙂

The Evening Standard also featured this in an article today sporting a photo of AR501 in flight.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23822432-trainee-engineer-is-first-spitfire-apprentice-in-40-years.do

Not forgetting sending the new guy for ‘mag drops’ and ‘a key for the wire lock’

Regards

What about a box of glass screws and a very long stand to put the aircraft on ??

Bag of air for the compressor? 😀

A little more recent stores ‘request’ is the cordless extension lead ? Yes sir how long will that be ?

First apprentice Spitfire Mechanic in 40 years!!!

I wonder what the apprentices at ARC/HFL will make of that?

They’ll be wondering what a/c they have been working on for the past few years. But as the general public can’t tell a Spit from anything else with a spinny thing up front, it probably doesn’t matter how inaccurate the press are.

i have been put through most of the above and am still going 🙂

LOL! If his intructors read this thread the guy will probably quit after a week…

Not forgetting sending the new guy for ‘mag drops’ and ‘a key for the wire lock’

Regards

……………..and a trip to the parts department to ask for a pair of greased nuts!

“The foreman said I need to come over here & get some black balls”:D

Not forgetting….
Grease for the muffler bearings… blinker fluid…

Are the blinkers working?
Yes.. no.. yes… no.. yes.. no…

……………..and a trip to the parts department to ask for a pair of greased nuts!

This came from a news agency based in Cambridge.

They rang me asking to use the colour shot I have of it taxiing at Exeter with the Czechs.

I offered to send the proof of the entry for AR501 for that certain book that ‘has it all in’.

I asked about perhaps a modest sum for the image or a plug for the book. They said they would come back to me. They didn’t….1961 etc :rolleyes:

Mark

So by the end of the week he will be well versed in bubbles for the spirit level (certainly, spherical or cuboid?*) bags of sparks for the grinder (they’ll be here after lunch), long weights/stands, tartan paint (MacDougal or MacDonald?), buckets of propwash, yards of flightline, lefthanded screwdrivers, glass hammers, metric AND imperial adjustable spanners…….

*…Spherical? We only have cuboid ones, we’re waiting on the sparks for the grinder so we can knock the corners off & make the round ones…

I think it’s a combination of very lazy journalism and an out of date website. The details appear to have been lifted inaccurately from here http://www.shuttleworth.org/shuttleworth-collection/aircraft-details.asp?ID=36 which still retains the info about the dH prop despite this being well out of date and a ’61 acquisition date which has been incorrectly attributed as the date of the film. The Times has proposed charging for its online content, perhaps it needs to provide a little more value first?

What can you expect from a Rupert Murdoch owned rag? The guy has turned everything he’s touched into low-rent rubbish. Very profitable, mind you, but it will rot your brain if you stare at it for too long.

Richard

Sad if that’s the only comments the erstwhile readers of the Times have to make about it…

😮 and according to the comments below the article Biggleswade IS a real place LOL.
It would’ve been nice if they could’ve got the photo in focus and the chap looked slightly happy about being there.

Was just about to say that, the comments below the story made me cry with laughter!!!

christopher B wrote:
Sorry Mike, but no ones’s making up Biggleswade. It’s a real village in Bedfordshire on the A1.

Mike Tanner wrote:
Biggleswade? C’mon – you’re making that up

😮 and according to the comments below the article Biggleswade IS a real place LOL.
It would’ve been nice if they could’ve got the photo in focus and the chap looked slightly happy about being there.

1961 film The Battle of Britain.

:rolleyes:

Brian