Jim Pearce

Strange that a national museum at first is not very enthusiastic while offered substantial wreckage of an nearly extinct aeroplane missing from their collection.
Or they didn’t know how to judge a mangled wreck.

It is a bit more subtle than that. Audit committees, convincing non-aviation people upstream it is value for money, the Nation’s purse, when does the public see the end result etc etc.

Mark

Strange that a national museum at first is not very enthusiastic while offered substantial wreckage of an nearly extinct aeroplane missing from their collection.
Or they didn’t know how to judge a mangled wreck.

Yes – had a lapse! Recall seeing it sat at Skysport .

SL721?

I wish it was. In my view that is one of the most desirable and famous of the Spitfires extant.

The trade was for the fairly mediocre low back Mk XVI SL542.

Mark

From memory that was for Spitfire SL721?

When I showed the Russian wreckage Hampden photos to the RAFMus they were interested but non-committal on a trade.

Jeet Mahal made the strategic decision to buy the wreck and ship it at risk to the UK via Rotterdam docks where the length width ratio had to be adjusted.

I am pretty sure if we had just offered the RAFMus a look at the wreck inside a container it would have been a ‘no’.

I commissioned Skysport to lay the wreck out in its most photogenic attitude prior to the official inspection, took the image, crossed my fingers…and it was a ‘yes’. 🙂

Mark

From the roof of the hangar by the look of it ! That took some nerve!

Hi All,
Apologies to all and thank you ‘Peter‘ I have now amended the post, I did actually wonder whether or not you would comment with using your
photo, when I downloaded it 😀 It was not long after it had been placed at ‘Skysport’ didn’t they arrange the ‘Hampden’ in that photo so the ‘RAFM’
could assess it before restoration ? Anyway just a good couple of memories related to ‘Jim Pearce’ that I will never forget.

Geoff.

My two most memorable of his finds that I viewed were both aircraft

Geoff,

There is an implication here that Jim Pearce was responsible for the recovery of the Hampden from Russia to the UK.

As a major participator in the acquisition, recovery and disposal of the Hampden for Jeet Mahal, that is not my understanding.

That is my shot from the roof of the Slysport workshop. 🙂

RIP Jim.

Mark

Oh, haven’t seen that Fw 189 photo for a few years 😉

Hi All,
I can only repeat what many have said on here already about his passing and offer my deepest condolence’s to his family and friends that this man
had made in his lifetime. RIP Sir.

My two most memorable of his recoveries that I viewed were both aircraft I have always liked simply because of my love of ‘Airfix’ 1/72 kits FW-189 and
the ‘Popeye-Hampden’. I viewed the FW189 as many did at the ‘Biggin Hill’ air show and got a 6ollocking into the process, after shaking his hand I
asked the pilot ‘Lothar Mothes-RIP’ to sign a small digital composed picture that I purchased for me when somebody took exception to it and nearly
had a cardiac informing I was not meant to, finding out in the process it was only meant to be for the Ltd Ed print featuring his aircraft available.

The second was being an HGV driver I got around quite a bit and while in ‘Bedfordshire’ area delivering I popped into ‘Skysports Engineering’
over at ‘Hatch’, just on the off chance of having a look at the recently recovered ‘Hampden’ spread out where it had been deposited of which I was
duly granted permission and a peek into the small hanger/workshop into the bargain.

Thank you Mr Pearce,
Geoff.

It is a shame he never published his book, I believe he had the draft done, but couldn’t find a publisher.

If Mr Pearce’s estate, family or whomever owns the manuscript would like to pursue its publication, I’ll be happy to help with that if needed.

I was fortunate enough to hear Jim speak at a number of Shoreham Airport Association meetings, his tales of the various escapades and recoveries were full of humour, and also showed his dogged determination once he got the ‘sniff’ of something worth pursuing. Did he ever see the elusive Russian Stirling? I guess we will never know now, but I always got the sense that if anyone had got within touching distance of it, then it would have been Jim Pearce.

Many years ago the association was also fortunate enough to look around the hangar he used at Shoreham, and some of the odds and ends in there were real ‘one off’ items – like the canvas skin from Major Savage’s sky-writing SE5a, carrying the original registration letters.

Farewell Jim, and thanks for all you did for the historic aviation scene… blue skies, sir.

RIP Jim. A giant and hero in the world of aircraft recovery. It was always a pleasure to meet him and find out about his latest discoveries. Hopefully a bit of Jim lives on in some of us.

Very sad news, blue skies sir. I do hope someone picks up his draft autobiography – that would be an amazing read

TT

Sad news. RIP Jim. Would absolutely love to read his book should it ever be published posthumously.

You’re most welcome, AgCat, fingers crossed all works out well and you can be there.

I was a great admirer of Jim’s work, and agree about the excitement generated by those amazing Russian recoveries. Let’s remember Jim’s family and friends too at this sad time. I remember reading a post from a daughter in the family about the team effort that made so much achievable. Hugs.

Dear NP: Many thanks for your help. Most grateful.

Wondy — if YOU were excited reading those Grapevine news stories, imagine how exciting it was for the person writing them! Great times, thanks to Jim.