RNHF Website Update – 4 April 2007

cheers lee, a quick response as per usual! wicked news and hope to see both back on the airshow circuit asap.
mark

Yes it has. An update on that and LS326 will be on the next News item on the website, so keep checking back.

Lee

has the new 2 seat fury arrived at north weald yet? And how’s the progress on LS236?

Thanks Lee. I guessed it would be something like that. It seems that there has been a lot of change at the RNHF since the accident (from what I can tell, the changes are for the better).
Personally I do think Neil and Bill should be remembered on the website in some way. However, I also appreciate the fact that the main focus of the site should be on the present and future.

Here is a photo of Neil and Tony at an RNAS Yeovilton Airshow (2002 I think). A friend (John Evans) took the photo.. Happy Times.

Paul

Thanks for the comments.

With regard to Bill and Neil, at the time that we did the revamp of the site last year I did raise the question as to whether a page detailing the history of the Firefly ought to be included – it was, after all, a significant part of RNHF’s history and that, combined with the tragic events of July 2003, couldn’t simply be airbrushed out. It wasn’t a callous move on anyone’s part not to acknowledge what had happened – it was just that we never came to a suitable decision on how best to put some mention in, it being such an understandably sensitive subject for all concerned.

That said, a poem that Neil wrote does feature in the current issue of the RNHF brochure as a tribute to both him and Bill and I’m sure will do for some time.

Regards

Lee

Glad to see that things are going well for the RNHF. I really like the new website too. I do have to ask though if there was a decision made to not mention Bill and Neil in any shape or form?

Thanks John. Um, not so sure about flying lessons in the Fury tho :p

With everyone being on Easter leave as of today, your tickets will be sent through shortly.

Got my tickets!
Can I have the flying lesson Please? (In the Sea Fury????:rolleyes: )

John

If you care to look at the Display Season page on the website you’ll see that, new for 2007, WK608 is actually listed for a couple of shows already. Though there are a couple of RN-marked Chippies still flying in this country WK608 is the ONLY aircraft still in RN service.

Yes I saw that.
Hopefully these planned displays will result in more bookings in the future(partipication subject to training commitments etc).

I did an air-to-air with WK608 over the Somerset Levels last year on the one day it snowed. Unfortunately most of the white stuff had melted by the time we got airborne, but there is one of the pics from this sortie on my own website portfolio (and indeed some of the shots are on the RNHF site itself).

If you care to look at the Display Season page on the website you’ll see that, new for 2007, WK608 is actually listed for a couple of shows already. Though there are a couple of RN-marked Chippies still flying in this country WK608 is the ONLY aircraft still in RN service.

The T.20 should be in the country now. As she is remaining on the civil register the rebuild, testing certification and maintenance will be carried out at North Weald by licenced engineers (as the rest of the RNHF aircraft are military aircraft the guys don’t need to be civil-licenced) but she will be based at Yeovilton as the RNHF trainer.

Meanwhile, get buying those raffle tickets!!:D

Some great shots over there.
It would be good to see the RNHF Chippie appear at more shows, there can’t be many RN-liveried Chippies left in the UK.

Ian Seager took some good shots of the RNHF Chippy for this month’s edition of FLYER

Here’s an example
http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=426092#426092

I believe it’s coming in via Southampton Docks, not Felixstowe.
There’s thousands of containers stored on the quayside, surrounding areas and on the ship’s themselves, so it may still be here awaiting delivery. Incidentially, this would be the third Sea Fury to pass through the Docks, and I haven’t seen any of them 🙂

I’m sure Lee Howard will be around shortly to explain further.

Any news on VX281 yet, has it arrived at North Weald, and, if so, how long before it’s joining the rest of the flight.
Incidentally, why is this a/c being taken to NW for assembly and not directly to Yeovilton, anything to do with it’s civilian registration, donation status and closeness to Felixstowe docks, not intending to be critical, because I can understand the pressures on military spending, but I presume that the FAA don’t have the cash and man power to put it together themselves fairly quickly, ref work being carried out on the sea hawk at DX.

Forgot to mention – the annual RNHF Raffle is now on!

All money goes towards the upkeep of the Flight’s aircraft and details on how to purchase tickets, together with the list of great prizes, can be found on the Fundraising page. 🙂