By: Mark12 - 18th August 2006 at 13:46
If its in Norfolk could be at Jeremy Moore Engineering Martham?
Hull-Aero.
Mark
By: Mudmover - 18th August 2006 at 13:11
If its in Norfolk could be at Jeremy Moore Engineering Martham?
By: Thunderbird167 - 18th August 2006 at 12:13
I believe the aircraft in question is PP972 (G-BUAR) and was with Hull Aero in Norwich although it belongs to Wizzard Investments who store some of their aircraft at Greenham Common
By: Melvyn Hiscock - 1st November 2004 at 20:47
Melvyn- I wasn’t being serious !
I wasn’t myself, I had to get up early to go and meet some American pillock at Old Warden.
Couple of fat blokes and a tall git there among others.
By: David Burke - 1st November 2004 at 19:03
Melvyn- I wasn’t being serious !
By: Yak 11 Fan - 1st November 2004 at 12:53
I know a Stephen Arnold, he’s a tax man….. However he has nothing to do with Flying A Services. Doubt he’d know what he was doing with aircraft however…. That said I’m sure David Arnold knows exactly what he’s doing with his own aircraft. One problem being finding a permanent location in the UK to house the aircraft.
Can’t think of any of their aircraft that have gone back into a container after rebuild, however they do have aircraft that remain in their containers after being imported / re-imported…..
By: SADSACK - 1st November 2004 at 12:44
I must admit if this is another of Flying A-Services projects i’m not suprised. I know they can do what they like with their own aeroplane but it seems they fiddle about putting £1000s into airframes then stick them back in a crate again. I do wonder if Stephen Arnold has a clue what he is doing.
By: Yak 11 Fan - 1st November 2004 at 10:19
The Seafire III had one very brief engine run (about 30 seconds at most) some years ago. After further work it was discovered that there was a problem which needed major work which is still underway today. It may very well have been cancelled as the CAA could be waiting for paperwork. The pictures of it at Earls Colne are at least 6 years old.
I saw the fuselage a year ago in bits, I’m sure some progress must have been made since I last saw it.
By: Melvyn Hiscock - 31st October 2004 at 23:46
Melvyn – Correct she was fairly corroded – but having said that it was ‘genuine’ corrosion derived from wartime material and not the ‘new build’ variety!
Corrosion is corrosion and wartime white powder is no more valuable than post-war white powder! Had the Seafire been looked at even five years later things would have been very different I am sure, but much of the corroded stuff would have been binned. As for original material, there are a lot of ‘original’ aeroplanes that have much less than would have been the case here.
In answer to your notes Mark – your spot on! The rebuild has now probably progressed to the stage that with hindsight there could have been
both a static and flyer produced from her !
How do we know there hasn’t?
By: Melvyn Hiscock - 31st October 2004 at 23:42
Incidentally it seems our Royal Navy painted it and operated it with the spurious serial ‘PP792’ at some stage, as can be seen in my inspection photo attached.
Mark
Next thing you’ll be telling me they are letting satanists in . . .
By: Mark12 - 31st October 2004 at 18:27
PP972
Certainly this aircraft had a lot of corrosion, when I saw it for the first time in France in 1980.
You only get what you pay for.
If the the appropriate jigs, fixtures, materials, processes and project management had been used in the first place together with a ‘sensible’ contract price, I suspect this aircraft would have been flying some years back for a lot less than has currently been consumed.
Incidentally it seems our Royal Navy painted it and operated it with the spurious serial ‘PP792’ at some stage, as can be seen in my inspection photo attached.
Mark
By: David Burke - 31st October 2004 at 18:03
Melvyn – Correct she was fairly corroded – but having said that it was ‘genuine’ corrosion derived from wartime material and not the ‘new build’
variety! In answer to your notes Mark – your spot on! The rebuild has now probably progressed to the stage that with hindsight there could have been
both a static and flyer produced from her !
By: Melvyn Hiscock - 31st October 2004 at 16:16
By the way, you are still an old git.
By: Melvyn Hiscock - 31st October 2004 at 16:15
Melv,
I resemble that remark. 🙂
Well actually Melv, I think you will find it was a two seat Hunter from Yeovilton. Date June/July 1970. I’d be sure it landed at Lorient.
and there was me trying to start another urban myth!
I have had a long day’s work and my brain is fried.
Care to chance another fiver?
no way, I am still reeling after the last one that was almost a foul! After all, RR232 isn’t a ‘real’ two seater, it was only mocked up . . . I don’t begrudge where that one went though.
Les Cox, curator of the museum, was in the second seat.
unreserved apologies to all concerned
The prognosis at that time was – corrosion beyond restoration to static display condition!!!
well, I might take some of that back!!!! (JOKING). Then again, in those days the resources were not there.
Can you believe a Pacific verteran passed over for a few hundred pounds?
Well, the story about the French Corsair is even funnier! (that one is only available from me, in person, and after bribery)
Here is a shot at Gavre on 22 Feb 1966 from the late Jean Frelaut.
Mark
(steady Daz – you will break a finger)
LMAO at that one!
By: Mark12 - 31st October 2004 at 16:06
Bob the re-builder!
She is now a rebuild of a rebuild as such. .
David,
Surely a rebuild of the rebuild of the rebuild of the rebuild…and I’m serious.
Mark
By: Mark12 - 31st October 2004 at 15:57
You may not know this story as I know you are not as ancient as some of us.
The RNHF was not offered it but the Fleet Air Arm were offered. At that time the museum was not, perhaps, as professional as it is now.
The Seafire was on an airfield in France and an RN pilot flew over in a Hunter and looked at it. Didn’t land, just flew over it and decided it was not worth it.
At least the Seafire was eventually saved but the Bloch bomber from WW2, the last survivor, that was sitting next to it was scrapped.
MH
Melv,
I resemble that remark. 🙂
Well actually Melv, I think you will find it was a two seat Hunter from Yeovilton. Date June/July 1970. I’d be sure it landed at Lorient.
Care to chance another fiver?
Les Cox, curator of the museum, was in the second seat.
The prognosis at that time was – corrosion beyond restoration to static display condition!!!
Can you believe a Pacific verteran passed over for a few hundred pounds?
Here is a shot at Gavre on 22 Feb 1966 from the late Jean Frelaut.
Mark
(steady Daz – you will break a finger)
By: stewart1a - 31st October 2004 at 15:17
whilst we are on the subject of Seafires how is Kennet aviations comming along?
By: DazDaMan - 31st October 2004 at 15:05
Didn’t the engine originally come from a Spitfire Mk1, P9374??
(I’m sure I read somewhere that the engine from this one, registered as G-MKIA, was used in the first rebuild of this Seafire – could be wrong, of course)
By: Melvyn Hiscock - 31st October 2004 at 14:56
The problem with this is that it gets increasingly diluted and further away from the machine that was fairly original
in France.
In fairness I have heard what was in France was very corroded.
MH
By: David Burke - 31st October 2004 at 14:49
I viewed the aircraft about two years ago. At that stage the longerons were going into a jig whilst the rear fuselage was separately stored. The problems
with her were as a result of her being slightly out of true. The wings themselves are composites including parts taken from a set of XVI wings that Doug Arnold had delivered to Trent Aero in the very early 1990’s . She is now a rebuild of a rebuild as such. The problem with this is that it gets increasingly diluted and further away from the machine that was fairly original
in France.
Sign In
October 30, 2004 at 5:10 pm