The end of the rainbow.

If you haven’t had the chance to fly in an old aircraft, then do it. Just pay the money. Shop around, by all means, but get on with it.

I was at Rockliffe looking over the Canadian Aviation Museum. I was told that “Tomorrow we’ve got some old aeroplane – Lockheed 10 I think? – flying in for joyrides.”

I rearranged our complete schedule, got all my pocket money for the week from my wife, (Only 100 Canadian dollars) and went flying. Superb.

If you are clean and well presented, and you are in the right place, at the right time, you will (not may) be lucky.

Cheers

DH Fan – If you can get down to Old Warden for the DH Moth Club Charity Flying Weekend you will have a choice of several Tiger Moths to fly in , plus possibly other DH types as well. The prices are very reasonable (normally around £50 or so for about 15 mins in the air ) , and the proceeds go to good causes.

It is an annual event , and is on 12-13th June this year.

Setting much lower horizons than other contributors, having only ever flown cattle class in BAC 111s and nasty Boeing 737s, (and once in a spam-can), I should really go up in a DH aeroplane while there are still some left.
Tiger Moths could well be indestructible so I’ve got some time yet.

Melv

When I was down to one it was just an intransigent foreign Government – their country, their security policy.

In the mean time another has surfaced in India and a further project, bereft of identity at this time, has been started in Australia.

I have a cunning plan. 😉

Mark

But what about that one that is in . . . . . . .

Or the Mark **. . . .

Why do I have this desire to be so cruel??????

Melv

Every time he thought he had it sorted Edmund came up with another one.

Is that what is happening Mark?

Melv

Melv

When I was down to one it was just an intransigent foreign Government – their country, their security policy.

In the mean time another has surfaced in India and a further project, bereft of identity at this time, has been started in Australia.

I have a cunning plan. 😉

Mark

To photograph (and identify) every known Spitfire, Seafire and project in the world.

In 1996 it was down to just one Seafire – it is currently one Spitfire, one Seafire and one project.

Rumours apart, I am sure however that there are more out there that will surface in the course of time.

Mark

This reminded me of that episode on Blackadder the Third when they thought they had burned the dictionary and Edmund kept making up words so that Dr Johnson thought he had forgotten them. Every time he thought he had it sorted Edmund came up with another one.

Is that what is happening Mark? Did I tell you about the project I have . . .

Before you knock my door down, I WAS joking!

Melv

To photograph (and identify) every known Spitfire, Seafire and project in the world.

In 1996 it was down to just one Seafire – it is currently one Spitfire, one Seafire and one project.

Rumours apart, I am sure however that there are more out there that will surface in the course of time.

Mark

I like this thread so here are my rainbows in no particular order.
To see a Walrus fly
to see another Seawings at Southanpton this time attende by at least a slaash and go from the following types: Walrus, Catalina, Sandringham & Do 24
To learn to fly even to NPPL standard but that one is suffering from lack of time and funds as always

I think it’s time…….

to embarass someone. Well, maybe not embarass them but express my appreciation that I was priveleged to play a very small part in reaching the end of one of their particular rainbows.

I refer to that magnifcent and dedicated piece of research which came about as the result of a forumite having nowhere to place a poppy on Rememberance Sunday, 2002. From a simple request for information about Sgt Johnny Wiseman came a literal avalanche of events which culminated in the dedication of a permanent Memorial to Johnny and to F/Sgt Alan ‘Babe’ Haddon who was killed in the same action.

The event, coming a day after Legends, had a very respectable turn out on a beautiful summers day. The RAF provided a padre and a Jaguar three ship flypast. I know in my heart that Johnny and Babe were with us that day, and probably many other of their comrades lingered in the gentle breeze. The day was theirs. I remember the organiser saying to me early on in his project that he wanted to give them the next best thing to a grave. And so he did.

An example of what many of us are striving for in one way or another, and a stunning success. No-one who was there that day will ever forget July 14th.

Mark Crame (Snapper), I, and no doubt Johnny and Babe, salute you.

Regards,

kev35

Meeting and talking to my childhood hero Douglas Bader and on organising a reunion (50th anniv) of an ATC Squadron talkin and having a drink (and how he could drink his Scotch) with Hamish Mahaddie whilst he reminised about his career in the RAF “he dreaded WOs”

My pot of gold would be to get my novel pubished (one of several!), to get my PPL, and to get my replica Spitfire flying(!).

🙂 WOW Kev ,what a great and moving thread,all the best to you in the journey for the pot of whatever you wish at the end of that rainbow.
My rainbow,very simple ,common but never be beaten,being at the birth of both my 2 children,anyone that misses out on that experience has been deprived of the most powerful sensations ever. 🙂

I count myself to be very fortunate. I’ve been privileged to meet and hear first hand experiences from many WW2 RAF veterans since I first began my quest in 1999 to find out what happened to my own grandfather who was a bomber pilot killed in 1942. They are an incredible generation the like of which we will never see again.

Some real highs……….

Accompanying a former W/Op A/G back to Norway in 2003 to visit the site where his plane crashed, unveil a memorial, and for him to meet and thank for the first time ever the Norwegian people who assisted him and members of his crew at the risk of their own lives one dark night in April 1942. Unforgettable, emotional and an incredible week all together.

Spending a day out with three WW2 veterans at Benningbrough Hall where they were billeted while stationed at Linton-on-Ouse. Their memories were jogged by being back at the place and they created havoc in the house (now a National Trust property) by insisting on going behind the roped off areas in rooms to show me the exact spot that their beds had been and having to be guided by the very patient member of staff who directed them so as to avoid setting off the laser alarms! I’ve never laughed or cried as much as I did that day, it was very special and I’ll remember it always.

Taking the relatives of a NZ airman killed during a training flight in the Scottish mountains up to visit the crash site in a blizzard. The plane had come down in a snow storm so it was very appropriate and again very moving.

Spending several hours airbourne in a VC-10 last week in the company of some 90 or so veterans from Bomber Command and being able to listen to their stories while watching them come alive being in the air again.

I also feel that it is very important that the younger generation know of the sacrifices that were made by very young men and women during the first and second world wars. I have recently suggested to the Head Mistress of our local primary school that the children undertake a project to find out more about their ‘local heroes’ by recording the names from the local war memorial and researching each of them to find out more about them. Once completed it would be a very nice record of the local people who died during the wars which could be placed in the public library for future generations to be able to read and remember them. I don’t know if the school will go ahead with the project or not, but it would be a wonderful way for the younger generation to learn more about the wars and the people who gave their lives so that they could enjoy the freedom that they do today.

Regards and it’s been nice to read the other postings in this thread. Very heartwarming.

Better go for the Rapide then Geoff; we’ll all be VERY old by the time I get a Chippie sorted. 😉

What a great thread Kev 🙂

My rainbows:

1) After a pretty abysmal year, Stuart and I are making a fresh start together in a new home. Having spent months looking for the right house and having no luck at all, we finally found a house that we can call “home”, and now have three weeks to pack up and move. After so much hassle at work and at home, I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to be making a clean break homewise, and starting another chapter in our lives together (Oi! Stop barfing you lot!) It’s all a rush now to chose and buy all our new furniture, and pack up and move, but I’m relishing every second of it (although Stuart is getting rather fed up with me reading the Argos catalogue in bed…:D)

2) Once we have settled into our home and I feel more settled in myself as a result, I can turn my attention to the various projects I have begun or have in the pipeline…including a novel set during the Canterbury Blitz and a Battle of Britain film themed forum get-together…Even if I don’t actually start writing the novel for a couple of years I enjoy researching immensely, and what better location than Duxford for me to be in to do exactly that? 🙂

Those are my two main rainbows at this time of my life 🙂

Becka

No worries there mate. My 4 month old daughter gets read Mr Men books to her by her mum but I read her Osprey Spitfire Aces books. We are on the late model Spits now but we have gone through early models and I reckon when she is 6 months I can start reading her ‘Spitfire, the history’ I should be retired by the time we finish it it is a hefty tome. There a few more Spitfire books to get through and then we can start on the Hurricane.

Phil

I second that about meeting Bob Doe. Through the museum, he very kindly signed a print for me of his Spitfire flying over a Kentish hopfield ‘Geoff best wishes B.Doe’. Sadly I wasn’t there when he signed it, but it is now a treasured thing for me.

Being at ‘Merlins over Malta’ last Sunday, and coming face to face with Billy Drake & the other pilots there who signed another print for me, made my day. If you look at some of the ‘MoM’ group photos, you can see me holding on to the case with the print in for dear life.

Getting the young people of today interested in keeping the memory alive is so vital. Things are difficult enough today, finding volunteers to run museums like ours, or to help with restoring & operating historic aircraft. we need to ensure that when our generation is gone, there is someone to carry on the work that we & others have begun.

One thing I’ve yet to achieve is to actually fly in an aircraft! I’ve been researching various aspects of RAF history for some fifteen years now, and been intersted in aviation for a lot longer, but the nearest I’ve come is walking through the airliners at Duxford. Maybe I should bite the bullet & spend £30 for a fifteen minute flight in a Rapide. Either that or wait for Steve Young to get his Chipmunk!

Geoff.

I’d like to Meet Bob Doe and say thankyou. I’m not even sure I can now but to me Bob represents the thousands who fought, died and/or survived the war. Army Navy and Airforce. He always said we ‘we don’t want thanks or sympathy, we just want to be remembered’. I hope he knows many people do and I still want to say thankyou. I hope its enough.

Phil

There has been some hugely touching and emotional relies here especially Manonthefence,It is nice to hear what drives people outside aviation as well as inside,I do have a few Rainbows that i am chasing some are very far from Aviation some are pure Aviation.
Firstly Kev35 Sally B story reminds me of the honour i had through my work to meet a Blenhiem Pilot i used to see him catching a train everyday to go to Redhill to help out on the Airfield he was in his late 80s at the time,it was early morning 5am and one day i got talking to him he told me he goes to Redhill to help with the Tigermoth there but was a Blenhiem pilot he did not go in to too many details but told me of how many friends he had lost in the war i was very touched by what he said and admired him at his age still being so dovoted to Aircraft,sadly i do not know his name and have not seen him for a long time.

I also recently met a Lady who in WW2 was a translater for the RAF and used to have to translate and decode secret papers she was from Poland but came to the Uk age 15 she could speak 8 languages by the end of the war she did not even know english that well when she came here she told me it is all to easy to forget the part such people played in the War it was not all guns and bombs after all.

My Rainbows are
1) I want to honour my late Grandads part in the war he was in the Navy and served along side HMS Belfast on a ship either called the urchin or the Sea urchin,he never told much of his life in the Navy but one story i never forget was when he was on leave he went to visit my Nan who lived near Croydon Airport he was walking down the road to see her when he heard a strange noise the next thing he know was some one pulled him in to a shelter it turned out it was a V1 he had never seen or heard one before he was quiet proud of the fact he was carrying eggs at the time and did not break one!.

2) Is about me i want to get a photo of my published i am not good enough yet.
3)is i write poems or song lyrics i want to see or hear something i wrote published.
There my Rainbows at the moment i hope my messeage does not bore people i did not intend to write so much.
From Martin

Well my own personal Rainbow was reached when I was able to pay my terminally ill mum back for all the times she stayed by my sick bed when I was a child. An amazing experience that I will cherish for ever. It sounds corny but whan I was sitting next to her when she was drifting in and out of a Coma I kept thinking to myself “I’m not leaving my wingman”. Sad but true.

Nick.

It’s not corny, I had the privelege of being there for my mom and an aunt. Your comment about not leaving your wingman is truly wonderful. It encapsulates a concept we are all so aware of in our chosen interest and brings it to our lives today. Expressing that sentiment in that way is most certainly NOT sad.

Regards,

kev35