What was the first bit of aircraft you bought/found?

I used to have some small bits of hawker hunter but now have a piece of skining from a lanc,a half blister cover from an unknown usaf aircraft and a dakota tail wheel tyre.

I used to have some small bits of hawker hunter but now have a piece of skining from a lanc,a half blister cover from an unknown usaf aircraft and a dakota tail wheel tyre.

Bits of Skyraider AEW1 WT963 in 1983 next to Culdrose. Many still had the dark blue paint attached and in good condition.

Bits of Skyraider AEW1 WT963 in 1983 next to Culdrose. Many still had the dark blue paint attached and in good condition.

Like so many of my “finds” in those days, they were mysteriously nowhere to be found by the time we unpacked the car when we got home!

That strikes a chord. As a victim of parental treasure selection I have become the opposite. Everything that my two find is definitely treasure.

That includes the twenty-odd clam shells that we brought back for ‘soap dishes’ – from Arran (where the wheel was) and despite the fact that it took three sessions in bleach/water/boil to find out which barnacle had human poo in it.

Sand was another bete noir which I shrugged off, in my lovely cars.

Since become an old Land Rover die hard I find that I care less than they do.

Like so many of my “finds” in those days, they were mysteriously nowhere to be found by the time we unpacked the car when we got home!

That strikes a chord. As a victim of parental treasure selection I have become the opposite. Everything that my two find is definitely treasure.

That includes the twenty-odd clam shells that we brought back for ‘soap dishes’ – from Arran (where the wheel was) and despite the fact that it took three sessions in bleach/water/boil to find out which barnacle had human poo in it.

Sand was another bete noir which I shrugged off, in my lovely cars.

Since become an old Land Rover die hard I find that I care less than they do.

Handley Page Hampden Tailwheel and a Spit one.

Handley Page Hampden Tailwheel and a Spit one.

Parents are not very forgiving like that Wotherspoon,I found a radio at RAF Langtoft on the outskirts of our village which went walkies from my bedroom cupboard.

Parents are not very forgiving like that Wotherspoon,I found a radio at RAF Langtoft on the outskirts of our village which went walkies from my bedroom cupboard.

Several fragments apparently from a Junkers aircraft on a beach in Norfolk circa 1976 – I had just got my first metal detector and taken it on holiday and was looking for coins, but kept finding bits of a plane! An old chap who had been watching me came over when I started digging a bit too deep for a larger signal and amiably told me how the whole cliff top had been mined during the war, but several meters of the minefield had been lost to erosion before the end of the war, so digging for big signals was not really advisable! 😮 He also told me that a German bomber that had come down just off the beach and was probably the source of the bits I had found. Like so many of my “finds” in those days, they were mysteriously nowhere to be found by the time we unpacked the car when we got home! 🙁

Like the photo Ian – you have hardly changed! :p

Several fragments apparently from a Junkers aircraft on a beach in Norfolk circa 1976 – I had just got my first metal detector and taken it on holiday and was looking for coins, but kept finding bits of a plane! An old chap who had been watching me came over when I started digging a bit too deep for a larger signal and amiably told me how the whole cliff top had been mined during the war, but several meters of the minefield had been lost to erosion before the end of the war, so digging for big signals was not really advisable! 😮 He also told me that a German bomber that had come down just off the beach and was probably the source of the bits I had found. Like so many of my “finds” in those days, they were mysteriously nowhere to be found by the time we unpacked the car when we got home! 🙁

Like the photo Ian – you have hardly changed! :p

I was in a field in Yorkshire a few years ago looking for gold Roman coins and came across some small aluminium and perspex parts from a Halifax…

I was in a field in Yorkshire a few years ago looking for gold Roman coins and came across some small aluminium and perspex parts from a Halifax…

It was one of two things.
It was probably a german incendiary bomb dated 1936 that my grandfather had kept in a kitchen cupboard for about 30 years. He was a senior air raid warden and my mum said that it went through the roof of a house in Recreation Avenue, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex but landed in the water tank. As the most senior warden present my grandfather apparently had to fish it out to try to make sure it didn’t burn the house down. She remembered it sitting in a bucket of sand in my grandfather’s back garden. I think it must have been defused as the sheet metal section carrying the fins had been seperated and this was usually done to get at the 2nd fuse. Stan and David Brett took it to Rochester for me to get it checked when I was a helper at HAM Southend but they lost their contact at Rochester and I never saw it again.
The other possibility is a large piece of fabric from Auster G-ASLS which was derelict and dismantled at Biggin Hill in about 1969. I was with another lad from school who decided to tear two pieces from the already damaged wings and gave one bit to me. I think I still have it somewhere.

It was one of two things.
It was probably a german incendiary bomb dated 1936 that my grandfather had kept in a kitchen cupboard for about 30 years. He was a senior air raid warden and my mum said that it went through the roof of a house in Recreation Avenue, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex but landed in the water tank. As the most senior warden present my grandfather apparently had to fish it out to try to make sure it didn’t burn the house down. She remembered it sitting in a bucket of sand in my grandfather’s back garden. I think it must have been defused as the sheet metal section carrying the fins had been seperated and this was usually done to get at the 2nd fuse. Stan and David Brett took it to Rochester for me to get it checked when I was a helper at HAM Southend but they lost their contact at Rochester and I never saw it again.
The other possibility is a large piece of fabric from Auster G-ASLS which was derelict and dismantled at Biggin Hill in about 1969. I was with another lad from school who decided to tear two pieces from the already damaged wings and gave one bit to me. I think I still have it somewhere.

Not quite Dave :D, but it does make it very satisfying when something you want eventually turns up!

Not quite Dave :D, but it does make it very satisfying when something you want eventually turns up!

Yes Martin, about two weeks after deciding to collect Wyvernalia :D, i spotted it advertised in Flypast magazine. I thought “blimey this is going to be easy”, but how wrong i was.
Its one of only two survivors that i know of. And it was not until some twenty years later that i eventually found a matching windscreen section!

There you go always in a hurry to get things done :diablo:

We have had a glider of nearly 30 years still not finished yet.

Dave

Yes Martin, about two weeks after deciding to collect Wyvernalia :D, i spotted it advertised in Flypast magazine. I thought “blimey this is going to be easy”, but how wrong i was.
Its one of only two survivors that i know of. And it was not until some twenty years later that i eventually found a matching windscreen section!

There you go always in a hurry to get things done :diablo:

We have had a glider of nearly 30 years still not finished yet.

Dave