When I cast my mind back to the first time I saw TFC’s P-51D “Candyman / Moose” being displayed at Duxford ~ I thought my life was complete because I had actually seen a Mustang fly.

As the years have rolled by ~ Flying Legends evolved into the Europe’s premier warbird show. I would say in many ways it also rivals the best of the shows I’ve seen in the USA too. Sometimes that’s been with sheer numbers and sometimes with the diversity of the participating aircraft.

I look at the line-up for Flying Legends this year and I’m amazed at the quality of types that is appearing in such difficult times for the global economy and ever increasing operational costs for warbird operators.

12 months hard effort by Jane Larcombe and her planning team, the engineering staff and volunteers and the huge financial input by Stephen Grey culminate in an air display that they ( and we ) should be rightly proud.

Where else on the planet in 2012 can you witness a flying display that includes the Hawk 75 / P-40C / P-40F / P-38 / P-47 / P-51 / B-17 / PBY ?

I suspect The Bard summed it up best when he wrote something along the lines of …..

He which hath no stomach for Flying Legends,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not watch warbirds in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to be at the air show with us.

Personally ~ I’ll be there Friday ~ Saturday ~ Sunday and I intend to savor every minute of this world-class warbird spectacle set against the theatrical stage of historic Duxford airfield. 🙂

Some 45 minutes after the flight of the “Desert” Buchon ~ it was the turn of “Yellow 10” this afternoon against an ever darkening sky as a thunderstorm approached …….

The air test to the north of Duxford was followed by a beautifully judged practice display over the airfield with John Romain at the helm.

I wonder if there’s another living soul on the planet who’s logged two Buchon flights in different aircraft on the same afternoon this year !

Peter 🙂

Warbirdapps on facebook ~ every day a new image from my personal journey thru the world of warbirds ….. https://www.facebook.com/Warbirdapps

I’ll add one of the start up of MK356 ~ a real “spit fire” moment …..

Legends is probably slighty less humid …..

Watch the video and enjoy the magic of Flying Legends

http://fighter-collection.com/legendstrailer12.html

🙂

As reported on the Sally B Facebook page this morning ~ Europe last airworthy B-17G Flying Fortress is expected to fly around noon on a crew training sortie from Duxford

https://www.facebook.com/pages/B-17-Preservation-the-Sally-B-page/118541104887987

Subject to weather of course 🙂

A few from me from today ~ fresh from the digital darkroom ……
Thank goodness I didn’t just get in the car and go home without looking to see if there was anything out on the flight line 🙂

A new pilot checks out the Hawk 75

P-47G “Snafu” and the range limit of my big lens

P-47G and Corsair share a piece of sky over Duxford ~ sorry about the image quality …..

Corsair back on the ground after a successful test flight

And finally ~ can you see the big happy smile from here …..

I can’t wait until we see the next flight by the P-47 ~ it looks fantastic from every angle

DW has been trying to load pix for the last 30 mins in the IWM cafe – but has a challenge with the in house wifi today ……

The rest of us are going to wait until we get home later