So that we all know which Broussard this is, I have gone to my archives and scanned these two slides of c/n 208. Firstly, here she is in service with the French Air Force in June 1969 at Evreux. The second photo is the last time I photographed her as G-YYYY at Rendcomb in July 2001 in that ghastly St.Ivel scheme. How nice to see some research has gone into uncovering and restoring its original scheme. Can’t wait to see this, perhaps at Kemble Air day in June?
Albert,
Many many thanks for posting the photos of our Broussard. We only have found one photo of her in French service and that was when she was with the station flight at Tegel in the 1980s. So when the RAF were using Chipmunks to patrol our sector, going the other way was Broussard 208. As far as we can gather it was the only Broussard to see service in Berlin.
As to the St.Ivel colour scheme, well some people actually liked it painted as it was, but we felt that it would be more appropriate to paint her in her original colours. We arent great fans of day-glo, so opted for an earlier colour scheme and so she is now painted in the markings of GSRA78 in Algeria with whom the airframe served with from 1960 to 63. Information on French Military Aircraft is quite difficult to find and so we are so grateful to the countless Frenchmen (and ladies) who helped with the restoration of this aeroplane. It could not have been done without them (of particular help was a photographic walkaround of a preserved example that helped tremendously with the postioning of stencils etc).
Flying should start again in the next few weeks once the C of A has been granted and then she will be taken to as many events as possible (depending on how big our wallets are). G-VFWE at Keevil definately.
Again thanks for the wonderful photo and the kind words.
Best wishes,
Martin
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