Hi Jon,

I don’t think anyone on here has anything but admiration for you and what you have done. I for one feel that UK historic aviation needs more people like you who are prepared to actually DO something!!.

In the past I have had my own concerns about the collection at Caernarfon but it really does look like things are getting bad there. I can,to a point,see the thinking about getting the Prince inside,but surely there is no excuses for what has been done to the Flea. It has been fine for the last 18 years so why decide now to basically destroy it? I have no doubt the rebuilt mongrel Flea is very nice and shiny but a replica could have been built without wrecking the original.

Garry.

Yeh, and i can’t believe in this day & age they chucked an original Pou in the bin 😮

Tell me you are joking? I haven’t bought FlyPast yet(Don’t always bother) but if Caernarfon really have disposed of the original airframe can they be trusted with anything:confused: ,sure it was rotten but it was basically in one piece.

“Support your local aviation museum” I think not:mad:

Garry.

That’s correct,AEC on left,Bedford on right.(although the Bedford is post war spec with booms and in post war colors)

Try RAFM Hendon,they are helpful and do have many manuals. The cost of copying can be a problem though(not that I’m complaining,I understand that for a member of staff to get the manual and spend the time copying is bound to cost!)

Garry.

Surely not all the books listed are about aviation archaeology? Or at least not if by aviation archaeololgy you mean recoveries. For instance Eddie Doylerush’s No Landing Place and NLPII would be better described as history books,surely? I know Eddie would not think of himself as being an “aviation archaeologist”,in fact he has pointed out on several occasions(as well as in his books) that he hoped anyone going to the sites would treat them with respect and leave them as found.

Garry.

Jon you are doing a great job with saving the Prince,If I could have come over to help today I would have,but I can’t:( .

Bruce I could not agree more. What(almost) happened to the Prince begs the question,Is the rest of the collection safe?? I know they don’t have anything of huge historical importance(others might disagree) but surely one must wonder what they would do if they wanted to dispose of other aircraft or exhibits. Who actually made the decision to start cutting the Prince up:confused:

May I also pour scorn on the museum at Caernarfon, who, having realised they no longer wanted the aircraft, started breaking it up, rather than offer it to other organisations. Having had approaches over the past 2-3 years to save the aircraft, they knew it could be moved on, but instead chose to begin the scrapping process. Absolutely unbelievable.

Guys, can we just leave this one where it is, I disagree with some of the comments issues, but really lets just leave it PLEASE. 🙁

Why? Me-109E made a perfectly valid comment,much of what is recovered from many digs DOES end up in private collections. One(fatal) crash I researched is on land which has been in the same family for several generations,the present owner remembers the crash in question,he was a boy of 16 when it happened. No one has ever asked for permission to remove anything from the site and,if they had,the request would have been turned down as the land owner feels it would be disrespectful to disturbe the site. Dispite this several groups and individuals have dug on the site and removed wreckage,both before AND after the protection of military remains act was passed,now what image of wreckologists does this portray?. True not everyone would act in this way,but the fact is there are those who seem to think any crash site is there for the taking regardless of what the landowner,MOD or relatives of those who died in the crash say,think or feel and it is THOSE people I am talking about here. Surely anyone who goes about a recovery in the correct way cannot find such a thread offensive?

and sorry, not everyone does it to flog stuff on ebay, fondle dead bodies or any of the other rubbish we hear about !! please don’t tar everyone with the same brush again.

Perhaps if those who are genuine in their motives were a little more pro-active in weeding out those who do some or all of the “rubbish” you list everyone would not get tarred with the same brush!. A start would be for all recovery groups to be much more open about what they have,what they had which they have since disposed of,etc. Also some effort within many groups to preserve what they already have before rushing out to grab more wreckage would show an intent to preserve history.