Meteor Mishap

Better off to put it back in a Centurion (where it belongs) and drive it around.

Back Again

A quick trawl in some German info re the 2nd TAF way back, has it down for a rotating beacon (pundit) GS.

Last of the Many

Although she never flew “ops” PZ865 certainly deserves to be remembered as she came out of the factory.What is the point of giving an aircraft a scheme and markings it never had.If it was a replica or (rebuilt from the parts bin) fine but this machine has its own identity and proud history and had been flown by some very famous guys.
When she rolled out at Langley in 1944 they produced a banner for her that carried the legend of all the theatres of conflict Hurricanes took part in (cue for image please) It said it all and she continued to provide a useful service to Hawkers (1127 chase aircraft included) until presented to the BBMF.
Now that would be an interesting project listing all her pilots.

LIster Gen

I think this is a full scale resin moulded copy of the fibreglass replica Lister moulded from a set of Lister parts as used in the catering truck on the set of 633 Squadron at Bovingdon.
I say this as the scratches are identical to the original generator left behind when they made the War Lover and which was recently discovered in a charity shop in Hemel Hempstead.
If one looks carefully you see the marks left by Steve McQueens boot when he “kick Started” it one day.
A real gem and very difficult to find in such good condition these days.

DN

Was this the machine that Leonard Cheshire used to fly when he was involved with Vickers at Predannack!!.
If so it would have been one of the last (if not the last) aircraft he was involved with.

Mercury

There is an account that a brand new E E Lightning was scrapped (or at least never went operational) for a similar reason.

Cable Strike (nearly)

No Andy i had escaped to Cornwall by then and in nearly 4,000 launches never had a powered aircraft get that close.
Mind you one morning our CFI managed to “split” the Tiger Club Turb team all over the sky when they “bimbled” through the circuit at about 500 ft.

Another day a Turb forced landed at Kenley (minutes after the entire TC balbo had gone past the airfield) the unfortunate individual was “upbraided” by a posse of VRT instructors with one Pilot Officer producing a pencil whilst demanding his name and address and complaining about the formations always coming too close.
Our downed hero only got the “Wing Commander” bit of his name out before there was a crescendo of feet coming to attention followed by some smart salutes and the dropping of a pencil.I still laugh about it to this day.
They were lucky it was not a Group Captain or higher (they used to fly with the club)
Being on a main route to Biggin i think we were quite lucky not to have any real incidents and anyway if it was low cloud/raining the chances were we staff cadets would not be winching but stuffing ourselves with NAAFI pies (or Tortoise pies as we called them) (due to the pastry being a tad firm)

Wings In Barns

Well is does happen.Many years ago in (North Wales) i was ferreting around an old landing ground and came across a hangar/barn that was being used as a grain store. However up in the cross beams were a pair of wooden wings (no fabric) that looked Tiger Moth-ish.

I suppose i had better have another “ferret” around when next in the area.