Originally posted by Septic
Too many books not enough time to read them all, but these are a few of my favourites.

Test Pilot by Neville Duke,

Septic.

I forgot about that one a classic. My favourite being the ‘flight of the hummingbird’. Did Neil write any more books before his very untimely death???

My top 3 are
Wings on my Sleve-Eric Brown
Enemy coast ahead-Guy gibson
and the little known ‘Beyond the blue horizon’ by Alex Frater about retracing Imperial Airways orginal route to Australia in the 1980’s.

On the more ‘technicial’ books side all of the Putnam series. My favourite being the 3 volume British Civil aircraft since 1919.

I just wish AA would change their scheme to something that its easier to read the reg’s!! That bare metal is a real pain.

Here we are Blackbushe 30/7/77 I will just list the interesting aircraft,DGH if you want a full list pm me.

Flypasts only
VR-HHC CL44 TAC
G-ASHZ CARVAIR BAF
G-BDHA DC8 IAS
G-BDXC 747 BA
STATIC/FLYING
N16JL T34
252/BCOW SEAFURY
N5182/G-APUP PUP
AR213/G-AIST SPITFIRE
SL721/G-BAUP SPITFIRE
RG333/G-AIEK MESSENGER
TF956 SEAFURY RNHF
VX302/G-BCOV SEAFURY
WB271 FIREFLY RNHF
WJ897/G-BDFT VARSITY(remember these arriving in formation!)
WJ945/G-BEDV VARSITY
VP959 DEVON RAE
WM167 METEOR(now G-LOSM)
XM330 WESSEX RAE
G-AFWI,ALND,AOBX,APIG,AYUX DH82’s
G-APWA HERALD(pleasure flights)
G-ATBG NORD1101
G-AVJO FOKKER EIII replica
G-AZMH STORCH
G-BDYA CASA 211
G-BECL CASA 352

I have a log of 94 for that day.
Noted later in the year 2/10
N9857A/51-7330 T28
N54612/51-3690 T28
N54613/54-3554 T28
all ex Moroccian AF going to the Honduras AF
and N99230 CASA 211
then in 1978 came the ex spanish AF C47’s ,most of them ending up in Yemen! The ‘bushe was a great place in those days and worth a weekly visit.

Grew up in Reading in the 70’s. My dad is a spotter so got taken to loads of places after the age of about 6. Being under the LHR 9L approach and the transatlantic departures you couldn’t really miss the aircraft. First visit to LHR in 1976, Viscounts,VC10’s loads of 727’s, Pan Am and TWA 707’s. Started visiting LHR on my own as a 14 year old in 1984. I think it used to cost £2.50 on the coach from Reading!
Also I was lucky to witness the many comings and going at Blackbushe. The Spanish DC3’s,’JU52’s@ and even the two ‘He111’s’. Plus the ex Belgian AF Pembrokes going to the us. My first show was at Blackbushe in 1977 and included herald G-APWA doing pleasure flights and a Carvair and DC8 doing low passes. As well as the resident warbirds. Followed by the 77 IAT.
Have largely lost interest in the modern military side due to the lack of variety, and the lack of smoke coming out the back of them:rolleyes:

On the subject of captured types in Germany I remember a couple of years ago seeing in a magazine about the Deuches Museum in Berlin. Before it was destroyed in 1944 amoungst those on display were Spitfire,Hurricane,Wellington,Battle plus a cfew french types including a MS406 and a Bloch bomber.
Of course the museums prize exhibits were the Dornier DoX,Dornier Wal and the last original Fokker DR1. Many of the types were evacuated to Poland, but the rest must have beenb destroyed.

Originally posted by Bmused55
Managed to coax some true colour back into that phot wys

Thats it one of those lovely noisey things! It was one of the old G-AXYD to Paris, I think it was scraped at Southend a few years ago?