Hi John, It was me that was asking for information on the last flying days of CASA G-AWHB the other week:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?133465-Last-flight-of-CASA-2-111-D-G-AWHB&highlight=Last+flight+of+CASA+2.111-D+G-AWHB

Great to hear your stories and see your photographs. It really is amazing to find new material surfacing and it just goes to show that it’s out there, the problem is finding it! I have a long running interest in the film with connections to the CASA G-AWHB at Southend and here at Duxford. I was also responsible for the research and layout application of our Buchon G-AWHK back into its original B of B film colours as Yellow 10 a few years ago. The engineer with the beard in your Buchon photo is familiar. I have seen him in another photograph standing next to G-AWHA during an engine start at the Bovingdon press day. Who was he? Do you recall the date of the last flight from Bovingdon to West Malling? I have a list of the personnel moving from DX to Bovingdon and there is a well known (now deceased) British pilot listed as the “He-111” pilot. As the Spanish CASA aircrew are also listed as being given notice of termination of their employment (along with Connie Edwards) I suspect it may well have been this pilot who was called upon by Hamish Mahaddie, to ferry them from open storage at Bovingdon to West Malling. With regards to your packing up the Buchons for Connie, can you tell us any more. It sounds really fascinating. Please check your PM box on your account.

Roobarb

The font style is not clear or complete and only very slightly visible on the Tony Cooper picture. Do you have any better material of her?

The colour scheme layout is correct to the photo’s supplied from Tony Coopers personal archive. You really can’t get it much more accurate than that and it was a joy for me to have such material to work with. The font style for the serial number is based on the style prevalent on many “AB” series aeroplanes at the time. So that is correct to “AB” series but different to Tony Cooper’s aeroplane. There are always compromises and difficult decisions to make when you have the responsibility of making such decisions and the boundaries of accuracy can become vague. The font style was my decision and it is correct and incorrect. So I am both wrong and right depending on how you wish to see it! The artwork is directly copied from the two surviving images of the name “PeterJohn I”. It was scanned, flattened out, drawn and then the original over-laid onto the drawn version and the drawn version tweaked to take in the original artists stylisations of the font. The wing “invasion stripe” measurement point was set using an “out of the cockpit” shot taken by Cooper on D-Day. They are straight edged because that is what the client required. The exhaust stacks are new and are as desired by BBMF. However for the Tony Cooper aeroplane on the date period represented they are actually incorrect. The surviving photos show it having individual ejector stacks rather than the new Siamese ones now fitted.

Roobarb

It’s only fitted to the early Mk1s with the hand pumped undercarriage.

That’s a real shame. Pete Brown’s photos were a fantastic insight into an earlier era and also the heyday of Doug Arnold’s pioneering Warbirds of Great Britain Collection. He had the photos from the ’70’s ’80’s era that “you always wanted to see but no-one at the time would have dared to publish”. I hope the Blackbushe thread/forum will re-surface in some form soon.

Roobarb

Won’t be a patch on the 2014 show….

(opens the floodgates for 2015 quilt show jokes…)

Nice to see her inside and about to get her makeover – will miss the key lime pie green look…

I was sew glad to see this today. There may have been a blanket ban on snappers as I saw none bobbin about and for a moment I thought there may be a need for the assistance of Terence the Tog. However the tow went as smooth as silk and they soon had the task sewn up. There was a small snag but they soon had it ironed out and then I saw them shuttling around and then spin the aircraft into place. “Darn,” I thought, “no drama it all worked like a sewing machine”…

Stupid really; it’s like the one guy who stands up in an airshow crowd eventually drives everyone else to stand up and nobody is any better off.

Moggy

Apart from the man with the step-ladder… :highly_amused:

It is a Fairchild Bolingbroke Mk.IVT that was previously reconfigured to represent a Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV. It is now a Fairchild Bolingbroke Mk.IVT reconfigured to represent a Bristol Blenheim Mk.I(f) by the mating of the (now repaired) Bolingbroke airframe to an original Mk.I(f) nose section and the alteration of the Bolingbroke systems and control runs to make that mating correct from a technical point of view for a MkI(f) layout.

OK, that’s it.

If you wish to refer to it as a Fairchild Bolingbroke you are not incorrect. You might find it could be described as a “Fairchild Bolingbroke MK.IVT (modified)”, but I think that most enthusiasts and airshow commentators will be referring to it as “The Mk.I Blenheim”

I hope that clarifies things for you.