I thought it was a good event, if still a bit quiet compared to previous years.

I missed one or two items (see MarkG’s thread for one and I believe the other was a Hastings control column???!!!) but still picked up some interesting stuff.

As we’ve already said, most of the stall holders are from the North or Midlands and would never be seen at Shoreham or Popham.

Lastly, the Halifax throttles are now with R.L. He seemed confident of being able to replicate them but is waiting for the drawings before making a start.

LOonks in nice condition though still worth saving.

Yours for $4,500 USD on Barnstormers!

If the Lancaster cd-rom is anything to go by, there will still be plenty of Halifax mysteries left, Cees.

All you really get are lots of photos of preserved machines, with all the inaccuracies, missing equipment and recent mods etc that are found within them. Relatively little from the A.P.s and what there is, is colourised and dumbed down, presumably to appeal to the wider audience.

£14.95 maybe but at £26.95, I think they’re having a larf.

Jmho!

Yes, I saw that and wondered.

I have the Pilot’s Notes for the Mosquito XX and XXV, and the Volume I for the Lancaster X.

Both show the bfp to be based on the shape of a standard Mk IA with curved top, but with cut-outs modified to suit the type of artificial horizon, altimeter fitted.

This one appears to have instruments of all-American or Canadian manufacture, apart from a British art/h which has been slipped into place (notice the “spare” hole at it’s lower right).

The only photo I can recall showing a similarly shaped panel is from a Canadian Anson (it may even be the same one in his ad). Some British built Ansons had a very similar panel post-war.

It needs a lot of work

So did this one Elliott, and it was in much the same condition as yours. Good luck with it!

Hi Dave,

I’m studying a factory drawing of what I believe to be a Spitfire XI panel (certainly a Merlin engined PR Spitfire) and there are numerous differences between yours and this one.

For example, there are two of the large diameter fuel gauges in the bottom r/h corner, plus another three fuel gauges scattered across the panel.

The top of the panel is largely taken up by a Type 35 Camera Control Box with a large instruction plate to it’s left.

Your’s looks to be based on a more standard fighter panel, but with mods for modern equipment.

Plus, the blind flying panel appears to deviate from a stock item – the cut-out for the artificial horizon has two small “notches” on the vertical centre line which look to be for a post war A/H.

Just my impressions, and a Spifire expert may come along and shoot me down.

[alan partridge]Which would be a cowardly thing to do as a Spitfire XI is unarmed and can’t fight back.[/alan partridge] 😀

It’s what it says on the box, Elliott.

A Mk. IV Computor Unit, part of the Type F Torpedo Director.

I’m not sure about the wartime use of this equipment (maybe later Beaufighters and Barracudas), but it was probably intended for the Spearfish, Wyvern and Sturgeon, and may have ended up in the Gannet.

Co-incidentally, torpedo, bomb and gunsights may be the subject of Volume 4. 😎

Hi Nils,

From my first posting, the button cover is for a fire extinguisher switch. It normally guards the button from accidental operation and has to be flipped up, as seen on the left.

The second photo shows what I’m fairly certain is the lens from an ultra-violet cockpit lamp of the type shown to it’s right. These were an early attempt at introducing fluorescent lighting for instruments (doing away with the radium painted type). The Mosquito seems to have been one of the few aircraft to have used this system which uses mercury vapour discharge lamps to produce the u.v. light. You can sometimes spot these distinctive lamps in Mosquito cockpit photos.