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JOE-FBS

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January 25, 2013 at 2:33 pm in reply to: Status of L-188 G-LOFC #522262

JOE-FBS
Participant

Just seen LOFC being towed along the taxiway at Coventry to the parking area near the control tower. Not sure when it arrived.

January 22, 2013 at 2:31 pm in reply to: Wellington book #951329

JOE-FBS
Participant

Hello Steve,

Please try to include those based away from the UK. My other half’s step-father’s dad was killed in a Wellington operating out of Malta and there’s very little either in print or on the web about those operations (they were mentioned in the recent BBC documetary about Malta which was good to see).

January 12, 2013 at 12:30 pm in reply to: Heads up – The Dambusters #968261

JOE-FBS
Participant

The BBC responded quickly and comprehensively, well done.

Sadly, they confirmed that they do not have the Guy Gibson programme, nor do they have the Sheila Scott one. (nor Carl Sagan but that’s a non-aviation interest).

Available on the BBC web site are Tony Iveson, Cecil lewis and Douglas Bader. All are well worth a listen.

January 10, 2013 at 11:03 am in reply to: Coventry update #971782

JOE-FBS
Participant

Last time I walked through the Airbase area to my office (yesterday) pretty much everything is still there.

There is an Airbase moving thread here somewhere with more details. Ah, here it is:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=117759&page=6&highlight=%22airbase+moving%22

The Airbase website is now classic air force:

http://www.classicairforce.com/news-and-events/

January 6, 2013 at 3:18 pm in reply to: Heads up – The Dambusters #977691

JOE-FBS
Participant

In 2009, a CD was published Dambuster Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, Label: CD41, ASIN: B002JCMZ2I. It seems to contain real interviews with Gibson and some other 617 crew members plus a recreation of the DID by Richard Todd.

Please try your local music / bookshop before the tax dodging web sites.

January 6, 2013 at 11:04 am in reply to: Heads up – The Dambusters #977953

JOE-FBS
Participant

Just looking for pilots on the BBC Desert Island Discs download site and it seems that they have an episode with Guy Gibson which they do not yet make available. I have emailed the BBC asking for it to be made available. Maybe other people might want to do the same.

There don’t seem to have been many pilots on DID.

January 4, 2013 at 6:26 pm in reply to: D.H.114 Heron G-AORG #980268

JOE-FBS
Participant

Not much to report but as the other Heron thread has been reactivated, a quick comment about the Coventry based one. For the last year, all I have seen of G-AORG is it continuing to be pushed around the apron at Coventry and occasionally been worked on. It’s currently outside. Things may have been more exciting at the weekends as I am only there Monday to Friday.

December 12, 2012 at 10:06 am in reply to: Status of L-188 G-LOFC #526427

JOE-FBS
Participant

Hello Sylar,

Your picture 0083 is very impressive. The PA28 is about 200m nearer the camera than the Electra which is about 100m nearer than the Citation and DC6.

Glad to hear that LOFE is also flying again, I have been away from my Coventry office a lot so was not sure whether it was back in the hanger.

Cheers

Joe

November 21, 2012 at 9:41 am in reply to: Douglas DC-6 G-APSA To Fly Again #963647

JOE-FBS
Participant

Doesn’t mean much in isolation but I thought some of you might like to know that G-APSA has been towed from the grass to the apron.

November 17, 2012 at 10:57 am in reply to: Status of L-188 G-LOFC #528353

JOE-FBS
Participant

I’m mostly working away from my office at Coventry at the moment but I passed through yesterday morning and G-LOFE is on the apron and looks as though it is being prepared to start flying again. Maybe it has already.

November 17, 2012 at 10:53 am in reply to: HMS Pursuer in the Pacific summer 1945 #968012

JOE-FBS
Participant

Most of what I can remember of his war stories is summarised below in a piece I wrote for his son to read at his funeral.
Leslie was bitten by the flying bug when, as an Air Training Corps cadet, he had a flight in a Fairy Fulmar (a carrier based fighter) from Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. At 17 ½, he joined the Fleet Air Arm as an officer cadet having volunteered for pilot training (which he justified to his family as avoiding being conscripted into the mines as a Bevin Boy). He began flying training in Canada where his adventures included crashing a Harvard and being briefly arrested by the Americans when a social trip accidentally crossed the border. Continuing training in South Africa, he crashed a Hellcat at the foot of Table Mountain, leaving an imprint of the gun-sight on his forehead for the rest of his days. Sub Lieutenant Leslie Barber RNVR joined the escort carrier HMS Pursuer in Ceylon and flew Hellcat fighters against Japanese air, land and sea forces until the war ended. He shot down two Japanese aircraft alone and shared two others with colleagues. Following a brief interlude test flying Hellcats returned to US specification before being dumped at sea, he returned to the UK and flew communications flights from Oban until demob’ in 1946.

November 17, 2012 at 10:50 am in reply to: HMS Pursuer in the Pacific summer 1945 #968014

JOE-FBS
Participant

My various books about the FAA either don’t mention Pursuer or only briefly, cover her work in Europe. The one exception is British Naval Aviation (Sturtivant) which puts 898 with Hellcats on Pursuer in the “East Indies” on VJ day. A long piece in that book quoting a member of 898 says that the Hellcats were disembarked on 18th August. The rest of that piece is about post VJ day events.

So, I am pretty sure my uncle’s stories put Pursuer in the right place at the right time but I just cannot find any detail.

PS my local independent book shop could not source the Winton novel new but has found it second-hand for me.

November 12, 2012 at 4:17 pm in reply to: HMS Pursuer in the Pacific summer 1945 #975000

JOE-FBS
Participant

Thank you very much everybody.

The John Winton looks to be the correct one and I seem to be able to find plenty of second-hand copies on’t’internet if my local independent book shop cannot find it new.

I have found various passing references to Pursuer being in the Pacific for those last few weeks / months of the war to support my uncle’s stories (told to me 30+ years after the event). I will dig-out the books at home and combined with the above might be able to get somewhere. I might have a note somewhere of the relevant squadron number as well.

November 6, 2012 at 7:41 pm in reply to: Airbase Museum moving to Newquay:BBC #983362

JOE-FBS
Participant

Working in an adjacent building, as far as I can see most of the aircraft are still at Coventry. A fairly wrecked Hunter shell and a decent two seat Hunter left early on but as far as I can see the only major missing item is the Meteor T model and even that may be in part of one of the hangers which I cannot usually see into.

All sorts still going on but not open to the public: the Heron has ground run and is now indoors; the Procotor has flown at least twice; at least one of the Dakotas has ground run (ready for a poppy drop?); the Howard left (not an Airbase colelction arcraft I believe); the black Canberra is indoors (for a new engine and return to flight?). Possibly other stuff that I have not seen as I am not there all the time.

October 5, 2012 at 9:01 am in reply to: Airbase Museum moving to Newquay:BBC #1028350

JOE-FBS
Participant

The place may be closed to casual visitors but it is still alive and working. As far as I can see when I walk to and from my office, all the technicians / mechanics are still here. One of the Vampires / Venoms flew yesterday (XJ771 I think).

The black Canberra has disapeared into the hanger this week,. I believe with the intention of getting it flying again but not for a while.

Details on the Atlantic Electras here:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=118224&highlight=electra

G-LOFE is still in the hanger.
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