LOL

Smiler old chap – if you are down to complaints about the shade of red from the grumblers, then you must be doing something right.

More power to your elbow (grease)

Bruce (former grumbler)

I was / am one of those grumblers, and I’m not too afraid to admit it. Ye, it minor, trivial, not even worth space on the forum, but even if the point was initially raised with tongue in cheek, I do think that between November and April, someone could have got up there and given them a lick of paint… It’s not important, but it would just make her look that little bit more fantastic than she already does!

I’m delighted that they’ve got so far. I was very very lucky when I was a boy to be able to sit on a vulcan taxi run at Bruntingthorpe. I dont mind admitting that I was skeptical that she would ever fly again. Well done.

Just a very small question amongst the euphoria, why Cottesmore and not Waddington, it’s not that much further, I remember seeing a Vulcan scramble there at an airshow in 1958, had that got anything to do with it, or was it simply the nearest RAF base that was tooled up to deal with the beast.

Pete, Much of Waddingtons taxi ways are dug up at the moment… Perhaps most importantly, the taxi way up to the compass bay is dug up, so there would be no chance of being able to swing her there, and I think they’re very short of ramp space because of it… Thats my guess anyway!

Albert, this was my way point when she flew last year! There’s fuel in the tanks, the insurance is paid for… So I don’t see why it should be. Anyway, on the last push for money didn’t they get two individual donations equaling £150k? thats an extra 3 months worth on top of what normally comes in… So should should be good for this season if nothing else!…. If only life was really that simple!!!

According to demobbed, the 21st edition of W&W will be out in May.

Maybe it’s to do with the new Dambusters movie, which is apparently going to film some scenes there?

Sorry, I know we’re off topic, thats a nice thought! I hope you’re right… Although I do wish it was more because of the big tin triangle!

Dis Gruntled – So if it’s not Waddington, then where is it?

aha just because i dont like it, doesnt mean i wouldnt fly in it :p,

Nothing like a bit of back tracking!!!! Please tell us all… whats the difference between “wouldnt want to be seen dead flying one” and wouldn’t fly in one?

Good luck with OASC… I’d love to be a fly on the wall at that interview…

“Well sir, to be honest with you, I wouldn’t be seen dead flying one of those”…

I have to say beyond Kermit’s eccentricity and bigger than life personality, he is an aviator, and has been since he was young. He knows and respects aviation, and it’s history.

I take offense to those who’d say that he or his crew is somehow uncaring of safety or proper flight procedures. Kermit will alway warm up the plane he is to fly for flight of the day, then he goes and eats lunch. After lunch he flies. At that point he does all that is necessary to make sure the plane is ready and safe to fly.

Just last month he shut down the P40 featured in this video because the brakes were faulty. At the time, four of the remaining Tuskegee airmen were present, plus a film crew ready to watch them fly, possibly one last time. In spite of all these “special conditions”, Kermit and his crew would not let the plane fly.

He is also human, and that means that he makes mistakes. We all make mistakes, and I can tell you, that despite your admirable defense of Mr weeks, on that sunny day back in March 07, he was going flying with a control lock in the rudder. There are two issues here. One, is that of the groundcrew… please don’t tell me that comments like “he always flies with that in” and “It lifts up automatically in flight” are defendable. I was there. Telling these two guys that I also fly vintage aircraft, and they dont fly with control locks in. Why do you think that they ignored my concerns? Please dont tell that this was good practice on anyones part? And just for the record, this wasn’t Mr Weeks warming up the aircraft… Both him and his passenger with both strapped in, engine running. But, while you’re defending Mr Weeks, can I tell you his response when another member of the public asked him if he was about to go flying with a control lock in?… “Well, I’d have soon realized when I started to taxi” – FACT. I was there! – Maybe he was having a bad day, but does that sound like good flight safety to you?

You might take offense at me saying that “he or his crew is somehow uncaring of safety or proper flight procedures” (BTW, there are your words not mine), but if you’re going to defend his team, then please justify this whole episode to me. Put it this way Praz, if I were to come up to you and tell you that something wasn’t right with Mr Weeks aircraft before he was just about to go flying, would you make a point of raising it with Kermit, or just let him get on with it? I suspect you would raise it with him, and if that be the case, then you cant defend the two ground crew who, in my opinion let him down badly that day. Why they refused to listen to my concerns is beyond me… Like I said in my earlier post, I’m just glad that a 3rd came along and actually took notice of what i was saying…

As for not flying the P40 when the Tuskegee airmen were present… Whats your point? I’m not saying that they’re the cowboys of the sky. I’m saying that for some reason, his groundcrew didn’t want to listen to some British tourist, who just happened to know what he was talking about! (incidentally, my father was also telling them the same thing… 32 years flying in the RAF… I think he knows what a control lock looks like!)

Take as much offense as you like Praz… The whole this is undefendable…

Can you say “Pre-Flight”?!?!?! It isn’t just for stretching the pilots legs before the flight!

I have seen the P-51C fly over there. Very Cool!! Love that sound. Also watched the Fi Storch fly, or should I say, turn into the wind and JUMP.

It was pretty obvious that he hadn’t done a pre flight, which I thought was especially bad as he was taking a passenger with him.

But what annoyed me more what attitude of the people on the ground…

I’m not sure what it was…Was it that they think this man is superior and therefore cant have made a mistake like that, or was it that he’s the boss and no one dared to pull him up? Many an aircraft have boon lost because of that situation… Where no one wanted to tell the boss that he’s got it wrong. But to tell me that “He always flies with that in” and “It lifts up automatically in flight” – What a joke.

I was there back in March last year. They were working on a US ‘utility’ type aircraft at the time. It was close to completion… has it flown yet? And what is it!

That was day I saw Kermit try and go flying with the control lock in the rudder (10th march 07 to be precise) of his T6!!!!!!!!!!!! 😮 Nothing against Kermit here, but what was ‘strange’ was the reaction of the ground crew when I pointed it out to them… Two old boys.. one told me that he always flies with the control lock in, the other told me that it automatically lifts out once he’s airborne. It wasn’t until a 3rd guy came over and asked what all the fuss was about that someone thought “Mmm, this bloke might just know what he’s talking about”… We had to laugh as the prop wash blew his Panama hat across the airfield as he tried to remove the lock.