steve611In general I am happy to be directed into areas of aviation that I have not come across before and pampa14 does seem to tell us about a lot of it. I entirely accept that the way that he posts is to ask a question while clearly being uninterested in the answers.
One area about which there is no doubt is that he is acquiring images from various websites and then reposting them as his own. Unless these images are copyright-free or he is posting them with the permission of the copyright holder (and since he never posts the origin of these images I doubt it) then if the forum server is in the UK or the US then there is a strong possibility that this comes under theft of intellectual property rights.
Moggy, you might need to chat to the Forum lawyers there.
steve611Blue is current colour coding for nitrous oxide- I don’t know about WW2. Edit- I have seen an oxygen regulator with a blue centre to it, so I don’t know.
steve611Morgan and Shacklady. By far the most used book on my bookshelf, and an awesome piece of authoritative research.
Survivors I and II are pretty good too.
Gifts of War is THE work on presentation aircraft and along one of my pet areas of interest.
Spitfire International for where they all ended up once the RAF didn’t need them any more.
steve611Bump. From what I hear this might get a bit busy soon
steve611I would add to R6915’s post to expand his exclusion zone. You finish work on Friday at 6pm, get home, grab a bit to eat and then try to work your way to South Wales for 11am Saturday. It is 8 hours continuous drive from Yorkshire according to Google, so I would also eliminate most of North-East England (unless they were prepared to throw caution to the wind, burn a couple of tanks of petrol and and at least one overnight hotel), and all of Scotland on the same grounds but more. And anyone overseas. Would the Exec be willing to pay expenses to the members for attending such a critical event, much as they have no issues about paying their own expenses?
Most of Welsh Wales is “challenging” to get to from anywhere other than the local area, frankly. Been there, done that. If the Exec REALLY wanted the members to say what they wanted, they would have chosen somewhere reachable by the bulk of the membership, easily and on a day that everyone concerned with the biggest active part of the Society based at Duxford were free. Instead, they have chosen somewhere easy for the 3 Exec members but a ****** for everyone else and on one of Duxfords busiest days and given the Eastern Region a choice- do your bit to promote the Society at a major airshow or not be there to fight your way to the EGM for dissolution of the Society. You have to admire their concern for the members, don’t you? There is another point. There exists within the Articles of most organisations the right for the members to call an EGM at any time as long as they fulfill the conditions. I have heard rumours that sufficient members of the Spitfire Society filed a call for an EGM to answer questions (much like “duckgate”) about why 3 or 4 members of the Exec spent pretty much all of the annual membership income on personal expenses. I am given to understand that this request was filed with the Exec about a week before the letter went out about the intent to dissolve the Society. That letter made no mention of any other call but stated categorically that the only matter for discussion was to be the dissolution. Suspicious? Surely not.
steve611Tangmere1940
I know that I am not part of the Spitfire Society Exec and I am pretty certain that R6915 isn’t either. You want the best to be done with the Svendsen family donation. Frankly, we do too. Unfortunately, if the Spitfire Society is dissolved, the only people with ANY say in what happens is the 3 members of the Exec (maybe the Charities Commissioners if there is a valid challenge to process, but they have been roundly criticised in official investigations so I would not wish to bet my house on their actions).
Personally I would prefer the Society to persist and re-invent itself with new blood coming on board. At the moment there seems a reluctance to “join in”. This could be for many reasons- the general lack of enthusiasm these days for “doing that sort of thing” is one, but not wishing to work with the current incumbents for whatever reason might be another. I have stood for office in the past but ill health prevents me from doing so just now.
If you wish to take up the issue with the Exec, the Spitfire Society website lists email addresses as below:
Michael Hayes [email]deputy-chairman@spitfiresociety.org[/email]
Lucy/Michael Hayes [email]memsec@spitfiresociety.org[/email]
Ray Burgess [email]treasurer@spitfiresociety.org[/email]
If you can help either in keeping the Society afloat or determining an appropriate home for the ex-Tangmere replica you can be assured of my absolute support (and I suspect also of R6915’s).
steve611Mike J
The Spitfire Society never had anything to do with any odd idea to put plastic Spitfires anywhere, although we did actually have a plastic Spitfire that was moved to Cornwall and hasn’t been seen much at any Society activities since, oddly. That a former senior figure in the Society was the prime mover behind such an idea is undeniable.
Moggy
There might be such an association. There doesn’t seem to have been much of a production line up and running and the initial enthusiasm seems to have been scaled down, possibly due to a lack of money. I don’t suppose for one second that- no, Charities can’t do that.
I could say more, but then others might have to kill me.
steve611Mark
Indeed the replica prototype was handed over to Tangmere (it was rather soggy after Polesden Lacey) but part of the deal was that the Society took on their glassfibre replica.
steve611The Polesden Lacey event was a 3 day event organised at the National Trust property at Polesden Lacey. It was huge undertaking and attracted a lot of objections and acrimony within the Society at the time and ever since. In the end it resulted in a loss of in excess of £30 000, equivalent to more than 5 years of membership income for the Society.
Incidentally for those members overseas the postal notification will be a while yet and there is no mention of this EGM or any other on the Society Website.
steve611What assets? A plastic replica Spit, but also the Leonard Stilwell Bequest. “In 2009 the late Flt. Lt. Leonard Stillwell bequeathed monies to the Spitfire Society. ” A lot. The wording of the bequest was loose and it has been the subject of a lot of discussion. Hence, in my opinion the use of capitals. Edit- Moggy beat me to it. I believe I know what will happen to it but that is just my suspicious nature.
steve611I have just received notice that an EGM of the Society has been called for 19th September in Newport for the purposes of discussing the dissolution of the Society and “the inevitable distribution of ALL assets”. The capitalising is in the letter of notice and is not an insignificant point. The timing also co-inccides with a big event at Duxford where many of the most active group will be. Co-incidence?
steve611Halcyon days
When I joined the Spitfire Society I was just an aircraft enthusiast whose father was once an RAF aircraft sparks. I grew up around RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. I thought that the Spitfire was quite the most beautiful aircraft I had ever seen. I joined the Society and had access to all manner of folk who contributed to the development. I met Jeffrey Quill, Alex Henshaw, RJ Mitchell’s son, a gang of backroom boys, and David Green, who set up the Society. Along the way I met a lot of folk who conserve, rebuild or fly Spitfires. I worked hard to ensure that anyone who wanted to know anything about the bird could find someone who could answer their question. I stood there at Duxford during a “Spitfire Day” and I had a great time explaining the evolution of the Spitfire and the differences between Marks to anyone who asked. I tried very hard to explain to your first group. I moved into the middle group got to meet the real movers and shakers- OK the guys who took the Spitfire to war are rarely there these days (I remember a wonderful day at Duxford where a group of RAF pilots compared logbooks with a bunch of Luftwaffe pilots and concluded that in general neither of them could shoot straight!) I got to know a lot of members of 611 Squadron and along the way 72 Squadron (including the current bunch). Lots of things took me away from the centre, and the focus of the Society has drifted. When I was there we tried bloody hard to be all things to all people- enquirers, enthusiasts AND geeks. I spent best part of 2 weeks answering a question about whether Merlin engine carburettors suffered from induction icing (I was a pilot and all naturally aspirated carburettors run the risk of induction icing- never had it happen to me in an aircraft but it did once kill the engine in my Mk2 Ford Escort [the next week my aircraft technical lesson explained everything!])- I asked every pilot I could find, without gain (as long as the prop turned I wasn’t bothered why was a common thread), I got an entirely unexpected phone call from Ray Hanna who spent a hour or so talking Merlin engines, Spitfires and more. That was the way it used to be. I once floated an idea that what the Society ought to do was to put money into a Gin fund. Buy a videocamera, and take another pilot and a couple of bottles of gin/any other poison of choice and get someone who flew spits/ built spits/ repaired spits (you get the gist) to talk to someone who was there. It never happened. I believe passionately that history needs recording but getting the guys who were there to talk is a ******. Believe me- I tried. The “there I was at 30 000 feet when my engine stopped” story is easy. Push it too hard and you get one of 2 lines- You weren’t there (or any equivalent) so you will never understand and there I was at 30 000 feet when my engine stopped, or yes you were there or the equivalent “raise a toast to those who never returned”, and did I tell you of how my engine stopped at 30 000 feet?
Another point that needs to be made for a number of reasons is that in the modern world getting enough people to join in to a cause because it needs to be done without much personal benefit is an absolute nightmare. There isn’t a charity on the planet overwhelmed with volunteers “because it needs to be done” and the Spitfire Society is no exception. It used to be an Old Boys/Girls Club but there aren’t many of them left. So- join in, middle group, and the Society is yours. I would happily help you all take over and make it in your image.
steve611OK- to all out there can I start a debate?
1. Is there any place for a Spitfire Society in any form?
2. What form do you think it might take or
3. In what way could it contribute to the betterment of understanding the Spitfire?
4. Can we present the Spitfire better (plus and minus) to the public
I admit to being a life member of the Spitfire Society and would like for there to be a meeting place for like minds along this theme. I was one of the guys on the ground at the Spitfire Day at Duxford some years ago. I put in a hard days work but it was worth it to be able to explain simple stuff to Joe Public who aren’t the experts who inhabit these fora- frankly compared to many out there I am not an expert either! I don’t know if the Officers of the Society will take any notice of this but I would personally value anything that anyone wishes to offer- either publicly on the forum or via personal notifications. My response to “who said that?” would be “Sorry, what?”.
steve611The Treasurer announced that he was stepping down before the last AGM and it didn’t happen. It seems likely that this announcement is a tactical one. Qui bono?
steve611Thanks everyone. I was aware of the full season booked, as well as one not yet confirmed on the TVOC website listings. The ITV posting was out of the blue, and I just wondered if the official websites hadn’t got round to updating about a major change (wouldn’t have been the first time, particularly if they were extremely busy). I suspected poor journalism, but……
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