Being a “Sand grown Un” I like the memorial idea. I helped research an as yet unpublished aviation wartime history which highlighted the huge number of airmen that trained in the area. The Ops record books for Squires Gate SGR include photos of presentation Spitfires named Red Rose I and II.
I really cannot understand how the volunteers are expected to buy back a replica which they built? The future operating costs look rather high but of course that is only a forecast. This is a very unfortunate mess which does not reflect well on the RBL. Thankfully there are now other charities which work locally and have a much simpler structure with lower costs.
When you see some of the reports from the National Audit Office you can see where real savings can be made. For example buying ground support kit which does the job but has not been overpriced because its for an aircraft eg rubber mats which protect airframes while being worked on. Thats a real example, to have used the BAE ones would have cost far more.
I saw many accident record cards during my research days at AHB. Weather issues played a big part in training losses. The cross countries were tricky and navigation skills had to be very good.
Equipment failures happened on Ops as well as training and I agree with an earlier comment that the groundcrew had a pride which would not lead them to signing off unfit aircraft for duty of any kind. Indeed the pressure was greater on an operational unit and continues into modern times.
I noticed the signed first edition of Paul Brickhills book on last weeks Antique roadshow.It had been signed by lots of the raid crew but compared to bits of pottery it was not valued as much.
Merlin Pete I am shocked. For 5 years I did site visits and research in Wales and never found one war grave crash site. Do you have any evidence of the status of these crash sites which were cleared?
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