Rob, I understood it was a saving in costs by co hosting AEF and Gliding. Any civvy base will charge for landing fees and accomodation for people,kit and aircraft.

That cutaway certainly underlines the mental resolve needed to keep repeating missions. I can imagine the assault on the senses of noise,vibration,turbulence,adrenaline,confined space,restrictive clothing.Add into that the need to actually accurately perform tasks over many hours. If you were designing a torture chamber to break a person it would include all this. Crews were brave to repeat missions and I have even more respect for them once I had the idea in my head of their situation that this image evoked.

Always glad to see contributions from the people working on projects, these updates are interesting. I was fascinated by the Hampden at EK last year on my visit having followed the wreckage since discovery. Sending best wishes and good recovery to your wife.

Are the Morayvia team related to the Kinloss Aviation Society?
well many members of the KAS have stayed in the Moray area(including myself) and the enthusiasm and drive from ex service people has resulted in Morayvia so there is a connection.

Re the Hendon Halifax “Archie” posted an informative letter in WIX in 2004..
“The initial plan was to restore the Halifax to her original appearance. The forward fuselage section was sent to RAF Wyton for restoration, however, this was not a successful project and was abandoned. It became apparent that a great proportion of the aircraft was in a very fragile condition and that if full restoration was undertaken little of the original aircraft would remain. The front gun turret was refurbished as a separate project and one engine was restored. Other than this, it was decided that the Halifax should be left in the condition that she had been found and would be displayed at Hendon. Meanwhile, the Halifax was sprayed with PX-9, a lanolin based preservative. Unfortunately, prior to this application the airframe had already started to corrode, it was later discovered that the Halifax should have been treated with another product prior to the PX-9 which could have prevented further corrosion. The application of PX-9 had not coated the Halifax uniformly, and as a result some areas continued to corrode.

In the early 1970’s, The Society of Friends of the Royal Air Force Museum was established to support the aims of the RAF Museum at Hendon. Each year the society makes a financial donation to the museum and is actively supportive by providing three teams of volunteers to work on the aircraft, vehicles and boats in the Hendon collection. In 1989 the society formed an aircraft team who would be responsible for restoration and conservation of the growing collection of aircraft in the museum. Initially this work would be carried out only on smaller items rather than entire aircraft. Later the team were asked to carry out corrosion inspections on some of the aircraft in the Battle of Britain Hall, and then they were tasked with looking after the aircraft in the Bomber Command Hall.

In order to attempt to halt any further corrosion on the Halifax it was sprayed with Waxoyl – a delicate process which took a year to complete. After a full inspection a report was written for the museum detailing the condition of the Halifax and what The Society of Friends team could do by way of preservation/restoration. The museum concluded that the external surfaces of the Halifax were, as far as possible, to remain as they were other than any work required to stabilize it. The interior of the Halifax could undergo some conservation work. Currently work is ongoing in the interior to halt any further corrosion. This is a long and laborious process due to space limitations, keeping stress on the structure to a minimum and working within health and safety parameters.”

Likely to be an off airfield location where space was available for documents and less likely to be targets.

The meeting of the bomber trio was on 30 August 1998 and according to the only ref on line was only for 1 hour, and I can only find one pic on line which has just the wheel from the Halifax showing in front of the other two. I wonder if any other pics will turn up?

The BBc mis identified this as a C5 galaxy at Wick and used a stock pic of one. I doubt a c5 could use Wick. good pics from Lossie thanks.