The aspect of what is a rebuild or what is original surely by now has been made redundant with the research into preserved airframes. These have on many occasions proved to have a mix of parts large and small which were added after the original factory build. I have seen accident record cards and airframe cards where the serial number is the only way of keeping track of what has occured to the airframe and major parts have been replaced several times. In recent times a Puma and a Wessex badly damaged in Northern Ireland have been repaired after being shot down and the original serial used despite 90 percent being replaced.

No attempt to conceal what has been done with these restorations of Spitfires and everyone should be proud that the skills needed have been kept alive .

It is good news to have a Dominie indoors at the same location as a Varsity indoors. During my time at Western Radar Aberporth West Wales we would provide a service to navigation exercises, on one occasion we had a stream of Dominies and also Varsities, the latter being a touch slower .But no navex stream was slower than 5 Sea Princes . On rare occasions we would watch a Nav trainer loose the track or miss a turning point, it was not our job to correct them and usually after 10 minutes a correction was made, made me wonder if someone got a smack with a nav ruler. I have a vague memory of a film where a young Anthony Newley? was training on a Varsity ? navex with blinds covering the windows. He is asked where they are and then shown they are over Blackpool tower, miles from where he thought !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Flight_%28film%29

It was a very well presented ,filmed,edited programme. The way that the precision needed was shown, how complex the build is,some of the current costs,interviews with those who were there.

When you view a production such as this it should be kept in mind the cost of filming and therefore how you then make a profit by selling the end result to the networks.Just to charter the Castle Air Augusta 109 and stabilised cameras is eye wateringly expensive plus the two fighters airborne and the 2 seater flight.

Having Guy as the presenter with an easy manner was a good choice. It would not have worked just to make a copy of earlier documentaries.

We are enthusiasts and follow the activities of restorations avidly and you cannot condense everything we would like to see in one programme, this was a good balance.

20 years ago I could not have expected to see the interest in UK aircraft restorations reach the stage where we have had a sequence of good quality free tv programmmes aired on the subject.And there are standout companies such as Planes TV making programmes for direct sale.

Guy martin is a motor cycle racer who has an interest in engineering.His personality has attracted the attention of programme Makers and he takes part in the films. His USP is an ability to take risks to perform in fast activity without loosing his nerve.

Thank you, also interesting pictures of the Cruden bay North sea flight.
Also see the many albums of recoveries by Ernst KnUtsen on flickr….https://www.flickr.com/photos/108070235@N05/sets/

Meddle, I have lived in North Scotland for 25 years and still managed to see the Lancasters despite being unable to make the Prestwick event. The good news is that public interest was high and there is likely to be another airshow at Ayr next year. There is also an annual show at East Fortune. The collection at Strathallen was well displayed with a very good building which had plenty of natural light. Access roads were not really difficult just average country lane for the UK.

Not able to see any actual shows but very happy to see the 2 lancs from the sand dunes at Blackpool and a surprise flypast by the Vulcan. Perhaps next year I will make the expedition down from North Scotland for a show.