I think that observing the two minute silence is a very personal thing and I was pleased to read DaveB’s comment: ” I find that I need to remove myself from the office, to go and have a private moment of quiet somewhere else”. I feel the same way and find standing stiffly in a room full of people trying to avoid eye contact for two minutes, well…..awkward. Unfortunately not all employers are terribly good at organising this sort of thing and loud announcements followed by loud ringing fire bells has a touch of coercion at times. The best employer I came across for this was a Magistrates Court which kept one of the courts clear for 11.00 and gave their employees the choice, if they wanted to observe the silence they were welcome to use the room which I thought was a thoughtful touch. The court room was quiet and the atmosphere was more conducive to reflection than the office.

Oh well, now wait to be flamed by the ‘you ought to’ brigade……

A C-123 starred in ConAir as well. Forget the registration but she was stored at Reno-Stead for a while painted in some sort of fictitious US Marshalls scheme.

Until someone posts better shots I hope these will help show the sequence:

Thanks for the portrait, I am in your photo of 655’s jet pipes, looking grumpily at the camera with flyaway silver hair, immediately to the left of the chap in the green coat on the right hand side of the picture 🙂 (My five seconds of fame)

Michael Baldock

Great set of photos Flood, thanks for sharing. FAST is really coming on leaps and bounds.

Regarding the Gloster replica there is a public golf club just up the road with a public car park. I parked there back in November and then walked to the roundabout, no problems with security at all. Guess my silver/white hair is paying off at last 😉

Another…..

Even worse close up…..

SWWAPS

I live fairly close to Lasham and do visit from time to time.

The leading light of this collection is Bob Coles who can be found in the museum hut most weekends and if you get to speak to him he is a very engaging character who clearly is a “wheeler dealer” and very capable of trading and obtaining anything that he decides that he wants. The list of people that he has engaged with is like a “who’s who” of the aviation preservation scene. I found him to be a very likeable character indeed.

The problem seems to be threefold. The Society relies upon contributions from the public, sales of merchandise as well as the owner’s own funds and I don’t think that they make a great deal out of this, funds seem to be very tight.

Secondly there are a few volunteers but SWWAPS seems to be a very tight knit group and for whatever reason they don’t seem to be very receptive to people who suddenly turn up out of the blue and offer lots of help….and I understand that there have been a lot of these over the years.

The third problem is the lack of covered shelter for the exhibits and this is probably the biggest as far as SWWAPs is concerned. A couple of years ago the Lasham airfield authorities decided that the boundary around the collection intruded too far into their operating area and SWWAPS lost quite a lot of their space. I think there is a genuine desire on the part of SWWAPS to construct some sort of hangar or shelter for their rarest exhibits however I understand that this is now impossible owing to the proximity of the collection to the active runway area.

I don’t want to appear to be an apologist for SWWAPS but I do think that the issues here are more complex than appear on the surface and publicly stating that the situation is “disgusting” and “this is not preservation” is probably not terribly helpful to these guys especially considering the almost insurmountable challenges that they face. This is a private collection and had Bob Coles not taken the initiative a few years ago many of these airframes would not be here today. I would dearly love to see all these aircraft out of the rain and not corroding as reported but it just seems to me that the owners really need help and perhaps we need to find a creative way of offering this that preserves their original aspirations but at the same time preserves what needs to be preserved.

Just my tuppence worth!

Michael Baldock

Quote: “I know some airports say that photography is not allowed (Dublin for instance) but I never saw a sign there when I was there on the same trip a few weeks back. Nothing you can do though”

Oops! I was at Dublin a couple of weeks ago and happily snapped off a couple of digital shots of EI-CJC when disembarking and none of the Ryanair crew or ramp staff took any notice. Also when waiting to fly back I took several photos from the terminal of various planes and again I know I was being watched by staff and no-one objected; I am always very open about the fact I am taking photos. Perhaps my silver hair and respectable demeanour helps 😉

I have been seriously hassled on several occasions with airfield photography in Europe and the USA over the years and if challenged these days I just say I am sorry, plead ignorance, ask very directly what they want to do about it and aim to walk away with as little hassle as possible. Good luck if you want to make a meal of it with asking for security employee’s names etc, I really don’t think it is worth the effort. I just talk to people and make a judgement about how serious they are, always try to see their point of view. If someone is obviously on a power trip then I am not going to give them the satisfaction of challenging them.