I see that they’ve also got a Rolls-Royce Vulture available, hopefully they’ve two of them, and then we can get a forum project together to build an Avro Manchester, or is that a little ambitious…

Do you have any concept of what a museum is for? Would you expect the Royal Armouries museum to take medieval weapons out of cases/storage and clash them together because “that’s what they were designed to do”? Duxford is blessed with both a static, preserved, protected museum collection, and a fantastic, living, flying group of collections. In the UK we have one flyer and one taxiing airframe in non-museum hands; isn’t that enough?

Err, no not really; I’ve missed pa474 more times than I’ve seen it, a combination of servicability problems and local weather conditions ,conspired to keep us seperate. A very high work load for one aeroplane, and even harder for one restricted to 100 hrs a year. East Kirkby is 150 miles + away for me, and so I’ve yet to get the family there. All very well keeping A/C as statics ,restored to the utmost standards , but Dx’s spit has no engine (or anything under the hood) ,neither does I believe the Mosquito (or at least didn’t when last inspected) not sure about the lanc. A/C without engines are just facsimile’s .

Wasn’t “Always” a remake of a war time film called “a guy named Joe”

Is James Blunt cockney rhyming slang, or a real person? I’m a bit lost here; one minute its Duxford, next its a pall bearer to the queen; is this something to do with worm holes in space? yours confusedly…

In my view ,legends is the best show at Duxford; we used to do all the airshows there ,but are cutting back because of the spiralling cost. This year one day basic entry will cost us £70- I think that they have a cheek to charge £8- entry for little kiddies, if you think its hard to see anything as an “adult”,think how little they get to see. To me Duxford appeals on two levels I enjoy the old hangars, and the relative peace and quite, and the historical association, on non airshow days, and the flying at the airshows, however the two aren’t linked, and the only time we go inside hangars at airshows is to escape the rain!. The thing that disappoints, is the distance that the A/C display at, relative to the crowd line; they are now so far away that to photograph anything with a mere mortals camera, is a waste of time. The only place you can get a good shot is, ironically on the “tank bank”. I do feel inadequate in the length dept (camera wise), and obviously it would be controversial to suggest that, given the extreme long range abilities of these cameras, that they (the snappers), could afford to stand at the back of the crowd and still get a better picture than “joe public” at the front, thus allowing children and some disabled people a chance to feel the quality of the crowd barriers themselves. oh well its out there now

Alright ,time to draw a line under this, PM’s have been sent (and received) amendments have been made to posts, appoligies accepted, the “spitfire” is back in its box ,and no further correspondance will be enterd into; thanks for those kind words ,one and all, (I think on balance it should have stayed in the box; maybe when its finished I’ll name it Pandora)

Just been over to the other forum “plane talk” , they’re having a bit of a laugh at my expense; sadly I had to register just to say something on the subject; I was thinking of using ” I like a joke as much as the next man ,but a smack in the mouth often offends” as my signature, what do you think?

My last chance to shamelessly promote this brilliant event; make the effort and you shall be rewarded (not in a material sense you understand more of a spiritual feeling of well being!)