one lad walked straight into the side of an A-10 and stuck himself with the point of his cap badge.

Its easily done. When I was an ATC cadet I used to wash and valet ‘planes at weekends and I remember once hoovering out the inside of an Islander when I heard someone calling my name. Thinking they wanted me to give them a hand to move aircraft I leapt out, only to discover the Islander was already under tow and as I jumped out I got clobbered by the undercarriage leg and a wheel went over my foot, fortunately without serious injury. I’d like to think the lesson made me more respectful of the dangers of aircraft, yet it didn’t stop me from walking into a Cessna 152’s wing at Prestwick when the sun got in my eyes and gashing my forehead on the trailing edge of the starboard flap. Yes aircraft need to be treated with respect! All aircraft bite fools.

Nice pics; thanks for the update on Duxford; hope to get along there soon as its been almost three years since my last visit.

G-AMLZ at Caernarfon

As seen in November 2005. She was still there when I last visited Caernarfon in August 2006.

Excellent news; looking forward to seeing this one on my next visit to Coventry. The Viscount must have made quite a sight landing on the relatively short runway at Perth. I was flown from Carlisle to Perth on a Pa-28 a couple of years back and spent several hours there waiting on the wind to drop before collecting a Cessna 152 to solo back to Carlisle.

An excellent restoration project. Must visit some day.

Large airliners would need a lot of space and maintainence. I’m a volunteer at an aviation museum which has a collection of cold war era military aircraft – Canberra, Meteor, Phantom, Lightning, Jet Provost, Vampire, Sea Prince and Whirlwind. We also have an Auster under restoration as an AAC aircraft because one of the members flew those in the AAC in the cold war era and we also look after the Vulcan which is part owned by one of our members and is the airport’s gate guardian. Because of its large size, the Vulcan has been a major draw on member resources with its recent repainting work. The Pa-28 which I fly as a PPL is almost as old, having been built in 1965. Although the controls are very different and the handling is different due to the different wing, the fuselage looks basically the same as a modern Piper Archer. There are many older civilian light aircraft still flying – Piper Cubs, Tri-Pacers, Tiger Moths, Austers, Luscombes etc. are all relatively common visitors to our airport, so despite its vintage, a small civilian aircraft isn’t going to attract much interest as a museum item, even in taxiable condition.

After my father died in 2004, at the age of 85, I obtained a copy of his RAF service record 1940 to 1946 from RAF Innsworth. Best £25 I ever spent. Filled in a few gaps, with details of some shorter postings which he had never mentioned.