The so-called Second World War Aircraft Preservation Society

Hmm, I’ve had a quick search and found their website (from the very useful UK Air Museums Website) and there appears to be only 1 aircraft of WWII vintage, namely a Percival Prentice (VR192). I cannot understand why it has that name! I do not know how old the photos are but Mother Nature’s degradation system seems to be winning. If I had the knowledge, cash and time to help them out I would but the bottom line is that all these aircraft need to be hangared and restored properly. I’ve seen recent photos of some similar aircraft posted from the Midland Air Museum and there is just no comparison, the latter are lovingly and regularly restored by experienced personnel and it shows! So much so that I am going to make the effort to visit Coventry really soon and spend a little money there. I won’t visit Lasham because the aircraft don’t appear (at least from the images I’ve seen) to be worth seeing – if I’m wrong then I’m very pleased to be proved wrong.

Canberra Flypast

🙂 Ops Sqn here at an air base near Sleaford gave us the message that we would have a Canberra flypast at 1215 local and, sure enough,we did. Not 1 but 2 passes, the 2nd after joining the circuit, gear down then overshoot and flyby – probably to Waddington next from the look of it. Very nice, many thanks!

I attended yesterday (Sunday) and agree with those who posted to say that it was one of the best Legends. Conditions were turbulent, to say the least, at times so all credit to those magnificent people who serviced, prepared and displayed the hardware for us. I found, like many others, that I enjoyed the show even more when I could not hear the French gentleman’s comments (Bernard). I don’t remember it being so bad last year – probably getting grumpier! – and I overheard several members of the throng (many of whom are probably much more savvy about warbirds than I ) passing adverse comments (some quite blunt) about his “patter”. One commentary that stuck in my mind was that of why there are more Spitfires than Hurricanes surviving today – his explanation, which he could not finish I’ll admit, was just not what I understood to be correct, the issue being, as I understand it that the Spitfire was developed throughout the 2nd World War and into the early post-war era whereas the Hurricane was not, production ceasing in 1944 I believe. It would have been good to have learnt more facts about the aircraft we were seeing rather than being told that they were flown by “kids” which, in the case of the Battle of Britain, not all of them were! (No, I wasn’t there!) My favorites: The Seafire, the 2 Catalinas and the Bristol Fighter (would have loved to have seen more but to get 1 airborne was excellent.

Another expensive hobby!

With regard to the photos of the 2 locomotive carcasses at Binbrook, the one on the left is an Ex Midland Railway “Crab” (There’s an RAF aviation link!) 2-6-0 built at Horwich Number 42859. The other is indeed a Bulleid “Battle of Britain” Class “Pacific” (4-6-2) No 34053 “Sir Keith Park” built at Brighton for the then Southern Railway. Neither locomotive is unique but there are very few “Crabs” around. the Bulleid Pacifics did rather better, as previous posts illustrate. Indeed, “Tangmere” actually runs on the main line occasionally. Rather like aircraft, very few locomotives were purchased from service but many were rescued from scrap condition. The original Battle of Britain locomotive nameplates, together with their distinctive oval squadron or station badges, are highly sought after and make many thousands of pounds at auction. Even the replicas are expensive!

btw, I do not know what the latest situation is with these locos but it has cost us over £70K to restore our 2-8-0 (GWR and no name of course) goods locomotive with another £75K to go. So I expect they will stay there (they were moved from Barry Scrapyard in South Wales some years ago to Hull Dairycoats Rail Depot and then to Binbrook) until the owners get rich!

Cockpitfest first visit

Although I have visited Newark Air Museum on a number of occasions, this was my first cockpitfest visit (17 June). My son and I both felt that the Sea Vixen was the best but that the Spitfire was very interesting. It was a pleasure to see the Hornet panel “in the flesh” so to speak having seen it only on this forum before. All in all, a very good day, it would have been great to see the Viggen in one place but I know that quite a bit of it is still at Cranwell at the moment! Seeing the (lovely) SA Bulldog in a museum collection (I believe it is a recent addition) makes me feel that I’m definitely approaching the “tail end” of my Service career!

Graham Pitchfork

He was my Station Commander at RAF Finningley (now Doncaster Robin Hood Sheffield katmandu airport or something) back in 1987.

Vulcan XH588

I just caught a short article on BBC’s Regional East Midlands News this morning regarding the Vulcan. It mentioned that the aircraft was being overhauled at Bruntingthorpe to fly (for the last 8 years) and hoped to be test flown this year but that it was unlikely to do so unless a commercial sponsor could be found. The story was accompanied by some shots of 558 in the hangar. I regret that I could not catch any more details and I don’t know how recent the images were (the Vulcan had her canopy area removed) but perhaps some of you saw this too. There were some lovely archive shots of all white vulcans (I presume they were white but it wasn’t colour footage!)taxiing and thundering skywards but I didn’t know the location. I would love to see a Vulcan fly (they had recently been retired when I joined the RAF) and the only one I saw flying was 558, but it would seem that money is, as with everything, the catch!

As I am fortunate to be serving in the RAF we will have a tannoy message to remind us and we will observe the silence. I will also be attending a local church service on Sunday.