This is a very interesting conumdrum.
I went to stay with my mother over Easter, who was trying to get me to take all my late fathers artifacts back with me. It was difficult, this stuff still sits in the same drawers that I used to go through and marvel at when I was a kid and it was hard to disturb it. Instead of being hidden away in a drawer, shouldn’t my grandfathers Sam Browne belt, paybook and Royal Scots dress cap be in a museum to remind us that he fought at the Somme, or do I bring it back here and stash it in the loft, along with all the other bits and pieces that I’ve accumulated over the years.
Eventually, I brought back the SS helmet and dads medals, but I couldn’t take anything else, it didn’t seem right.
So what do I do with this stuff, even as I sit at the computer, the SS helmet sits next to me on the table and on the desk are a Hawker Hunter mirror, a Corsair gun periscope and an Africa Corps ring, all courtesy of my old man.
In my current perilous financial state, I have been tempted to put some of this stuff on E-Bay, but my missus won’t hear of it , bless her.
So I have this large collection of uniforms, flags, insignia, weapons, a/c parts etc etc that no-one can see, and I think it’s a waste.
So what do I do with it.
The only item that I have ever donated to a museum was a turret gunsight for the Elvington Halifax project, though whether this was ever installed on the a/c, I don’t know, as you say, maybe it is still in a box somewhere accumulating dust, no-one from Elvington has ever told me what happened to it.
My old man always wanted my son to have his medals, but he’s a cool university dude and it doesn’t really mean much to him, and that isn’t a critism, it’s the way it is, he wasn’t brought up sitting on my knee with tales of how best to destroy a Tiger tank.
So what will happen to this stuff when I’m gone, is it better to get rid now on E-bay and get something out of it, or keep it all hidden away in the loft, I don’t know the answer.
Anyone fancy a massive Hornby Dublo trainset!!!

Many thanks, like you say working condition is better than rotting away, its a happy medium.
As for a billionaire buying a shed load of these lovely old classics, it would have to be a small shed, there arent many left 😉

Please come along on the 8th you wont be dissapointed

Oh and here’s a couple of shots for you from my album’s, as you never witnessed them flying,
Binbrook’s last,last Lightning show, boy did it rain !
But it was worth the wet ‘trollies’

I love this shot it sums the day up

Andy B

Wow, got anymore of these, mine are all on slides and I am not able to show them on here.
What got me was that, refering to the second picture, me and my pal were standing next to the bloke on the stepladder and I can clearly make out Micks face, his first and last airshow!! I think that I’m the one to the right of him near the brolly.
What a show, any pics of that awesome take off.

Interesting, I hadn’t spotted the previous threads on this before. So it’s been touted round BBC North, Midlands and 3 months later BBC Look East, what next, BBC Cymru in August. I have to say that the comments from both her and the reporter was that it was a restoration to fly, having read the previous threads I find it all a bit strange, is she trying to out do Caroline Grace, ah well, back to trying to fit the Mossie wings on the fuselage in my single garage, well they are plywood after all, best quality from TP, now, how do I get it through the gate for the air test from the cricket field, worried about the trees at the end though, they are a bit close.

My favourite aerial sequence has to be the opening attack by the ‘Bf-109’s’ at the beginning of the BOB film, that should feature in the ‘how low can you go’ thread.
Next, the scene in ‘Piece of Cake’ where Chris is being chased along the coast and does a hair raising climb and roll over the top of what looks like Beachy Head.
Some of the flying in Tora Tora Tora is pretty amazing as well, especially the airfield attacks.
Also, the take off sequence at the beginning of Catch 22 is pretty cool, along with the scene of Yossarian panicking in the nose of the B-25, never figured out whether this was a genuine air to air shot, it looks like it.
Note, non of this is CGI.

I think that because of it’s uniqueness, power and grace, the Mosquito was most people’s favourite performer at airshows, it certainly was mine.
I can’t remember exactly the circumstances in which I learnt of the accident, I’d heard that a WW2 a/c had crashed at an airshow, but had no knowledge of what it was, or the fate of the aircrew.
I recall seeing the footage on the news and seeing the unmistakeable shape of the Mossie go in, I realised then what it was and that the crew could not have survived, it hurt more than any other accident that I have witnessed on the telly, ( the Firefly was the worst as I was only a few hundred yards away from where it happened ).
I was at FL on the saturday when RR299 was together with the P-38 for what I didn’t realise was to be the last time, making my video footage very poignant indeed.
I didn’t realise that RR299 was about to be donated to the the BBMF, I knew that they wanted to get their hands on a Mossie, but always assumed at the time, that they had something stashed away somewhere that was in reasonable condition.
Somewhere I have some video footage of it flying with the DH88 Comet, but I thought that I filmed this at Mildenhall rather than OW.

Where did you get this info? I would like to read up on this, quite interesting!

I have a book by Alfred Price called ‘Spitfire, The complete fighting history’ which has a chapter in it by AVM John Nicholls on this subject, who was in charge of the development squadron at the time.
It features a very interesting photo of the Lightning and Spitfire together on the tarmac at Binbrook prior to their sortie.

Is she? you should have mentioned it….. 😉

Bog off, she never rated the EAP anyway, she always preferred flying the SU-27, and barrell rolls are much easier in a wheel chair at Mach 2 apparently.

Interesting, I remember a scintillating display by this a/c at the Red Arrows anniversary air display during the late 80’s at Scampton, stuffed at the back of a hangar at Wharton no doubt.
Oops just read the other threads but was interrupted mid reply by me mother on the phone, after all she is 90 today.