No, we don’t simply spend our time looking at obituaries as you obviously do.
If someone snuffs it, you can garuantee Mr Rowell will be there first, you wouldn’t be an undertaker by any chance would you.

Sorry mate, just a bit of chiding.

Mel Ferrer was one of those actors that could turn up in any film, I looked up his credits on IMDB, he never did anything sensational, just someone who was obviously reliable, he could be a baddie lurking in some Western saloon, but could I actually recall a film he was in, not really, I just remember his name and face.
I see he was in The Longest Day, at first I thought he was probably cast as a German officer, he looked the part, but they had to speak German in that film, not for him then, I’m trying to recall his role as a senior US officer, but I can’t.
I was also surprised to see that he married Audrey Hepburn, good for him.
To sum up, a good old boy who never quite made the top grade, a reliable actor, never destined for the top, I hope he’s got his hand prints preserved on Hollywood Boulevard though, he obviously deserves it.
RIP, one of those actors that was always worth watching.

I’m pretty sure that Ipswich was closed while Bentwaters was still an active military base…circa 1989/90 (before the “cold war” ended so the Council wouldn’t have known it would soon become available).

Ipswich Council decided to close the municipal airport in 1993, it’s official closure date was actually in 1996, but the protestors hung on for another 2-3 years.
Bentwaters closed down in 1993, it’s A-10’s departing for Germany.
Quite a coincidence of dates don’t you think.
It was stated at the time that Ipswich were considering Bentwaters as some kind of international airport, they already had their eyes on the old airfield for housing development.
What happened to the Bentwaters base housing was interesting. It was sold off and further houses built.
However the people moving in were expecting the former USAF facilities to be made avaliable, shops, sports centres etc, but this never happened, there were a lot of complaints at the time as the whole place was to be considered as a bit of a mini town, all existing, but never developed.
What the situation is like now, I don’t know, I have the impression that many of the base buildings were demolished, and new one’s built, typical bit of MoD/Local Government money wasting, I wouldn’t be surprised if the local residents still have to drive back down the road to Woodbridge for a bit of decent shopping.
The same thing happened at RAF Wethersfield when the USAF moved out, all the facilities were more or less trashed. The MoD police that live up there now more or less have to put up with a ghost town.
The excuse I heard for all this was that the USAF operated on a different voltage system and it would be too expensive to rewire all the buildings, yeah, right.
Incidentally, if Caroline Grace will be spending a bit more time in that part of the world, may I reccomend to her the fantastic smoked fish that you can buy in nearby Orford, quite frankly, I’d move to that area anyday, and take my Spitfire with me, if I had one.

Daz
My sympathies.
Horses really are nasty accidents waiting to happen, it doesn’t matter how docile, or how much you think you know them, they are big bu#### all the same, a lot of weight to get out of control.
My missus has 3 Shetlands and a Percheron, the Shetlands are very small, but nasty little sods, I don’t trust them one little bit, but at least they are small enough to have a go at them.
The Percheron is massive, 18 hands, but she really is the most loving gentle soul you could imagine, she really is a cutie.
One day madam was cleaning out Jessicas hooves in the stable and something spooked her, poor Liz had her left hand mangled and was lucky to survive with only minor bruising to the rest of her, she could easily have been trampled to death, I reckon that if she hadn’t been experienced and brought things under control, it would have been curtains.
Jessica is a great big simp, but as you walk her back to the stable, those dinner plate feet could easily do severe damage to your feet and anything else in the area, trying to shove that great lump out of the way is difficult, she responds, but it always worries me.

Is this the shape of things to come.
What maintenance facilities are actually set up at Bentwaters, I know that there is a museum, an MoD dealer selling various airframes and TV’s ‘Dog Borstal’.
When Ipswich Council closed down their local airport, they tried to use the excuse that Bentwaters had better facilities, they were probably right, a huge modern airfield in a relatively unpopulated area, well, compared to Ipswich anyway.
With hangars and buildings desperately needing use and presumably at a much lower cost than DX, it could easily form a cheap base for the historic aircraft movement, and what a runway, I doubt whether the Vulcan would even need to deploy it’s landing parachute.
Don’t forget, when Al Queda eventually manage to detonate nuclear devices around the country, ML407 would be safe in it’s hardened shelter, at least one link with the past would be left.

You have short memories, the 50mph speed limit was introduced for a period in the 70’s during the time of the Yom Kippur War I recall.
I remember travelling down to Braintree from Notty in my brothers car and it was a wierd experience travelling down the A1. While keen to enforce the rule, the police tended to be fairly lenient with offenders, ie, a quick flash of the lights and 5 fingers held up, they must have had a hard time of it.
Can anyone remember how long that went on for, and is it still the rule in the States.
Quite frankly, driving from Stansted to DX up the M11 at the best of times doesn’t allow you to go much faster, the lorries tend to struggle up some of those hills, which is the point at which the heavily loaded one’s try to overtake everything and can’t.
In theory, Braintree to DX takes about 25-30 mins, duel carriageway/motorway and pushing it a bit, the AA Routefinder says 51 mins, must be in old Fred Dibnahs ‘Betsy’ I reckon.
When I go to Legends, it will be by the back roads, it’s more pleasant, free of traffic, and really gets you in the mood instead of suffering the unknown quantity of the A120/M11, and I can assure you it doesn’t take 51mins, who works these figures out for the AA.
I’m sure the carbon footprint is horrendous though, but I’ve only got a little Puegot 206 which will go on for ever with a tenners worth of petrol.

well at least there are plans to but a spare. 3 centarus engines must be a challenge to maintain for sure!!

i wonder if there are plans for the sea fury, seafire, swordfish, wildcat, tfc corsair, skyraider and shuttleworth sea hurricane to do a navy tribute at some point this year? there was something similar at one of the shuttleworth displays last year was there not?

Perhaps the outlaws could arrange it for your wedding!!!!