Pete TrumanSad to see that the engine from the single seater has to be sent to the US for a rebuild.
Pete TrumanI’d be interested to know at what height the pilot ejected, presumably, there was a miminimum altitude for ejection in those days.
The airframe looks remarkably intact for a pilotless landing in 6ft of water, I would have thought that the nose would have been pushed well down by the seat firing and it would have piled in, I wonder whether the wheels were down, did the pilot risk it at very low level, who knows, perhaps L/C Mills is still about to tell an interesting story.
In the meantime here’s a picture of one of it’s pals at Waddo, early 60’s, taken by my good self with an Ilford Sporti 4, I note it has the same ‘R’ on the tail.
Pete TrumanYou must be keen, are you sure that the outlaws are happy with this?
When I got married it was difficult to agree anything I wanted, which in my case wasn’t exactly the ultimate scenario in the universe, the outlaws were set in their ways, ‘This is the way we get bloody married in Yorkshire’, end of story.
It may have been a pointer of things to come.
Just go along with it and hope you don’t have a disaster like we did at the end of the day, at least we were rescued by a former Halifax flight engineer.
My suggestion, if you have to go along this path, I reckon Brewster Buffalo for the outlaws aged aunts could be a bit of a hoot, not that they they would take the point.
All the best mate, I hope you have a great day.
Pete TrumanWhat a great list, great first flights, don’t how I would have coped with a P-51 for the first time in the air though.
Me, British Midland Handley Page Herald, 1966, EM to Jersey. Funnily enough, it was so uneventful, I can’t remember much about it. I was sitting on the left hand side under the wing, it was my mother and fathers first flight too, my mother didn’t like it at all, she never took to flying.
I remember being surprised at the movement of various flaps and things and how quiet the engine was considering I was sitting next to it, I also recall how bumpy and noisy it was when we taxied to the end of the runway and the thrill of the smoothness as you left the ground and watched all those familiar places below merge into an unidentifiable landscape as you gained height.
The thing was, the flight back was so memorable, that the first one paled into insignificance.
Apart from being delayed for hours, we flew back in an almost empty Herald in the sunset, I sat in the cockpit till we hit a ferocious thunderstorm, now that was an interesting experience in a prop liner, never to be forgotten!!!
Pete TrumanHehe. Just the two, thanks. On the second occasion I was stabbed with a knife and fork! Fortunately the knife didn’t penetrate, however, the fork did penetrate my thigh. I thought I’d just been punched. It wasn’t till a colleague told me I’d better sit down that I realised something was wrong. I said I’m fine, he just hit me. I’ll never forget her saying it’s not good publicity to be seen working with a fork sticking out of my leg. Funnily enough it started to hurt then. Other work related injuries include broken bones in both hands, a broken nose (twice – once as a result of an argument with a van door and the second time the result of an accidental headbutt), a broken wrist, two broken toes, two doses of concussion and a nerve injury to the neck and shoulder.
Regards,
kev35
Bloody hell man, I know we have a go at each other, but you seem to have suffered a lot of traumas in your life, can’t you lock yourself away and adopt your obviously good use of the English language, (and I’m not taking the p### here), to good effect, use your talents, write a book and retire gracefully to some remote Scottish Island. and have a nice life, ie: in particular get away from the gits stopping you driving down the end of the road.
As my missus would say though, and she is a bit fatalistic, you’d probably end up being the first person to be knifed in Tobermory, fall in the harbour and end up being the victim of the first Great White seen in UK waters.
All the best.
Pete TrumanHehe. Just the two, thanks. On the second occasion I was stabbed with a knife and fork! Fortunately the knife didn’t penetrate, however, the fork did penetrate my thigh. I thought I’d just been punched. It wasn’t till a colleague told me I’d better sit down that I realised something was wrong. I said I’m fine, he just hit me. I’ll never forget her saying it’s not good publicity to be seen working with a fork sticking out of my leg. Funnily enough it started to hurt then. Other work related injuries include broken bones in both hands, a broken nose (twice – once as a result of an argument with a van door and the second time the result of an accidental headbutt), a broken wrist, two broken toes, two doses of concussion and a nerve injury to the neck and shoulder.
Regards,
kev35
Bloody hell man, I know we have a go at each other, but you seem to have suffered a lot of traumas in your life, can’t you lock yourself away and adopt your obviously good use of the English language, (and I’m not taking the p### here), to good effect, use your talents, write a book and retire gracefully to some remote Scottish Island. and have a nice life, ie: in particular get away from the gits stopping you driving down the end of the road.
As my missus would say though, and she is a bit fatalistic, you’d probably end up being the first person to be knifed in Tobermory, fall in the harbour and end up being the victim of the first Great White seen in UK waters.
All the best.
Pete Trumanothers for consideration:
Swiss based ms406
Jacquard spit xix
ex caf buchon (if and when it arrives at dx)
Jet alpine fighters b25
ramon josa corsairBut to be honest who cares? i love surprises!!!
Hear, hear, if TFC says it’s going to have 60 historic airframes, then it will deliver, whatever they are, weather permitting of course and that seems to be our problem at the moment.
Pete TrumanFor the all round keen types don’t forget they’re running a steam special to Cosford from Tyseley and return, picking up in Birmingham and pulled by 0-6-0PT 9466, a small engine for a big job. So don’t get worried if you see a cloud of smoke at the end of the runway.
Unlike last weekend and the following week, the weather is fantastic down here today, if a little humid, all the best to those going, it does sound pretty good, presumably you have access to the museum as well.
Oh, I just looked on the 9466 website and the trip has been cancelled, can’t find out why, nothing to do with the status of the loco, perhaps steam buffs don’t like aircraft, or more likely the railway operators have come up with some stupid Health and Safety issues, ‘We can’t have steam engines near the end of an active runway’!!!!!
Pete TrumanLooking at the map of Binbrook in it’s current sorry state, and reading this fantastic article on the Last Last Lightning Show, and this article 10 years after the Lightnings left Binbrook, I was wondering if any regular attendees of Binbrook in its heyday could answer a few questions?
When you were there, where, on the map, were the best observation points?
Were all 3 runways in use?
How many sorties per day, on average, could you expect to see?
Where on the map were all the Lightning carcasses stored at the end of service prior to the scrapmen having a field day?
And, lastly, describe in your own words what I missed out on…:(
Thanks chaps, looking forward to some great stories!!
Apart from the final airshow, I visited Binbrook only once.
I had to do a survey of Debenhams in Hull, must have been 1986. Fortunately my youthfull assistant was a bit of a keen type when it came to aviation. We’d stayed the previous night with some of my pals in Sheffield and vowed to visit Binbrook to see the last of the Lightnings, and, to make the experience even more memorable, I drove up in my elderly MGBGT.
When we finished the survey and emerged from Debs, it was thick fog.
We drove over the Humber Bridge and couldn’t see a thing. We arrived at the crash gate on the western side of the runway and all we could make out were a couple of derelict airframes and that was that, once in a lifetime and nothing to see.
We drove back visiting various airfields in Lincolnshire, the fog had cleared by then and we watched Tornados taking off from Cottesmore in the fading light, but it wasn’t the same.
Pete TrumanI recall when I first moved down to this part of the world in the mid 70’s, we used to go on our little trips to the Suffolk Coast ( ANG Delta Daggers flying out of Bentwaters if you were lucky).
In those days, you had to put up with the Ipswich ring road, a real pain to negotiate, though the TA depot on the left hand side would regularly have it’s WW2 vintage 5.5 medium guns out in the parade ground, you had time to have a good look at them when you were stuck in the inevitable traffic jam.
Martlesham Heath was fairly intact then, though I recall that redevelopment had begun, starting with the BT tower that looked pretty surreal, we wondered at the time whether bits of it actually revolved. I think that the Douglas Bader Pub was a 70’s bit of unflattering design, there used to be an advert for it at the side of the old by-pass.
The A12 ring road, starting with the Orwell Bridge saw the demise of the place, I’ve tried to wander around the estate roads and find the odd bit of heritage, but it’s not a very loveable, sympathetic development of the old airfield, but it was avaliable to developers, so who cares, the Local Authorities attitude towards the Ipswich Airfield and it’s destruction for an industrial site sums up their consideration to aviation in the area.
I’ve Googled, but not been able to find the last flight out of Martlesham, I presume it must have been in 1963, anyone know what it was.
Wasn’t the Spitfire prototype tested here.
Pete Trumanwith some logical thought I only come to 42 airplanes:
Type Operator
North American P-51D Mustang Scanavian historical flight
Douglas A-26 Invader Scanavian Historical Flight
Hawker Nimrod MK.I The Fighter Collection
Hawker Nimrod MK.II Historic aircraft collection
Bell P-39Q Airacobra The Fighter Collection
Vought FG-1D Corsair The Fighter Collection
Grumman FM-2 Wildcat The Fighter Collection
Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat The Fighter Collection
Gloster Gladiator MK.II The Fighter Collection
Curtis P-40N Warhawk Jean-salis Baptiste
North American TB-25N Mitchell Royal Netherlands Airforce Historical Flight(DBAF)
Gloster Gladiator MK.I Shuttleworth Collection
Hawker Hurricane MK.XII Historic aircraft collection
Hawker Hurricane MK. IIc Battle of Britain memorial flight
North American P-51D Mustang Old Flying Machine Corp.
North American TF-51D Mustang The Fighter Collection
Curtis Hawk 75 The Fighter Collection
Supermarine Spitfire Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Supermarine Spitfire MK. Vb Historic aircraft collection
Supermarine Spitfire MK. XVIe Historic flying Ltd.
Supermarine Spitfire MK. XVIII Historic flying Ltd.
Supermarine Spitfire MK. IXe Old Flying Machine Corp.
Supermarine Spitfire MK.Vb The Fighter Collection
Supermarine Spitfire MK. XIV The Fighter Collection
Supermarine Spitfire MK. Ia Sheringham Aviation UK Ltd
Supermarine Spitfire TR. IX Historic flying Ltd.
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVIII The Fighter Collection
CASA HA-1112 M1L Buchon Spitfire Ltd
Curtis P-40B Warhawk The Fighter Collection
Focke wulf FW-190A8 Spitfire Ltd
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress B17 Preservation Ltd
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress Don Brooks
Fairey Swordfish Mk.I Royal Navy historical Flight
Consolidated Catalina Neptune Association
Douglas Dakota Mk.III Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Hawker Sea Fury T.20 Royal Navy historical Flight
Grumman F-8F-2P Bearcat The Fighter Collection
Douglas AD-4NA Skyraider Kennet Avation
North American P-51D Mustang Rob Davies
Supermarine Seafire Mk. XVII Kennet Avation
North Amercian P-51D Mustang Robs Lamplough
Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VIII Robs Lamplough
A few more from Shuttleworth I reckon, including the Hind and Sea Hurricane, and the German Collection, Guinot Stearmans, resident and guest , Rapides, Tigers, Harvards, Jungmanns, Me 108’s, BoB Lanc etc etc, theres a lot more stuff out there, 60 is easily obtainable.
Pete TrumanIs that bit of the runway down the SW end, somehow surviving at the end of a housing estate.
It’s very sad to regularly pass through that area over the years and see how such a famous airfield has been systematically destroyed by redevelopment.
Why the A12 duel carriageway was built so low in the ground is beyond me, it’s very strange to have to look up at historic buildings. It’s a pity that Tescos haven’t taken advantage of it’s position and posted up a few pictures of past events in their cafe, I would love to see that sort of thing, but the men in suits don’t know of such things, sad isn’t it. I suppose it means nothing to them that the people who created this Tesco empire were saved from annhilation by developments at this famous airfield, they’ve obviously not thought about it, give it a go pals.
Pete TrumanTFC have confirmed that Liberty Belle will be at Legends, all being well, however there is no mention of Pink Lady, a shame really as nothing will have been seen quite like it since the making of Memphis Belle, an event I was lucky enough to witness.
I’ve looked on Pink Lady’s website but their programme of appearances seems to be years out of date.
I would surmise that TFC, Sally B and Pink Lady’s team would be pulling out all the stops to make it a 3 ship, even if a little distant, formation wise.
TFC are talking about 60 historic aircraft being present in the line up, is this a record, RIAT’s clash doesn’t so far seem to be a problem.
My wish, 2 Nimrods, 2 Gladiators, 2 Swordfish and a Hind flying together, pity the Flycatcher was retired to Yeovilton so it can’t be even numbers.
‘Make it so, Number One’.
Presumably TFC’s MkXVIII will also make it’s debut as further engine runs were carried out yesterday.
We have a month for the weather to improve, looks like a memorable occasion is on the cards, perhaps even Glacier Girl may escort the Belle over here, wishfull thinking?
Just had a thought, the ultimate flyby, BBMF Lanc and 3 B-17’s, well she did it with Sally B and PL at Malling many years ago, and they were pretty close too, imagine that, go on the saturday and you’d be happy to pay £30 to see it again the next day.
Pete TrumanI saw this flying over on Saturday …
So I took a guess as to where it was flying out of and went over to get a few more shots. Anyone want to take a guess on who owns it or where I was?
I don’t know, you go to all this trouble and no-one can be bothered to reply!!!!
Well, I was going to say Tempelhof in Berlin, unfortunately, it also tells you that on your thread when you click on it to answer.
Nice shiny DC3, don’t know where thats from, but I’m assuming it’s got something to do with the up and coming 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, a pity that the C-54’s dumped at North Weald won’t be taking part as well, or will they.
Pete TrumanThe only thing that’s spoils the whole show is that stupid Irish git doing the voice overs..the man should,ve been drowned at birth
Do you sit up all night and watch the show in OZ then, proves dedication to the cause.
I know you like a good wind up, but I bet even you didn’t tune in to listen to Terry this morning, he’s probably as much of a staid old b##### like you in reality, but I’m afraid he is a much loved ‘Irish Git’ over here, he is one of those few people who can reduce me to laughing so much, that I have to pull over to the kerb, he seems to have the ability to reach out to anybody with his unsubtle comments, from my 14 year old youth, who only watched the programme for Wogans snide comments, to old gits like me.
Leave the man alone, he deserves his place in the sphere of things.
Sign In
