I do not envy the job the webmaster now faces,having enjoyed himself on holiday and returns home to face this C**p.
We all know that the organisation that has caused all of this has done themselves no favours and as a result it may also have an effect on their own future.
Lets hope that by the end of play today the webmaster will be in a position to make a public response via this thread,until then lets show our support to our fellow forum members who we know are innocent and to thank the MOD’s for keeping the calm.

Regards

Jay

My father has been a supporter of the Sally B for over 25yrs now, starting as a helper at the Great Warbirds displays both at West Malling until the very last one at Wroughton.

In the past few years he has been become more and more disillusioned with the people who run the aircraft let alone the club, to my knowledge in 2 years he has received 3 begging letters for more cash,only one club magazine and not even a membership card in that time but still the money is taken out of his bank account, which is all they seem to be bothered about. He is in contact with others who are contemplating stopping their direct debits next year because of how they are made to feel as long standing supporters….forgotten.

He remembers over 15 years ago you could buy both models of the B17 as well as the flying jackets that USAF crews wore in the B17 during the war, Paintings of the B17 all designed to raise funds yet today all you get is a few words of what they have done throughout the year, engineers report and yes you guessed it the operator repeating the same words over and over again we need more money 3 times a year. To him that the chances to have your name put in a draw to have taxi flight or even a flight in the B17 should be offered to every member who has been in the supporters club for 20 yrs plus not just for handing over £400 of your hard earned cash which you can have your name on the side for a whole 12 months of which 5 of them parked up in a hanger!

Not everybody can afford £400 so I think if they lowered the asking price, and offered a bit more they will attract a lot more positive attention than they are of recent years.
I and 1000’s of others do not want to see the SallyB grounded however in the past few years all they seem to have just concentrated on is asking for money and forgetting their long standing supporters who pay their money every year without fail . I think it’s time they re organised the whole of the supporters club and what it offers to the individual, money is tight everywhere both in business and at home so any invester/supporter is now looking for more for their money.

If I said there were some Spitfires buried in my garden would any of you nice gentlemen care to come and dig it for me?

Regards,

kev35

Depends on what part of walsall you live in old chap…if its anywhere near to chuckery, the chances of still owning anything metal in a garden is slim :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

I have just had the following sent me via email which was posted on another aviation related site today

“There is no substance to this story of any spifires being buried under the housing at Castle Bromwich, which seems to rear its ugly head every decade or so , this gentleman I feel may be confusing his story with one of being involved in the episode in 1940’s when the RAF had Air ministry authorisation to dispose of some time expired surplus piston engines on the airfield and was buried in a pit on part of the airfield which was recovered prior to the RAF leaving in 1960.I actually saw a copy of the order which gave the authoristion and way of disposal of a total of 9 engines of which 3 were merlins ,which was kept by the RAF nco which was made responsible for carrying out the order. I interviewed this ex NCO in the 1980’s who had settled in nearby Solihull after he left the service.He was told by his CO to use a local building contractor who used self employed labour to dig the pit and bury the crated engines, just before the RAF was leaving the airfield he was contacted by the station commander and was asked to disclose the position of the buried engines, the next day the pit was re dug and the engines was disposed of by the RAF 3 days before the official closure.
One only has to look at maps of the airfield between 1945 and 1960 to see that there was no where to bury crated spitfires without stopping the day to day movement of a service establishment plus a part of it was owned by the birmingham council since 1915 at the same time.
Most of the site was built on forming the castle vale housing estate, which over the years has been knocked down and replaced by new housing and shopping parades, schools and warehousing so anything would have been found by the builders of each new phase.
Regarding the saga of the burmese spitfires, despite a recent press conference at the IWM in London last week there is still no proof that these even exist, the statment reading that actual digging will take place in late January to early March period of 2013 so we will await till then to see if the rumours are true or not.
If I had a £1 for every time I have heard of buried spitfires and engines at Castle Bromwich I could now buy one next week, even after the war until 1960 even a unused spitfire had value, they was brought back by Vickers and refurbished and sold overseas airforces including Ireland, was used in training schools , certainly not crated and disposed of by the RAF by buriel.
Whilst we are at it the rumour of a spitfire propellor being blown into the of the roof of the spitfire factory which is now the jaguar factory and still there is untrue has well
Can assure everybody the rumours were looked into and proven beyond doubt they were just rumours many years ago however No doubt the current householders, Castle Vale housing trust along with the local police will now have to put up with idiots with thier metal detectors and JCb’s in back gardens digging up thier metal lottery tickets until the story dies down for another decade.”

Firebex, have just asked someone you know in birmingham and he confirms your story about the parts etc being found under the old fire engine bay building on the site of the spitfire factory, the projector which was found was used to transfer the linen drawings onto paper to be used in the factory, all the glass negatives were found as well but sadly destroyed when the building was demolished and a factory extension built.He has some of the spares which was found at another time in the factory.

Regards

Jay

Hi All,

Hope you do not mind my hi jacking your thread Chriswade.
I have a Canon 500D with the standard 18-55mm lense and a Canon 70-300mm telephoto lense which came with it.
What I need is some assistance with what lense I should purchase so I can take better close up shots of aircraft whilst situated in both museums and hangers when parked up close with others, without standing too far back to get the whole subject in without losing detail.
I have been led to believe that I need a wide angle lense such as the Canon 17-40mm which sadly is out of my price range at £555.Another person suggested that prime lense such as the EF 50mm or the EF 40mm will give me the result I am seeking yet a fraction of the price.
Any assistance is very much appreciated

Regards
Jay

Paul Cogan and Warbirds Worldwide did some great books with the most up to date listings of WARBIRDS

Still have all my copies of warbirds worldwide and still miss it coming thorugh the door at times.
It was excellent at the time and I feel it would be the same in todays market, Paul did a fantastic job and set a standard which nobody has achieved since, such a shame Paul had to wrap things up , must be 12 yrs now the last one was published.
Paul if your on this forum maybe good time to getting writing again?

Regards jay

Would appreciate any assistance with any of the following:

Qty 2 of 5D/535 plastic button shrouds
Qty 2 of 5CX/559 upward lamp holder
Qty 1 of Smiths E.127 12V horn
Qty 2 of Vickers A980 oil filters and its mounting brackets
Qty 4 of VGS 576/2 Air couplings
Qty 1 of Early 6D (female) oxygen cockpit connector for D type mask type male connector (sorry no part number )
Qty 1 of main spitfire canopy butterfly assembly(replica only )
Dimenional drawing of rudder pedal stanchions for spitfire
Airscrew control lever for replica spitfire throttle box
Qty 6 of A25 1/4″ x 3.5″ bolts
Qty 1 of TR9 radio controller
Qty 1 Spitfire door catch guide block
Qty 10 of Spitfire fuel tank armour spacers

Thank you for any help

Regards

Jay Elliot

My work oppo always refers the caa as the “company against aviation” so the above makes me wonder if my daughter will ever see a private warbird flying in 10 yrs time?
Will it be grounded by the lack of parts, or lack of intrest or merely the wieght of the book of rules!:rolleyes: