You have a point there Moggy, but on the other hand answering registration enquiries is possibly not that important in this kind of buisness 😮

If I had the money to buy AND operate a Spitfire (or any vintage combat aircraft for that matter), I wouldn’t give a toss about the reg. I would simply walk in the door and say ‘I would like to have that one, please, painted as 111 squadron aircraft ca. 1941. You don’t need to wrap it!’

Same from me, I’m really glad to see that you are still with us Mark12.

And what a lovely picture it is 😎 Is your Spitfire photographic/general knowledge date base an endless pit? 😉 😀 😀

I’ve got a couple of corrections for your list FL200. In it you have the following entry: TF-HGS Ae.57 Proctor 5 R Iceland I think you can more or less strike that off the survivors list, and it is not a candidate for restoration at the moment at least. It is in very small pieces and there are not very many of them 😮 But as we know, if there is an identity, everything is a possibility 😀

TF-VIB K.242 Proctor 1 R Reykjavik, Iceland This one, on the other hand, is a is a candidate for restoration but nothing has been started yet. About two years ago a friend of mine was about to start, but so far nothing has happened. All that remains are the wings and a few other bits and bobs, so a new fuse needs to be built more or less from scratch. It is very do-able, but drawings are a bit of a ******, but as I understand it, they have now been found in New Zealand. I think it would be more accurate to descripe the remains as Preserved, than under restoration.

… there were to be a fly-in organised, for regular contributors to this board, how many would actually be able to fly-in on their own licence? A show of hands perhaps?

I would certainly be able to fly-in on my own licence! Give me about 6 months advance time to sort out overflight permits, special exemptions from the Icelandic CAA and the Danish CAA (and in one of my cases, an exemption from the Brithish CAA to fly an experimental aircraft in their airspace) to fly non-IFR equipped aeroplanes across the pond and to plan fuel stops etc. If everything would work out, I should be able to fly-in on a CAP-10, YAK-55 (not -M, it can just about make it), PA-18 or a PA-23. Take your pick! Not all of these machines are mine, but I’m sure the owners would not mind too much 😮 😀 😀 😀

To the best of my knowledge, Miles drawing hardly exist, at least not for a complete aircraft. I do know about drawings for a Gemini wing in New Zealand. The only complete drawing for a Miles I know about, are for a Withney Straight again in New Zealand.

I wish you all the luck in the world! But I’m afraid you are fighting an uphill battle to say the least.

On a slightly different note, if anyone knows if there ever was a (RAF) service Parts Catalouge for the Messenger, I would be most interested in tracking one down. I know! It is not the same as for the Gemini, but it is close enough for me, as at the moment I don’t have anything of the sort 🙁

Yes it is irritating when the French use french to talk to french aircraft (this really does look a mouthful!). However, they have every right to do so. You see, english is not the only accepted language in aviation, strange as it may seem. ICAO, being the very political thing it is, says the acceptable languages for commercial aviation are english, french, spanish and russian! Until ICAO changes that, the french will use french.

It is a very dangerous situation. The only time I’ve got a TCAS Resolution Advisory (CLIMB-CLIMB) was in the CDG approach sector, when the Air Traffic Controller started speaking french when things hotted up a bit, after his own ****-up. The situation was not helped by the fact that this was a really international operation! The aircraft was registered in Switzerland, the captain was icelandic, the first officer dutch and we were flying on a french callsign!