Sywell on Wednesday

WW1 replicas caught refuelling at Sywell en-route to Ireland. I know I’m not supposed to use a phone near the petrol pumps, but that’s for phoning innit!

The answer, Hatton, is probably ‘none’, for a number of reasons:

They’re usually pre-occupied with the job of crewing the aircraft (with all that entails, navigation, weather monitoring, timings etc), and unless they are looking for a particular feature of which they have knowledge (in this case aircraft wreckage), will pass over the sight none the wiser.

I presume that there were thousands of similar wrecks on high ground, the same high ground which is flown over by todays crews. Particularly for those aircrew operating at low level, they most certainly will be ‘heads out’ to avoid the ground, obstuctions, and looking for the next nav feature. They will acutally probably come close to dozens of crash sites on one sortie alone.

However, if they were to be passed a six figure OS grid reference, they may be up to the challenge (particularly helicopter crews, who have the luxury of coming to a halt)) of finding the wreckage as a turning/drop off/pick up point, and your post could be used as a point of interest in the crew brief.

Hope this is of interest, and thanks for the thread.

Perhaps we could suggest that, say, 28 Squadron at RAF Benson could be contacted as using this as a suitable tactical ‘pickup’ exercise for the Merlin helicopters?

As far as a memorial to the crew is concerned, the BRDC who operate Silverstone, might be persuaded to locate something there to reflect their heritage. Also, hopefully, Texantomcat might read this and offer a home at Sywell Aviation Museum if a location for parts is required?

Waddayathink guys and gals ???

Sadly, see attached: http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47072&highlight=Swiss+Spitfire

My condolences and sympathies to his family and many friends

Don’t go there!

No Disrespect intended here but
1) How old are the aircraft

2) How many left in service

3) What other units operate it

4) Is a replacement type in the wind for the team

Just interested

regards
John p

I guess the Tutors are about 30 years old. Most of us go to shows where aeroplanes 40, 50, 60, or 70-plus years old are flown.

Any aeroplane can – and probably will – suffer a mechanical failure at some time. At least in this case the bang seat worked and saved the most important part of the package.

It’s not a case of age, but condition that counts. I just wish the same applied to me!

. I also made a sin in misidentifying a town We ended up having to skirt the west of Aldermaston and then we headed north.

Crikey, you didn’t mix Basingrad up with Reading or something, did you Melvyn?!

Thanks for the excellent report and photos. Congratulations on sharing so well, an ambition a lot of us would give our eye teeth to fulfill – it even beats your crossing the Atlantic in the Grumman!

And if you think refolding that map is tough – try it in the confines of a Luton Minor!!

Just saw this thread ‘come back to the top’ thanks to Jules input (the good news is that the Prospect of Whitby’s still there in Wapping – Jules, less crowded today, ready for your next visit!)

But what really got me was seeing Steve Young’s pictures of The Aviator in St Ives. As a challenge to Blue Max and myself, our target is now to get the BE-2c replica up and running for a flypast over the pub, on 23rd March 2008, to pay tribute to both 2nd Lieut Waistell and Steve – any ideas on whether we should develop this into a Flypast Forumites event?

Plus, lets keep this thread going too – anything which combines a hostlery and aeroplanes (in the correct order of course) can’t be a bad thing!