I’m with you VX927 in that it didn’t have the pzazz of previous years. There seemed to be more gaps in the flying although that might have been due to the “no-shows” and I couldn’t hear the commentary where I was sitting which might have explained things. There just seemed to be a little bit less of things, e.g 4 Hawker biplanes last year, 2 this year. Red Bull P38 and Corsair last year, just P-38 this year, but what an aircraft. On Saturday there wasn’t a Hurricane or Skyraider and were the Beech 17s really a show-closer?
On the other hand my Australian guest probably had it right when he said “Any show that can start with 9 Spitfires and end with a balbo of 21 warbirds must be doing something right!”

I can’t help wondering about the logic of this move. Presumably there are more visitors in a summer season at Newquay than on an annual basis at Coventry. However it does put an extra 2-300 miles on the transit flights to the majority of shows elsewhere in the country, which is expensive in terms of airframe hours and operating costs like fuel. While I enjoy the “early” jets, are they really show stoppers? While the Meteor T7 is a stunning piece of work , will the Canberra ever justify the £300K the restoration costs? It will be interesting to see whether this move works for them.

Further to my post *14, ‘GTM appears in a TV advert for the National Lottery flying along a beach. Always assuming it wasn’t CGI’d.

I trust you’ve all seen GTM on the advert that is currently running on ITV? Can’t remember what it is advertising. I remember Mike Russell very well. My aircraft was hangared along with four others at Nuthampstead when he arrived with his Gemini. He summoned us all one Sunday to re-arrange our aircraft so he could get the Gemini out by himself. After two hours of heaving and straining we ended up exactly where we had started. Blow me down he followed me to Top Farm when I moved there and he repeated the trick. The irony is that it never flew until he finally took it away years later. I must confess we all stood well back on the day of his departure.

That is rotten luck. Have they ever had four cancellations on the trot before?

OK I won’t disappoint. Why the metal wing? Was the original too far gone? Anyway it’s a stunning piece of work and I look forward to seeing the flying photographs.

I had a quick wander round Hangar 3 this morning and the Sea Hawk, Sea Venom, Sea Vixen, Gannet, Buccaneer, Wasp and Sea King make a coherent Cold War collection of naval aircraft. Arguably they replicate Yeovilton but perhaps Duxford has a different catchment area and it would seem a shame to break up the collection.

I was in Oz in 2008 for the Airtourer meeting at Griffith and saw a Firefly on a pole. Looking at the picture I took, it was serialled WD 518 so what was it’s correct identity?