I doubt you’d have seen G-CBEL over your way.

I asked a friend who lives locally and he said:
‘When John had it at Hurn his favourite place for doing aeros seemed to be over towards the former airfield at Tarrant Rushton. His flights were usually about 20 min. long and nearly always seemed to involve heading out to the NW from here.’

That’s a show I’d like to see revived. Anyone know what stopped it? The Fighter Meet was the only place I saw the OV-10 Bronco in flight at close range, often saw the Luftwaffe ones playing when I was in Germany but never closer than about 1-2 Km.

There’s a fascinating article about it in the latest ‘Aircraft Illustrated’. IIRC it was a combination of things including lack of funding and poor income due to bad weather.

People being pleasant and respectful to each other on aviation forums and mailing lists.

I see my fantasy lasted nine whole minutes – not bad, I guess!

:rolleyes:

Those that Barry had were quite complete, but in a hell of a state. He does, incidentally, still own the one at Bournemouth, which is presumably looking for a new home.

Are you sure about that?

My information is that BAM acquired the one that it has. It was on loan initially.

Hello Jon,

interesting to know what happened to good old OO-DFA, I happened to see her when I was a kid in the early sixties; my father was flying her out of Knokke-Zoute ,on the belgian coast. He brought lobsters from Norway, I don’t recall the details, but I heard stories about the lobsters freeing themselves and exploring the aeroplane during the flight.I heard the anson was earlier a proud sabena member. Anyway, any chance ex OO-DFA will ever fly again ??

Michel

I saw OO-DFA (as G-AYWA) early in 2007 at a location in the UK. She was in pieces with the wings detached and no skin on the fuselage.

I gather that she has now moved back to Belgium for restoration. I forget where she is now, exactly.

Simple answer. The museum weren’t told about the closure (or, rather the non-renewal of its agreement to rent the hangar) until a few weeks ago.

The museum does have trustees. One of them has a helicopter business which operates from the same area.

I’ve just seen this (below) posted elsewhere. I think this sums things up nicely:

Today is the day when the Bournemouth Aviation Museum closes its doors.

Not because of lack of volunteers.
Not because of lack of visitors.
Not because of lack of funds.
Not because of lack of enthusiasm for local aviation.
But because the airport authority doesn’t seem to care about the airport’s history.

Tragic.