I fully appreciate the reasons for the increases in admission fees at airshows but unfortunately I haven’t had a corresponding increase in wages so I attend very few airshows now.
I haven’t been to Duxford for years partly because I always felt that those who paid the basic admission were herded into a comparatively small area while much of the display line is obscured by hospitality tents etc. I know the hospitality tents bring in a lot of money but the side effect is that they devalue the experience for those who aren’t sufficiently well heeled to afford a hospitality package.
I am also put off by the stories of photographers with stepladders in the crowd. I simply wouldn’t have the brass neck to erect a step ladder and ruin the view of others. I too would love to take great photos but I am not so selfish to believe that I have the right to ruin others enjoyment of the day in my pursuit of a good photo. It is high time organisers clamped down on this practice. If they have no other way of doing it then there must be a case on health and safety grounds. Any portable viewing platform erected by the organisers has to comply with health and safety laws so why should step ladders which are brought onto the airfield by the public be any different. When I went to Hendon to measure the Mosquito for Revell, a few years ago, we were told we couldn’t use step ladders as we hadn’t taken the Health and Safety course on their proper use. In Health and Safety terms I don’t think they would have viewed standing at the top of a step ladder for hours with a camera as a correct or appropriate use for a step ladder.
15 years ago I would gladly vsit Shuttleworth displays 5 or 6 times a year but the increased petrol costs for the 200 mile round trip and the increased admission mean that I am lucky to make one show a year now.
I also manage an occassional visit to Stow Maries or North Weald but with a freeze on my wages and ever increasing costs these are looking less likely this year as I simply can’t afford them.

My first Air Fair was 1968. I was 13 years old and, after some badgering, my parents agreed to let me go alone on the Eastern National coach from Southend. I remember that it was very muddy in paces as we had a lot of rain earlier in the week and I nearly got mowed down by a french registered Jodel that was taxying (in the crowd!) and skidded through 90 degrees in the mud.
The display was pretty special in those days and included Patrouille De France and the Belgian Diables Rouges with Magisters, Freece Tricolour with Fiat G91s as well as the Red Arrows and the Belgian Stampe Duo who specialised in mirror formation aerobatics. Late 60’s / early 70’s also saw the Formula One air races but warbirds were fairly thin on the ground in those days. I last went in the mid 80’s and my saddest memory of the place is the mid air collision between the pleasure flight Jet Ranger and a Tiger Moth which happened before the display and cast a shadow over the entire day

Obviously a huge amount of work and she looks great but it is a shame that many of the highly modified Reno racers seem to be gettiing converted back to stock configuration. I appreciate that from an owners point of view a stock Mustang is far more usable but each reno racer is unique and they are a significant part of the history of the Mustang and of the history of unlimited air racing.
I believe Strega, Voodoo and Dago Red no longer exist in racing form and we tragically lost the latest incarnation of Galloping Ghost, probably the Reno racer with the longest racing history, along with an extraordinary pilot and engineer last year. I know many here believe the butchering of Mustangs to create racers is sacrilege but when most were originally converted to race Mustangs were comparatively easy to come by and the racers are/were all incredible feats of engineering to wring that last bit of speed from the old fighter.

As has been said by WJ244 (a Sea fury)

WJ244 was the museum “spare” which was never assembled and ultimately became G-FURY.
The Dragon wings were in a crate outside the main door to the hangar for a long time which also contaiined Rapide G-AIUL. The wings I saw were marked G-ADDI but by that time DDI had long been in the USA N84DH.
Shame that Mike didn’t get G-ACIT. It would have been great to see her pleasure flying at Duxford. We were promised flights that never materialised at Southend and as I was never even allowed inside her so I would have gladly put my hand in my pocket for a flight at Duxford.

It was one of two things.
It was probably a german incendiary bomb dated 1936 that my grandfather had kept in a kitchen cupboard for about 30 years. He was a senior air raid warden and my mum said that it went through the roof of a house in Recreation Avenue, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex but landed in the water tank. As the most senior warden present my grandfather apparently had to fish it out to try to make sure it didn’t burn the house down. She remembered it sitting in a bucket of sand in my grandfather’s back garden. I think it must have been defused as the sheet metal section carrying the fins had been seperated and this was usually done to get at the 2nd fuse. Stan and David Brett took it to Rochester for me to get it checked when I was a helper at HAM Southend but they lost their contact at Rochester and I never saw it again.
The other possibility is a large piece of fabric from Auster G-ASLS which was derelict and dismantled at Biggin Hill in about 1969. I was with another lad from school who decided to tear two pieces from the already damaged wings and gave one bit to me. I think I still have it somewhere.

I think the majority of the aircraft arrived under their own power.

Of the original BHAM aircraft the Lincoln and Saab both arrived by air in 1967 and I think Anson TX211/G-AVHU and Hawk Trainer G-AIDF (both scrapped) may also have flown in.
Proctor NP303/G-ANZJ flew into Southend, was impounded for non payment of parking fees and was donated to the museum by the airport. Anson G-AVVO / VL348 also came the same way. It was owned by Tippers Air Transport and G-ANZJ was allegedly their taxi/hack aircraft. A certain Tony Osborne (the founder of BHAM) was linked to and possibly part owned Tippers so it appears that the airport effectively gave him back his own aircraft after they had been impounded! VL348 was passed to Newark when GPG arrived.
Following the sale of the original BHAM aircraft to Historic Aircraft Museum (Southend) Ltd, the company that built the museum building and initially ran the museum the Beverley, Storch, Dragon G-ACIT, Piaggio P166 G-APWY and I suppose you could say Anson G-AGPG all flew in. At various times the museum directors also owned Stampes G-AYLK and G-AYWT and Tiger Moth G-ANPE all of which spent some time at the museum. There were also a lot of aircraft on loan from private owners which flew in including Mignet HM293 G-AXPG, Tipsy Belfair G-APOD, Messenger G-AIEK (which left by road), Haydon Baillie,s Sea Fury and 2 x T-33, The Moth collection of Tony Haig Thomas, 2 different Rothmans team Stampes, Pilatus P2 G-BONE, the lovely Leisure Sport WW1 replicas and a couple of Westland Widgeons from Helicopter Hire that may have been fliers. I have an idea that we had an Auster on loan at one time and there are probably others that I have forgotten but comparatively little of the core collection actually flew in.

I am absolutely gutted that GPG has finally met her maker but pleased to hear that Anon has, at least, managed to save her cockpit.
When she came to the Southend Museum she was effectively airworthy, although the C of A may have lapsed and there was talk of flying her along with Dragon G-ACIT. As far as I remember it was found that her flying hours meant that major work was needed to keep her flying so the idea was abandoned.
The original plan was to keep her indoors at Southend but I don’t think she ever managed to make it inside the hangar as Bill Francis Spitfire TB863, the Haydon Baillie Sea Fury and T-33’s and then the DH Moth collection owned by Tony Haig Thomas meant that space inside was always at a premium so GPG had to endure everything our weather could throw at her.
When money became tight the museum cut down on the number of staff and there was a lot of vandalism as visitors were largely unsupervised. Some moron slashed the fabric on the Anson’s underside and the wind got inside and gradually ballooned the fabric off so she was in a bad way before she ever left Southend and she then spent a long time outside at Brenzett and elsewhere which didn’t help matters.
I have always prayed for a lottery win so that I could buy her and return her to a decent state but sadly it will never happen now.

Have to agree with Bruce. That has to be the best finished Vampire restoration ever. Vampires generally seem to have got a pretty rough deal over the years with many suffering badly from neglect probably because there were plenty around, not so many years ago, and I don’t think some owners / guardians appreciated just how vulnerable the fuselage pod is to weather damage.
Good to see one fully restored and also good to see something really positive from IWM when there is a lot of flak being thrown at them (rightly or wrongly) over other matters at present.