Beautiful aircraft. I remember seeing a pic of it in flight with the Shuttleworth example a long time ago.

That would have been 31 May 1987 (doesn’t seem possible it was that long ago) the same day as I took the static picture.
Sadly I didn’t get a picture of the pair together but I do remember that when they were side by side on the ground the SE-5E didn’t look quite right. After a while it dawned that being a new restoration it had pristine cowling panels with none of the small dings and other patina that come from years of flying so it had yet to reacquire that “character” that the well used Shuttleworth aircraft have.

It is a great pity that the remaining airrcraft from the Arnold collection are hidden away but Doug Arnold did seem to be renowned for the reclusive nature of his aircraft. At the end of the day it is the owners choice but surely it would be less expensive to have them displayed somewhere rather than have them hidden in a bunker which must have expensive climatic control equipment which needs to be run and maintained.

At the end of the day all airshows carry a certain amount of risk and by the law of averages things will go wrong on occassions. Fortunately in modern times with modern safety rules accidents are rarer but no amount of safety rules and legislation can ever guard against unexpected mechanical failures or the fact that pilots are just as capable of making mistakes as the rest of us no matter how well they are trained.
The death of the wingwalker and the Pitts pilot are both very sad but climbing from an aeroplane to a helicopter and low level aerobatics both carry a risk. Presumerably both performers were comfortable with that risk otherwise they wouldn’t have conceived their acts in the first place and I can only assume that the safety people at each show were also happy with the level of risk.
The loss of Red 4 was also very sad and because the Red Arrows perform so many displays with no problems an accident like this comes as a shock to everyone but his wife summed it up when she said that he had at least died doing something he loved.
My condolences go out to the families and all those who knew any of these performers and I also spare a thought for those who witnessed the accidents as, having been in that situation, I know it can be a traumatic experience but I am sure that none of those who lost their lives would wish to see an end to airshows and I suspect that most of those who witnessed the accidents will feel much the same once they have recovered from the initial shock.
Airshows bring a great deal of pleasure to a lot of people and long may they continue.

I can’t comment on the involvement of Tangmere1940 with previous jumbles at Brooklands as I have absolutely no idea how they worked together but it is good to see that someone involved with Brooklands made the effort to post and try to explain the situation.
I am too far away to have any involvement but it does seem that an opportunity is being lost for an aviation section at the Brooklands event which would benefit both the organisers and sellers. Hopefully Fasteddie will be able to work with some of the interested parties here to improve the aviation section in future jumbles for the benefit of both the museum and traders.
Brooklands is a unique place and needs all the help it can get to be able to conserve and improve the museum and the facilities.

Bernie isn’t responsible on his own for all the rule changes but he did turn F1 into a business that earnt himself an awful lot of money. He once said in a interview in Autosport that it was the power as much as the money that he enjoyed. Some of his input into F1 was constructive but in other ways he has ruled with an iron hand that has upset many over the years – the stories are numerous and at times almost unbelievable. If it is true that he is selling his shares then I suspect there won’t be too many people who will shed a tear.

My views are:-
Scrap the Battle of Britain beacon and go with a “normal” display hall to provide more space.
Raise the Dornier while there is still a chance of obtaining an example of an extinct type then look at conservation / restoration which admittedly will pose some problems with a salt water recovery.
Ensure proper storage and conservation of the other projects listed and rebuild / restore as time and money permits.
I do appreciate that there is already a long queue of projects but as others have said they are all safe – the remains of the Dornier need to be safe to have any chance of saving it for the future.
Incidentally I understood that the LVG came back from Old Warden supposedly to go into the Milestones of Flight gallery. It looked fine last time I saw it at Shuttleworth so why does it now need restoring?

On a positive note it does mention that it relies on donations and income from airshows to earn the money to keep flying so there was at least a bit of publicity abouth the fact that 558 continues to need donations to stay in the air. You know what they say – there is no such thing as bad publicity!

You can get blank decal paper for inkjet printers to make your own decals but you need to spray the finished decals with a couple of thin coats of varnish from a car spray can after printing to stop them running. If you have a laser printer I think you can get paper which doesn’t need a varnish coat.
The hard bit is producing the artwork sizing it to fit the model and getting the right colour hues when you print them out. Working out shapes to get the right fit for decals to go round curves is one of the real nightmares. I have had a little dabble on a few occassions but ran out of image manipulation skills