WJ244As we seem to be struggling just to pay for the groceries at the end of each week there is no way I will be taking out a subscription to watch F1 on Sky.
The Beeb have done a great job with their coverage but I don’t feel inlcined to watch half a season so it will be goodbye F1 and I will find something more constructive to do on a Sunday afternoon than sit in front of the television so in one way Sky will be doing me favour as the garden will probably land up looking loads better and the car will get cleaned more often.
I am a bit surprised that the sponsors are happy with this situation as they pay shed loads of money to put their names on the cars and the new arrangement will definitely reduce the audience so I assume the value of each car as a mobile billboard will reduce to reflective the reduced audience exposure (oh look – there goes another flying pig).
As far as I can see the losers will be the fans and the sponsors but of course there is one little man who will inevitably come out of this with an even fatter wallet but then expanding one mans wallet appears to have been the main raison d’etre for F1 for a long time now.
Of course I will still have the option of watching the BTCC coverage on ITV. The racing is more entertaining although some of the drivers do need reminding that circuit racing is meant to be a non contact sport.
WJ244The Stow Maries website does have a bit on the news page saying that there is another fly in on 11 September. Hope the wind is a bit kinder this time so that they get a few more vintage visitors.
WJ244Thanks for posting the pictures. It is good to see this in the air – at long last and hope we will see it over here next year.
WJ244including the threat – or not – of salt-laden air affecting airframes!
That’s one argument I’m not going to touch – but it’s worth looking them out for a laugh!
I didn’t think there was any doubt that salt laden air accelerated the corrossion of most metals used in aircraft. The “Heinkel” and Beverley in particular suffered very badly at Southend even though they were some way inland but it was firmly believed that their proximity to the sea had been a major contributor to the problems. The same was said to be true of the Reflectair collection when it was at Blackpool.
If this is correct then the Beverley at Fort Paull is vulnerable but at least she was saved from the threat of the scrapman and is being looked after by an organistaion which seems to care.
WJ244I used to have a german incendiary which my grandad had fished out of a water tank in the loft of a local house when he was an air raid warden.
Mine had the fins broken off and Stan Brett and Bill Gent reckoned it had been done to get rid of the fuse under the sheet metal fin section. Mine went to Rochester to be checked and Stan Brett lost the contact he had there so I never got it back. It didn’t look anything like the picture shown in post 1.
I remember the manufacturing date on it was 1936!
WJ244Taking into account the fact that they must have limited funds Fort Paull are doing a great job of looking after the Beverley but ideally it should be indoors.
I saw XH124 the weekend before it was scrapped at Hendon and saw the damage done to XB261 by years of exposure at Southend. The bogie castings on 261 were so corroded that they had huge holes through the middle from to to bottom and it was possible to see the axles through these holes. Apparently the mainspar was also in a bad way and the rear fuselage had fatigue cracks at the leading edge of the tailplane caused by the twisting moment from gusts of wind moving the fins. Bill Gent helped Hanningfield Metals break her and he admitted to being surprised at just how much rot was in the mainspar and said that it wouldn’t have been too long before the whole airframe would have collapsed.
XH124 had rot holes through the cowlings and the undersides of the wings looked pretty bad. She seemed to be one huge nest for the local starlings due to a lack of care by her then owners the MOD.
As others have said it is sad fact that all aircraft kept outside are living on borrowed time no matter how much attention is lavished upon them by their keepers.
Wyvernfan – I think you have got your wires crossed. XB261 was taxied into position when she moved across from the airport to the museum site and remained in the same position until the day she was scrapped in the fenced compound beside the roller rink which had originally been built as the museum display hall.
WJ244Aerojumbles at museums can also have a positive effect on sales as there is always the chance that some of the people who visited the museum for the day might have a look around the stalls and land up putting their hand in their pocket for some of the less specialist items on offer. This can help boost sales a little and might just set what was a casual visitor on the path to becoming an incurable collector.
There is also the chance that they might just mention something they have in the loft that came from a long lost relative that they want to sell. There has been the odd real gem turn up this way.
WJ244Maybe you heard the wrong rumour. I recently read an unconfirmed information somewhere on the net ( I am not allowed to quote a source), that they will use nearly new (max.100 hours) aeroengine oil instead. This will get the chips fixed in no time. Michael
Not sure that is a good idea as, if big radials are anything to go by, it could mean the fryer suffers a lot of smoke on start up!
WJ244I am definitely not anti Brooklands. The place has fascinated me for a long time and I remember going to Farnborough by train in 68 or 70 and the train was stuck at a signal right beside the airfield for ages. It was the first time I ever saw the banking and that view from the train made the place all the more tantalising as there was no chance of access in those days.
It is a tragedy that the whole place wasn’t preserved but equally it is mainly through the genorosity of Gallaghers that there is anything left at all.
Having visited several times I love the atmosphere of the place BUT it is obvious that more funds are sorely needed and that on occassions they don’t appear to maximise the fund raising opportunities available to them through events like the aero/autojumble.
Without adequate funds the place may eventually fall into total disrepair again. Ironically it could be said that a lack of maintenance was what saved the place for posterity as Hawker and BAC didn’t take (or didn’t need to take) full advantage of all the space available on the airfield that was taken up by the race circuit BUT failure of the museum at any time in the future would almost certainly mean the end as the land must be quite valuable particularly as it is now in the middle of a retail development and inevitably we would lose the remaining parts of the circuit and airfield forever – something which I would hate to see happen – so Brooklands ( like all other museums) need to work to maximise the return from ALL events.
WJ244My memory could be playing tricks but when I last saw the Canberra and Javelin I seem remember them being displayed near some houses in a turning off the main road. I am fairly sure that the same road also gave views across parts of the fire school. I presume that they were later moved for display outside the Spitfire building before succumbing to the scrappie at Hanningfield Metals.
WJ244I had my suspicions but hoped that I was wrong. I remember applying for a post there some years ago which involved running the museum shop. I got the impression from the outset that I wasn’t “the right type of chap” even though I had plenty of experience in running aviation/motorsport based memorabilia shops.
WJ244I don’t really understand why Brooklands appear to be bad at publicising some of their events. Is there still an element there that believe “the right crowd and no crowding” is the way to go? A great attitude if you have the luxury of a bottomless pit of money but not a lot of good if you are hoping to make money out of stallholders and attending buyers.
On a positive note I visited on a Saturday last year and took a look inside all of the airliners where I found that I got a very warm welome from all the volunteers. I have posted before that I visited in 94 with my father who was terminally ill and the Wellington crew took us behind the ropes for a guided tour that really made his day on the only visit he was ever able to make to Brooklands so a huge thank you to the volunteers who were so welcoming during both visits and please keep up the great work.
WJ244If you read the small print on race circuit tickets most say that any photos taken from public areas are for your private use only and that the race circuit owns the intellectual property rights so they may not be used for commercial gain. Press men sign in to register as press which means they are covered by circuit insurance when accessing areas not open to the public and by registering as press they retain the rights to their images. I have no idea how enforcable this would be as I would think it must be difficult to prove that a photo was taken from a public area for a start.
WJ244The arrival of the Vimy left them with little option other than to put the Viking outside. I am pretty sure the Swift arrived later still so with space at a premium I assume there is no choice other than to keep that outside as well at present.
It would be good if Brooklands did have more covered space but part of the charm of the place is that it is a bit of a time warp and much of it has remained untouched for such a long time so even if the money were available it would be difficult to provide more cover without taking away from that time warp feel. The best solution would probably be to build another hangar in the area where the VC10 and other airliners are kept and house them all inside but that is a serious financial commitment. The really sad thing is that not so many years ago they were demolishing hangars on the airfield site to make way for the business park.
WJ244Thanks for confirming that Rochford. I remember that Federated Fruits had a certain ring to it which was why the registration stuck in my memory – not bad considering I last saw the bits in the old Tradair hangar 40 plus years ago.
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