WJ244Yes i remember that, a picture of her in bits and thats about as far as it got.! Talking of the british air reserve what happened to the crated Gannet they came across? What a find that was.
After she moved on from Southend I saw her at Duxford in one piece but with the prop missing. I assumed she was still with British Air Reserve at that time. Their publicity had said that they were planning to fit a Centarus from a Beverley for the speed record attempt.
To add a little to the history:-
She was acquired by Tony Osborme in 1966/7. I believe she was at Dunsflod and was towed on her own wheels to Biggin Hill as the first airframe for the fledgling British Historic Aircraft Museum. After Tony Osborne was asked to leave Biggin she moved by road to Southend (towed on her undercarriage again I think) and the history of BHAM and the HAM are pretty well documented already from that point onwards.
I don’t think you would get away with moving a Sea Fury in the same way today!
WJ244No It was nt he was a retired Group Captain who got employed as a director of things he did not understand.Stuck his nose into things he did not understand and made stupid comments that embarrassed the RBL.
Oh! so he may well be a disciple of Adam Crozier then.
The world is full of these people like the woman employed many years ago to run a major toy company. After a year they were so anxious to be rid of her that they eventually made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. The story was they offered to pay her all the money she would have earnt during the rest of her contract (which still had several years to run) plus a golden handshake and a new company car of her choice. Appparently she had done so much damage to the company in a year that they believed that this was a cheaper alternative to continuing her employment!
She walked and within weeks was working for another business and, no doubt, managed to cause similar levels of damage to her new venture.
Whenever I have started a new job I have always tried to find out what I need to do and how my input affects the overall running of things. It is a good idea to have some idea of what you are involved with and how it all works before you start making major changes otherwise it is like trying to tune an engine with no mechanical knowledge and no workshop manual – the result is inevitably a major blow up.
WJ244The up side is that she will have a roof over her head – something which I am sure B-17 preservation would be more than happy to have for Sally B – and it appears that the plan is a long term overhaul so let’s hope that we see her in the air again at some point in the future.
WJ244Good to know that the idiot who came up with all this politically correct rubbish has gone. Hopefully somebody removed his head from his own behind along the way. I don’t doubt that he had all the exam certificates to show that he was highly qualified to do the job but the problem is that in the modern world these certificates don’t come with a proper dose of common sense which I have always found to be pretty useful.
I am a bit sceptical that the RBL will back down and allow the project to continue but let’s see what happens.
WJ244I really hope that they succeed and keep 558 flying for as long as possible but having read the release posted by JoeyR I can’t help thinking that many of the ways forward are things which should have been obvious sources of revenue and should have been explored from the outset.
In most cases late March would seem to be very late to be in the early stages of planning the 2010 display season. I know it isn’t long since they were in a position where a 2010 season seemed unlkely but surely there should have been a plan in place for the season based on the assumption that the finance would be raised.
It does seem that they are still placing a lot of faith in the success of the annual appeal for 2011 when recent experience would suggest that the pockets of enthuiasts are pretty close to being empty. Other sources of fundraising need to be looked at as a matter of urgency to avoid “another discomfort on the rollercoaster that is keepiing XH558 flying”.
WJ244It would be great to see a Shack in the air again and I would be happy to make a donation but, unfortunately, my circumstances would mean that it wouldn’t be a very large one.
I am no expert but the running costs appear a bit optimistic to me. As others have said my biggest concern would be the problem of continuing to raise funds to maintain the aircraft once it is up and running.
It looks as if you have made proper enquiries to ascertain that the project is feasible and I wish you all the luck in the world.
WJ244When aircraft spotters (most of whom know to avoid the whirly bits on aircraft) are actively discouraged from venturing anywhere near many active airfields and, in some cases are even threatened with prosecution, the question that needs to be asked is what was this man doing trespassing on the airfield in the first place?
It is a nasty and tragic way to end a life but on the other hand many hunt supporters do seem to regard themselves as being above the law. It takes two to make an accident and I don’t think all the blame should be laid on the pilot.
WJ244Good idea and I must admit that I haven’t visited for a long time but from what others on here have said does anyone want to drink the coffe or eat the food in the cafe?
Incidentally the food wasn’t bad last time I ate there.
WJ244I would be quite happy to pay a reasonable charge to visit Hendon. Although visitor numbers increased once charges were discontinued I am not convinced that the increase in visitors has been of any real benefit to the museum.
It is probably fair to say that admission fees acted as a deterrent to those who were more interested in finding ways to damage the exhibits than they were in learning about our heritage. This meant the museum had to spend less of their budget on repairing vandal damage and the entry fees also generated income to help improve the museum in other ways.
If the £2.50 parking charge has been imposed to discourage locals from using the place as a car park for the tube I don’t think it will be effective partly because it will still be a very cheap car park for those who aren’t visiting the museum and also because I am sure there are locals who resisted the temptation to park there when it was free out of sheer emmbarrassment at being seen to walk out the gates who will now walk out the gates with no qualms as they will feel that they have paid for parking even though they aren’t visiting the museum.
Time will tell but I suspect they will find a fuller car park and possibly less people walking through the museum doors as I am sure some will, be put off their visit by having to pay even a small amount to park. We can only hope that those who are discouraged from visiting are the ones who would have been there to damage the exhibits.
I think it would have been fairer to all to impose an entry fee of £2.50 per person to visit the museum but current government policy won’t allow this to happen.
WJ244Didn’t look at the times of posting as I came along after both posts had been made. It is amazing how two members started such closely related threads so close together in time.
WJ244One other thing to bear in mind – and I am sorry if I am teaching anyone here to suck eggs – is that scale flying models do not generally use exact scale copies of the original aerofoil sections simply because the characteristics of a 1/5 scale aerofoil in 1/1 scale air are not usually the same as a 1/1 scale aerofoil in 1/1 scale air.
Often the aerofoil needs altering to obtain acceptable take off and landing speeds and to avoid undesirable handling characteristics in a model as well.
I think this all a bit of a black art but those who are heavily involved in scale flying seem to manage to sort it out pretty well.
WJ244Bit late but happy new year to everyone and lets hope the years is a great one for historic aviation.
WJ244The answer was here all the time
WJ244As I said in a previous post absolute exact scale doesn’t always look right to the human eye and I suspect the smaller you go the more this holds true.
To me what matters is that the model looks right and I don’t have a problem with semi scale models like the Vulcan shown in the photos.
As far as I am concerned if that is what makes the builder happy then good luck to him – after all collecting diecasts, building plastic kits and building / flying radio control is all meant to be about enjoyment rather than about losing sleep because your model could be just a tiny bit out of scale.
If on the other hand you prefer to count every rivet then fair enough but you should accept that others are a little more easy going but still derive great pleasure from their chosen hobby.
WJ244As 633 Squadron said this what you get whjen you employ professional people.
I have a relative who has been involved with fund raising for the RNLI for a long time. In recent years there have been so many restrictions and idiotic schemes put forward by “professionals” that many of the fund raisers have cried enough and walked away.
I shall think very carefully before I put any money in the Poppy Appeal again as in my view the veterans have at least as much right to be remembered as those who fall today sand volunteer fundraisers deserve more respect than to have their hard work devalued by having their fundraising efforts devalued.
It should also be remembered that while none of them should be losing their lives most of todays military are professionals who are there because it is their chosen career path. It is probably fair to say that a majority of those who perished in two world wars had no option in that they were called up to fight for king and country with minimal training. A fact that probably goes straight over the heads of todays professional fund raisers.
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