Excellent work – looks like a lot of progress has been made this year.  I look forward to seeing what you can do in 2025!

That’s excellent news John, looking forward to seeing the project progress.

Well that’s certainly a mixed bag of news – sorry to hear you need to find a new home, hopefully you’ll find somewhere suitable soon.

 But on the flip side – wow – what a haul of parts!  Looks like a lot of work sorting those out but all valuable stuff.  Do you know what’ll happen to the parts you don’t take? 

I went on Friday – good day out.  The sight of the 3 Hurricanes and 3 Spitfires together at the end of the day was worth the admission price alone, great in formation and then a really good tail chase too.  The Buchon got ‘shot down’ as is traditional but did appear to have a minor mechanical issue too (coolant leak possibly?) but it flew on the other days so whatever it was can only have been minor.  The scheduled BBMF Spitfire turned out to be a Hurricane but that’s not a bad thing and it put on a good show.  Shame to lose the Strikemasters to crew illness but these things can’t be helped.  Whilst I didn’t go on either Saturday or Sunday I did see a few of the aircraft around as I don’t live too far from Headcorn.

There’s an article on the ‘Vintage Aviation Echo’ website that details the history of PL983 – it’s a good read.

I remember seeing PL983 around when it was based at Goudhurst – there’s a road that runs right past the private strip it operated from, if you were lucky you’d see the Spitfire parked in front of the small hangar.  Living near(ish) to Headcorn aerodrome we’d sometimes see it over the house too (along with Martin Sargeants Harvard – where’s that now? and Chris Bellhouse’s Harvard – now with Aerolegends). 

When ‘Piece Of Cake’ was being filmed we’d get lifts over to Headcorn aerodrome after school to have a look at the aircraft there – one of which would have been PL983.  As a result of the ‘local connection’ I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for PL983 and was pleased to see it back at Headcorn last summer.

Thanks for sharing those photos – I hadn’t seen or heard anything about this one for a while.  Certainly an interesting project!

I went on Friday – the weather saw off the Red Arrows (they came and had a look but the cloud was too low) and the BBMF but everything else displayed.  It was good to see the Silver Spitfire in the flesh having followed it’s round the world flight with interest.  Also good to see the “NHS” Spitfire back at Headcorn – it was a more common visitor when Martin Sargeant had it (operating out of Goudhurst).  Another throwback was Aerolegends recently acquired 2nd Harvard – that used to be owned by Chris Bellhouse and would be around with Martin Sargeant’s Harvard on a regular basis.  It’s a small world really isn’t it?

It was also great to see Sally B again – I’ve not seen her for a few years so it was a welcome return.  The mass flypast of Spitfires (and Hurricane) was a sight to behold as wll – only a few years ago it would have seemed ridiculous to suggest that many would be seen at Headcorn.

On Saturday I got to see Sally B again as she was orbiting near our house whilst she waited to run in for her display – also got to see the Aerolegends formation as they wheeled over the village, the BBMF as they flew in for their display and the finale balbo as they came around for a pass.  Quite a productive afternoon of gardening!

It’s a shame that the weather didn’t really play ball for them (again), Sunday appears to have been a bit of a washout but hopefully they’ll be back next year with another show.