I seem to recall if you include ‘flew in last ten years or so’ it was nearer 60.

Perhaps examples such as the Indian and Israeli historic flights have now slipped too far down the scale to make even the loosest qualification.

The Israeli Spit flew a couple of displays last year, so it’s still very much active.

At least I now know far more about glue than I ever realised I needed to know, and much more than I ever knew there was to know.

This thread should be a Sticky.

Oh dear God….:eek: 😀

Well I’m glad to know this all ended so well, and congratulations to Mrs.Banupa on avoiding a ducking!

In all seriousness, ditching a fixed gear taildragger can’t be a particularly gentle business, it’s amazing how well the pilot seems to have put it down.

Well I haven’t seen it personally for a couple of years, so perhaps she’s deteriorated very seriously in that time, but saying that she’d crumble if moved sounds an exaggeration from what I saw. She is indeed in bad shape, and it might be tricky getting bolts out cleanly etc when dismantling for transport, but overall I would expect the major sections to hold together when moved.

The best place for her in my view would be Duxford, she’d fit the AirSpace theme perfectly. That said I think she’d probably have to be donated to IWM for them to be interested.

Edited to add: I mention IWM as they have probably the best restoration facilities for the job, and unlike RAFM they don’t already have a Swift. (RAFM’s Mk.5 is currently at Tangmere.)

She’s still with RNHF, the engine has been away for rebuild in the USA so she’s been stuck in the hangar. The engine has now returned to the UK so she should be up and running again this year.

http://www.royalnavyhistoricflight.org.uk/aircraft/

In answer to J Boyle’s question, yes I’d love to see a Goose in RN colours! To be honest, there seems to be a bit of a shortage of Geese in military colours of any sort, so any military scheme would be welcome.

I don’t know for sure, but I would hazzard a guess that they were finished in the temperate sea scheme. I say this based on the fact that Grumman purchased British paints for the Wildcat and Hellcat production lines (rather than mixing thier own or using approximate US-spec colours) and it would make sense for the Geese to be painted up the same.

If it’s made of metal, chances are it’s been nicked for scrap. Metal theft is a huge problem here, a number of plaques have been stolen from war memorials and historic houses etc over the last couple of years.

That said, fingers crossed that it does turn up.