Googling for P9374 can be very interesting and infomative – while I haven’t found anything more about a Spitfire, I now know that it is the catalogue number for the “Cha Cha” vibrator. Amazing what you learn here… 😮

On a slightly more serious note, does anyone actually know how much Spitfire they are starting with – as opposed to what they’ll finish with?

Adrian

*EDIT*

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/registry/spitregistry/spitfire-p9374.html

Hmmm…

Oooooooooooooooh, lovely! If the Sea Hawk was any cuter I’d have to go and have a cold shower! 😮

Spares ships looks a bit rough, but I guess that’s their job, isn’t it?

Adrian

Ooooh, story time! 😀

My girlfriend and I were walking on Scafell PIke about six weeks ago. We knew there was an eggbeater about because we’d heard it land and spool down the engine. It had reappeared a few minutes later, and seemed to be carrying something underslung but was so far away that really it wasn’t much more than a speck in the sky.

On the way back down we came across a path with bag after bag of rocks dumped by it, and realised that the helicopter had been dumping rocks for path repairs. We were coming down the path together when we heard it coming again, I started whistling and she joined in. So there we were, coming down the path together, whistling the theme from MASH and suddenly THIS:
http://www.slatts.fsworld.co.uk/…/forest-pictures.htm
pops up over the ridge in front of us! 😮

OK, it’s not a Bell 47, but more than close enough in looks to shut both of us up and leave us gaping, slack-jawed!

Adrian

P.S. Good job I spotted the Reggie, or we wouldn’t have a clue what it really was!

Unfortunately I have no idea now where I read this, so treat as apocryphal!

617 Squadron’s ex-Dam’s raid Lancasters were quite heavily stripped and compared to a fully equipped Lanc went like hell – known as “Clappers” because that’s what they went like.

Someone on an air test spotted a B17 on a weather flight, and slowly caught up with it. The Fortress pilot waited until they caught up, opened the throttles and drew away. Our intrepid Lanc jockey gave him a head start, put on full boost and proceeded to do a barrel roll AROUND the B17! 😮

(Now you see why salt should be taken with this tale until proven otherwise!)

Mickey Martin is also supposed to have looped a Lanc, but any witnesses are long gone and I can’t see thye BBMF trying to emulate him.

Adrian

In which case I will have to get a propeller of my own to see if I can take piccies that good! 😀 Thanks for letting me know, Darren.

Actually, I can think of a couple of things I could do to get photos like that –
1. Get a camera built this century
2. Get one built in the last fifty years that will take a zoom…

Seriously, great photos. Must get to OW again soooooon…

Adrian

Actually, Messerschmitt didnt, at least not in my experience.
Bruce

Ah, could have sworn I’d read that in everyone’s favourite aviation mag beginning with F! Nonetheless, it has certainly been recorded as aiding the preservation of some German aircraft.

As Mark 12 suggests, though, the joints and the rivets could be an interesting area. I shall be very interested to see what appears in the mags about this, and the future plans for her. One hopes they didn’t spend all the cash on shifting her.

By the way, does no-one else wonder how the hell they got it out? IIRC the classic way to visit her was to land a helicopter on the wing…

Adrian

It’s a bit noisy to build houses on – the M4 runs across the field! Membury services, just after Junction 14, are on the site, though a fair bit is still agricultural land and there is some full-width runway remaining on both sides of the motorway.

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=430000&Y=175000&width=500&height=300&gride=432610.688778501&gridn=178889.481020855&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=freegaz&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&keepicon=true&zm=0&scale=50000&multimap.x=311&multimap.y=68

When I visited there was a Super Cub there – missed the Gannet, looks like it’s been there a while though. By the way, if you look at the map you’ll see a strange near-circular feature just south of the airfield. It’s an iron-age “hill fort” – an interesting thing to find on a flat piece of ground!

ADrian