02Sep13
Arrived at Duxford this morning and there was the end of a yellow crane jib sticking up in the air in the vicinity of 5 hangar. Curiosity as they say….so a steady walk to the other end of the museum and there was a flat bed trailer with the fuselage of Harrier Gr.9A/ZD461 sitting on the ground next to it. Eventually it was loaded onto the trailer, fuselage and metal frame weighed 3.8 tons apparently, and by just after lunch time it was secured with a tarpaulin tied over it ready for its journey down to London and installation in the refurbished Atrium of IWM London. With all the doors to hangar 5 north & south open, I got some record shots.
A brisk walk down to Hangar 2 just in time for TFC to bring some of their fleet outside into the sunshine. The Bearcat was going flying which it did, twice.
Anna Walker had a flight in the Cosmic Wind which I now seen has been added to the Duxford Air Show this weekend for Saturday only.
As I was leaving, the two Mk1 Spitfires were towed out onto the airfield for what looked like engine runs.
Brian
30Aug13
It was the turn of ARCo/HFL to provide a bit of war bird action today and with some of their fleet heading down to Shoreham for the air show, they didn’t disappoint. The two-seat T9 Spitfire had an air test followed by some aerobatics before landing and followed a bit later by the pair of Buchon’s with a practice aerobatic routine above Duxford. Having been refueled they and the Spitfire fired up and did a scramble type take off blowing the freshly cut grass all over the place. B-17 ‘Sally-B’ followed almost immediately they had left.
Best GA visitor of the day.
Brian
An excellent day out with wall to wall sunshine and temperatures at +24C, according to the tower, but during the afternoon with very little or non-existent wind and high cloud there was a bit of haze that made flying shots a bit difficult. The day didn’t go well for any one expecting to see the F1 testing as it had been cancelled as the car apparently went tech so Force India packed up and went home but there was more war bird flying during the day than I expected to see.
TFC came out to play again with the Harvard and Mk XIV Spitfire flying but first the engineers had to play musical aeroplanes in the morning to get the two aircraft out of their hangar. Both went flying late afternoon with the Spitfire doing a spot of aerobatics on its return.
Pete Kynsey took his Cosmic Wind for an airing later in the afternoon with some excellent aerobatics over the airfield and when he parked up by crash gate C, got an appreciative round of applause from the gathered museum visitors that were there.
The Me.108 took advantage of the good weather with a couple of flights and Cliff Spink flew in with the Desert Buchon but not without a spot of aerobatics over the airfield first. He later went for a couple of flights in the Stearman.
When I was down the M11 end I was surprised to see the two-seat Spitfire/G-ILDA being pulled out from the ARCo hangar as I wasn’t aware it was at Duxford. It later left for Goodwood.
DCW has been absent from Duxford the last couple of days and there has been some excellent war bird flying. If he is in tomorrow I bet nothing fly’s. 😀
Brian
27Apr13
The Fighter Collection Wildcat and P-40F were out in the sunshine today for some air tests. I’d forgotten how nice the Wildcat sounds in the air. They were parked on the jet pan as the airfield grass was being cut and preparations around the museum site have started for the air show next week. Meanwhile an advance party from Force India arrived to set up for the F1 testing on Wednesday.
Brian
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