The Auster shot is definately Strathallen??

The Auster is definitely Strathallan! Does anyone have a serial tie-up for it??

Owner Neil Geddes purchased Anson G-AYWA from the collection, and took it to his farm at Lochwinnoch i’ve read – am i right?

Some memories of Strathallen’s final days.
Tigermoth G-ALWS and the Provost WW453 were purchased by Dave Davidson and Jim McTaggart from Scone airfield. The airfield had changed hands and a big clearout was underway which included the scrapping of all the old spare parts in the stores. We traced the scrap merchant but all had been processed. Included in the deal for the Tigermoth and the Provost were parts housed in an old barn on the outskirts of Scone which included two Tigermoth fuselages, wings, new mainsparts, fuel tanks and several engines, enough to build two more Tigers. We were allowed to remove any parts from the barn with the exception of two Cheetah engines which had already been earmarked for Anson WD413. Also recovered from the barn were Chipmunk tooling, parts, one wing, a Swordfish rudder and some Wasp cylinders. All parts went to the shed at Strathallen until sold. Also living in the barn were the last mortal remains of Cessna 310 G-BCKL which crashed on Black hill in 1976 complete with AAIB labels, it may still be there.
I have a few photos of us dismantling the Provost at Scone, it’s move to Strathallen and the recovery of parts from the barn.
If you look at the photo’s of Anson WD413, the port side has been recovered from the cockpit back to the door. The story i remember was that during an airtest the skinning pealed back and fell off landing in a field in Perthshire narrowly missing a farmer.
Prior to the Shackelton being scrapped we spent a day removing a lot of the fittings, they may still be in the workshop store.
Spent a day dismantling the Vampire for it’s move to Errol airfield, sadly it is still there in a sorry state and hopefully someone reading this will save it. Also dismantled Safir G-ANOK for it’s owner, think it still lives in a barn in the Borders.
The Vampire cockpit section belonging to the defunct SWIAG went to Dumfries Aviation Museum.
When time allows I post some photos.

Many many thanks for this account and insight! And your photos too which are extremely valuable artefacts! If you have any more particularly of the Shack and Vampire, this would be very interesting indeed.

It’s a rather undocumented era of Strathallan but an important one nonetheless as it was the very final sad days of a very important collection. Thanks again for your input.

Lancaster KB976 – seriously damaged in hangar collapse at Woodford. Parts dispersed.
Hurricane P3308 – to Canadian Warplane Heritage – destroyed in hangar fire.
Mosquito RS712 – to Kermit Weeks. On display EAA Museum.
Bolingbroke 9940 – at East Fortune – static rebuild coming along nicely.
Provost T.1 WV493 –
Anson C.19 VM360 –
Dragon VH-SNB –
Puss Moth VH-UQB –
Cygnet G-AGBN –
Miles 18 G-AHKY – all above are static at East Fortune
Dragon Rapide G-ALXT – Science Museum, Wroughton
Hudson A16-199 – RAFM Hendon
Swordfish W5856 – FAA Historic Flight
Lysander G-AZWT – Shuttleworth, airworthy
Anson C.19 G-AHKX ” , BAe owned
Battle R3950 – Brussels Museum
Firefly WD833 – was on rebuild in the States.
Avenger 045 – in USA N452HA
Desford VZ728 – was with Leicester Museum of Science- may have moved recently?
Anson G-AWRS – North East Aircraft Museum
Anson G-AGWE – last known in Florida
Anson G-AYWA – Royal Army Museum, Belgium
Anson G-AHIC – used for spares for G-VROE
Shackleton VP293 – scrapped. Nose section still exists.Duxford?
Comet XK655 – scrapped. Nose section now in UAE.
Messenger G-AJOC – Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
Scion VH-UUP – as above
Sycamore WA576 – Dumfries and Galloway Museum
Vampire XD403 – stored at Errol
Harvard FT391 – was airworthy at Shoreham
Texan G-AZJD – went to France in the mid-70s
Spitfire ML407 – sold to USA mid-70s now at Meier Motors
Spitfire NH904 – became G-FIRE.Then to USA
Spitfire PV202 – airworthy, Aircraft Restoration Company
Spitfire ML407 – airworthy – the Grace Spitfire
Prentice G-AOLU – last I heard was at Montrose under rebuild
Tiger Moth DF155 -sadly written off last year.

Hornet Moth G-ADMT; Leopard G-AIYS; BA Swallow G-ADPS and Fokker S.11 G-BEPV are all, I believe, still
flying with private owners.

That’s as up to date as I know and have included all the types I can remember because not everybody’s idea of major types is the same 🙂
If I remember any more I’ll post them later.

Magister R1914 was still at Strathallan in recent times.

Bolingbroke 10201 recently unveiled as a Blenheim I painted as ‘L6739’ (registered as G-BPIV)
Moth Minor G-AFOZ written off at Turnhouse 3rd May 1975
Vampire XD547 pod with the Aircraft Restoration Group, N Yorks? (ex-Dumfries & Galloway Museum)
Sea Hawk XE340 back with the FAA Museum at Yeovilton, open storage
Kay Gyroplane G-ACVA back with National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
Monarchs G-AFJU and G-AFLW both privately owned (flying?)
Pilcher Hawk replica BAPC.170 back with the Transport Museum in Glasgow
‘Flying Bedstead’ XJ314 with the Science Museum in London
Whirlwind XG594 back on display with the FAA Museum at Yeovilton.

(Quite a few of the above weren’t owned by the collection but loaned from others).

There were also a number of Tiger Moths (G-AJVE, G-ANPC, G-AOIP, N6532 & NM140) and a Jackaroo (G-AOIT) supposedly owned by the Roberts family and on the estate at Strathallan from the late 1960’s prior to the collection coming to fruition. There is photographic evidence of a couple of these around on the net and i believe they were mostly used for spares. If anyone knows about any of these or their eventual fates, i’d be most interested to know! The details i am recalling are sketchy to say the least and it’s not impossible the Jackaroo, for example, never was at Strathallan, but like i say, any info gratefully recieved!

Looks more like an Auster to me!

Now you mention it…….it does a bit!

Here a few more photos from that same date in July 1990. Note Shackleton and Comet conspicuous by their absence…..the last had been scrapped literally days before i believe. 🙁

Last few of Vampire XD403….

Thanks for posting the Hudson picture, Robert. I’m guessing this was 1973 as both this and Vampire XD403 (behind) arrived then, the Hudson in May i think.

I hope when scanned you store the original photos,

Ex RAF collegue was on the Comet for its “arrival” where it took the gear out on one side by hitting the remains / foundations of a buried wall, he told me the Captain turned round to shout abandon aircraft to see the engineers on board, having dumped the overwing exits were already some distance away from the aircraft and still going.. 😀

Fantastic story. Oh to have witnessed it all!!

Thank you Tim. And for the info. Rather a shame that the other Anson never took to the air again after such a long restoration. I wonder why.