Sorry Cees old chap, but you chaps did put some Merlins for sale…..so there is always an exception to the rule? Not digging at you (pardon the pun!) but there are always some cases to prove the rule (I fully understand the reasons for selling the engines – please let us know where they went in the end).

Personally, I dont believe in selling anything I dig.

Unfortunately I have had to pay through the nose for crash parts for my projects and collection. If I do not use these I try to pass them on/swap. But sometimes it has to be sold to aid my projects. If I pay £100 for a bag of stuff and use a quarter of it, I have to recoup costs to be able to afford to compete with other bidders. This is a fact of life…but before you criticise, look at the Hurricane project and tell me it is not worthwhile/a tribute to the Few, designers, groundcrew etc.

The digs I do are always very personal to me and become more so as we unravel the story through research and the final moments. I do try and display as many parts as possible, however, this is the tip of the iceberg the rest is in store. Parts do get provided to other museums/collectors however, I always get an undertaking that I do not want to see the items sold.

Touchy subject,

My side of the story (19 years of experience in this field). I am part of the Aircraft Recovery Group 1940-1945 Foundation based at Heemskerk near Amsterdam. Our aim is to locate aircrash-sites from WWII with the aim to locate and recover aircraft wrecks containing missing aircrew regardless of the nationality. This work will only be carried out by the RNethAF and we will give any assistance we can.

And wreckage recovered will never be sold but put on show at our museum as a memorial to the crew. This serves also as a place where next of kin can visit to see part of their past. This is all done with the utmost respect to the crews, as well as current legislation. We also recover aircraft ourselves that do not contain missing aircrew or UXB but that is also to give the local people who witnessed the crash or were otherwise involved the chance to find out what events led to the crash and it’s recovery.

No golddigging, no selling of parts etc.

period

If anyone of you wish to contribute in this thread remember to keep it civil and if you don’t have any experience such as Kev35, it’s very difficult to judge this sensitive matter. I would like to ask the moderators to be alert and not turn this into another flame war.

Cheers

Cees

http://www.arg1940-1945.nl

who re-named this thread? not impressed:mad: Bit disrespectful to Merkle the starter of the thread

Like many others on here and in the UK, my first book on aircraft was by the great man himself….it was a huge book on the RAF History and was full of great photos that really got me into aviation heritage. Condolescences to family and friends…..Blue skies Chaz

Tony,

….although i don’t recall being asked to attend ’08, and my info’ pack seems to have been mis-laid (perhaps the snail mail and email had gremlins ?), i will make a concerted effort to attend next year.

Far from being a “negative thread”, this has in fact helped me and at least one other “virgin” to now seriously consider it. Although it’ll certainly be a low key affair, as i personally would not be attending to win anything, not even a plastic cup. Perhaps bring a Chippax to end the Chipmunk drought ? And quite probably still in it’s as found ‘barn find’ condition.

That said, i still have many questions, most of which are probably in the info’ pack… security, accomodation, even the criteria (if any) for the exhibit/s, etc, etc….

As a ‘virgin’ outsider i don’t perceive the event to be in crisis, and hope i haven’t given that impression myself. On the contrary, Bruce broke the mould when he stepped up to openly ask why ‘virgins’ don’t attend. My main concern is the ‘award culture’, a view seemingly shared perhaps ? But if i deliberately don’t bring something you can eat dinner off… it won’t matter :diablo:

.

I look forward to sharing some bottles of Spitfire with you Dave and any other ‘virgins’, cockpitfest or otherwise who attend!:diablo: