Yes very sad, my thoughts go to his famly.

But boy what a ‘boys own’ life he had

I wasnt aware of the fact that so few original mercury 7 astronauts were still with us, I thought Grodo Copper was still around

The SnoBlos were not towed Chris, they were pushed.

Attached to the front of a fuel bowser these machines were pushed up and down runways doing an efficient job of burning out the fuel bowser’s clutch, creating flying chunks of ice and loosening and stripping off lumps of asphalt. Fun to watch though.

Really bad pic of the one at Brunty taken years ago on a disposable 35mm camera.

.

Just confiming that the one at Brunty still exists, in very poor condition now around the back of the airfield in the tree’s, I will get an up to date piccy next time I see it/dig it out.

Just a little note you might like to know, me and another once got it running back in about 1993/94, outside the hanger doors where 558 now resides, we plugged it into the bowser and ‘fettled’ with it all day, it was to put it in a word an interesting few hours, but it did run, I can vouch for that, and it wasnt that noisey.
I doubt whether anyone touched it again afterwards, as the runway sweepers are better sutied to Brunty’s needs and the problem of snow has never caused any snags.
Not sure why it was purchased in the first place :confused:

Cheers

🙂 great vid from the bbc archives, but I think this link already posted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xcb29P_zuY is the best one, the music, the footage, its just so early eighties, spot on. 422 is rising from the ashes as we speak, she will be getting her first fill of fuel for 20 odd years in 3 weeks time, for fuel system tests, engine installs are close now too.

Andy B, you about Sat?, I’ll probably be up to no good spares attacking wings 😀

Glad to hear 422 is getting there, slow but sure, are you on the ‘team’ this time ?

Should be up at Brunty if the weather plays ball, if the weathers bad I will be rebuilding my garden fence after the winds got it:mad:

Good luck with the spares recovering

Assume youve seen the ad for the open day on 27th May, you can come and help again if you fancy it.
Bring ya tent;)

Hi Cl –

its an ex-MOD RUBB hangar – which I believe was used in the Falklands! It belongs to the airfield and used to be used by the Lightning boys, prior to their erection of the QRA shed (ours is now knowN as a SRA shed – geddit!) with the kind assistance of the airfield we have been erecting it over the past year, it is basically a sectional galv tube frame covered in rubberised canvas sheet, we are in the throes of cladding it to make it a bit tougher, sadly God intervened as you can see…:(

It is being used to house our Beech 18, t-6g and other T-6 projects – see our website at http://www.beechrestorations.com

TT

Hi TT and all, just to add a little useless info here, there were two RUB hangers purchased from RAF Cottesmore by the Waltons back in about 1993ish.
One is still used by the car storage people on site.

The one you guys are now rebuilding was on ‘our’ Q shed pan but wasnt ever used by us at all, all manner of farm/stuff was stored in it over the years including the Maurice Bayliss Spitfire after it was resprayed and operated from Brunty for a short while, we offen helped him out with it, a thoughly nice chap.

Here’s a shot of it just prior to an engine run

And a shot of ‘your’ lads RUB as we began to empty it and clear the site back in May 2003

As for Sandy I didnt know he had passed away, boy I could tell a few stories as Im sure Phil can as well of the time he operated the Vampire/Vemon/Provost ‘fleet’ from Brunty in the early/mid 90’s, a one off was Sandy, RIP if the news is true.

Ive got some shots of the Vampires somewhere if your intersted ?

As I said guys if you need any help just ask

Cheers 🙂

Fransis, well done to to all in the Bucc group from all of us in the LPG 🙂

You deserve to succeed with all the hard work thats gone in

See you soon:)

Is the LPG going to produce a dvd? I remember when i was there with fc there was someone filming that i thought was part of you guys.

Yes Ollie its coming in the future, we began filming these type of runs about 2 years ago, prior to this none of us took many pics or film, now we have a dedicated ‘DVD man’ who can concentrate on filming not running around like the rest of us.
When we have a few hours in the ‘can’ it might well be something we put together and sell.

Cheers