On Friday there was a bit on Facebook via pilot Matt Hall’s page saying the original passenger could not make the flight to the fly-in so the empty seat was being offered, first come, first served, for, IIRC, $1,500 for 1.5 hours (I’m assuming this was for the entire flight from Caboolture to Evans Head) – considerably cheaper than the usual 20 minute flights offered for rides in VH-MFT.

Te replacement G-BWTR may have been around in 98 though

Yep, saw her display at DX and OW in ’99.

Only skimmed the article but seems to be plenty of reference to parts etc and nothing about the potential for lost crew to be finally found.

Hi Andy

I can’t help much at all, I’m afraid, but in reference to the condition of cemeteries in Iraq I can comment on photos I saw about four years ago. Obviously, things were a bit hotter then. I can’t remember the cemetery featured in the photos (I will have to dig out an old email). The photos showed headstones, some broken off at the base, on a flat area of dirt (no grass, plants etc you expect to see at a CWGC site). The men in the photo were Australians (uniforms) and I recall one of the photos being of them lifting one of the fallen headstones to show the name. This was then replaced where they’d found it with the intention being to leave things as they were until it was safer to return and repair the place properly.

Send me an email and I’ll try to dig out the email or, at least, put you in touch with the person who sent them to me and who should know more of what the situation is there.

Well, I never…

Thanks, Easyrider, good pics.

The new Haynes edition is a big book well beyond the size of a normal ‘novel’ as produced by P&S , Grub Street et al. Very good value for money.

Beachcomber, there’s been some good new releases of late and since you have a large library already I’ll only mention the very new ones as there’s more of a chance you won’t have them.

The new, updated edition of the Brennan/Hesselyn Spitfire Over Malta is rather special (‘editor’ Paul Lovell is a member on here). Andy Bird’s new Coastal Dawn is impressive and a more flowing writing style than A Separate Little War. Along the lines of the Malta Spits book is They Hosed Them Out, the BC classic written by John Beede. This has again been updated with a biography on the author (his full name is on the cover – John Bede Cusack) written by his daughter and the text is now, for the first time, unabridged. It is ‘fiction’ but closely based on his experiences in the bombers.

The Bomber Command Memorial Book is now being sent out to pre-orders. Another recent release this year is Richard Stowers’ latest, Wellingtons Over The Med , which is the story about his father’s time in the desert (Kiwi). Richard puts together a nice book that is always a little bit different. On the Wimpey front, apparently The History Press’ Flying Among Heroes and Fonthill Media’s Unwanted Hero (and certainly FM’s Viking Spitfire) are good but I have not seen them.

All of that, of course, depends on if you’re into WW2 aviation with an RAF/C’th bent. 🙂 That’s the ‘world’ I move in mostly.

Watson’s Bush Pilots Do It In Fours (older book but not super-common, I don’t think) is good if you’re into a bit of African propliner action and Bill Anderson’s A Lifetime In Longhaul is a good compilation of stories from active/almost retired (i.e. older!) QANTAS pilots.

Hope that might help.