before the accident no-one would have not been comfortable with the display

Not quite…….I, for one, had noticed how increasingly energetically the Mosquito had been displayed over its final years. Best Mosquito display I ever saw was a sensational one at the Shuttleworth Pageant 1995, but I felt distinctly uncomfortable at seeing a unique airworthy machine being displayed in a semi-aerobatic fashion.

Thanks for that Robbo & Merlin – do you use RAW, or do you find max quality JPEG sufficient for ‘amateur’ (no disrepect intended!) use.

Cestrian – thanks for the pics – great to see the Student in one bit!

Thanks indeed to Cestrian. During the early 80s (and probably before), the Student lived in the Loganair hangar at GLA. It was operated (and I think owned by) Duncan McIntosh, Loganair’s MD. It flew very rarely…I only saw it airborne once in five years.

Nice shot of the Camel Gary. Did it just do the one show at OW, anybody?

At least two shows….1/8/93, presumably that year’s Military Pageant. Also present was TFC’s newly acquired Wildcat, operating off the grass at OW.

If they didn’t know TA 639 was in the wrong colours

I always thought it looked wrong, but couldn’t be sure……I found it difficult to believe that Cosford could have made such a fundamental mistake and presumed they had some evidence for the non standard scheme!

Call it suspension of disbelief……c*ck-up in progress, July1987.

I’m not sure it ever had the engines in! The bays were empty when she was in the Superhangar.

Pretty comprehensively engineless in this 1988 photo.

We (myself included) tend to get upset at inaccurate paint jobs – seems odd to me that that such an authentic scheme causes so much discussion. If it wasn’t for 3 CAACU, the world Mosquito population would be considerably poorer – I think it looks the dogs b*llocks, well done the IWM.

The Mosquito which confuses me, as Neilly alluded to, is TA639 at Cosford. Brown/green camouflage, red codes??….is that accurate?

Does anyone know which was the last Varsity at Finningley? I only ever saw the one, and it was in deep maintenance throughout my entire stay there (about 6 months) in the Engineering hanger in late 1973/4.

I was around Finningley 1976-78, and was there the day the Varsity was officially retired…..can’t be precise, but I would put about Easter 1977. What I can remember clearly is the rather spectacular farewell display…..the crew did not appear to be too concerned about over-stressing the machine!