Another not to be missed film is The Hunters (1958) starring Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner and Richard Egan..set in Korea in an F86 squadron. Again, excellent footage of Sabres, air to air and ground stuff, good yarn and in colour. Recommended when on the telly. And of course, the Bridges at Toko-Ri, another classic.

And don’t forget the B36 that mixed up Enstone with Upper Heyford..more or less on the same runway heading but a big difference in runway length, hence ending up in a field at Enstone!! Love to heard the pilot talking his way out of that one !! It was written up in Aeroplane Monthly some years ago..can’t remember the date of the article.

Let’s not forget Sqdn Ldr Paddy Payne of the Lion in the early 60’s. I think the Lion also had a cutaway drawing sourced from various places including Flight magazine and others..that was always torn out and kept along with the wonderful Eagle centre page cutaways by L Ashwell-Wood and later Roy Cross and others. Ah happy, uncomplicated days..
(well, apart from being 4 minutes away from nuclear annihilation at all times !!)

Excellent video, thanks for the link. When oh when will we see one fly in the UK…..@ Legends preferably. Stuff the piston engine rule !!

And for anyone who’s ever wondered what DOES happen if you do a mag check either without someone sitting on the tailplane, or the stick pulled right back……….this is expensive!!

Very sad to hear this. Warbirds Worldwide is a fine legacy and his expertise will be missed.

Another excellent day, and big thanks to all of the organisers at every level…..from pilots to ATC cadets on the car parks.
Impressions.
Initially a bit disappointed to find all the Spits lined up in front of the hangars and fairground making flightline photography a bit difficult to exclude rubbish in the background, but actually ended up on the fence behind them…and when they all start together, I think I’ve died and gone to piston engine heaven.
Getting a tad fed up with the padlocking and roping off of large areas of the fence. It just seems a bit antisocial and gets worse each year.
I am not the only one fed up with the large numbers of flourescent yellow and orange jackets, tractors and so on that clog up the flightline for the walkabout. Almost every overheard conversation I heard was critical of the fact the people had paid money for this, and there must be some way of separating, in timing, the media people and their “escorts”, and general hangers-on who seem to populate the area. The organisers MUST understand that this hacks a lot of people off..but I don’t suppose they’ll change anything. The uniform recreators I can put up with..if you want to include some genuine looking flying kit in your pictures then that’s fine, you have a choice….but cloning out yellow jackets with Photoshop gets a bit wearing.
The Yak team…hmmm. I would prefer to see an F-86 or a couple of classic jets instead. Presumably if the German 262 had a Permit to Fly for the UK it would be booked like a shot, so why not the Sabre?
This all sounds like an excerpt from Grumpy Old Men-The Airshow Edition. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time as usual..high spots for me …Seafire, Morane, Mustang tailchase (why does the Merlin sound so much LOUDER in a P51..they sounded like a bunch of kick-ass hooligans when they started up), a truly awesome 2 ship Mustang formation aerobatic display from Ed Shipley and Lee Proudfoot….Fantastic.
As I write at midday Sunday, the low cloud is rapidly clearing from NW London from the west although still a fairly strong wind. Hope it blows away the stuff from DX and you have a good today today.

What has happened to BBC outside broadcasting..a very poor show. The potential for the aerials was there but shoddy cutting, too much talk, and lots of breakup of the images of Alex Henshaw spoiled it ….and what happened to the interview with Gordon Mitchell? Disappointing coverage of a very very special occasion for Alex. Pity.

Two pictures separated by 33 years of wonderful memories…………

Biggin Hill Battle of Britain display September 1971

to

Flying Legends July 2004.

Thank you Ray…you were simply the best.