Thanks for posting those pics! I was sad not to have been there as I’ve not seen a B2 in the air, however, I had to make do with going to Shuttleworth and Duxford instead! Hard life…

Great pics of the F35 especially.

Yep, to confirm, it’s VP-FAZ – photographed at Duxford on the 20th May:

VP-FAZ at Duxford by SimonR, on Flickr

I was minding my own business at home earlier on and heard a very distinctive sound and looked up to see Sally B flying low overhead, doing her usual pre-season circuits around Cambridge Airport. It’s always a great sight to see Sally on her first flights of the year. Hopefully the usual suspects were at Duxford to get some photos!

Congratulations David – beautiful photos, more-so than ever 🙂

Which Rapide were you in?

We nipped into Duxford today to see what was going on, and to take a look at progress with the Victor. Spitfire PV202 was busy for much of the afternoon giving pleasure flights with the rest of Classic Wings and Anna Walker was up in the Jungmann when we arrived. It was nice to see plenty of activity in the air and also a full car park. The Cosmic Wind, also took to the sky a couple of times in the afternoon and provided much entertainment for us, especially one family nearby, who were trying to convince their young son that it was actually a real aircraft and yes, there was a person inside it, flying it! Having it outside the hangar foiled our usual game of ‘Spot Ballerina’ – she’s usually behind a much larger aircraft and only just visible.

Anyway, I’m sure the regular people will be along soon with their fabulous photos as usual (I think I saw Mr. Whitworth in Hangar two) but in the mean time, here are a couple of things that I’ve got questions about! Firstly this – spotted in the second half of Hangar two, near the Catalina. What’s this a bit of (apologies for the awful quality of this image)?

IMAG1258 by Simon R, on Flickr

Also, what’s going on with Lasers, in conjunction with the Victor’s restoration?

IMAG1259 by Simon R, on Flickr

Finally, it is always nice to see N3200 on display in the Battle of Britain Hangar but today we noticed that there was a drip of engine oil on the rear-most exhaust stub on the Starboard side, and a trail on the front of the wing, where it had clearly been leaking since it last flew on the 23rd March. Is a bit of oil weepage into the exhaust manifold normal for a Merlin?

Thanks for the replies gents – makes sense that it’s the wrong way up, I couldn’t work out what that top profile would fit around.

It’s located in Setchey, in the antiques shop next to Beers of Europe – guess which shop I had made the journey to visit!

And yes – it does appear to read +-80 degrees centigrade.

My other half and I stopped by East Kirkby today to see how NX611 was looking and also to have a proper look round the place as we’ve only ever been there for an engine running event.

We were lucky enough to arrive in time to tag on the end of a restoration tour. It was a really interesting and inspiring hour or so – some of the costs involved are unbelievable and it’s easy to see where the time goes. It was a privilege to spend some time up close with the aircraft, to look inside the fuselage and see first hand some of the panels that have had to be re-manufactured. We plan to come back for one of this year’s engine runs, just as soon as they’ve put her back together for the summer season.

Just Jane NX611 by

If you’ve not made it to East Kirkby then I can recommend stopping by – there’s easily enough to occupy you for a day there and the food in the NAAFI ain’t half bad either: you could easily spend an hour taking in the displays there alone.