Unfortunately, lots of aircraft enthusiasts have missed many great opportunities to commit their everyday aviation experiences to the camera for posterity. In some cases, we were (officially) not allowed to have a camera with us (or could not afford one!), in those bygone photo opportunities that existed in our living and working environments.

I lived in accommodation that overlooked the eastern end of the runway at Gibraltar for over 2 years: no camera – so missed many potentially exciting shots of Shackletons doing roller landings and lots of crosswind approaches by the ‘Tangiers Bomber’ (Gibair DC3).

Similarly, I worked at the end of the runway in Kuching for a year, where I had a front row view of approaches & landings carried out by Single & Twin Pins, DC3, F27, Auster AOPs, Hastings, Argosy, Beverley, Hunter, Javelin and many others – these I duly consigned to 8mm cine film, all of which was subsequently damaged beyond repair :(. If only! This one was taken from just outside our office (tent) at Masirah, early 1959:

excellant spitfire, what scale ??

According to JP’s website, it’s 1/3rd scale http://jeanpierre.cousinet.free.fr/.
Anyone gonna buy it?:D

Done also – nice car!

Surely it can only drag its tail when on the gound? Unless it had a severe CofG problem that I’m unaware of?

CofG problems! On occasions, the Shack II had a propensity to drag its tail when in the air, too. I recall several (four?) a/c on 224 Sqdn having to be stripped bare of the fancy paint job that had been added to their aft fuselage and tail for a tour of South America, as the trim was seriously affected by the several coats of paint in these areas i.e. original (possibly more than one coat), South America scheme, repaint back to standard. This extra weight had trim implications too;(throw several buckets of the finest sea grey ‘dulux’ on the scales to find out how heavy this was when spread all over the rear end of the grey lady:D).
The Shackleton tailwheel was also well-known for cocking sideways at times during the takeoff run; this provided much amusement to onlookers as various attempts were made to bump it into a more regular alignment.

Here’s a bundle of michief, 9 weeks old – his name is Beau (I call him Bo because he doesn’t know the difference!)

Great shots (as usual!), Nick.

Love the formation Daks – including the ‘weird’ one!