I was there on Saturday and was happy to see the Valiant reassembled and out doors fantastic chance for pics

The CI is bringing me the book this Thursday I will let you know when it is ready.

I work with 1137Sqn ATC based at Sydenham at present one of the CIs is compiling a history of the Sqn and he has a history of Sydenham in his possesion.It was published I believe in the late 70s by the station.I will speak to him later in the week and see if it can be copied.

Wessex fan its amazing what you can see on BBC local news 😀

This reminds me of some people who complained to my local council that light aircraft from the local airfield were causing them annoyance on take offs and landings,the reply they got boiled down to, the airfield has been there from the 30s your house was built in the 80s,your choice to live there ,tough.

This morning at Regent House School,Newtownards I had the ATC NCOs at the Rememberance assembly.The cadets marched in front of the Head Boy and girl who laid a wreath to commemorate pupils of the school who died during the war.One of those pupils was Flt Lt RAA Doherty DFC who was killed flying a Pathfinder Mosquito of 608 Sqn over Berlin on the 23rd of February 1945 and whose body was never recovered. We had arranged for Sqn Ldr (Ret) Tom Long DFC and bar to speak to the assembly as he had joined with Doherty in Belfast in 1939 completed training with him on Wellingtons and then in 1944 both were posted to 608 sharing the same airframe.Tom Long flew a mission over Berlin on the 20th Feb and went on leave when he returned Aubrey Doherty was gone.Tom described this to the pupils and his feelings.I watched the Pupils faces and their expressions changed from boredom to rapt atention ,when Tom stopped speaking there was a moment of silence then the hall exploded with applause.I think what got the kids the mos was when Tom said that Aubrey Doherty will always be 22 and another who joined with them would always be 19,a year older than most of those present .