BAC1-11 – 5N-HHH (G-FIRE) used by the fire school looks quite close to the action, but more of a worry is the Belfast, as dispite the rumours of a one man restoration to get her airworthy, she does not look in the best of health. 🙁

Pics of the above mentioned taken earlier this year – sorry, picture quality not the best, I blame the camera!!

Can’t believe the Belfast will be returned to the air, looks too far gone? Hope I’m proved wrong.

Not the Queen, she visited in Jan/Feb 1956 – my grandfather worked in Kano / Jos at the time, and met the Royal couple at some stage – so this is probably the opening of the new terminal building. I have some old 8mm colour cine film taken by my grandfather of Jos(?) airfield in the early/mid 50s, showing amongst other things a DC3 arrival in a cloud of dust (my Aunt was on board) – not sure how I get this converted to digital format, but may be of some interest if it can be done.

…..and see this thread for link to great video clip of FM+BB:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58485

XL426 taxi runs for 2006 –

Saturday 5th August – VRT members only – £7.50 including buffet lunch and guest speaker – starts 1pm.

Saturday, 12th August – Open Day – £4 adults, £2 concessions, free for VRT members.

Southend, 1968 – recall a very noisy flypast & display by a Lightning, being allowed to look into the cockpit of a Spitfire, and seeing a Carvair under construction in one of the hangars.

I have the programmes for both this and the 1970 airshows – front covers reproduced below. Note the cost of flying your car to France from Southend in 1970 – from £9 each way!

Jamie, back to the original topic, the accident involving G-AVJZ – still can’t find my cuttings for this, will probably turn up sometime when I’m not looking for them, if so will post when I come across them.

However, the attached link to the Times digital archive brings up an article from The Times of 4th May, 1967 that includes a picture and gives a good account of the incident, including names and addresses of the casualties:

http://web4.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/236/735/79360449w4/purl…

Note – if the link doesn’t work, i’ll try pasting a copy of the article itself.

Gooney Bird, G-AGPV was damaged on the ground at Southend whilst being operated by Air Condor, but not certain of the cause. I believe Air Condor was only in operation between March 1960 and December of the same year, so that narrows the timeframe somewhat.

I have the maiden flight of the Carvair down as 21st June 1961, so either the 1960 damage was caused by another aircraft or I have my dates wrong (a distinct possibility!) Sorry, no cuttings for this one, I was only three at the time.

Papa Lima, I presume ‘AGPV was repaired after the accident, as she was subsequently operated by Trans European Airways until 1963, when they took her out of service. Scrapped at Gatwick in 1965.

Jamie, I beat you to it – G-BEPS taken this afternoon, but only got a couple of shots before the camera bettery went.

Looks to me like there’s still a considerable amount of work needed to put her back into the air.