Hi guys

Picking up on Tony’s post. After attending with cockpit’s or panels for a good few years now, Max and I decided to give it a miss this year and just turn up as general public. Our main reason being, that although we had always had many good comments from everyone, we had started to feel like poor cousins with our very low budget (by comparison to some) displays.

We had a Beagle Pup cockpit for a few years (now sold on and a proffesional film prop!), which we had put many hundreds of hours of work into, but which on the day, no one realy seemed to interested in, except for small children who loved it! This was the main reason for our going military and we got the Chipmunk project. But, we have also learned that the effort involved in dragging a project very much in progress all the way to Newark, is probably not worth the effort and again dosn’t light many fires. So we decided this year to give it a miss till we felt we had something worth while to show. I think the the general public expect to see something that they can relate to, and not a pile of parts hung together in a seemingly random way.

We will be back in the future, have no doubts about that, but we have learned to be realistic in the reaction we get to our work, for wat is for us a pashion.

As for this year, as always respect to the everyone who took part, Mike and Phils Phantoms were dominant in size and effort and deserve all the praise they get, Simon’s Tornado’s are as big and impresive as the man himself, and indeed all the cockpits were of a very high standard as always. All the displays were brilliant, and that’s coming from guys who know the effort it takes to prepair them.

Personaly, I loved the Airspeed Oxford project, and hope I will get to watch it develop over time, the same with the Cobra, it takes a special sort of devotion to take on projects like these, and massive respect to you guys.

To all of the organisers and exhibiters, thanks for putting on a great show, and long may it continue. And it was great to catch up with all our old mates.

And after what I have said above, dare I say it, my vote went to Mikes Phantom!!!!!

You as well?

What,
You got Bill in a dress as well?!!
He puts it about a bit.
Mind you, I caught my wife telling a friend that Max and I were off to a c**k fest last year!!!!! Took me while to both explain and live it down!

Our old baby.

Nice to see our old baby (JP.3A, XN584) looking good, and nice to know she is in carring hands.

A brilliant weekend.

Hi all

We were a very small part of the line up this weekend, with just a few instrument panels on display.

First I want to say thanks to all at the Newark Air Museum, for a brilliant (as always) event, you never let us down.

Second, well done to the prize winners, we were next to the Sea Venom, and not only was it a wonderfull cockpit, but two nicer guys than the owners, you will never meet, a very well deserved win. And Mike Davey’s HS-748 cockpit was superb, more of a time capsule than a cockpit, brilliant. And to all fellow cockpiteer’s, thanks as always for the freindship.

Last, a word about the dreaded radiation issue, as instrument panel displayers, we entered the event I admit with some trepidation. However, this issue, which has been forced upon the MAM, was not in the end a problem at all. The guy who poped round with his testing kit was a realy nice bloke, who quickly went over anything of interest with his kit, and we had no problems at all. On the very few occasions where a problem was found, such as with a few WW2 vintage items, he simply moved the display back a few inches (and I do mean a few) from the public, re tested and went on his way with a smile, no problem at all. With a little common sence, this turned out to be a very small issue, no one was asked to leave the site at any time, but a very small number of items were I understand removed to car boots.

A few simple guid lines if followed mean its not a problem at all, so, do not display older gauges with cracked, brocken or removed glass, be prepaired to move a few inches back, even the largest WW2 vintage panels, such as the Mosquito, where only about 3 feet from the gangway.

The organisers did worry about the “radiation effect” on participation, but it just wasn’t a problem at all to anyone I spoke to. Indeed, the only thing I saw all weekend that looked like it had been subject to to much radiation, was Bill O’sulivans head, but that was just the wonderfull sunshine on Sunday (and maybe a few beer’s on Saturday evening!!).

A brilliant weekend, and roll on next year.