Sadly, I’m not. I’ve known AF as long as I’ve known you – almost to the day in fact. He’s one of the few people that have seen me without my overalls on.

I remember it well, again and again and again……………….
Hee Hee Hee…….. :diablo:

Do it,…………….

Hi Mate.
I was introduced to my first “Historic aeroplane” (I hate the word WARBIRD) many years ago thanks to my Dad and a mate of his, they used to be involved with Rolls Royce at Hucknall and they were going to have an air display on the up and coming weekend, and my dads mate told my dad to bring me over the day before the display to have a look around some of the old aeroplanes, one of which was the RR Spitfire XIV. My Dad did take me along with mum, he showed me around the Spitfire, he also gave me the guided tour of the works at Hucknall as well and this was in the late 60s. I never forgot that visit, and I remember thinking I would like to work on one of those (Spitfire), I never wanted to fly, just to work on them. I was lucky, I did with BBMF and still do 18 years after starting with the flight, I now work as one of Carolyn Grace’s engineers on ML407.

At the begining of 2003, I started taking my son and daughter who were then 6, down to the hanger, not forced into going, they kept asking if they could come with me, and they enjoys every visit and are is really starting to learn their way around the aeroplane, they understand what they can and cannot touch, and touch nothing unless they ask first. my daughter even rides brakes when we take the aeroplane out to the airfield.

Last year, I remembered my first visit to Hucknall with Mum & Dad, and arranged a visit with Carolyn for my Dad to have look around the aeroplane, I wanted to get Dad a flight but he has been ill and declined, so I did the next best thing, I sat him in the back seat while I carried out one of the maintenance ground runs, his face was a picture, unfortunatly I didn’t get a chance to ask Mum to take any photos. But we still talk about it, and my son says that one day he will do that with me.

I don’t think we’re “Elitist” but I think we are sometimes perceived as elitist by a minority who perhaps don’t have our enthusiasm for our chosen subject. On the other hand maybe some of the “Warbird enthusiasts” go over the top.

Sorry to have gone on, Thats a happy memory and I’m glad I’ve shared it with you.

AF: Wear a skirt next time.
What do I want to see? It would be great to have the groundcrew accommodation not so far from the airfield!

You could always share my room, that way you could lend me a skirt……………………

Its nice to see we’re talking about Heath & Saftey, radium or whatever you want to call it. What do we have stored at the good old USAF airbase in Suffolk – probably the largest collection of buckets of sunshine for miles around.
We have more pieces of depleted uranium flying around as ballast and mass ballancs weights than we can shake a stick at and all these arse wipe H&S experts seem to worry about is old clock faces – jeees,

keep on talking, its entertaining if nothing else………

have a nice day – now f%&k £$f

God . I must glow in the dark then, I spent hours and hours in the Valiant when I was at Marham in the 70s.
Health and Saftey – complete load of bo&£+~ks. Use common sense for gods sake.
We will be taking steps out to the live side soon because the steps on the side of the aeroplane dont meet a certain H&S standard. Complete bulls&%t.

Have a nice day, now £$&+ off