thanks for all the support so far gents, keep it coming. the more emails the better:) and yes as interesting as the Duxford situation is, can we ask for that subject to be discussed on a diferent thread.

Very sorry to hear the news – is there any further lobbying or letter writing that can be done from the ‘pro-museum’ side?

Also I thought from PV’s last ‘email circular’ that there was some hope after the ‘off-record comments’ noted from some of the councillors – again anyone in particular that needs to be sent letters etc?

Yes, the best bet folks is to email the chief planing officer. your input will be published within 48hrs on the council website

* The Chief Planning Officer
* Mole Valley District Council
* Pippbrook
* Dorking
* Surrey
* RH4 1SJ

or email:- [email]planning@molevalley.gov.uk[/email]. using MO/2011/0190 as a reference..

As for appeal. We WILL definitely be going to appeal should the decision go against us next week, and if necessary Public enquiry and further. If the council thought we were going to go away without an epic fight, they are sadly mistaken..we are just getting warmed up! Of note is the fact that we only need a majority of 8 to 7 to get the decision in favour. While you may think that the letters make no difference, it may be true of next weeks decision, however every single letter of support WILL count at appeals, since they all have to be read by an independant planning inspector at public enquiry.

May I also add that Peter is not exagerating above. There is a very real possibilty that the council will enforce the notice this time, and fight to get the airframes crushed, as he has already mention, this will almost certainly spell the end for almost all of them asides from those that are straight forward to transport.

Well said David and AMB; better a well presented machine in the ‘wrong’ colour than a perfectly correct one that needs disproportionate attention to stop it becoming tatty or taking time away from other more vital preservation work. Nothing puts the general public off a collection more quickly than the sight of apparently derelict machines and if that means it offends the petty minded armchair experts, well, frankly, tough!

Meanwhile here’s another in-service shot dating from 1978, just to keep the interest going. It’s dayglo, but it’s a very red shade of dayglo, compared with the dayglo used on Gnats and Chipmunks, for example.

And that is exactly what we found on both machines. hence we rreplicated that with ordinary Red. The correct “RED” dayglo is/was some years ago in the region of £90 a litre. Re-applying that every 3 months made no financial sense at all.

[QUOTE=’568 crew;1734629]I thought this thread was supposed to be about Buccaneers?

And was the aircraft ever nicknamed the ‘Brick’?[/QUOTE]

may have been aimed at the S1, as those gyrons were guttless!

Regarding fire crew in attendance – they arrived a few minutes before they started the engine. I believe the aircraft was last started up about 8 months ago or so (anyone confirm?) so I guess they thought it would be safer to have fire crew there?

nothing unusual. Its standard practice to have GA fire fighters in attendance after any major work on engines or pipes.

Whats happened to ‘458’s belly tank??

Its been removed for a record attempt….

JB154, Lightning t5. JB154 Vixen. IC coms

Just about every motorcycle shop in the nation sells ACF50.

If, at some point down the road, the airframe goes for a repaint expect some interesting conversations with the painter after he finds out someone used engine oil to “make it look good”

Have you ever tried oiling down something the size of a harrier or Shackleton with a silly little spray can of ACF50?? no, I thought not. one can would last one wing! It’s damned expensive. fine for motorcycles and millionaires, not for half a dozen whole air frames a month.

As for the painters, who gives a stuff.How often do such aiframes ever get a total repaint!? By the time it needs a total repaint, it should be taken back to metal anyway. we are talking about non flying outside storage scrap for all intensive purposes, with no budget for fancy paint jobs.