Yep, built a load of Airfix stuff in my now distant youth.

First example was the “plastic bagged” 1/72 Auster Antarctic (well, in reality I helped by watching my Dad build it for me), I was allowed to choose the undercarriage fit and opted for skis (the “spare” wheels and floats went in the bin) next was their old Bf109, another choice required in terms of the air intake filter and markings……from then on I built them myself.

Particular favourites included the Saab Viggen, Hawker P1127, DeH Heron, Spitfire V, MRCA Prototype, BAe Hawk. A few 1/144 airliners included a Boeing 707, and a 747, and a Vickers Vanguard, but soemhow it was always the 1/72 models that caught my eye.

I also branched out into other brands’ ranges too – Matchbox produced some wonderfully crisp models, with excellent fit of parts, unlike some of the airfix moulds where fit was often a bit rough.

My last builds were for my son a few years ago now, but unfortunately they failed to fire his imagination, despite half reasonable results. He has a few unbuilt models he never got around to building, perhaps I can have a go at them when he goes off to Uni next autumn.

I got into the “instant gratification” fix offerred by diecast models when Corgi started their 1/72 range, their results are (usually) so much better than anything I could achieve 😮

Paul F

Hell’s teeth! It makes the mouth go dry reading it! What an astonishing piece of analysis – one cannot help thinking that most pilots this happened to would have been making their report to St Peter… 😮

Adrian

IIRC Neil Williams had graduated from the ETPS, and so was both a fully trained test pilot, and a world-class aerobatic pilot, so if anyone stood any chance of getting out of the situation in one piece it was he. Still an absolutely incredible piece of airmanship though, demonstrating what can be achieved with the necessary skills, and with detailled knowledge of the airframe structure around you – and very worthy of the subsequent award for outstanding airmanship.

As Pogno said earlier, I too remember him hopping between very different types at Old Warden shows, and elsewhere. And his displays in MH434 were perfection – pre-dating the arrival of a certain Mr Hanna at her helm.

NW regularly flew aircraft from the PPS fleet for Doug Bianchi, including the Yak 11 which DB had restored. He also flew Tiger Club types at displays, test flew Des St Cyriens Sopwith Pup rebuild at Fairoaks, and flew Patrick Lindsays fleet (IIRC). NW also represented UK in World aerobatic championships ona number of occasions, and his input helped bring the UK-built Cranfield A1 (G-BCIT) into being, in hope of competing with the Russian and US-built specialist aerobatic types starting to dominate the competition (Pitts, Sukhois etc), as UK were still flying Stampes, Tiger Moths and things like the Cosmic Wind “Ballerina” against them, with little real chance of success.

Despite all this “excitement” in his career, he also flew relatively “straightforward” ferry flights on various types, and piloted executive charters. It was whilst ferrying a CASA 211 back to UK from Spain that he was killed.

For more info, try looking out second hand copies of “Airborne”, a compilation of the autobiographical articles he wrote for Pilot magazine amongst others, which includes the tale related by Pogno, and also recounts the Zlin wing-folding incident in detail. I have read, and re-read my copy many times.

DB also wrote short articles for Pilot magazine, all with a very wry sense of humour – I could rarely read one without laughing out loud. Both he and NW had the ability to capture technical detail on the written page yet not leave the armchair-bound non-expert behind.

RIP Neil and Doug, you both did much to help get the UK restoration and Warbird scene get on it’s feet. We all owe you so very much.

Paul F

Surely it’s not beyond the whit of computer manufacturers to fit “fluff catcher” ( Switches to best Frankie Howerd mode…oooh er Missus!) meshes over cooling intake vents on the external casings of laptops and full size CPUs ? The larger fibres could then be filtered out of the intake airflow at that point, and the build up would be both readily visible and easily removed by mini-vac (other cleaning products are available) without any need to disassemble the PC casing and get inside the beast?

Are PC Manufacturers unaware of the “real worlds” in which their products are used these days, do they still think we still all use our PC’s in special airconditioned, near sterile, working environments…?

(Switches to best conspiracy theory whisper) Or maybe they intentionally leave such obvious improvements out of their products in the hope that x% of PCs will get their cooling systems clogged up every year, then over-heat, get damaged beyond economic repair as a result of being gently cooked to death, and thus generate a steady “replacement purchase” market stream…..

Also, fitment of effective fluff ‘n fibre filters might also rapidly put their far eastern “USB Mini Vac” manufacturing colleagues, and their authorised PC repair agents out of business I guess….

I hate to think what microorganism nasties many domestic PCs are harbouring inside their darkest nooks and crannies given the likely build up of carpet fibres, pet hairs, clothing fibres, human hairs…. yeeeuch, don’t even go there…. Might be safest to fumigate the machine before removing the case, or it’s resident colonies might try and fight back 😀

Paul F

Hi AA,

I live in Lewes, and believe the C-47 came down close to the site of the current Newmarket Pub/Restaurant, which would tie in with T-21’s comments above. The current A27 trunk road takes me past the site most days.

I am happy to follow the matter up locally (town library archives etc) if you need me to. There have been a number of articles in local press (over the 20 years we have lived there) relating to wartime aviation incidents in and around the town, and the C-47 crash is one that is always mentioned.

Paul F

Pete,

How do you think some people react when they hear that Lottery funding is going towards other causes that they personally have no interest in, or perhaps that they do do not support or understand, such as perhaps arts groups, theatres, ballet troupes, youth organisations, aviation heritage projects and so on?

I doubt there is any single lottery benefactor that no-one has objected too – it’s a case of “each to their own” surely.

If your complaint is that these two benefactors are reputed to be wealthy organisations, then get involved in working with causes you deem to be more appropriate benefactors, and do your best to ensure the less well off causes you support get their fair share of lottery hand-outs.

However, expect a few objections from others if/when your causes are chosen – however “cash poor” the causes may be there will be someone who doesn’t see them as suitable beneficiaries.

Paul F

er…no, move next to an airfield, don’t be surprised to see and hear aircraft – if I moved to Slough could I demand the M4 be closed because of noise?

These days anything seems possible – saw in the Daily Telegruff earlier this week a that a couple had moved out of the big smoke, and bought a twee cottage in a pretty Devon village (IIRC). Their new home is sited across the village green from the village church. They are now seeking to get the church bells silenced from 9:00pm to 7:00am every day, as the noise was disturbing them:mad: 😡 😡 .

Surely they had spotted the Church when the looked around their dream home? Didn’t it occur to them that the church might have bells? If not, then it suggest they didn’t spend much time inspecting their prospective puchase before they bought it….

So, Maple 01 , the old adage of “buyer beware” , and the use of common sense seems to have fallen by the wayside these days…. So why not start a campaign to get the M4 shut between say 9:00pm and 7:00am if it’s disturbing your ZZ’s 😀

Paul F

Sorry, but I can’t make it – I need to get the car window re-fitted, or I risk owning the first Zafira with an in-car swimming pool 🙁 .

Make sure someone posts a few photos of the day.

Paul F

As someone who has no real interest in football per se, here’s a radical thought, how about paying England players (and coaching staff)match fees purely based on results achieved, with a “no win – no fee” approach ………that might stick a rocket up all their backsides :dev2:

Problem is, they all earn far too much from their “day job” contracts anyway, so any England match fees would probably be small change to them, and thus even a win-related pay scheme might not motivate them.

As has been said above, why don’t most England supporters just wake up to the fact that the team is now a second-rate national side, the Glory days of 1966 etc are long gone, and it’s about time everyone woke up to that fact. Croatia simply outplayed England last night, we weren’t “unlucky”, we were simply beaten by a better team. Croatia played like a team, England played like eleven seperate men.

For years my better half has been saying that the problem is that there are so many foreigners playing in the UK premiership that the FA don’t have enough good English players to choose from. At long last the FA seem to be picking up on that idea too – as with most sports, once serious money moved in then the game was ruined – the only reason certain premiership teams have so many foreign players is the greedy pursuit of cash, the fact that they choose to bring so many foreign players in must surely suggest that home grown players are just not up to scratch, and should have been ringing alarm bells at the FA many years ago.

Rather than worry about qualifying for the next major international competition (whatever that is), perhaps FA should look at encouraging grass roots football, so as to help raise a new generation of high quality players, and ensure they comne to fruition by limiting the numbers of overseas players a team can put on the books, and put on the field in any match.

Personally I couldn’t give a monkeys how the team do/did. I just wish the fact that England are out would now mean that next summer’s TV schedules would be “Euro 2008 – free” – a forlorn hope methinks. Instead we’ll be forced to endure a month of “What if..?” scenarios, and all sorts of hypothetical “Well, if we’d qualified, England would have beaten so and so, and be in the knock out/quat=rterfinals/semi final/final” rubbish, while the TV channels desperately try to convince the population that they need to watch the games.

Paul F