What about when the Blenheim was originally brought into service with the RAF? The services weren’t that keen on dual-control trainers at the time and the average service pilot would have been required to ‘solo’ on type with possibly far less experience that a modern display pilot.

Concerning learning to fly the Blenheim, Tony Tubbenhauer (pilot with 244 squadron at Sharjah in 1942) told me about his introduction to Blenheims at 70 OTU in Kenya in 1941. He had 4 duel flights (3 hours) with an instructor in the Blenheim I in 3 days, then soloed on the Mk IV the next day.

t looks like this one number 5. From the ‘Flying Scale Models’ MAP book. Perival Gull

Dave

The same photos as in post 3, above, appear in the Aero Modeller Annual 1953 (page 61). The text states that the logo with the banking gull is hand-painted in black, yellow and white on Proctor G-AIEP. There is a photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwhitworth/5450165913/in/set-72157626751303608
The same article also illustrates G-AHWU with a similar logo on the fin, but with a blue background.

Good news, Eric. All the best for the next stage. This seems like the way all such work should be done.

Although I haven’t played for months (nothing to offer!), I am fascinated by this latest wierdy. Is the long fuselage welded to a 1930s Buick so that you can get enough wound-up elastic in to turn that propeller at the back … ?

Texantomcat: Sorry I was not able to get across for your show a couple of weeks ago. Too much to do and too little time, but in any case you had sold out by the time I got round to thinking about it! One day though!

Re the Canberra, I think 115 Peterborough ATC (my old squadron) were trying to dispose of theirs a while ago. Not far from you, but I don’t know if they still have it.

http://www.bywat.co.uk/wk127.html

Nice-looking Chipmunk

http://www.ebay.com/itm/dhc1-Chipmunk/231311052218?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D24901%26meid%3D85d55243c490454ba3dc083b0a365cf9%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D10502%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D121416799073

we don’t know how many people were involved in the search -what height they were searching from -if there was a natural path or rocks that indicated shelter …. – how much effort was put into the search for bones is somewhat vague.

According to Arido’s own report the reasons for the team going in the direction they did was based on “reports, texts and testimonies”, as can be gathered from the following text that I have copied from their web site and edited below. I still have not been able to work out why they took that decision and that direction.

http://www.qattara.it/versione%20in%20arabo/TESTO%20_1_.pdf

“On the morning of June 16, 2012, we started at dawn to find the remains of the pilot in the direction that, reading reports, texts and testimonies, perhaps Copping had followed. ….. We split into 5 teams supported also by local people and began to move towards the south east (towards Farafra) ….. After about 2 hours of walking, Riccardo advised through the radio of a discovery: in the middle of nowhere….. is probably a shirt button imprinted with the date of 1939. …. We continued walking, I went up on every hill or ridge on my way until after another hour I saw with binoculars from a distance of 300 meters something white in a small area of shadow. ….. We arrived on site, the others arrived and found a piece of white material stuck between the rocks beneath them and in a small creek of perhaps 2 square meters in the shade there were some bones….. they seem to be some vertebrae, ribs, collarbone and some smaller bones.”

No, Dennis Copping is not forgotten, but in spite of a number of attempts to get more information about the various problems we have had in the past, as described in previous posts, I have not got any further.