There’s bound to be some obscure little regulation in Mr. Ecclestones big book of rules that prohibits anything otherwise.

I had a quick look at those rules once and immediately wanted to run off home and get back to reading something legible like the JAR-FCL.:rolleyes:

Can’t see the point in them still calling it a sport. It’s a multi million dollar business where highly paid employees called ‘drivers’ pretend to race eachother in contraptions named ‘cars’ with the unsuspecting public paying hugely for any scrap of paper that has any connection and all the proceedings going into one man’s pocket. But it is sport so its legal. [/rant off]

Hadn’t seen Flypast yet when I typed that previous message. I stand corrected……….

Haven’t been able to find a photo of the replica at Lelystad yet, it is visible in this shot, but only just: http://www.aviation-top-pics.com/images/194-9450_IMG.JPG

Many photos of the Aviodrome on this site: Aviation-top-pics

There aren’t that many photos around of her in the RAE colours (on the internet that is). If anybody knows of any, please let me know, I could use them on my site. The Scoval VC10 book has a colour shot in it which probably is an official RAE Bedford photo as well.

Vicky Ten: Do you have any more photos of the fuselage section? I wouldn’t mind a copy. :rolleyes:

Interesting to see those pics Melvyn, I was just looking at your website a couple of days ago wondering how the project was coming along. (Managed to not pay any attention to the planned completion date on said website 😀 )

Anyway, time for some pictures I guess:

Have flown:

Currently flying a C172 that I don’t have a photo of, until I can get my hands on something larger again.

Have tinkered with:

..and a lot of other stuff at Brooklands.

Inspirational thread this. I had been looking for a new desktop image for a while, but I seem to have found it now! I had to do a bit of fiddling with Photo Editor (the stupid Microsoft thingy, thank god I’ve got Photoshop at home!) to get this result (1600×1200 screen, so reduced to fit in the forum):

I don’t think the replica has any landing gear as it was meant to go on the pole after all. So the photo Tom posted is the real MK959 after removal. The banner in the background asks for donations to get MK732 flying again.

I have to dig out some old photos. I’ve got some shots of the real MK959 just after refitting to the pole after refurbishment. The gear remained down for a couple of days/weeks!

I do have this one of MK732 on its first trip to The Netherlands. She was still undergoing testing but made the trip over for the 50th anniversary of 322 squadron. This photo was taken the day after, flying from Leeuwarden to Rotterdam. Pilot was Dan Griffith.

Good to see her back in the air!

Some of you might be interested in a bit of background on this particular airframe. It has been used for years as a gate guard at Eindhoven Air base, The Netherlands, having flown for the Dutch AirForce. Back in the 90’s the Dutch Spitfire Flight was working to get MK732 back in the air, and as part of this campaign also purchased MK959 as a spares airframe and possible second flyer (or so we thought). As we all know MK732 made it into the air in 1993/4 (cannot remember off the top of my head now) but MK959 was not seen much after it had been removed from its pole, where it was succeeded by a plastic replica which is still in place to this day. After a few years of flying MK732 the group got into financial difficulties and one of the solutions was putting MK959 up for sale. In the end the DSF together with another group formed the basis of what is now the Dutch AirForce Historical Flight, a group which has a much bigger chance of surviving over the years as it is now backed by the Dutch Airforce.

The one thing that is jarring about this episode is the fact that MK959 was not transferred to the DSF to have her sold off. As the Dutch Airforce (who still owned the airframe when she was a gate guard) agreed to transfer her, they probably did so for a small price as the Airforce was also one of the original backers for the DSF (although not as publicly as they back the Historical flight now). I’m sure the DSF though managed to sell her for all she was worth! Also at the time of this transfer I’m sure that the aim was to preserve the airframe inside this country or have her play an active part, but as we now know, this never happened.

In the end we cannot complain, we still have an airworthy Spitfire in the Netherlands (as well as three examples in museums) and MK959 is back in the air. We did lose an airframe with a significant historical link to this country though as the chances of seeing her back here are very slim. And the way in which she left this country doesn’t really qualify for a prize in my view. In the end it is better for her than staying on top of that pole though, so I’ll have another look at that photo of a shiny green Spitfire and shut up now!;)

Having visited Kermit Weeks’ collection about a year and a half ago I was suitably stunned by the number of aircraft. The Lanc was still in its shipping crates then, but there was plenty to be seen still. Actually the most interesting bits were seen during the ‘backlot tour’ when some of the storage areas are visited. In one of the buildings two Blenheim/Bolingbroke fuselages were lying side by side!