Yeah, right… I can hear the whingeing now, if I went to play aeroplanes and you got left at home.

Busted! 😀

Chucking down with snow here North of the Tyne…hope ‘319 is okay there on the other side of the river?!

While I’ve very much become schooled in the Bill Smith way of DOING things, I can see that it must be harder to achieve things with virtually no tools and just Sundays to work. But then, we don’t work on Bluebird as much as some people probably think, and we don’t have much more than basic tools ourselves. Most of it is begged, borrowed or downright sto…erm, borrowed, but, we manage perfectly well because with a strong leader to guide us, we TRY.

I mean, twenty years failing to open engine doors that Bill then shifted within about an hour with a suitable tool and a smidge of know-how must surely tell you something? If not fully committed elsewhere, we could breeze in there and achieve a lot with your lovely aircraft- but so can you!

Personal preference would be a fresh coat of whatever is the correct camo- I don’t think the white would look very good where she’s parked, and as already mentioned, the upkeep would be awful- she’d look a lot dirtier a lot sooner.

If nothing else, it’s a shame that the one Olympus- I forget which- is shut away inside the aircraft unseen, as it’s absolutely mint- the hydraulic pump on it that we saw yesterday for example looked like it had just come out of the stores! So even as a static display item, it would be worth having that out; I’m sure we could fabricate you a suitable stand for it in no time, if one isn’t available. Plus, it would be easy to replace the weight in the aircraft if that was a concern re. her balance etc.

Re. running one, well yes Bluebird Bill WOULD find a way, he always does, but in reality, just that comms mast behind the aircraft would prevent such a thing I’m sure?

But just remember the motto of The Bluebird Project- ‘It’ll fix’.