I went on the Monday and getting out of the car jet engines could be heard. to my surprise and delight four Jaguars out on the field including the specially marked final flight Jaguar coloured one which some lucky person was taxing around. a great start to a good day.

Can any one tell me what size fittings were used to fix instruments to instrument panel of a Hurricane. Thanks

Great flying, good to see the Pilot OK. The BBMF is not totally taxpayer funded please see the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association website for more info on what they do and what they have supplied to the Lanc and other aircraft. If memory serves the second Hurricane was rebuilt from the money raised from selling a Spit and the most recent rebuild was done in the engineers own time. Also I believe it was a decision higher up in the ranks of the individual service how much support to give to there historic flights and the R.A.F saw the positives and benefits for the service of the BBMF hence the funding given from there budget, where the higher ranks in the Navy did not see these benefits so the support and funding seen was alot less. Saying that I believe the Navy top brass has now changed it’s attitude and tries to support the RNHF more because of the benefits it see’s.

Thanks Steve, If it wasn’t for Stephen Grey we probably wouldn’t have seen some of these aircraft in the U.K at all. Just a shame that some of the more rarer one’s move on, but I guess if they are rarer they are more desirable to others. Would be nice to see an original 109 in the skies of the U.K. again.

Although I agree we may see a slimming of the collection, Pete Kynsey is chief pilot for TFC and does most of the flying, reading flypast this month it states that Nick will be filling the joker slot and Stephen will still be involved, TFC is slightly different to other collections with a great number of individuals contributing each year. Stephen is still around and I can see him still buying and selling if the right aircraft comes up at the right price.