Yes indeed, some rare sights there – a sunny display at Woodford !

We all love a bit of free style xylophone, but c’mon, 15 minutes….. :rolleyes:

Nice to see the Spit G-ALGT in civi colours.

Thanks Propstrike. The pilot Harold Penrose was probably referring to was his assistant Peter Garner, who was killed when the engine stopped and he subsequently failed to pull out sufficiently from the resulting dive.

It was Harold Penrose who made the comment “Very nearly a very good aeroplane”

Not setting out to correct you ( and I did double check myself! ) but Mr Penrose had the unusual spelling of his christian name. I can’t say I have ever seen it spelt as such before.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-harald-penrose-1362801.html

You are right about Peter Garner. I recall HP was dismayed at the hard-nosed attitude of Westland towards the welfare of the pilot’s berieved family, and made considerable personal efforts to see that some long term assistance was put in place.

I warmed to him for this, and the philosophical character that emerged in his later books, such as Airymouse.

I did, but I have got over it.

I find I buy almost no periodicals now, as the cost, the time to ‘consume’ and the issue of storage ( too good to chuck ) are all issues now.

Pre-internet, it was as good as it could be, but for great pictures, up-to date info, background stories, online sources are more than adequate. However, it WAS a lovely read, – the paper was thick and glossy….

A very touching account, and gratifying that his daughter was able to understand a little more of the circumstances of his loss.

I think the Wyverns were pretty hairy to fly, and remember Harald Penrose describing the loss of one of his fellow Westland test pilots in the type.

I think the Retrotec Hawker Fury K5674 could be a good contender.

Seemingly it has been paperwork issues rather than engineering ones which have delayed the first flight, which would otherwise have taken place last year.

”K5674 G-CBZP Hawker Fury 1 c/n 41H-67550
Originally built as part of a batch of 20 against Contract No: 409396/35 by Hawker for RAF with K5674.
Initially delivered 20.11.35 to 2 Aircraft Storage Unit Cardington. Delivered 02.06.36 to 43 Sqdn
Tangmere. To 5 MU Kemble 06.02.39. To 47 MU Sealand 14.07.40. To South African AF 05.08.40. Guy
Black & team recovered it from a farm in South Africa. Regd 02.04.03 as G-CBZP to Historic Aircraft
Collection Ltd. Rebuild by Retrotec at St Leonards-on-Sea and moved out for final assembly and flight
testing by 04.11. CAA Exemption issued 19.05.11 to carry RAF serial K5674 expires 31.05.14.”

http://www.axtd59.dsl.pipex.com/G-CBZP-.pdf

. I am not trying to be a smartass here, but pointing out that such flying as depicted can be carried out with more than a modicum of safety.

Thanks for that, but we find discussion round here flows much more freely if nobody has a clue what they are talking about 😉

Would love to see some pics of crop dusting Dakotas!

Just goes to show if you wait long enough ( 8 years 🙂 ) someone will come up with an answer !

Great shot, and pleasing to see White Waltham 50 years ago. That particular view has barely changed, with the two hangars and clubhouse much the same.

Welcome to the forum.

I think Nigel Farage and his rapping would go down pretty well 😀

(Back ground info- Nigel is the leader of UKIP, and about the only politician making a stand again the unelected socialist EU bulldozer crushing the life out of Europe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmw1DrHRuw8

The song ‘contest’ is a bogus, rigged, corrupt and wasteful as the appalling Europe ‘project’ which spawned it. Perhaps if we ignore it, it will go away.