Probably a Norseman fuselage, with Glen Miller still inside, and still composing!

I went into my local Oxfam shop this week, and found a number of non-mainstream aviation titles. ‘Yes’ said shop manager, a chap turned up in a car 10 days ago with nearly 300 aviation books, the prize of which was some Spitfire literature signed by ‘RJ himself ! Mr Oxfam looked on the internet, and saw something similar going for many hundreds of pounds but decided since they were a charity shop, he would put it on the shelf at £40!

Sadly it sold about fifteeen seconds later.

Given their closeness, one might imagine that Neil was affected by the news of Doug’s death, though to what extent nobody will know. It may have added a degree of urgency in returning to the UK. For readers who do not recall, Neil and two others lost their lives in a Casa 2-111 being ferried from Spain to Blackbushe for Doug Arnold.

Doug Bianchi was an inspired writer, and his articles in Pilot were superb and hilarious. He wrote about bringing back the Mew Gull from France, filming Aces High, taking a Fokker Triplane to Germany to promote ‘The Blue Max’ and numerous other subjects. They really deserve to be re-released.

Neil did his first Spit solo from Swanton Morley, but it nearly didn’t happen, as he could not get in, not knowing there was a little button in the cockpit frame to open the hood!

I can now confirm it IS in Berlin.

It went via Brian Woodford, and his collection.

‘Merry Christmas darling- I hope you like it. It took ages to wrap’

Great project, that should keep you busy for a while. You might know we have some other contributers on here who are engaged in Proctorish endeavours.

Len Perry was lost in the USSR about ten years ago, aboard a spining Sukhoi 29.-ironically the aeroplane was not badly damaged, and flew again.

Barbelle was always very generous with her ‘fleet’ , the first of which was Cub G-BTUM at White Waltham, but expanded to include the Beech 18, Yak52 Yak.55 Harvard and A26.

For some years she has lived at a residential airpark near Wellington, Florida and I believe she operates a pink Stearman, but latterly has also owned a red Decathalon at White Waltham, where she is sometimes still seen.

North London would include Elstree, which is a bit of a tatty dump ,but seems quite busy, especially Cabair. It may be worth approaching them to do some Ops work and take flying in part-payment.

Just being on an airfield, and around flying people will bring many opportunities and chances to meet interesting people. Other than that, if the budget is really stretched, what about gliding, and then converting from Silver C to PPL in about 8 hours. That can be a less expencive option.

Any competition standard in excess of ‘Beginners; is likely to include some flicking figures, which is not ideal for a 60 year old fighter, though no doubt they were flicked in squadron service! .

Tony was mentored by Neil Williams and Manx Kelly, the latter entering Morane Saulnier 230 G-AVEB in a contest, and doing quite well. Brian Lecomber ( also ex Rothmans ) flew a rotary engined Camel (repro) in a contest in 1979, or thereabouts.