Shame to bin them. I think they are rare enough to find a buyer on a well known internet auction site.

I was amazed to see early Propliners going for £20 a copy !

A striking photograph does not automatically form the basis for a good painting, besides the dubious artisitic merit of slavishly reproducing a photographic image as a painted one.

The optical effects of telephoto lenses look very odd when replicated in paint, and in my experience as a painter if you need to work from photographs ( which with aeroplanes is often the case) then pictures from WW11 and before are a fruitful source, as they were usually taken without telephoto lenses, and being black/white they strength of the lighting is readily apparent.

This Spitfire looks too ‘squashed in’ by its frame, and needs more space around it, to allow some impression of freedom, movement and flight.

Its possibly Anson flavoured, but there are big chunks of something else in there aft of the trailing edge. Take a look at an Anson tailplane. and you will see it goes to a point. Also , there is a large fillet tapering from the trailing edge into the rear fuselage on a proper Anson.

This is a ‘bitsa’ using some Anson, but the rear fuselage looks rather as though it may be from an Aztec or Apache. The rudder may be Anson.

A few years back Aeroplane ran a piece on that poem, which rather put the boot in, and indicated that some of the most lyrical and moving passages were ‘borrowed’ from previous works by other poets.

The case seemed pretty robust, and left me somewhat saddened that it had tainted what had once been a much-favoured poem. I stumbled across it when aged about 14, and for a while it seemed like a sort of private treasure, until I gradually came to realise that damn poem was everywhere.

Then the Challenger Shuttle was lost, and Reagan mangled the poem in a mawkish tribute to the perished crew. And thus, the magic slipped away.

This year the flying has been so scarce that when I put out my hand, I only touch the face of dog.

11.25 Chenies Manor (near Rickmansworth)

A blue Spitfire (with invasion stripes) arcs up onto a brittle winter sky to perform a beautiful barrel roll at about 1,000ft, which he so enjoys that he pulls up into another. Fantastic. Made my morning.

I am guessing Peter T, perhaps on his way for lunch. He often drops in to White Waltham, but I am just supposing.

If you could bash it out before Christmas, t’would help with the old present dilemma!

What about producing it as a DVD (much cheapness)- Books are sooo last century…

That had to be one of the top ten threads this board has produced.

Surely the book idea could still be a runner.

The PFA airshows were always been a bit boggo, with funny little homemade aeroplanes fluttering around, and sometimes the BoB Memorial Flight and a Pitts or a Laser whizzing about. The best act I ever saw there was Taff Smith flicking his Jungmeister on finals.

It is nobody’s fault, but PFA aeroplanes are not the chosen diet of airshow watchers. As for the lack of atmosphere at Kemble, the split site is a factor, and the lack of trade stands was a result of a huge fee hike, as the PFA made belated efforts to stay in profit.

The greatest advantage of the ‘mini-rallies’ format is low expectation, so when visitors do have a great time at a cracking event it will be a very pleasant surprise. Regardless of all the bull and bureaucracy, PFA people love to get together, to fly, talk, have a drink and be around aeroplanes, and they can do that whatever the nature and size of the event.