Sonja, I am so glad Tony is recovering well now – my heart sank when I heard the news on Tuesday after only speaking with him the day before at Kemble after I landed back there on my first ever Hunter flight. I have been doing the shows with Tony over the last couple of weeks starting with Waddington where I first met him, and we had such a great time… Such a nice man and he was so pleased for me on Monday after my flight. His friendship means a lot to me, and I do look forward to seeing him again whenever that may be.
Please pass on my best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Regards

Pete Buckingham

Dear friends,
As Tony’s sister I want to thank you all, in name of the entire family, for your thoughts and best wishes. It touched us very much and will help us through these hard times.
In the mean time Tony is stable and doing well. My brother is a fighter and I am sure he will be back in the air very soon, doing the thing he loves most, flying 🙂
Also a great thank you to all the staff/people involved in looking after my brother minutes after the crash. Truly great people and no words can describe what they have done. THANKS !!!!
Sonja

Nice shots – bit different taking shots before the event…. at this rate we can look forward to your Kemble shots next week perhaps then :diablo:
What’s your Duxford shots looking like for the next show too? :p

Have a look at this pic of our Museum’s Gannet at Coventry
To me the claw of the hook looks wider on the Gannet than the hook you have? Seems to be the same screw end fitting though?

I was mulling over the ZN-G possible ident and found this:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205090420 although not referenced to Syerston?

A very warm welcome to the forum “LuckyNav” – I assume that you are Ian himself then? I was indeed engrossed in the full account and as an ex-RAF techie it reminded me why we had so much pride in our work with aircrew’s lives in our hands. Accidents do happen, but to read it from a first-hand perspective really brings it home – thank you.

Could it have been the next generation team: Marlboro Pitts Specials?
They existed after the Rothmans team – if you by chance recognise the colours worn, they were pretty distinctive 😉

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Marlboro/Pitts-S-2A-Special/1300122/M/

I have a dim and distant recall of some Hunters finding their way to S America as a discreet ‘thank you’ for help given.
Can anyone help out my faltering memory?
Moggy

I was at Brawdy when the ‘batch’ were flown out for delivery to Chile… 8 flew to Abingdon where they were crated up at flown out by 747. I recall the dispatch which happened in April 1982 (at the onset of the conflict, not after) but had to look it up to confirm my own memory too:

Eight Hunters were at once transferred from No I TWU at Brawdy to RAF Abingdon, where they were crated and taken by road to Brizc Norton. They were then ferried to Chile in a Boeing 747 freighter in two batches of four. the first on 24 April and the second on 22 May. The RAF serials of these aircraft were XE546, XE582, XF376, XF442, XJ6Xo. XJ688. XK137 and XK138.

In November four more Hunters (XF445, XG291. XJ687 and XKI4I) were also supplied from RAF stocks

Mention is also made of the Canberra’s – see the full article HERE 🙂