Good to see you on here Graham – your JP is one of our ex-Brawdy fleet of four so it’s good to hear that she’s soon to fly again! The last time I saw it was at Kemble many years ago when Eddie flew it in for one of our shows – it was black by then thankfully (never could take to that spotty paint job it had worn) 😀

For what it’s worth – I have been left wondering why the forum seems to have taken a downturn in manners recently too….

I’m also feeling a bit perplexed about a query made recently via PM (to comply with forum etiquette as the right thing to do) to a moderator regarding posting youtube vids in new topics on the Historic section when there was a “sticky” at the top asking that Video links be placed there rather than starting new topics? I was rather taken aback by the reply and left feeling that there was little point expecting any rules to be applied if any moderator can decide not to follow them?

Is this the way forums are declining in general?
The forum has already been praised for it’s fascinating wealth of knowledge and assistance – I have no problem with that side of it, but as someone who has been there regarding moderating and admin of other forums, I can see both sides from experience….

Perhaps it’s the “Winter Blues” setting in – who knows 😉

Good luck with your assessment then 😉

I was going to carry on relating my experiences when this thread was fresh but I must admit I got sidetracked a bit… I’ve just gone back through it all as you did, and maybe I need to do something about my past experiences as there were many (too many perhaps) for inclusion just on here 🙂

Got me stumped too – never saw any plain yellow bars at Brawdy during the cammo era, and the only photos I can find of XX327 don’t help either, apart from clarifying that it is a Boscombe jet….

Edit: just been having a think after seeing comment about possible unfinished paintwork….. 234 Sqn markings had a different shade of yellow edge to them, could possibly have been applied as a block prior to back/red diamonds applied on top?

234 Sqn Hawk

Noting the snippets that the media almost gloss over…

Regarding the current speculation the media are pushing, they did show the black box being retrieved from the ship, which has voice and data recordings – so the enquiry should be able to determine the reason fairly quickly… Whether that will be done in a way we expect to happen is another matter judging by the haste at casting blame by the operators CEO. When he admitted they had previously allowed a deviation from plotted course to get closer to the island – I smelt a rat…. Now, despite the accuracy of modern navigation equipment, he said the ship had previously been ‘allowed’ to get as close as 500m-ish on a previous trip? Ish???? That sort of equipment doesn’t do approximations….. 😮

I get the feeling that they are back-pedalling to find a way out of the situation and laying blame on the captain ONLY… The justice system there is something I wouldn’t be comfortable with to be honest. I’m not biased – my partner is Italian by the way…

A direct link to the youtube Video would surely have been easier?

One mystery: whatever happened to XS711? It has not been seen since April 2009, and there are no reports of it being scrapped or sold, or preserved…so where is it now?

Last report I’ve seen was:

XS711 HS125 Dominie T1 (fuselage) MoD, Boscombe Down in 2009 :confused:

Just a small point – vinyl material is available in all finishes these days, matt / satin / whatever is requested. My local signwriter friend has done me some jobs in all finishes (non were directly aircraft related but you get my drift)