Sounds like he flies with about the same skill as he interviews…

Now, now Dave, I don’t think anyone flies that badly 😀

Thanks Jules. Yes the Stearman has a great reputation. I was talking with a guy here in Cambridge who was a Kiwi that trained in the USA to become a pilot in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. He loved the Stearman, absolutely loved it. After the war his brother bought a Tiger Moth, which is also a much loved trainer, but he said it was nowhere near as good as the Stearman to fly. I guess the Stearman has much more power up front than the Tiger.

I prefer the classic look of the Tiger Moth, and it has an amazing amount of history attached to it too, but the Stearman must be second in the all time best ab initio trainers.

I saw a programme on Christmas Day about behind-the-scenes of Madame Tussauds wax museum. They said that people steal items of clothing, jewelry, even fingers all the time and they have a full time staff making replacements. I cannot understand how anyone can go into a museum and think it is their right to break or steal a display item. It sickens me.

Shades of ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’.

SHUT UP!!!!!!!!

Snapper, play nice, Messrs Hanks and Spielberg know how to make a decent film, it won’t be Pearl Harbor Part Deux!

I for one am looking forward to seeing a decent depiction of the Pacific war, even if it is from a US theatrical troupe’s angle.

Thanks chaps. A great photo of the 110 Septic. What a great shame it wasn’t preserved.

Thanks for clearing up the four Messerschmitts for me Geoff.

Those old magazines sound fascinating Flood.

They were VIII’s and it wasn’t a wind up.

At Gorrie which is NT I think.

Mark

I just found that thread and concede I made an error – it was three Mk VIII’s, not eight Mk III’s as I’d thought. Sorry Mark. 🙂

This page lists N3287 as a Mk III too
http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/01UKAV/roundels/RAF_ROUNDELS.htm

All I can conclude is a lot more damage, vandalism and theft goes on at airshows and museums than I’d ever considered. So the solution – BAN THE PUBLIC!! 🙂 😉

When I was in the RNZAF we used to get monthly safety booklets coming out with stories of stupid things done in other Air Forces that we should not do. Funnily enough over 90% of the stories came from the USA. They are always doing stupid things. One I recall vividly was the story of a mechanic sitting in the cockpit of a fighter, F16 I think, when he got his sleeve caught on the handle and blew the seat. He hit the hangar roof and was killed. He hadn’t remembered to put the safety pins in. Having trained in maintaining the chutes and rafts from ejector seats, I heard many other stupid and gory tales of the seats accidentally being fired overseas. It all boils down to poor training – like almost everything in those safety brochures. A well trained, safety concious Air Force does not make mistakes. We certainly didn’t.

Yes, seats do have safety pins, from memory the MB10 seats we used in the Maachis had five pins to prevent accidental firing. Having an aircraft sitting on a tarmac at an airshow without the pins in the seats, and allowing people to view the cockpit, is shere stupidity, carelessness and downright neglect on the part of the aircraft’s operator. How kids can climb in and eject themselves is mindboggling. Shame on the USAF and RNLAF.