Are there any fellow aircraft enthusiasts in the house?

[BTB 500]

I have these two in the back of my building if anyone wants to fix them up.

Nice - a pair of Seabees?

 

[alabbasi]

I think so, i don't know much about them except that a buddy of mine traded an M998 Humvee for them and needed a place to store them. He just bought a piper so I think that he will move these projects on. He mentioned that one of them has an interesting history and was used to find a sunken ship with treasure.

 

[moonloops]

My first job was at GEC Marconi when they were working on the Tornado's Foxhunter radar. The Nimrod AEW was nearing its ill fated life at the time.

 

[brucemillar]

Coming from Kent, I remember my father taking us to Headcorn way back in the '70s. I loved it.
Up here in the Highlands we see very few warbirds.
I had the pleasure back in 2015 of watching the Canadian Lancaster - Vera fly over the house on that fine morning while she was transiting from Reykjavik to Coningsby to join the BBMF Lanc PA474 for that amazing month of 2 Lancaster bombers flying together around the UK.

Here you go. That same flight doing a flypast over Detling (my house) in Kent. What a magnificent spectacle.

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[Edd1968]

Here you go. That same flight doing a flypast over Detling (my house) in Kent. What a magnificent spectacle.

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Fantastic. Mk XIX and a Hurricane to add a little extra delight!

 

[brucemillar]

Fantastic. Mk XIX and a Hurricane to add a little extra delight!

Yes. We watched as the two Lancaster’s lined up over the Thames Estuary before dropping down to head over Detling Airfield. The Spitfire & Hurricane we’re wheeling around behind them as they approached.

Wonderful sight and sound.


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[baxlin]

A few, hopefully not boring, anecdotes....

My first 'career' was in RAF Air Traffic Control many years ago, and I’ve kept more than a passing interest in aircraft since then.

I was lucky enough to go up into the new ATC tower at Heathrow just before it was commissioned (on the day the A380 made its first exploratory visit to LHR, and watched it land, not from the tower though)

I have a pal with a share in a light aircraft, and last year flew with him to Wellsbourne, where they have a Vulcan, and we had a conducted tour of it.

We were told that, when it was decommissioned, this airframe had many more hours left than the more famous XH558. Unfortunately, it was built to take a different series of engine, of which there were very few spares, so the decision was to maintain XH558 in an airworthy state.

I volunteer at a local charity, where I met an ex BA captain, who had previously flown Vulcans. Comparing our RAF service dates and UK postings, it is almost certain that I would have spoken to him over the radio in the late 1960s, as the radar unit I worked at controlled climb-outs from, and let-downs to, the main V-bomber bases at the time.

My all-time favourite military aircraft, though, is the beautiful single seat Hawker Hunter. There were two squadrons of Hunters in Bahrain while I was posted there, and one of these aircraft is now on show at the RAF museum in Hendon. Also, I often drive past the Hunter gate guard at RAF Halton, and can't resist giving it more than a glance.

Apologies for the long post, but one memory triggered another!

 

[brucemillar]

Airfix (I seem to recall) did a very nice Hawker Hunter model.


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[Edd1968]

I had a bit of fun going for a taxi ride in NX611 Just Jane back in 2002.
An anorak pal of mine put this website together many moons ago, with a few contributions from me. Here's the limk to East Kirkby

Lancaster NX611 Just Jane

 

[BEJ]

I flew in to East Kirkby last year when Just Jane was being stripped down ready for its rebuild to, hopefully, flying condition.
An interesting airfield to land and take off from!! No designated runways or ground to air radio.

 

[Flyinspanner]

 

[BTB 500]

I had a bit of fun going for a taxi ride in NX611 Just Jane back in 2002.

I was watching something on TV recently that featured one of these taxi trips and it took me a while to figure out why the aeroplane looked wrong - it had no ailerons or elevators fitted!

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Airfix (I seem to recall) did a very nice Hawker Hunter model.
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Here you go Bruce:

Dark Nights an' all that....

AIRFIX A05134 Hawker Sea Hurricane MK.IB 1:48 Aircraft Model Kit 695637467885 | eBay

 

[BTB 500]

My all-time favourite military aircraft, though, is the beautiful single seat Hawker Hunter. There were two squadrons of Hunters in Bahrain while I was posted there, and one of these aircraft is now on show at the RAF museum in Hendon. Also, I often drive past the Hunter gate guard at RAF Halton, and can't resist giving it more than a glance.

I spent a week at Yeovilton (HMS Heron) in the '70s, and apart from fun things like being winched into a Wessex had a tour of the control tower. Airwork were operating Hunters there at the time, and I remember being shown two different glide slopes marked on the screen ... the very steep one was for an approach with the turbine no longer rotating!

 

[baxlin]

and apart from fun things like being winched into a Wessex

Did that a few times in the Gulf, the SAR crews were always on the lookout for 'bodies' for their training flights. I worked shifts, so was often available. Two types of winching, one being dry winching, usually onto a wrecked ship, or under an overhang in the desert somewhere.

The other was more fun, being taken out on an air/sea rescue launch, out of sight of land, made to jump overboard, and climb into a life raft they’d also slung off the boat, which then roared away.

The chopper then came to find us, we were winched up, either from the raft, or actually from the sea.

The dodgy bit was then being winched back down onto the launch, when it was going full chat....

You must appreciate, this was in no way a jolly, notwithstanding there was always a queue of volunteers!

 

[wu56Shoozz]

A few more from Duxford..

 

[Edd1968]

I was watching something on TV recently that featured one of these taxi trips and it took me a while to figure out why the aeroplane looked wrong - it had no ailerons or elevators fitted!

Yes I saw that. It was not finished.
I'd love to see it fly though.

 

[brucemillar]

Was that Garry Newman flying the fortress?

I watched him flying one at Brands Hatch and he was standing it on its wing tips. With the bomb bay and undercarriage doors open for drag it looked like it would drop onto us.


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[brucemillar]

Here you go Bruce:

Dark Nights an' all that....

AIRFIX A05134 Hawker Sea Hurricane MK.IB 1:48 Aircraft Model Kit 695637467885 | eBay

I really want a big Fokker Tri-Plane to hang from the ceiling. And/ or a Sopwith.


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[Railwayman]

Edd

Thank you for posting. Great looking models there.

It takes me back to the early sixties and 2/6 Saturday pocket money. That would buy most of the smaller Airfix kits. Two weeks worth of pocket money would graduate one into Lancaster’s etc.

The glue always came in tubes which were designed to spit the stuff onto the clear plastic canopies [emoji25]

But I loved them. In my later years I stuck with it (excuse the pun) and moved into Tamiya F1 kits, air brushes etc.

I am looking for a large scale Fokker Tri-plane detailed model?


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Can totally relate to this, as a kid was into Airfix models, mainly the smaller ones (Spitfire, Mustang, Mozzy etc) did save some more pennies for the larger ones from time to time. Seeing the OPs case has brought many of the memory's back

Ps Correct regarding the glue, to much used, plastic melted.