Our photographer sent these through last night, as he is a photographer he doesn’t do writing so we will have to guess what was going on.
First off, Bob and Chris M. take a well earned rest having just enjoyed the best of French cuisine.
Next up Roy (you can never be too careful) Smith finishes re-arming EP120, “just in case”.
Ah,the Flying bit, Nick in the Mk Vb….
…and Patrice in the Hawk 75
Finally Nick with possibly the best seat at the display.
We may have more tonight!
Well not so far away but we like to be topical,and definitely quite a long time ago. TFC has always liked Mustangs (in case you hadn’t realised) :
With all our efforts for the last few months focused on a certain weekend in July (Flying Legends) the morning after is somewhat of an anticlimax and leaves one thinking what on earth do we do now …..?
Well the first thing to do is to thank everybody for their time and contribution (our volunteers not only give up their free time to help us with producing Flying Legends but also the myriad of tasks that all contribute to keeping the aircraft collection in fine ‘fettle’).
Also to the engineers who alongside the volunteers have worked long hours making sure each of the aeroplanes has completed the various calendar, hours based and out of phase checks and inspections;
The second thing is to reflect on our successes and tease out the bits that for us didn’t go quite as planned ! Despite the best efforts of our display pilots the fleet remained servicable to the end with the only the P-40C falling foul of the electric propeller ‘rain demons’ and as some of you may have seen taxied back to the flight line at the start of the Sunday balbo sequence with a propeller that according to pilot Steve Hinton flatly refused to play ball in automatic mode.
Of the visiting display aircraft both Sea Furys developed tech issues one of which necessitated an early landing off the balbo; the second Fury had an electrical snag which we were able to help diagnose and resolve with the operators engineers but the aircraft wasn’t able to complete the scheduled demonstration due to the onset of rain which brought the show to a temporary halt for 25 minutes or so though It flew later on Sunday afternoon in the balbo.
Personal highlights, well, the four Curtiss aircraft Hawk 75, P-36C, P-40C and the P-40F;
loved the Nimrod’s and Fury, (the patina on the Nimrod’s new exhaust pipes looks just right now following the display on Saturday) regrettably the crosswind put paid to a repeat performance on Sunday; and finally of course the Gladiator in the joker slot between balbo passes.
Remember to put Flying Legends 2016 in your diary (dates to be released) and we hope to see our ‘friends’ again very soon…
We ran the moving picture cameras while the aeroplanes ventured into the sunlight on Sunday and caught a few engine runs (we have cheated and included the Kestrel engine in the Nimrod from earlier in the week as well as), Spitfire and Wildcat but we didn’t think that would be a problem.
Today was partly spent playing Hangar Drafts where Martin decides we need the aircraft at the back of the hangar moved to the front. In over 20 years of moving aircraft at TFC no one has yet devised a simple solution. Anyway having moved some of the aircraft outside we thought it might be a good idea to fly a couple of them. By coincidence Al Wade was wandering around so we strapped him in the Spitfire Mk Vb and Wildcat and told him he couldn’t go home until he had flown them both.
EP120 out and about:
And the Wildcat:
Busy day at Duxford today in the build up for Flying Legends! Some more photos of the P-40C:
And an arty shot of the P-40C engine…
And the Corsair getting a clean:
Sunday 22nd June and a busy day in the hangar and on the airfield. A full post today with both video record and photos of the days activity:
…and now the photos of the action -first a display by Spitfire MkVb EP120 and then the first flight this year of the Curtiss P-40F.
Note: we also had a practice with the weather !
Morning,
Here are a few images from today.
The Bremont Horsemen flew their superb routine twice today, once in P-51D Mustangs and then in F-86 Sabres to close the show. (That is the last time you are sneaking jet pictures into the diary – Ed)
An image of me in front of an old friend, and before you ask the pink T-shirt is the mandatory uniform for the Hot-Ramp crew.
A view of the Air Museum’s own P-47G showing off the new colours she is wearing for the show.
Another of the Air Museum collection is the Douglas SBD Dauntless, which is apparently the only example flying in the world.
And now something I have never seen before – a Mitsubishi Zero, with this example from the Commemorative Air Force.
Keeping with the Japanese theme, along the flightline was a replica Val dive-bomber based on a BT-13 trainer aircraft which actually featured in the movie ‘Tora Tora Tora’.
But the biggest surprise of the show so far was seeing Jane from TFC who was over for the show with both Rob Gauld-Galliers, the owner of the Neiuport 17 replica from the Great War team and Frédéric Akary the owner of P-51D ‘Moonbeam McShine’ which appeared at Legends last year.
See you at Flying Legends
JBS
JBS has sent another postcard from Chino
Snafu and a couple of new friends.
‘New meets Old’, a nice comparison of the F-22 Raptor and a T-6 Texan.
Stevo Hinton in good form refueling the Commemorative Air Force Spitfire earlier today.
And a lovely shot of P-51B ‘Boise Bee’ in the early evening orange light just before Stevo takes her up for a flight.
JBS