Price of a Black Shadow

You want to talk to Dodger about going round the outside of sprotsbikes with
The Dambusters March on the stereo...

Umm. Check-in is 14:12, so we'd need to leave your place about noon. It'll
take me about three hours to get to you, so I'd have to leave at 9:00
latest. I want to put new brake pads in the front, and change the oil and
filter, and dick around with the snotoiler before I set off. So it'll all
be a bit touch and go. I'll give you a buzz in the morning before I set
off, and let you know how it's looking.

 

Yeah. Possibly I'm just getting old...

I'd love to fly anything again. Lack of time and money.

 

There's another lovely looking plane. Are there (m)any still airworthy?

 

Thank God. I thought it was just me.

 

I think many were grounded after the glue started failing. There was one
doing the rounds until it spun in at an airshow in 1996. I think Kermit
Weeks has one that's potentially airworthy.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avmoss2.html

 

what a sound thing to do.

 

What? Oh bollocks, I didn't hear about that. Probably the same one I saw
at the old Finningley airshows in the 80s.

 

'Course it is.

You don't get to be a National Treasure without doing things like
that, you know.

 

I noticed that Message-ID:

I'd like to see that too. My mother worked on them during the war.

 

Sorry to hear that m8. 96 is a ripe old age though, God bless
her. My mom (75) spent a day on a hospital trolley this week, and
they still haven't found her a proper bed in a ward 3 days later.
Don't believe the BS that it doesn't happen these days. She's
waiting for a pacemaker but she won't be dying just yet coz she's
vowed to dance on my grave.

riccip

 

Geoff Berrow says...

Mate of mine and I were at Duxford looking through the hangers a few
years back. We passed by a pair of blokes working on a Spitfire that was
being totally rebuilt. My mate gets chatting to one of the guys and asks
how long they've been working on it and how long they reckoned it would
take to finish. The bloke said something like a year so far with another
18 months to go. My mate sucks through his teeth and says "That's a bit
steep, considering it only took a team of unskilled teenage bloody girls
about 4 days to build it in the first place" and then walked away.

 

I hope they hit him.

 

The Older Gentleman says...

You'd think twice about hitting Allun, he's formerly 42 Commando, Royal
Marines. As wide as he is tall.

 

Thus spake Andy Wegg unto the assembled multitudes:

I visited Tangmere (former RAF base) museum near Chichester in West Sussex
a couple of weeks back and was looking at some exhibits of the Hawker
Typhoon, many of which flew from Tangmere. One of the elderly museum
assistants walked by and engaged in idle chat, and, going into a mild
anorak mode, I mentioned to him that I'd read that the Typhoon was not the
most reliable of WW2 aircraft, and many suffered engine failure. I asked
him if this was true. He looked a bit embarrassed, and told me he used to
work for Napier (who made the Typhoon engines). He said it was,
especially the earlier versions, and reckoned that the engines were only
designed to last 25 hours flying time, after which they were scrap.
Blimey.

 

I think that was roughly the allotted span for the pilots too. I still
can't quite get over the bravery of the RAF in WWIII. I mean, it's not
as if you didn't know what the odds were.


Regards,

Simonm.

 

Thus spake Nigel Eaton unto the assembled multitudes:

You just can't beat the sound of a Merlin, can you. I had a Mustang (also
Merlin engine) doing a display flight go over my house a few times a couple
of years back. There's a hotel in a park up the road which often hosts
posh weddings, so I guess the bride's rich parents hired the Mustang for
the occasion.

 

Longer than an RD400, then.

 

WW Three?

Bush didn't mention it had started already....

As for bravery - Luftwaffe too, I'm afraid. In fact, any air force,
really.

 

The Older Gentleman says...

Do I? Don't I?

<bite> **** off

 

Thank you BofB