RAF Pinnace 1386

Pinnace 1386 was an RAF launch and whilst on excercise in 1969 it got caught in very high seas and tried to make for Amble harbour. Unfortunately the vessel capsized on approach and despite being towed ashore by the RNLI three crewman lost their lives. This was the marine branches biggest loss of life dating back to WWII. A memorial now stands near the harbour as I saw today.

RIP Jerry the cat.

Jerry has been a regular at the De Havilland aircraft museum in recent years and came and said hello to me when I arrived in 2021. Sadly he has passed away. Actually belonging to a neighbour he has been laid to rest in the museum grounds he was so keen on.

Manston Air Show

Although some of the early announcements for show content were OK but not exciting (to me) such as Falcons, a couple of Pitts, Autogyro etc, more recently things have started to look up. Apart from. BBMF flypast there should also be Vampire, Swordfish, Buchon, Hurricane, Spitfire (x2), Catalina, Storch, Cub, Flaimant, Conair Firecat, P51, Stearman wingwalkers, Jet Provost, Typhoon, Bronco and the Great War Display Team.

I believe that some further announcements maybe forthcoming but I have got my tickets which are currently on an early bird discount. There are additional discounts for seniors and parking is free. Good stuff!

Sandy's Spitfire

Alistair 'Sandy' Gunn was a reconnaissance pilot in WWII. In 1942 he took off in his Spitfire PRIV to photograph the Tirpitz in Trondheim fjord. Unfortunately he was shot down by a couple of Me109s and bailed out and was captured. He ended up in Stalag Luft III and was part of the famous Great Escape. Tragically he was one of 'the 50' escapees executed by German forces following their re-capture.

'Sandy's aircraft went on to crash in the Norwegian mountains where around 70% of the airframe was recovered many years later. The wreckage is now the basis of a restoration to flight which is hoped to be complete in 2027. Currently the fuselage from the firewall back is on display in the Manston Spitfire and Hurricane Museum as part of a fund raising campaign and I had a look earlier.

Hidden away!

A little off the main display areas at La Ferte Alais were a few extra hangars, many closed or promoting commercial services. However a little perseverance revealed a hangar with a very nice Dragon Rapide restoration in progress and another Stearman next door.

La Ferte Alais Flying Display

Seems I took quite a lot of snaps at the air show! Maybe I will pop up a couple of themed posts but here is a selection of the flying display which was varied and pretty impressive.

La Ferte Alais

So this weekend gone, my good mate Gaz and I nipped over to France for the La Ferte Alais air show which was first for us both. All went pretty well with a Euro Star trip to Paris where we stopped a couple of nights and used the Metro line to travel out to the show. Shuttle buses were meant to be running from the station to the airfield but none were in sight and traffic extremely heavy so we opted for the 20 minute walk which was a bit steep up a woodland path at the end but we managed without any dramas and found ourselves on the field with a large show of aircarft on the flight line which included aircraft rolled out of the on site museum and a pretty extensive and quite impressive airshow over more than 4 hours later in the afternoon. It turned in to a long day, getting up around 7 a.m and returning to the hotel at almosr 10 p.m. but was certainly a worthwhile venture helped by decent weather and several firsts for us amongst the displays. HEre are some of the flightline aircraft pre flying.