Manston light aircraft event

Manston held a charity event last year which resulted in aircraft returning for the first time in many years and I reported on it here. Although there were aircraft attending they were all parked away from the public but a further event yesterday allowed better access to the taxi ways. The aircraft attending were largely light/kit aircraft icluding a replica Hawker Fury, 6/10 scale Spitfire, Pipers etc, but it was an interesting diversion made better by the unexpected, to me at least, arrival of the Aerolegends Dakota Pegasus.

Phantom ZE360

I have mentioned this F4-J Phantom previously. It spent many years on the Manston fire dump but has now been rescued by the British Aviation Phantom Group as it is a rare survivor. It has been relocated on to the main airfiled site where it is being stripped down ready for a move. Today I was able to see it at close quarters.

Blue Skies

Extremely saddened today to hear of the loss of this BBMF Spitfire in a crash at Coningsby, tragically taking the life of the pilot. My thoughts are with family and friends.

Manston wins again

The latest appeal against the DCO that granted the owners of Manston permission to reopen the site as an airport has been dismissed. The Court of Appeal heard the case last month and today released their judgement which was that the application to appeal was dismissed. This should be the end of the legal wranglings and the project can now move forward. https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2024/05/21/judicial-review-appeal-application-over-manston-airport-scheme-denied/

Mosquito formation flypast at Wanaka

Coastguard helo

Caught in the grey overhead this evening.

Lockheed Super Constellation

Lockheed Super Constellation. This an Airfix kit of the piston engined prop liner and is based around the old Hasegawa kit. It's a bit basic so I opened out the engine intakes a little but the rest is out of the box. It has decal options for 3 aircraft and I went with the HARS Connie which had a tech issue when I was in Oz in 2018 meaning that I didn't get to see it.

NZ spotting

A handful of snaps whilst out and about in New Zealand

Wanaka sunday show - other stuff

Featuring Mustangs, a Corsair, Spitfire, L39s, T28s, Harvards etc

Lockheed Hudson at Omaka Heritage Centre

This Hudson, from the same stable as the museum's Mosquito, could potentially be restored to flying condition at some point but for the present is displayed in this impresseive jungle crash diorama.

Airworthy Neptune

Although it was 3 months or so ago I was pleased to see that the HARS Neptune that I saw in their hangar back in 2018 has now been returned to the air making it the only current airworthy example.