Duxford VE Day Flying Day

Although I was last at Duxford a couple of months ago not a lot was happening and as today was effectively the start of the flying season it was a good excuse for a return visit. The event was a VE Day Flying Display although much of the content had little to do with VE Day as such but it was good to see some flying action and the weather co-operated as well which made it a pleasant day out.

I'll start with some hangar images from the resident flying and non-flying aircraft. Not too much to report here. The Avenger has gone since my March visit but nothing new is in its place as yet. The Conservation Hangar was actually open this time and the current major project is the Shackleton. The hangar as been rearranged so you can walk around the whole aircraft. The Salamander and Pucara are also being worked on and the Valiant and Victor nose sections acquired fairly recently are also in this hangar.

Shackleton engine run

 Avro Shackleton WR963 is a 'live' aircraft. Currently at Coventry airport but slated for a move to Elvington there is an ambitious aim to restore the aircraft to flight. Whether this is possible I am not sure but for the present there are special event days when all four griffon engines are run up. We were in the general area so made the most of the opportunity to catch a scheduled engine run today and quite an impressive sight and sound it was. The engines were run for a good while and not just on idle either. To coin a phrase it was 'awesome'

Also on site is Nimrod XV232 which is also a live aircraft and has its own engine run event days. Since Coventry airport is being built on this aircraft is also scheduled to find a new home.

The hangar across the way was also briefly, slightly opened giving a quick glimpse of the resident Dakota and I grabbed a couple of shots of derelict looking airframes across the way.

Resurrection Shuffle

I have been making model kits for a long time now and so have a reasonable collection of spares, being unused bits or parts from damaged kits etc. Searching through the other day I realised I had most of  Fokker Dr1, albeit looking pretty sorry for itself. It's a kit I made as kid. I decided to see if I could put it back together.

I had to fabricate struts as only one remained. The engine is part of a Sopwith Pup, the prop is a reshaped item from a Pup and one machine gun came from a Sopwith Camel. I had a spare set of decals although a bit yellowed with age.

Not a work of art or award winner by any stretch of the imagination but it does now look like a Dr1 again.

P38F Lightning

This Lockheed Lightning was bought for me by a school friend when I was probably 12 or 13 so I have it a long time. As a consequence it suffered a bit with lost undercarriage, missing cannons and stuff. However, a little while back Ebay provided some left over bits for the same model being sold as spares. So I bought them and gave the old kit a bit of a make over with some cobbled together decals from the spares box.

Up and running !

The TFC Gladiator pictured in my Duxford post below is running again. The engine was being worked on when I was there and has since been run up successfully. Hopefully a test flight will soon follow. The aircraft has not flown in over 5 years following engine issues on a trip to a French air show.

Mautby Anti Aircraft Battery

This battery is a little west of Caister in Norfolk and was built, probably in late 1943, to protect the port of Gt Yarmouth. It is quite a rare survivor as there are very few such gun emplacements remaining and this is one of the most complete four gun emplacement batteries still extant. It also has an intact command centre and, as a result of its completeness, it is a scheduled monument with Historic England.

Access to the site is down a country lane and a narrow concrete track and it helps if you have someone to stay with the car when you abandon it on the edge of a field! A short walk along a public footpath reaches some woodland next to a farm field and the gun emplacement is within the trees. A slightly different aspect to my aircraft hobby and here are some images of what remains.