Journey complete

The Mosquito that I was chuffed to see in New Zealand over Easter was dismantled soon after and shipped to America. I'm pleased to see that has now arrived safely at Chino, its new home.

Capel Spitfire

The Spitfire at Capel Le Ferne suffered some winter storm damage several weeks ago which resulted in bent undercarriage. The aircraft which is a fibregass replica has now been dismantled so the repairs and restoration can be undertaken. A funding campaign is in place to try and raise £20,000 to meet costs beyond those covered by insurance.

Portuguese Air Show crash

Very sorry to hear of the crash at a Portuguese air ahow yesterday when two aircraft of a six ship formation team collided resulting in the death of a pilot. My thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy. The team were flying Yak 52s similar to this:

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